Author: UNDP: Martin Evans, Ian Gough, Susan Harkness, Andrew McKay, Huyen Thanh Dao and Ngoc Do Le Thu
Published Date: 2007-08-22
Summary:
This report for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ha Noi follows up on their Policy Dialogue Paper entitled 'Beyond HEPR: A Framework for an Integrated National System of Social Security in Viet Nam' published last year, which put forward general principles for comprehensive social security programmes in Viet Nam. This report is more empirical and uses recent household survey data from the Viet Nam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) to examine who currently benefits from social security programmes and their overall impact on incomes and poverty. This report is the first of two complimentary reports, and looks at the whole population and the entire social security system. Its sister report, 'Old Age in Viet Nam', looks more specifically at the elderly population.
Viet Nam is experiencing rapid economic growth with GDP increasing from 4.8 percent in 1999 to 7.7 percent in 2004 Accompanying this growth have been large and impressive reductions in poverty rates: from 59 percent in 1993, to 29 percent 2002.and to around 20 percent in 2004.
This introductory chapter looks at the current system of "social security" in Viet Nam and focuses on provisions that were in place in 2004, the year of the VHLSS survey data that is later described in Chapter 1 and used for analysis throughout later chapters. Chapter 2 then assesses two fundamental questions: First, "How important is social security for household welfare across regions, quintiles, and the urban-rural continuum?", and second, "What are the redistributive consequences of social security?" Chapter 3 then examines social security in relation to poverty and examines whether and to what extent Viet Nam's social security programmes contribute to poverty reduction across regions, quintiles, and the urban-rural continuum. Chapter 4 moves away from descriptive profiling of social security and makes some preliminary and tentative analytical examinations of the behavioural consequences of social security. Last, Chapter 5 draws together the findings of our research into a summary and conclusions.
