Vietnam Day for the Poor: Awakening the will to promote internal strength to escape poverty

Our Party and State identify sustainable poverty reduction as a major, important, consistent, and continuous policy in the process of implementing the renovation, building and developing the country towards socialism.

Photo caption — Local authorities of Bu Gia Map district encouraged families in difficult circumstances after receiving support from the "For the Poor" Fund. Photo: K GỵH/TTXVN

Mobilizing resources to achieve sustainable poverty reduction goals

The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam stipulates: Citizens have the right to social security; the State creates equal opportunities for citizens to enjoy social welfare, develops the social security system, has policies to support the elderly, the disabled, the poor and people in other difficult circumstances...

Poverty reduction is a pillar of Vietnam's social security, so doing well in poverty reduction contributes to ensuring human rights. In the 2021-2025 period, poverty reduction results achieved outstanding achievements: Poverty reduction results achieved and exceeded the goals and targets assigned by the National Assembly and the Government. The poverty rate decreased from 5.2% (first year of the period) to 1.93% in 2024. It is expected that by the end of 2025, the multidimensional poverty rate will decrease to about 0.9-1.1%; the poverty rate of ethnic minority households will be 12.55% (down 4.45%/year).

Mr. Pham Hong Dao, Deputy Chief of the National Office for Poverty Reduction, said: Vietnam has issued national poverty standards 8 times according to the poverty reduction pyramid model, meeting the needs of the poor from low to high, in accordance with the socio -economic conditions of the country in each period. Vietnam is one of the first 30 countries in the world and one of the first countries in Asia to apply multidimensional poverty standards, ensuring a minimum standard of living associated with sustainable development goals.

The material and spiritual life of the people, especially those living in poor areas and extremely difficult areas, has been improved and enhanced. In particular, the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2021-2025 period has actively integrated gender into its activities, ensuring gender equality and supporting women and girls in poor areas, contributing to the implementation of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Essential socio-economic infrastructure and regional connectivity have been prioritized for investment, changing the face of poor and disadvantaged areas, contributing to narrowing regional gaps, promoting economic growth and economic restructuring; many localities have made efforts to escape poverty and extreme hardship. The emulation movement: "For the poor - Leaving no one behind" for the 2021-2025 period launched by the Prime Minister has been widely implemented.

The Government has closely coordinated with the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front to organize and implement emulation movements, promote the spirit of self-reliance and self-improvement to escape poverty, mobilize resources to achieve the goal of sustainable poverty reduction; discover and replicate typical examples, effective poverty reduction models, poverty reduction initiatives, and help poor households escape poverty.

The National Assembly and the Government have allocated resources to implement a system of regular poverty reduction policies to support all aspects of the socio-economic life of poor households, such as: preferential credit policies; vocational training policies, support for workers from poor households and ethnic minority households to work abroad for a limited period; policies to support healthcare, education, housing, domestic water, sanitation, electricity bill support; and legal aid policies.

Vietnam has issued multidimensional poverty standards for the 2021-2025 period with criteria for determining poor households in terms of income and lack of access to basic social services raised compared to the 2016-2020 period. Measurement indicators have been updated and supplemented to identify the nature of poverty. In addition, the State has paid attention to and compensated for the lack of basic social services for the poor; the current system of poverty reduction and social security policies has been improved and enhanced to suit practical conditions.

In parallel with the regular poverty reduction policy system, in 2021, the National Assembly issued Resolution No. 24/2021/QH15 approving the investment policy of the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2021-2025 period, contributing to solving key, urgent, targeted, and time-bound poverty issues to ensure human rights.

Programs, movements, and campaigns "for the poor" (movement "The whole country joins hands for the poor - No one is left behind"; Program to mobilize support for building schools for border communes; Program to launch support for eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses nationwide...) are regularly implemented, mobilizing resources, spreading the spirit of volunteerism, calling on the masses to join hands to support. By the end of 2025, Vietnam strives to complete the goal of eliminating all temporary and dilapidated houses for poor households.

Applying digital transformation and high technology in poverty reduction

In the coming time, all levels and sectors will continue to promote propaganda, education, and awareness raising in poverty reduction work; strongly promote the tradition of solidarity and the spirit of "mutual love and affection" of the Vietnamese people towards the poor. At the same time, encourage and guide the poor and poor households to have knowledge and experience in labor and production, proactively rise up to escape poverty, not wait for or rely on the help of the State and society; promptly introduce individuals, groups, models, and good experiences in sustainable poverty reduction.

Localities and units build and effectively implement the emulation movement "For the poor - No one is left behind" for the period 2026-2035, arousing the will of self-reliance, promoting internal strength to escape poverty, building a prosperous life for people and communities, striving "For a Vietnam without hunger and poverty".

Sharing some key tasks in poverty reduction work in the coming time, Deputy Chief of the National Office on Poverty Reduction Pham Hong Dao said:

The multidimensional poverty standard for the period 2026-2030 is built with a multidimensional poverty measurement method that takes into account regional and local characteristics, ensuring accurate measurement of poverty towards ensuring a minimum standard of living and access to basic social services as a basis for determining and accurately and comprehensively identifying poor and near-poor households to implement poverty reduction and social security policies and programs nationwide, as a basis for determining and implementing the poverty reduction goals and targets of the Party, National Assembly, and Government, with some contents expected to change compared to the poverty standard for the period 2021-2025.

In particular, to ensure that a large number of poor and near-poor households in the 2026-2030 period is avoided and the state budget capacity is available to implement policies for the poor in the 2026-2030 period, step by step implementing the resolution of the Party Central Committee and the direction of the Secretariat, it is proposed that the income criteria in the national multidimensional poverty standard for the 2026-2030 period be equivalent to the minimum living standard in 2028 as follows: urban areas are 2.8 million VND/person/month, rural areas are 2.2 million VND/person/month.

For some criteria for access to basic social services, remove the index of means of access to information; adjust the index of use of telecommunications services and digital services as follows: Households with no members using Internet services and digital services such as digital banking and public services. Change the index measuring access to clean water sources and hygienic toilets (auxiliaries); add an index measuring the lack of basic social services on waste treatment; continue to study the addition of indexes such as the level of impact of natural disasters and floods.

The National Office for Poverty Reduction submitted to the Government a report to the National Assembly for consideration and approval of the policy of the National Target Program on New Rural Development and Sustainable Poverty Reduction for the 2026-2035 period on the basis of continuing to promote the achieved results, overcoming the shortcomings that the Program for the 2021-2025 period has not yet thoroughly resolved with a number of new orientations such as:

Integrating poverty reduction into comprehensive and sustainable rural development; poverty reduction is integrated into the framework of new rural development, linked with modern ecological economic development, such as restructuring agriculture to reduce emissions, applying VietGAP/GlobalGAP, developing green OCOP products, community-based rural tourism, and sustainable value chains. Prioritizing the development of diverse livelihood models suitable for local ecology and culture, aiming to "get rich together" instead of just providing temporary support.

The program also sets out the following goals: applying digital transformation and high technology in poverty reduction; developing livelihoods, sustainable employment, expanding to urban areas; enhancing gender equality, protecting the vulnerable and social security; decentralization, transparent supervision and the role of the community, specifically.

The State plays a leading role in ensuring resources and at the same time mobilizing maximum social resources to participate in sustainable poverty reduction; promoting the mobilization and effective use of domestic and international resources for poverty reduction; focusing on production development and vocational education for the poor; investing in developing socio-economic infrastructure in poor communes and particularly disadvantaged communes; improving the effectiveness of state management in the field of poverty reduction in the direction of concentration and unification of management points.

At the same time, digital transformation in the field of poverty reduction is carried out; strictly controlling and evaluating the effectiveness of investment resources; perfecting the organizational apparatus, improving the operational efficiency of state management agencies, poverty reduction coordination agencies at all levels and building a team of professional staff to meet the requirements of the task. Mobilizing and effectively using domestic and international resources for poverty reduction work; perfecting the incentive mechanism and mobilizing the participation of organizations and enterprises in supporting the poor and poor areas to escape from difficult situations and strive to build a prosperous life.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/xa-hoi/ngay-vi-nguoi-ngheo-viet-nam-khoi-day-y-chi-phat-huy-noi-luc-vuon-len-thoat-ngheo-20251017073644593.htm