Poverty rate decreases

By the end of 2018, the average number of poor households in mountainous and highland districts such as Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Luc Nam, Yen The, Lang Giang and Tan Yen fell to below 40 percent; poor households in disadvantaged areas from 35.1 percent in 2015 to 20.7 percent in 2018 according to multi-dimensional poverty standards. 

The model of growing Morinda officinalis or Indian mulberry produces high income in Yen Dinh commune (Son Dong district).

In extremely difficult communes, poor households decreased from 51.6 percent in 2015 to 32.2 percent in 2018, and there are no hungry households. This result surpassed the target set in the Resolution of the provincial Party Organization’s Congress for poverty reduction in ethnic minority areas by 2.2 percent.

Son Dong is the locality with the highest percentage of ethnic minority people in the province. Since 2015, each year, it has received about 40-50 billion VND (1.7-2.1 million USD) from support funds of authorities at all levels to invest in building infrastructure facilities for production and people’s life.

To date, more than 400 large and small works have been repaired and built. Over 10,000 ethnic minority households received support for production.

In 2018, poor households in the ethnic minority areas of the district accounted for 35.61 percent, down nearly 20 percent compared to 2015.

In the districts of Luc Ngan, Luc Nam and Yen The, the rural face in ethnic minority areas also has fundamental changes, with material and spiritual lives of people gradually improved.

Avoid capital splitting 

For 2019-2020, the province strives to reduce poor households in ethnic minority and mountainous areas by 4-5 percent per year, particularly 5 percent per year in 36 villages and hamlets with special difficulties according to multi-dimensional poverty standards. 

It will work to ensure per capita income of poor households in extremely difficult villages and hamlets, and poor ethnic minority households doubles compared to the end of 2015.

According to Nguyen Hong Luan, head of the province’s Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, to fulfill the above objectives, agencies at all levels and sectors need to review, amend and supplement poverty reduction mechanisms, and especially integrate poverty reduction policies, thereby including the capital sources to support ethnic minority and mountainous areas in a common programme in order to ensure consistency, synchronisation and a streamlined management apparatus for higher efficiency.

In fact, in many localities, due to the lack of policy integration, the results are not as expected. The total support funding of the programmes is quite high but each content is carried out by one unit, the funding is divided into many sources, so it is not effective. Many ethnic households have just escaped from poverty but they met with natural disasters and epidemics, and fell back into poverty.

The household of Le Van Hong from Nung ethnic group in Ho Luong village, Bao Son commune (Luc Nam district) focuses on raising goats for economic development.

To overcome this limitation, at the recent meeting with the supervision team of the province’s National Assembly deputies delegation on the implementation of policies in the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction in the province’s ethnic minority and mountainous areas, Vice Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Le Anh Duong proposed the team report to the National Assembly the restructuring on the basis of policy integration.

The province will focus on integrating five main issues: traffic; production land; credit (production loans, job creation, housing improvement, vocational training, labor export); investment in infrastructure, ensuring water sources for production and daily life; education, health care.

In the immediate future, in order to reduce poverty sustainably in ethnic minority areas, the province directs the districts to continue to integrate support funds; encourage job creation for workers from poor and near poor households and those freshly escaping from poverty in ethnic minority areas.

Helping with livelihoods for poor women

(BGO) - Helping disadvantaged women with jobs and stable income to early escape poverty is the goal that the Women's Unions of all levels in Tan Yen district (Bac Giang province) set out in 2019. The material support, the provision of livelihood means, and the establishment of models and clubs to support women to escape poverty have been effectively implemented by many grassroots-level unions.

Vietnam cueist retains global rank despite poor World Cup show

Tran Quyet Chien is still among top three cueists in the world after early exit from a recent world tournament.

3,000 poor people and policy beneficiaries receive free health checkup and medicine

(BGO) – The Red Cross Society in the northern province of Bac Giang and VinGroup’s Kind-Heart Foundation on May 13 co-hosted a programme to provide free health examination, consultation and medicine in Son Dong district to respond to the Humanitarian Month in 2019.

More than 400 tonnes of rice supplied for poor people in Yen Bai

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc decided to provide 404 tonnes of rice from national reserves for the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai during this year’s between-crop period.

Scholarships granted to poor students in coastal provinces

A ceremony to present scholarships to 110 ethnic minority students and children of poor fishing families took place in the south-central province of Binh Dinh on March 28. 

Hoang Phuong