As Vietnam accelerates efforts to streamline its grassroots administrative system, a new governance dilemma is emerging beneath the surface of the country’s urban transformation: who will carry the growing workload at the neighborhood level when many of those doing the job are already well into old age?

The restructuring and merger of residential groups and hamlets, now being rolled out nationwide, is designed to reduce administrative overlap, improve efficiency and ease pressure on commune-level authorities.

But behind the macro-level reforms lies a quieter concern - the increasing burden placed on elderly grassroots officials, many of whom are retired teachers, war veterans and long-serving Party members in their 60s, 70s and even 80s.

The paradox inside aging apartment blocks
 

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Vietnam’s plan to restructure residential groups and hamlets is being framed as a necessary step in modernizing local governance. Photo: VNN

Under Vietnam’s new administrative orientation, urban residential groups are expected to expand to at least 700 households, up from the current threshold of 450. In rural areas, the minimum size is expected to increase from 300 to 500 households.

From a state management perspective, the policy is seen as a strategic move to reduce administrative fragmentation and build a leaner governing apparatus.

Yet implementation raises a difficult question: the people currently operating these neighborhood systems are not professional civil servants.

They are largely retirees who continue to shoulder community responsibilities not for income, but out of a deeply ingrained sense of civic duty.

For many, serving as a residential group leader or local Party secretary is less a job than an extension of a lifelong commitment to public service.

That commitment, however, is increasingly colliding with physical limits.

Imagine an elderly neighborhood leader overseeing 700 households in a densely populated district of Hanoi.

That means managing thousands of residents, handling constant changes in residency status, maintaining public order, coordinating local campaigns and dealing with countless unspoken community issues.

In older apartment blocks without elevators, even climbing staircases to deliver notices or verify resident information can become physically exhausting.

The burden becomes even more concerning when placed beside the modest compensation these local officials receive.

Most earn only a small monthly allowance worth just a few million dong.

In reality, many say the amount barely covers their own out-of-pocket expenses for fuel, phone bills and informal hospitality costs incurred while handling community matters.

As neighborhoods merge and workloads double, maintaining the same compensation structure risks turning volunteer public service into an unsustainable obligation.

A looming generational gap

Beyond the physical strain lies another challenge: the absence of younger replacements.

Today’s younger generations, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, are navigating intense economic pressure and increasingly competitive labor markets.

Global workplace trends such as “hustle culture” and “quiet quitting” have also begun influencing attitudes toward work and personal responsibility in Vietnam’s urban centers.

Against that backdrop, persuading younger people to take on low-paid grassroots administrative work has become increasingly difficult.

If elderly neighborhood officials are eventually forced to step down because of declining health, local authorities could face a dangerous vacuum at the community level.

The risk of weakening social cohesion

Experts warn that if residential groups are merged mechanically without changing governance models, the system may create new problems instead of solving old ones.

One concern is the gradual exhaustion of elderly grassroots workers.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 110,000 elderly residents in Son La Province reportedly joined community barricade efforts, while neighborhood leaders in Hanoi spent sleepless nights staffing pandemic checkpoints.

In local elections, older community officials continue to make up a large share of personnel responsible for organizing polling stations and counting ballots late into the night.

But dedication alone cannot indefinitely overcome the realities of aging.

Another concern is the weakening of neighborhood-level social bonds.

Unlike professional bureaucrats, many retired grassroots officials derive their influence from personal trust, lived experience and long-standing relationships within the community.

That social capital often allows them to mobilize residents quickly and resolve conflicts informally.

In Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Tan Ward, for example, one local Party secretary was able to persuade residents to provide tents and hundreds of chairs for voter meetings simply through personal credibility.

But as residential areas grow to 700 or even 1,000 households, that close-knit familiarity becomes harder to maintain.

Officials may no longer know residents by name or understand individual family circumstances, weakening the empathy and social intimacy that have long defined Vietnam’s neighborhood governance model.

From moral encouragement to structural reform

Observers argue that symbolic praise alone will not solve the problem.

Instead, Vietnam needs more practical and humane governance reforms.

One proposed solution is shifting from a highly centralized neighborhood management style to a layered community structure.

Under such a model, senior neighborhood leaders would focus on overall coordination while delegating day-to-day operations to smaller cluster representatives responsible for 50 to 100 households each.

That would reduce the physical burden on elderly officials while preserving their leadership and social influence.

Another proposal involves pairing older grassroots leaders with younger digital-savvy assistants.

Retired officials would continue serving as trusted mediators and community anchors, while younger deputies could handle technology-based tasks such as digital communication, resident databases and online coordination through platforms like Zalo.

Calls are also growing for substantial reform of compensation policies.

As administrative mergers reduce the total number of neighborhood officials, experts argue that savings from the streamlined structure should be redirected toward increasing allowances and operational budgets for those who remain.

Many also support introducing fixed expense packages to cover transportation, phone usage and community outreach costs so local officials no longer need to subsidize public work from their own pockets.

Finally, policymakers are being urged to create incentives encouraging younger citizens to participate in grassroots administration.

Suggestions include academic credits, social service recognition or preferential access to public welfare programs for students and young volunteers who contribute to local governance.

Under such a system, young people could serve as flexible community coordinators while elderly officials continue providing guidance, institutional memory and moral leadership.

Vietnam’s restructuring of residential groups is widely seen as an inevitable step in modernizing governance.

But behind the statistics and administrative maps are real people carrying the weight of that transformation.

For decades, elderly grassroots officials have quietly sustained local communities through trust, sacrifice and persistence.

The challenge now is not simply to redraw administrative boundaries, but to design a governance system that is more humane, sustainable and worthy of those who have spent their lives serving the public.

Nguyen Phuoc Thang (Hoa Binh University)