Publication: Vietnam : Strengthening the Social Safety Net to Address New Poverty and Vulnerability Challenges
Loading...
Published
2010-11
ISSN
Date
2013-03-15
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
As it transitions to Middle-Income Country (MIC) status, Vietnam is considering whether its social protection system is adequate to meet rapidly changing needs associated with strong economic growth, integration of its economy in regional and global markets, industrialization, urbanization and other economic and societal shifts. Vietnam's social safety net - programs with the following objectives: 1) alleviation of chronic poverty; 2) help to the poor in coping with the worst forms of shocks and transient poverty; and 3) promotion of human development for long-term poverty alleviation. This note aims to assess the system of social safety net programs currently in place in Vietnam and to gauge how well it covers the poor and vulnerable populations. This note highlights two messages: first, it identifies gaps in the current poverty reduction and social protection system - programs that help address urban vulnerability and poverty and that help the poor and vulnerable manage shocks - which could be closed through strengthened and more effective household-targeted social safety net programs. Second, in examining the existing core social safety net programs the note finds that, while targeting is respectable, their primary weakness lies in limited coverage. Based on these findings, this note strengthens household-targeted social safety net interventions in Vietnam as a complement to geographically-targeted poverty reduction programs and social insurance.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2010. Vietnam : Strengthening the Social Safety Net to Address New Poverty and Vulnerability Challenges. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12774 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Mali Social Safety Nets(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-01)This report shows that Mali s safety nets are insufficient to address the needs of the population and suggests ways to improve them. There is a need to devise a set of cost effective programs to expand the scope and coverage of the national safety net. Given that any reform plan must be financially feasible, the government must allocate its scarce resources to programs that are well targeted and efficient. Creating the fiscal room for safety nets will also depend on political will. The government needs to: (i) strengthen the strategic, institutional, and financial frameworks for designing, implementing, and monitoring and evaluating safety nets; and (ii) increase the effectiveness of the safety net system by strengthening existing programs and designing new ones.Publication Burkina Faso Social Safety Nets(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-01)This report provides an inventory of safety net programs in Burkina Faso and suggests policy measures that could increase their coverage, efficiency, and sustainability. It shows that the scope and coverage of the existing safety nets is too limited. Most interventions are small and temporary. On average, excluding subsidies, annual spending on safety nets constituted only 0.6 percent of GDP while about 20 percent of the population is food-insecure and chronically poor. Food transfers are the main safety net program, accounting for 69 percent of total spending and over 80 percent of all beneficiaries. Most of the financing for safety nets is external. The report recommends developing a safety net system that adequately responds to the needs of the poor.Publication Burkina Faso - Social safety nets(World Bank, 2011-01-31)Burkina Faso is a poor landlocked country with a narrow natural resource base and a rapidly expanding population of 15.8 million. This report, with the technical support of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), provides a detailed, updated inventory of the existing social safety net programs and suggests policy measures that could improve their coverage, efficiency, relevance, and financial sustainability. This report shows that the scope and coverage of the existing social safety net system is too limited and that most interventions are fairly small in scale and designed as temporary programs. On average, excluding fuel subsidies, spending on social safety net programs was about 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2005 to 2009 - from 0.3 percent in 2005 to 0.9 percent in 2009, while about 20 percent of the population is food insecure and lives permanently in chronic poverty. Universal fuel subsidies are very expensive (0.7 percent of GDP in 2007) and have a very limited impact on the poorest docile (84 percent of the benefits go to the non poor). Among the remaining programs, food transfers are the main form of social safety net programs in Burkina Faso, accounting for 69 percent of total Social Safety Net (SSN) spending and over 80 percent of all estimated SSN beneficiaries in 2009 (excluding fuel subsidies). However, most of the financing for social safety net programs comes from external resources.Publication Republic of Senegal : Safety Net Assessment(Washington, DC, 2013-12-10)In 2010, the World Bank initiated a technical assistance program in social protection with the Government of Senegal, with a focus on safety nets. The World Bank and the government identified a number of technical notes and training sessions tailored to the immediate needs of the government. This Senegal safety net assessment integrates and summarizes the content of these technical notes. Poverty is a serious concern in the country, with the economy displaying significant vulnerabilities. While the government has been quick to respond to past crises, some of the measures taken by the government have had certain drawbacks. Also, factors such as poorly targeted support and rising prices have detracted from the efforts taken by the government. A well designed and implemented national safety net system is thus of utmost importance. This document examines the various factors involved in the creation and implementation of a well-designed safety net system for Senegal.Publication Social Safety Net in the Kyrgyz Republic : Capitalizing on Achievements and Addressing New Challenges(Washington, DC, 2009-05)The present report was prepared upon the request of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic to inform policy decisions on reforming the existing safety net. The report aims at providing analytical underpinning of the country's ongoing safety net reform, along with venue for policy discussions with the Government and stakeholders on the immediate as well as on the longer-term challenges related to designing and implementing of a modern national safety net. The report's focus is on the analysis of the poverty reduction impact, targeting accuracy and coverage of the existing non-contributory social benefits, the poverty-targeted Unified Monthly Benefit (UMB) in particular, with the objectives of recognizing the strengths on which the reform can capitalize, identifying opportunities for improvement and fostering consensus building among Kyrgyz policymakers regarding the options for reforming the UMB and the broader vision of public policy in social assistance and the feasible instruments for its implementation. The focus of the report on the UMB is also determined by the need of identifying safety net instruments for mitigating the adverse effects of the economic shocks which are already affecting ECA countries, including the Kyrgyz Republic, on the poor and vulnerable. The safety net in the Kyrgyz Republic faces multiple objectives: (a) to redistribute income to the poorest and most vulnerable, with an immediate impact on poverty and inequality; (b) to help households manage risks by maintaining consumption and assets in the outburst of shocks, such as the food, fuel, financial and economic crises; and (c) to protect the livelihoods of the negatively affected by structural reforms aimed at economic growth and efficiency gains.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.