VietNamNet Bridge – Though the rate of poor households in Vietnam (by Vietnam’s standards) continues to decrease, the rate of poor people in cities, particularly in Hanoi and HCM City, increases, according to a report by Oxfam and ActionAid.

According to the newly-released report, it is more difficult for the poor in the cities to access social and welfare services.

In 2006-2010, the Vietnamese government carried out many  policies to develop the country and to help the remaining poor families to escape poverty.

The report said that in the first two years of implementing the national program on poverty reduction (2006-2007), the ratio of poor households fell by 3.6 percent annually. The reduction was only 1.8 percent in 2008.

in general The rate of poor households was slowly reduced but it increased in some areas due to many reasons, mainly because of price shocks, natural disasters and the impacts from the world financial crisis.

The increase of the number of migrant workers to industrial zones in cities like Hanoi and HCM City raised the poverty rate in urban areas Poor immigrants in cities have difficulties accessing social services because they don’t have urban registrations?.

ActionAid Vietnam chief representative Hoang Phuong Thao said that education, healthcare and loan services in cities give priority to those who have urban registration. Without them, it is difficult for children of immigrant families to get into public schools to benefit from free education or reduced fees. migrants are also not officially recognised aspoor people and therefore are not eligible  for free health insurance.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has recently carried out a nation-wide survey of poor families, which covered migrant families who had been in the cities for six months and more. This intitiative was praised by Oxfam and ActionAid as this more practical approach  will provide the real number of poor people – which will certainly be higher than the current estimate..

Le Kim Dung, acting director of Oxfam Vietnam, says that the urban poverty rate in Vietnam is currently calculated based on the standards set by the World Bank and Vietnam’s General Statistics Office and it only covers the people who are locally registered. Based on this standard, by the end of 2009 Vietnam had around 0.8 million poor people in cities.

Dung said that this is an inacuratemeasurement. The rate of poor people in cities should be calculated based not only on their income but should also consider the instability of their jobs, high living costs, limited access to public services, rudimentary and unsafe living environment. If all these factors are taken into consideration, the rate of poor people in cities wouldl be higher.

The report by Oxfam and ActionAid said that Vietnam should change its viewpoint on reducing urban poverty.

PV