Socio-Economic Development Programme for Extremmely Difficult Communes in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areasin the Period 2006-2010 (Phrase of the Programme 135)
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FOR ETHNIC MINORITIES THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM
Independence - Freedom - Happiness
HANOI, SEPTEMBER 2005
SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT COMMUNES IN ETHNIC MINORITY AND MOUNTAINOUS AREAS
IN THE PERIOD 2006 - 2010
(PHASE II OF THE
PROGRAMME 135)
ABBREVIATIONS
Committee for Ethnic
Minority and Mountainous Area
CEMMA
General Statistical
Office GSO
Millennium Development
Goals MDGs
Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural
Development MARD
Ministry of Education
and
Training MOET
Ministry of
Finance MOF
Ministry of Labor, War
Invalids and Social Affairs MOLISA
Ministry of Planning
and
Investment MPI
Official Development
Assistance ODA
Vietnamese
Dong
VND
I.
OVERVIEW OF OUTCOMES OF PROGRAMME 135 AND POLICIES IMPLEMENTED IN THESE AREAS
FROM 1998 TO 2005
1. Overview of extremely disadvantaged
communes
In the period 1990-1995, the starting point
for the implementation of development policies and investments were the
criteria used to classify mountainous and highland areas, which referred to
geographical and natural features. Among administrative units (province,
district, commune), those in which at least two thirds of the total area has a
slope of 25 degrees or more or are located at an altitude of 200m above sea
level or higher are classified as mountainous. Those in which
at least two thirds of the total area is located at an altitude of 600m above
the sea level or higher and in which ethnic minorities constitute a majority of
the population are classified as highland.
These criteria were used to classify
provinces, districts, and communes in mountainous areas and highlands for the
purpose of applying appropriate socio-economic development policies. However,
they reflected only natural features without taking economic and social factors
into account. In fact, levels of socio-economic development varied among
administrative units located at the same altitude. There was therefore a a
pressing need to classify mountainous areas and highlands into three
categories, using criteria pertaining to levels of development.
The Committee for Ethnic Minority and
Mountainous Areas (CEMMA) issued Circular No. 41/UB-TT of 8 January 1996
(Circular No.41) to regulate and guide the classification of
mountainous areas and highlands, combining the following fives types of
criteria: natural conditions and residential location, infrastructure, social
factors, production conditions, and living conditions. Mountainous areas and
highlands were classified into three zones according to level of development as
follows:
Zone I: Relatively better-off zone
Zone II: Temporarily stable zone
Zone III: Underprivileged or disadvantaged
zone. Included in this category were 1,557 communes in mountainous, remote,
border areas, and
former revolutionary bases with
a total population of 4,533,598 people in 799,034 households, accounting for
25.8% of the total population in mountainous and ethnic minority provinces.
(Additional communes in delta areas having ethnic minority populations were
later added to Zone III, bringing the total to 1,715 communes).
This classification into three zones according
to level of development has significant implications for assessing socio-economic
situation in each area, enabling the Party and the Government to formulate
appropriate socio-economic development plans for each zone, with special
attention given to Zone III, the most underprivileged zone.
These areas were characterized by under-developed
physical and social infrastructure; lack of agricultural land; severe lack of
clean water supply; predominantly subsistence production, depending heavily on
natural conditions and shifting cultivation; low levels of education attainment
with 60% or more of the population illiterate.. Poverty incidence at that time
exceeded 60% in these areas. Average GDP per capita was only 31% of the
national average. However, these areas tend to play a prominent role in
national defense and security, as well as being critical for ecological
protection. Besides, there were various
unstable factors and social issues in these areas. Policies to
accelerate socio-economic development in these areas were not strong enough.
According to General Statistical Office (GSO)
data for 1998, as many as 600 communes, accounting for 41% of Zone III
communes, did not have all-weather road access to the commune center; 800
communes did not have a clinic; 47% of communes did not have a primary school
or enough classrooms; 900 communes did not have a market; 70% of dwelling
houses were temporary in construction; less than 40% of the population had
access to clean water; and more than 50% of communes did not have access to the
power grid.
The above situation required an integrated
socio-economic development programme with special policies to promote the
sustainable development of these areas.
Accordingly, the Prime Minister approved
Programme 135 to implement a special policy to accelerate socio-economic
development in Zone III communes which are the most disadvantaged areas in the
country.
1.2 Change in number of extremely disadvantaged communes over the years
When Programme
135 was formulated and submitted to the Prime Minister for approval, Zone III
included 1,715 communes, of which 1,000 communes in especially disadvantaged
districts were selected as target beneficiary areas under this programme.
Through the seven years of programme
implementation, the target communes under Programme 135 increased in number
year by year, for the following reasons:
For extremely disadvantaged communes:
In the categorization of the three zones
within their jurisdiction, several provinces lacked public democracy, did not
adhere to the formal process, made insufficiently objective assessments, and
chose only a few communes in Zone III for formalistic outcome. In fact, a
number of communes facing special difficulties were classified in Zone II, thus
being excluded from the target group for essential investments. In the
implementation of Programme 135, these local authorities also requested that
certain Zone II communes be included in the target group.
For border communes:
There are 403 communes located along the land
border of Vietnam, of which 161 communes are close to the Vietnam-China border,
143 communes are close to the Vietnam-Laos border, and 99 communes are close to
the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Of these 403 border communes, 247 communes were
extremely disadvantaged; 12 communes had national border gates, and were not
subject to investment under Programme 135; and 144 communes which did not face
special difficulties receive investment from the central state budget.
For ex-revolutionary base communes (or ‘ATK’ communes):
Ex-revolutionary
base communes were former revolutionary and resistance bases during the French
and American wars. Most of these communes are located in mountainous, remote,
and border areas, in which ethnic minority groups made considerable
contributions to and nourished the revolutionary movement. Although communes in
these areas are not classified as Zone III, most are disadvantaged. In
recognition of and compensation for ethnic minority people’s sacrifices and
contributions, these communes were added to the target group under Programme
135.
Table 1: Number of
Programme 135 communes in the period 1999 – 2005
No. |
Category |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
1 |
Extremely disadvantaged communes |
1,012 |
1,490 |
1,884 |
1,907 |
1,907 |
1,919 |
1,938 |
2 |
Border communes |
188 |
388 |
388 |
388 |
388 |
388 |
389 |
3 |
Ex-revolutionary base communes |
0 |
0 |
53 |
67 |
67 |
67 |
83 |
4 |
Total |
1,200 |
1,878 |
2,325 |
2,362 |
2,374 |
2,374 |
2,410 |
5 |
Central state budget |
1,200 |
1,753 |
2,200 |
2,233 |
2,240 |
2,240 |
2,275 |
6 |
Local budget |
0 |
124 |
125 |
129 |
134 |
134 |
135 |
2. Summary of Programme 135 outputs (1998 – 2005)
2.1.1 Planning
In general,
infrastructure projects links closely with socio-development plans in communes,
facilitating production and living conditions more effectively. Infrastructure
projects are integrated with local planning, enabling people to access social
services and improving people’s living standards. Nevertheless, some local authorities
have not paid enough attention to the importance of planning, resulting in
inadequate participation of local people, slow in reviewing and adjusting in
case of insufficient plans. Consequently, some commune cluster infrastructure
and infrastructure projects have not been performed effectively, which resulted
in wastefulness.
2.1.2
Outputs of communal infrastructure and Commune cluster infrastructure projects
a) Communal infrastructure projects in
extremely difficult communes
Project’s investment targets comprises 8 main items, including
transportation, small scheme irrigation works, schools, clinics, clean water
supply, electricity, markets, and reclamation. Communal infrastructure
facilities are normally small scale projects, whose target beneficiaries and
location are identified within one commune.
b) Commune cluster
infrastructure construction projects
Investment targets consist of 7 types of infrastructure
facility, namely: (1) transportation system, (2) semi-boarding and lower
secondary schools, (3) general practice clinics, (4) water supply and sewage,
(5) electricity for production and domestic use; (6) agriculture and forestry
extension stations, and (7) markets and small department stores.
c) Investment
capital: Two above-mentioned
projects are financed by different funding sources, in which provision of funds
from central state budget is quite stable and public every year. From 1999 to
2002, an average of 400 million VND per year was provided for infrastructure
projects in each commune. From 2003 to 2005, this amount increased to VND 500
million per year. Total central state budget for projects was VND 6,331.6
billions (excluding of DFID budget support of about VND 280 billions
supplemented in 2005). Investment funds for commune cluster infrastructure
projects have been increased every year, making total state budget of
2,103/2,500 billion VND by 2005, which accounts for 84.12% of total allocated
fund for this component. Total investment capital from central state budget for
two projects in the period 1999-2005 is VND 8,434.6 billion (see Annex). Nearly
400 billion VND and VND 127 billion were mobilized locally for communal
infrastructure and commune cluster infrastructure co-funded projects
respectively. Besides, large resources were provided by different ministries
and agencies, who implement other national target programmes in these areas,
for infrastructure development in extremely difficult communes.
d) Outputs of communal infrastructure projects
Table 3: Outputs after 7 years of implementation
(1999-2004)
ITEMS |
Number
of facilities / works |
Percentage
of facilities / works (%) |
Percentage
of investment (%) |
Total |
20,026 |
100 |
100 |
Transportation |
6,652 |
33.35 |
40.28 |
Irrigation |
3,608 |
17.08 |
17.08 |
Schools |
4,654 |
24.08 |
22.79 |
Water supply |
2,346 |
12.02 |
5.84 |
Electricity |
1,298 |
7.94 |
7.94 |
Clinics |
487 |
1.72 |
1.72 |
Markets |
237 |
0.97 |
1.2 |
Reclamation |
426 |
2.44 |
0.5 |
Other |
318 |
0.4 |
2.65 |
498 commune cluster infrastructure facilities were built, of
which 300 was completed, handed over, and put into operation; and construction
of other 200 were in progress.
2.2. Support for production development linked with products processing and
marketing
After 7 years of implementation,
agriculture production in the Program areas has been improved, gradually
stabilized, and shifted towards diversified cash crop production, which links
closely with processing and off-farm industries, as well as red vision of labor
in these areas. In fact, the implementation of Programme 135 has been
integrated with agriculture and forestry extension, afforestation, and forest
products development and utilization programmes. Accelerated implementation of
5 million hectare afforestation for processing industry programmes has opened a
new path for localities to explore advantages for socio-economic development.
2.3. Settlement planning where necessary
The project is combined with other
programmes and projects in the area to relocate and resettle households, who
are short of cultivation land in rocky mountains, landslide and flood probing
areas. Based on actual budget allocation from central level, local
authorities developed suitable planning.
In mountainous areas in the North of
Vietnam, in some localities, where water and cultivation land are insufficient,
“going down the mountain” plan is adopted to relocate population to a new
site, where communal infrastructure facilities are built under Programme 135
and cultivation land is more available. Programme 135 has made a great
contribution to the relocation and settlement of population, which is about
120,000 households, where necessary.
By the year 2003, Ministry of National Defense has
developed 17 economic and national defense combined zones, which basically
cover 50,000 households in important areas, namely bordering communes in Quang
Ninh, Lang Son, Lai Chau, Quang Tri, Dak Lak, and Kon Tum provinces.
2.4. Training of grassroots officials
One of the Programme’s objectives is to
train and strengthen public and social administration and project management
capacity for grassroots officials to promote poverty reduction and sustainable
development in extremely difficult communes. This fund was combined with other
projects and programmes to train and develop local leaders, managers, and
officials of commune Party, authoriti es, agencies, mass organizations; members
of commune supervision boards; and village heads. By the end of 2004, as many
as 1,080 training courses were conducted with a total number of 155,159
entries. Grassroots officials’ capacity has been improved. Many communes are
able to take the role of investment owners and implementing projects in the
commune areas.
2.5 Programme’s funding sources
a) Central state budget
Table 4: Total investment fund for Programme 135 from central
state budget in the perio d 1998- 2005
Unit: billion VN D
No |
Projects |
Before 1999 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
Total |
||
1 |
Communal Infrastructure
development |
0 |
483.2 |
701.2 |
880 |
893.2 |
1,116.5 |
1,120 |
1,417.5 |
6,611.6 |
2 |
Commune cluster
infrastructure development |
432 |
103 |
101 |
230 |
250 |
265 |
350 |
372 |
2,103 |
3 |
Training |
0 |
7.2 |
7.2 |
7.2 |
10.0 |
11.0 |
11 |
30 |
83.6 |
4 |
Relocation and Settlement |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10,0 |
10,0 |
15 |
25 |
60 |
5 |
Production development |
0 |
0 |
0 |
50,0 |
100,0 |
64 |
70 |
284 |
|
Total |
432 |
593,4 |
809,4 |
1,167,2 |
1,163,2 |
1,502,5 |
1,560 |
1,624,5 |
9,142.2 |
b) Local budget to fund communal infrastructure and commune
cluster infrastructure projects
are 527 billion VND.
c) Mobilized funds from corporations, other provinces,
ministries, agencies, and ‘Fund For The Poor’ reached approximately 509 billion
VND in 1999 - 2003.
Table 5: Summary on mobilized funds
Donors |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
Total |
1. Central ministries and agencies |
19.945 |
10.670 |
25.680 |
21.250 |
23.720 |
101.265 |
2. Central mass organizations |
0.510 |
0.410 |
0.410 |
0.270 |
2.109 |
3.439 |
3. Other provinces and cities |
19.853 |
5.547 |
13.000 |
10.000 |
10.650 |
59.050 |
4. Corporations 91 |
29.403 |
44.650 |
47.000 |
29.700 |
30.402 |
181.155 |
5. Pro poor fund |
0 |
22.876 |
54.060 |
47.862 |
39.250 |
164.048 |
Total |
69.711 |
84.153 |
139.880 |
109.082 |
106.131 |
508.957 |
d)
People contribution
People in extremely difficult communes have contributed to
projects in various ways, namely: labor, provision of available construction
materials (e.g. sand, gravel, and timber), land clearance for construction,
etc. People contribution, however, was exercised only in several mountainous
provinces in the Northern and central regions in the first year of programme
implementation. It was not carried on well in the following years and thus
outcome was rather low. In general, local authorities have not mobilized well
resources from the public, particularly for operation and maintenance
activities.
3. Implementation of combined programmes in the local areas
To achieve set objectives and targets to
address urgent ethnic minority’s related issues and accelerate the development
in the most difficult areas of the country, the Government has adopted
significant policies as below.
a) Regional development policies: In 2001, the
Government relised major polices by issuing three Decisions, namely Decision
No. 168/2001/QD-TTg, Decision No.173/2001/QD-TTg, and Decision
No.186/2001/QD-TTg on orientation of socio-economic development in the Central
highland, Mekong River Delta, and 6 extremely difficult provinces in the
Northern mountainous area.
- Decision No.120/2003/QD
– TTg on special policies regarding socio-economic development in bordering
communes along the Vietnam-Chinese border was issued in 2003
- Decision No.174/2004/
QD – TTg of 1 October 2004 on investment in socio-economic development in 19
provinces and 64 mountainous districts bordering Central highland, western
former 4th Zone, and Northern mountainous areas according to mechanisms
stipulated in Decision No.186
and Decision No.168 was issued
in 2004.
b) Implementation of
several policies on ethnic minority and mountainous areas
- Price subsidies policy is
implemented pursuant to Decree No.20/1998/ND-CP of the
Government. This policy focuses on provision of subsidies for transportation
cost of 8 commodities for mountainous areas and price subsidies for several
products, which are produced by people but difficult to find market outlets,
assisting improvement in production and living conditions in ethnic minority and
mountainous areas.
- Education and training program
Preferential education and training policies have been applied
to ethnic groups for many years, including preferential policy on admission and
enrollment in colleges and universities, policy on boarding schools for ethnic
minority’s pupils at all levels, school tuition fee waivers, provision of free
text books and note books, etc...Currently, local authorities have made great
efforts to eliminate temporary schools and third-shift classes according to Decision
No.159/2002/QD - TTg.
- Provision of free
18 newspapers and journals. Pursuant to Decision No.1637/2001/QD
- TTg on provision of free 18 newspapers and journals for people in ethnic
minority and mountainous areas from 2002 to 2005.
- 5 million
hectare afforestation programme (1998-2005) was implemented pursuant
to Decision No.661/198/QD-TT of 29 July 1998.
- National clean water
and sanitation programme was implemented pursuant to Decision No.237/1998/TTg
of 3 December 1998.
- Health care
programme aiming at goiter and malaria prevention, extensive
immunization, elimination of health care bare communes, and improvement of
health care for mountainous people. As far as poverty reduction is concerned,
according to Decision No.139/2002/QD-TTg in 2002, the following programmes
have been implemented:
- Provision of radio coverage;
- Culture and information program; and
- Drug prevention program.
Combination of
available funding sources from various projects and programmes has provided
large resources. Official Development Assistance (ODA) is used for
infrastructure investment in 969 communes of 24 most difficult provinces under
Programme 135, namelyNorthern Mountain Poverty Reduction Project, Central
Region Livelihoods Improvement Project, Community-based rural infrastructure
project, Tuyen Quang IFAD funded project; and Ha Giang IFAD funded project.
ODA funds of these five projects provide an average of 250 million VND per
commune per year.
Both
ministries and local authorities focus on integration of fund and give
priorities to investment in Programme 135 communes, therefore actual average
investment capital is more than 1 billion VND per commune per year with some
exceptions of more than 2 billion VND per commune.
4. Evaluation of programme’s results
4.1 Organization of programme implementation
A system of Programme Steering Boards has been established from
central to local levels. The Central Steering Committee was established by the
Government with one deputy prime minister as chairman and other key ministries
as regular members. Committee for Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Area acted as
the standing agency of the programme. A key leader of each local level
(province and district) acted as chairman of local steering board with support
from functional departments/divisions.
The Central Steering
Committee regularly directed the programme implementation, conducted annual
reviews and training courses on successful models of local management and
decentralization. The committee also directed supervision and examination and
cooperated with supervision bodies of People's Councils at local levels.
With
their functions of consultation and issuance of management mechanisms and
implementation guidance, line ministries have timely promulgated and revised
programme mechanisms promoting the principles of transparency, public and
decentralization with strong support from local people..The integration of the
sedentarization project, the project on support of ethnic minority people with
special difficulties, the program on building the centers of mountainous and
highland commune clusters into the Program 135 according to the Decision No.
138/2000/QD - TTg dated 29 November 2000 have created unified mechanisms and
increased the efficiency of integration; Mechanism of investment and
construction management has been adjusted. The Joint Circular No.666/TTLT dated
23 August 2001 on guiding the management of investment for infrastructure under
the Program 135 has created a new mechanism which became a good example for
other programmes and projects. A relatively consistent system of legal
documents has been built up by line ministries to direct the implementation of
programme at local levels.
Line ministries were assigned by the Government to
participate in the programme implementation and issue relevant policies: the
Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance were responsible for
balancing capital resources; Other agencies such as ministries of
Transportation, Post and Telecommunications, Industry, Culture and Information;
Education and Training, etc. were responsible for development of
infrastructures in their areas. The State Audit[1] and State Inspection
Agency[2] have conducted timely supervision and examination to find weaknesses
in the implementation process of the programme.
Central and local mass organizations have developed guidance and
support to local poor households in doing business, developing household
economy, and building effective HEPR models. Father Front has launched a
movement of “Day for the poor”, which mobilized hundreds of billion VND for
poor ethnic minorities. Many programmes has been launched by Youth Union:
Programme of youth business establishment, Programme of youth voluntary support
for poor communes and ethnic minorities, etc.
Local authorities are responsible for programme implementation through such
activities as establishing the organizational structure at various levels,
mobilizing and allocating local resources, carrying out all activities of
programme cycle from investment preparation to operation and management of
completed civil works. Local authorities considered implementation of this
Programme as their key political task by assigning key leaders to be in charge
of certain areas, and local agencies and enterprises were also assigned to
support certain areas. Decision 42/1999/QD-TTg, dated March 10 1999 by Prime
Minister sent more capable staff down to communes to strengthen the programme
implementation.
The development of steering system from central to province and lower levels
and the horizontal coordination among agencies has helped to ensure the unity
in management. However, during the implementation process, there were certain
constraints. Assigned ministries for development of guidelines of capacity
building, production development and settlement planning were slow in their
work. The current organization structure of the Programme 135 is relatively
suitable, but not free of limitations: the two projects that were assigned to
Minsitry of Agriculture and Rural Development for management, were less
effective due to lack of clarity in objectives, activities and low allocated
fund. There were many liaisons points at the standing agencies and
at local levels. The communication was not so smooth and the function of
supporting managing agencies in dealing with problems were not carried out
effectively. The steering agencies at district level were usually working
part-time for the programme, and lack of capable staff, resulting in many
limitations. The communication between central and local levels were not so
strongly linked, resulting in lack of communication, especially the reporting
system running slow and irregularly, not fulfilling the tasks as identified in
the Circular 666. In many provinces, reports were made only once a year which
made the monitoring and evaluation d ifficult.
1) Improvements in rural mountainous areas
Under the Programme,
more than 25,000 communal infrastructure facilities and 498 commune cluster
infrastructure facilities were built, of which more than 20,000
essential facilities and 200 commune cluster infrastructure facilities were
put into operation. After 7 years of implementation, facilities of 5 main
categories, namely rural roads, power system, schools, small scale irrigation
works, commune health clinics were constructed in 70% of communes, while
facilities of all 8 categories were built in 56% of communes. Of all
programme’s communes, 86% of communes have primary schools; 73% of
communes have IV grade permanent lower secondary schools; 96% of communes have
clinics providing preliminary health care services for people; 74% of communes
have post offices, 61% of communes have public speaker stations; and 44% of
comm unes have markets. Another 500 communes have accessile road to commune
center; 100% of communes in 28 programme’s provinces have accessible road to
commune center; 97.42% of communes have car road and foot path access to
commune center, increasing by 62.42% compared to the period before 1998.
Under Programme 135, crucial infrastructure system has been
established, which serves as great forces to change rural look, contributing to
poverty reduction and creating preconditions to move towards industrialization
and modernization in ethnic minor ity and mountainous areas.
2)Contribution
to rapid poverty reduction
Investment in irrigation projects has resulted in improvement of
irrigating capacity for more than 40,000 ha of cultivation land and about 2,000
ha of reclamation, enabling extremely difficult communes to obtain food
stability and increase average self-sufficient food supply per capita from 286
kg in 1998 to 320 kg with some exceptions of 500 kg per capita in 2004.
Cultivation and production skills of ethnic minority people have been improved
remarkably. New cultivation practices together with high yield and good quality
new crop varieties and livestock breeds have gradually replaced old-style
production practices which were vulnerable to natural conditions. Production
growth has led to formation of several commodity economic zones. Many
households with good production practices and effective business models have
been emerging. There have been no more chronic hungry households in programme’s
areas. The programme has achieved a relatively fast pace in poverty reduction,
which is 4-5% per year on average (the average ratio of poor households in
these areas before the Programme was nearly 60%, and it is only 20%
in 2005). Some localities could even reduce the number of poor households by 7
- 8% per year.
3) Considerable improvement in living conditions of ethnic
minority people in extremely difficult areas in many social aspects, e.g. culture,
education, and public health care
Programme 135 has a strong impact on education, health care, and
culture in ethnic minorities and mountainous areas. The Government has adopted
policies to strengthen education development through various investment resources.
As a result, most of Programme 135 communes have permanent primary and
secondary schools, attracting more than 90% of children in the school age. Many
localities have completed universal primary education, while some localities
have accomplished universalization of lower secondary education. Most of
extremely difficult communes have medical clinics; a majority of villages has
public health care, making great contribution to prevention of fatal epidemic
diseases, improvement of people’s health and living standards.
Relocation and settlement projects have contributed to
stabilization of ethnic minority people’s life, who used to inhabit in
scattered pattern and difficult conditions, by enhancing their access to social
services. People’s access to information has also been improved, together with
increasing quality of other services.
Economic improvement has led to strong development of cultural
life in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Traditional culture of ethnic
groups has been preserved and promoted; many traditional cultural activities
have been revived and developed. The implementation of subsidized radio and
special television coverage for concave areas policy has resulted in rapid
increase in the number of communes benefiting from culture and information
access, and local people could access new information and policies faster and
greater in number.
4) Contribution to political security,
social order and safety, and national
defense in strategically critical regions of the country
Most of Programme 135 communes are located in remote and
bordering areas with complicated and difficult conditions. Previously, people’s
life in these areas was very difficult; deforestation for cultivation was
relatively common; social problems were complicated. It was where hostile
forces took advantage of religion for illegal preaching and propagation, while
malefactors incited people to migrate profusely, as well as committed other
acts of sabotage. Meanwhile, Party’s establishments, political system, and Government’s
administrative apparatus revealed many weaknesses, which resulted in poor
support and low confidence of the people.
With the guiding principles of democracy and transparency,
Programme 135 has attracted the active participation of mass organization,
promoted local people’s participation, improved capacity for local communities
and local cadres at communes, and villages, contributing to strengthening and
consolidating grassroots political system, assurance of national security and
defense, prevention of social problems, and strengthening people’s confidence.
5) Consolidation and enhancement of national
solidarity, increase in people’s confidence in the Party and the Government
Programme 135 has received great support and contribution of
people nationwide; attracted attention from leaders and members of agencies,
sectors, Fatherland Front, social and political organizations at all levels.
Big progress has been made in socio-economic development in extremely difficult
communes; development gaps among regions have been narrowed. This has
contributed to achievement of social equity, acceleration of national
solidarity, and enhancement of ethnic minority people’s confidence in policies
of the Party and the Government.
6) The Programme 135 has been highly
appreciated by the international organizations
Various independent studies on the programme have been conducted
by the international organizations. Basically, the Programme 135 is evaluated
as the most successful programme on HEPR in Vietnam. The programme have a
comprehensive approach, appropriate targeting methods, transparent allocation
mechanism, and strong decentralization as well as simplified investment
procedures. Consequently, some international organizations has supported
financially and technically for the programme’s implementation.
7) General achievements of Programme 135
After 7 years of implementation (1999 – 2005), Programme 135 has
achieved significant targets in all political, social, and economic aspects.
Rural mountain areas has changed significantly. Infrastructure system has been
improved remarkably, accommodating primarily living needs, as well as
articulating development of multi-sectoral economy. Poverty gaps has been
narrowed among regions; poverty incidence has dropped dramatically; general
education attainment among local people has been improved. It is estimated that
as many as 800 communes has graduated from the status of extreme difficult
communes and starting the pathway of growth. The programme has effectively
implemented the principle of democracy and transparency, promoted the ownership
of local people in supervision of works. Agencies at all levels paid due
priorities and attention for its implementation. All those helped to ensure the
programme experienced least leakage and waste. The Programme has invested in
the right place and right target groups in the most disadvantaged areas. It was
also the programme that reflected the desires of local people with strong local
people support across the country. Local people also understood of their
responsibilities in implementing the programme to help themselves moving out of
poverty. The process of implementation also built up capacity for local staff
in managerials skills, and poverty reduction management. The programme possessed
significant importance in socio-economic development, political and national
security, with deep humanity, promoting the strong cultural identities of
Vietnamese, and contributing to the sustainable development of the country.
Programme 135 has shown the great attention from the Party and the Government
to the local poor from ethnic minorities groups, in the border and former
revolutionary base, and mountainous and remote areas.
4.3. Weaknesses of Programme 135
4.3.1 Structural
Organization
a) Identification of target communes under the programme in some
localities is not very objective and lack of incentives to for communes to
successfully graduate from the programem annually.
Of 2,410 target communes under Programme 135 by the year 2005,
only 1,715 communes classified into Zone III category. Apart from communes,
which were added by the Government according to special preferential
policy, the rest 391 communes are not classified to Zone III
category. The reason is that the classifying criteria for the most
difficult communes are very qualitative and difficult to classify and while
classifying, some local authorities did not adopt democratic procedures or
understood the underlying implication of classification, and thus either
emphasized too much on achievements or expected and relied heavily on external
supports. Consequently, the program has not covered all most difficult communes
while many non-poor communes have benefited from the program.
During the implementation, additional resources from other projects
and programmes, especially international aids, were available in many communes
besides Programme 135 resources. Some communes, which are located along newly
built highways, have experienced rapid socio-economic development and no longer
in extremely difficult situation, but remain as target communes under the
programme. After 7 years of implementation, only 20 communes in Lao Cai, Dong
Nai and Thua Thien Hue provinces are voluntarily requested to graduate from the
programme.
b) Leadership activities were not very effective and supervision
is not close
Leadership in some local authorities were not very effective
with too many liaisons, while lack of consistency and capacity. Monitoring and
supervision in some localities are rather formalistic and recommendations often
focus on increase in financial support and extension of programme, etc. without
specifying weaknesses in implementation at grassroots level.
Several local authorities have not issued regulations on
operation and maintenance, on activities of the commune supervision board; they
are also slow in changing investment structure, reviewing planning; and
allocation of resources are on equal basis, causing wastefulness in investment,
etc.
Leadership and management have revealed following weaknesses:
- Decentralization has not been adopted strongly and decisively
enough due to unwillingness to let go of fund allocation authority, reluctance
to exercise decentralization and transparency. This has resulted in reduced
power of commune people’s committee and making commune authorities passive in
implementing the programme.
- Inspection and examination activities have not been carried
out effectively. Most of breaches were discovered by people or supervision
bodies. Monitoring and supervision have not done well by central agencies,
which results in slow assessment of situation at grassroots level, especially
information on production development and capacity building projects. Proper
criteria and indicators have not been set up for evaluation of the programme.
Evaluation often focuses heavily on statistical numbers (number of the
construction work, number people and classes, etc.) rather than qualitative
aspects. Many reviews conducted were not able to clearly identify the
programme’s performance from those of the similar or integrated programmes.
4.3.2
Programme implementation
a) Inconsistency in implementing different targets of the
programme. Strong emphasis was on infrastructure investment without appropriate
attention to production development, planning and settlement, and capacity
building
Of
total investment capital under the programme, communal infrastructure
and commune cluster infrastructure projects account for 95.2%, while
capacity building, production development, and settlement planning projects
account for 0.83%, 3.2% and 0.67% respectively. For the most difficult communes
at the 1st period, lack of the infrastructure was
identified as the most critical problems affecting directly the people’s life.
Therefore, in the 1st period (1998-2001) the priority given to
the infrastructure facilities, especially transportation, was the right
direction. However, in the 2nd period
(2002-2005) when the infrastructure has been significant improved, the program
has been slow in changing and adjusting its duty structure, leading to less
effective ultilisation of invested infrastructure.
Capacity building projects put heavy concentration on training,
whilst training materials are updated slowly and still in overlapping with
training from various agencies. There was confusion in implementing production
development projects due to lack of specific objectives and activities for each
area. In some cases, project funds were treated as a subsidy and thus divided
equally (in 2001). In 2002, although fund was allocated, it was then suspended
and carried over to the following fiscal year since implementation content was
not agreed on. Settlement projects mostly stop at planning stage. For
infrastructure projects, investment structure is inappropriate with low investment
proportion for the infrastructure facilities such as irritation and reclamation
works, which were believed to contribute more the poverty reduction. There are
many infrastructure works with inappropriate investment, low use effectiveness,
and high waste of investment fund.
b)
Although there is no serious mistake in investment fund management, constraints
and limitation do exist
Currently, there are various projects and programmes in
Programme 135 communes but there is no consistent management mechanism, making
it impossible to review and overview fully these funding sources.
Therefore, it is difficult to assess comprehensive effectiveness of all funding
sources, as well as fund losses apart from Programme 135 funds. According to
the results of the state audits in 2001 and conclusions of the local
inspectors, the ratio of lost fund of program 135 was rather low. However, some
local authorities show their weakness in the fund management.
c) Quality control is still poor in some places.
Project quality
violation exists in some localities, i.e. poor quality, ineffective projects,
and thus costly repair works cause negative impact on public opinion. Poor
quality is found in following aspects:
- Poor and unrealistic
project planning, formulation, preparation of investment report, survey, and
design; and
- Direction
on construction, supervision, and acceptance is inconsistent, not following
strictly the government’s guidelines
d) Failure to adopt fully Programme’s principles
- Democracy and transparency: subsidy expectations are serious in
preparing and finalizing plans in some localities. Participation is not
encouraged in planning, prioritizing, publicizing bidding process and
procedures, etc. Selection of investment projects is either not open to people
in villages or commune People’s councils or only serves as formalistic
procedures without practical information, and thus a number of investment items
are inadequate and ineffective.
- Execution of the principle “commune has project, people
have job and their income increases by working in the commune’s project”
shows little progress. Some local authorities have set up mechanism to mobilize
public contribution in terms of construction materials and labor but at a very
low rate.
e) Little attention is paid to operation and
maintenance
Although operation and
maintenance of projects after completion and transfer of works were crucial for
sustainability and long-term efficiency, little attention was put on this issue
under Programme 135. Investment process is considered to be accomplished
after construction is completed for handing over. In fact, infrastructure
facilities under Programme 135 directly serve people in communes, without
available resources from state budget or public contribution for operation and
maintenance. The only available resource is public labor, which is too limited.
Most of Programme 135 facilities are small scale and in low-grade category,
thus it is easy to be degraded. Consequently, there are limitations in assigning
responsibilities, allocating resources and adopting suitable operation and
maintenance procedures in Programme 135 communes.
4.3.3.
Mobilization and allocation of resources
a) Resources mobilization
Although numerous resources have been mobilized, they are still
insufficient for the programme. Particularly, large and potential resources
from international donors have not been mobilized. Some local authorities put
too many expectations on central support without mobilizing local resources.
Public resources mobilization is low. There is no available data on public
resources mobilization, but it is in fact very limited in amount, methods to
mobilize, and do not reflect fully all available domestic resources.
b) Allocation of resources was not based
on actual situation but rather on average basis
In programme areas, level of difficulty is varied, especially in
the most difficult mountainous area, where fund allocation was the same as for
lowland provinces with more advantages. The average fund allocated for each
commune is a planning figure, but some local authorities allocate fund on the
average basis without taking into account real conditions like natural areas,
population, distance to the commune centres.
c) Limitation in combining financial resources with other projects and
programmes
The integration with
other programs is believed to bring higher investment effects. In fact,
however, integration is very difficult since each projects and programmes are
executed by different authorities with different management mechanisms.
Therefore, combination is only exercised at a certain level, mostly by adding
up outputs of all projects and programmes in the local area without bringing in
the synergy of available resources into full play.
4.3.4. Overall
assessment on the weaknesses of the Programme
Although the programme has basically achieved its goals, a
number of specific objectives have not been realized, i.e. poverty
ratio in many communes are above 25% and development gaps remain
relatively large. Many communes have not graduated from extremely difficult
conditions. A large number of people has not been introduced with new
production techniques and slow in changing old production practices. Many
urgent needs to improve people’s life have not been well addressed: low access
to clean water, insufficient cultivation land, tenure land and houses,
limitation in environmental sanitation due to local pratices. Shifting
cultivation still exist. Risks of falling back to poverty are imminent. Poverty
reduction is not truly sustainable, and thus it is difficult to accommodate
industrialization and modernization requirements in these extremely difficult
areas.
If new poverty line is adopted from 2005, poverty ratio in
ethnic minority and mountainous areas will be very high. It is expected by
MOLISA that this ratio will be above 50%, even 80% to 90% in many
communes.
4.4 Reasons for weaknesses in the implementation of Programme
135
(1) Subjective reasons
- Cooperation and guidance of central ministries and agencies
are not timely. For instance, training materials were only completed after 4
years of implementation. Guidelines for production development and settlement
were not made available and the guidance on fund management were only released
in 2003. Guidance on implementation was inconsistent, and thus fund was once
allocated but not implemented. The above weaknesses are among several reasons
prevented the programme to be systematically implemented. Guidance on review
and assessment to phase out successful communes from target groups was not
provided timely in order to promote self-help spirit to reduce poverty. This
indeed causes dependence and passive expectations.
- Some local authorities have not strictly adhered to central
guidance in organization and implementation of the programme with lack of close
monitoring and supervision, poor cooperation and promotion of social
organizations, little attention to human resources, allocation and capacity
building of cadre in management position at all levels. Dependence on subsidy
and central planning mindset is still common (after 7 years of implementation,
only 385 communes in 20 provinces were allowed to take on the role of
investment owners. Some local authorities have been relied too heavily on
central mechanism and are not innovative and flexible in adapting this
mechanism to local conditions. This reduced the effectiveness of the programme.
- Resources priority were given to the programme, and yet it was
insufficient to meet programme’s requirements due to overwhelming investment
needs.
- Local cadre capacity is still limited in both quality and
quantity, failed to meet actual needs, especially in poverty reduction and low
investment management.
- Public awareness raising and communication in mobilizing local
people to promote inner strength in order to escape poverty was given
inappropriate attention. There exists strong dependence mindset. Many communes
failed to create the movement of mutual assistance in poverty reduction among
local people.
(2) Objective reasons
Extremely difficult
communes are characterized by difficult topography, remoteness, scattered
population, poor infrastructure, low production skills, hard living conditions,
high poverty incidence, shifting cultivation, limited human resources, lack of
local cadres. Generally speaking, starting point for development in these areas
are very low, which is the key impediment in implementing the programme.
- Proper and thorough understanding of the leaders from central
to local levels of the importance and implication of programme and adopt strong
leadership and guidance.
Due attention was given to Programme 135 by leaders from central
to local levels. Special guidance and policies were adopted for the
implementation. Local authorities understood and regarded the implementation of
the programme as focal political task to be accomplished in the local workplan.
- It is important that the resources are to be concentrated into
targeted poorest communes rather then spreading thinly.
- Programme’s objectives are relevant to public
expectations and accepted by the people. Programme 135 was supported
broadly by general public and mass organizations, who were involved deeply in
formulation and supervision of the programme. The programme is highly
socialized and became focal point to attract other resources with extended
participation.
- Central and provincial governments should take active measures
in mobilizing various resources, in which central state budget play the key
pilar to ensure strong, transparent and stable fund sources for the programme
implementation.
- Simple
and easy management mechanism. One of the key reasons for successful
implementation of Programme 135 is flexible, adaptive to local conditions, easy
to implement, decentralized mechanism, and emphasized the role of the local
level, at the same time, promoting the role of ownership of development among
local people.
- Combination of different socio-economic development
efforts to make an integrated resources and effectiveness.
- High
awareness of the importance of inspection and examination activities. The
implementation of Programme 135 demonstrates that high effectiveness and
reduced losses were achieved where inspection and examination activities were paid
due attention.
-
High awareness of the importance of communication to promote self-help
for self-improvement spirit among people in the community. With support from
the Government, great efforts are made to escape poverty.
II. CURRENT SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION IN
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT AREAS
1. On conditions for socio-economic
development
1.1 Location in areas that are far from centers and not enabling
to attract investment
After 2005, most of communes with better conditions and locate
near economic centers or provincial and district townships have been out of
extreme difficulty. Most of the rest communes have not escaped difficult
situation since they locate far from centers[3] and lack essential conditions
for development, particularly poor infrastructure, weak market mechanism, high
production cost, poor resources and unequal investment environment. These are
not enabling to develop production, promote local potentials, and attract
investment for development.
1.2 Infrastructure
system has initially satisfied essential needs of production and living
conditions
Infrastructure system has been improved but is still
insufficient with small size and low quality facilities in commune center. Many
communes still lack of the essential infrastructure facilities. According to
ministries, agencies, and local authorities, 88 communes in ethnic minority and
mountainous areas do not have accessible road to commune center; 45 other
communes have single season car road access; 505 communes do not have power
grid; 26 other communes use sources of electricity which are vulnerable to
natural conditions and unstable; 290 communes do not have clinics; 685 do no
have telephone connection. The most serious shortage is of irrigation work. In
some areas, irrigation capacity in mountainous areas only covers 6.13% of
cultivation land, especially in central southern provinces and central
highland. The irrigation capacity of these provinces only meets a small part of
production needs.
In the period 1999 – 2005, due to tight investment capital, most
of infrastructure facilities were designed at low grade, inconsistent,
unsustainable, and easy to be degraded, and thus failed to meet commodity
production needs. According to Ministry of Transportation, of total rural roads
in the country, macadam and tarmac paved roads account for only 10.9%, earth
paved roads - 53%, and gravel roads account for 35.4%. In the Northern
mountainous area, the ratio of tarmac paved road is 0.9% and earth road is 69%,
in Central and highland region these are 1.7% and 61.8% respectively. Most of
canals and dykes are made of earth, and thus maintenance cost and water loss
are high.
Production skills and productivity in ethnic minority and
mountainous areas are relatively poor. Slash-and-burn farming, shifting
cultivation and deforestation are common in some areas. It is a challenge to
introduce agricultural, forestry, fishery extension services focusing on new
technology transfer, improved productivity, improved production practices, and
shifting production structure toward cash crops in extremely difficult
communes. People’s potentials to invest in production are limited, while many
investment development funds and social services cannot reach these remote and
marginalized areas. Such constraints as high production cost, low productivity,
lack of information, and high transportation cost have posed big challenge to
attract merchandise network from different economic sectors. Consequently, it
is difficult to sell products and goods, or at a very cheap price, which is not
able to cover production cost. Community’s purchase power is very low compared
to local average rate.
2. Some socio-cultural characteristics:
population, ethnicity, culture
At present, there are 54 different ethnic minority groups
inhabiting Vietnam, in which population of 53 ethnic minority groups is 13.8%
of total population. Ethnic minority groups inhabit in a large area, which has
a strategic implication in terms of political, economic, national security and
defense, and ecological environment aspects. There are various border gates
connecting Vietnam and neighboring countries along the Northern and the Western
borders. In mountainous areas, rich and abundant natural resources are used for
development of the country; watersheds of large rivers and protection and
specialized forests are essential for protecting ecological environment.
Each
ethnicity has its own cultural identity, contributing to cultural diversity of
Vietnam. Unity in diversity is the salient feature of multi-ethnicity culture
in the country. This also creates uniqueness of each ethnic group in
each area.
1)
Although socio-cultural conditions have been improved, numerous issues remain,
especially low people’s educational attainment level failed to meet minimum
requirements to acquire science and technology, in order to improve social
production capacity for growth.
Some good characters
in the culture of ethnic minority groups are fading. Access to mass media,
especially socio-economic development information, market and price, and legal
information, is limited. In programme’s areas, some backward and
superstitious customs are spreading; social issues such as gamble, drug
dealer, opium plantation, women and children trafficking, HIV/AIDS disease,
etc. are big challenges to be addressed.
2) Net primary school
enrollment rate is more than 90% in Kinh group and about 80% in ethnic minority
groups. Lower secondary school enrollment rate is 75.9% in Kinh group and 48.0%
in ethnic minorities.
Primary school enrollment rate in some ethnic minority groups is about 40%,
while lower secondary school enrollment rate is below 20%. Effectiveness and
quality of education and training is low in ethnic minority and remote areas.
a) High poverty incidence,existing slash-and-burn farming,and
shifting cultivation, poor access to social services.
Although
living conditions of ethnic minority groups have been improved, poverty ratio
is still higher the national average. According to Ministry of Labor, War
Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA), poverty is mainly common among ethnic
minority groups, who account for only 13.8% of total Vietnam’s population but
36% of total poor households. Besides, poverty ratio among ethnic minority
groups is increasing (21% in 1992, 29% in 1998, and 36% in 2005).
b)
Big gaps among different regions and ethnic groups
As
far as living standard is concerned, there is an increasing gap among different
regions and ethnic groups. Among ethnic minority groups, there is also
a big gap. The ratio of poor households of Pa Co, Van Kieu, and H’mong
ethnic groups ranges between 35% and
60%, while this of Tay, Nung, and Muong ethnic groups is below 20%.
Table 5. Ratio of poor households of ethnic minority groups
Source: MOLISA
Ethnicity |
1992 |
1998 |
2005 |
Minorities |
21.0 |
29.0 |
36.0 |
Kinh |
79.0 |
71.0 |
64.0 |
Total |
100 |
100 |
100 |
Source:
GSO
Table 6. Percentage of poor household of
some ethnic groups in 2001 and 2003
Source: MOLISA
Ethnic groups |
2001 (%) |
2003 (%) |
Van Kieu |
75,4 |
60,3 |
Pako |
71.3 |
58.5 |
H’mong |
44.6 |
35.0 |
Jarai |
39.3 |
29.2 |
Bana |
42.8 |
26.2 |
Thai |
32.1 |
22.8 |
Ede |
27.0 |
22.3 |
Kh’me |
20.7 |
18.1 |
Muong |
32.2 |
17.7 |
Cham |
20.7 |
16.7 |
Tay |
18.7 |
14.8 |
Nung |
15.8 |
13.1 |
Dao |
35.8 |
27.1 |
Tamun |
25.1 |
18.4 |
Hore |
30.3 |
29.0 |
M’nong |
26.0 |
21.6 |
c)
Unsustainable poverty reduction
c)
Unsustainable poverty reduction
People
living in extremely difficult communes are vulnerable to natural disasters,
spread of diseases, high birth rate, unsta ble market, and thus poverty
reduction is not sustainable. Percentage of poor households, which are
close to poverty line, is rather high. When the new poverty line is adopted,
poverty ratio in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, especially in the North
West and Central highland, will be very high.
Table 7. Estimated poor households according to new poverty line
in 2005
Region |
Number
of HHs (thousand) |
Number
of poor HHs (thousand) |
Percentage |
1. North West |
432.4 |
312.7 |
62.31 |
2. North East |
1,778.9 |
642.3 |
36.1 |
3. Hong Delta |
4,616 |
914 |
19.8 |
4. Central Northern region |
2,252 |
894 |
39.7 |
5. Central Southern coastal region |
1,541.6 |
357.6 |
23.3 |
6. Central highland |
899 |
469.5 |
52.2 |
7. South East |
2,587.6 |
263.7 |
10.2 |
8. Mekong River Delta |
3,592.5 |
746.1 |
20.8 |
Total |
17,700 |
4,600 |
26.0 |
Source: MOLISA, June 2005.
d) Severe slash-and-burn farming and shifting cultivation
Incidence of slash-and-burn farming and shifting cultivation
remains high, while settlement and sedentary farming are not totally
well-established. It is estimated that about 15,000 households are practicing
slash-and-burn farming and nomadic dwelling; 4,000 households live in natural disaster
probing areas; and more than 20,000 households migrating within protection and
specialized forests.
e) Difficult housing and clean water condition in ethnic
minority areas
According to VLSS
2002, while percentage of access to clean water supply and sanitation of the
top 12 provinces was 97% and 75% respectively, these of the last 12 provinces
were only 32% and 12% respectively, mostly in remote areas. While the
percentage of access to clean water and use of sanitary septic tank was only
12.8% and 4.1% respectively for ethnic minority groups, this percentage was
about 52.6% and 27.7% respectively for Kinh group.
Ethnic minority people’s access to health care service is still
difficult. Mortality rate of children under 1 year of Gia Rai ethnic group is
approximately 7%, which is two times higher than national average and three
times higher than that of Kinh people. Malnutrition rate of children below 5
was 25.7% in 2002 for the whole ethnic minority group and 34.3% and 45.3% for
ethnic minorities in the Northern mountainous area and Central highland
respectively.
4. Local staff in communes with extreme difficulty
Level of educational attainment of key staff in communes with
extreme difficulty is still very limited. Most of them have not completed upper
secondary education. Due attention has been given to training and fostering
cadre at grassroots level, focusing mostly on broad rather than substantial
coverage. It is difficult to attract and mobilise capable and skilled labor to
work in remote areas. Grassroots political system is not strong enough to meet
the reform requirements in ethnic minority areas.
The above difficulties pose great challenge to improve
socio-cultural living standard of ethnic minority people - the poorest people,
especially women and children, who are vulnerable to not only geographical
isolation but also language and social marginalization, as well as short of
necessary information and knowledge to make their life better.
5. Political security
and national defense
Although political
security and national defense are ensured, a number of potentially unstable
factors and complicated religious
evolution exist.
Thanks to sound
policies of the Party and the Government, ethnic minority people show
confidence and solidarity to preventreactionary’s plots of sabotage, ensuring
political security. However, hostile forces always take advantages of difficult
terrain and difficult living conditions of ethnic minority people to do illegal
propagation against the government and illegal preaching, to engage credulous
people in reactionary schemes.
6. Overall review
The Party and the Government’s have paid great attention and
priorities to socio-economic development in mountainous areas in general and in
extremely difficult communes in particular. The 7th Resolution of Party
Congress IX on ethnic issues, Resolution Nr. 37, 39 and other Party’s
resolutions set out specific targets on ethnicity work. The Government
promulgated Decision on approval of Action Programme to implement this
Resolution, which have laid foundation and opportunities for formulation of
socio-economic development programme in ethnic minority and mountainous areas
in the period 2006 – 2010.
The rapid and stable economic growth of Vietnam in the recent
years has generated investment resources for socio-economic development of the
country generally and of ethnic minority and mountainous areas particularly.
International organizations gave compliments on achievements of
the socio-economic development programme for ethnic minority and mountainous
areas in the period 1999- 2005 as well as commitments to provide support in the
coming period.
Over the past year, renovation in the country has created
significant technical platform in mountainous areas. Truong Son national
highway was built and existing national highways across mountainous areas were
upgraded. New power plants and industrial zones together with various
preferential policies serve as essential advantages.
The Government has been reformed strongly with stable political
environment; revised and newly promulgated policies towards regional and
international integration, and public administration reform. Many issues are
legislated, contributing to development of significant legal framework for
investment and programme implementation.
Management and leadership experience after 7 years of
implementation is considered as valuable lessons learnt to formulate and
implement the Programme in the next phase.
6.2 Challenges for the social-economic
development of the most difficult communes
In
addition to sharing the common causes of poverty, common characteristics of the
poor in the whole country, such as: lack of fund, lack of production land, lack
of production knowledge, lack of market information, ill health and diseases,
too many children, unemployment, households with members engaged in social
evils, etc, the most difficult areas have specific characteristics:
-
Low starting point since these are poorest regions, where market economy is
underdevelopment and not matching with their potential;
-
Pure agricultural production with self-sufficient nature and underdeveloped
production skills;
-
Scattered population in a large geographical area. Unregistered migration is
popular in some areas;
-
Living conditions of most of ethnic minority people are low with high poverty
incidence;
-
Pressing environmental degradation;
- Unsustainable
and poor infrastructure. People’s educational level, especially education, is
low. Natural geography is complicated and vulnerability to natural disaster;
-
Low quality of human resources;
- These are remote, bordering, or former revolutionary
base areas, where reactionary forces take the advantages to scheme plots of
sabotage.
6.3 Remarks and
Recommendations
The above opportunities and challenges place an indispensable
need of a follow-up policy to support socio-economic development for ethnic
minority and mountainous areas generally and extremely difficult communes in
particularly upon the completion of Programme 135. The follow-up policy is
expected to mobilize all resources, muster all investment capital, apply new
science and technology, develop commodity production, develop education and
culture, train grassroots cadre, and strengthen people’s educational level to
improve spiritual and material living conditions of people in these areas.
It will be very challenging for extremely difficult communes to
be out of poverty without special attention and supporting policies of the
Party and the Government. Challenges will become more serious, and poverty gaps
will be bigger among communes and provinces. This will lead to occurrence of
internal unstable factors. Therefore, the State and Government will
continue the implementation of the Socio-Economic Development Programme,
especially specific for most difficult communes and villages in ethnic and
mountainous areas.
OBJECTIVES
AND DUTIES IN THE PERIOD 2006 – 2010
I. PRINCIPLES TO IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAMME
1. Socio-economic development programme for extremely difficult
communes is to implement hunger eradication and poverty reduction policies in
targeted areas. This is a basis for incorporation of various policies and
programmes, projects of ministries and sectors. The programme focuses on target
groups including extremely difficult communes in ethnic minority and
mountainous areas in order to narrow the gap among regions and ethnic groups
2. The Government will support by adopting specific policies, by
mobilizing adequate resources that are well-balanced in correlation with the
state budget, including support in building essential infrastructure facilities
for livelihood and production; support in production development, hunger
alleviation and poverty reduction; support in education development to increase
the intellectual level of people; and support in education and vocational
training for local officers.
3. Promote creativeness, self-help spirit of entire community
and internal driving force of poor households in escape from poverty.
4. Increasing decentralization to the local levels to implement
the principles of democracy and transparency.
To make a radical change in production knowledge, accelerate
strong economic structural shift toward highly profitable commodities; To sustainably
improve socio-cultural life of people in extremely difficult communes in ethnic
minority and mountainous areas in order to narrow the gap among regions and
ethnic groups.
By 2010, hunger is alleviated in the targeted areas, the poverty
ration drops below 30% (according to new poverty line defined by Decision
No.170/2005/QD-TTg dated July 8, 2005 by the Prime Minister).
2.1 Economic development objectives
a) Production
development
To make a radical change, improve production knowledge of ethnic
minority people, accelerate strong agricultural economic structural shift
toward combination of production and market, promote advantages of each region,
and improve income.
· Monitoring
targets
- Average
income per capita: 70% of households will achieve average income per capita at
3.5 million VND per year by 2010.
b) Infrastructure development:
To ensure essential communal infrastructure facilities that are
sustainable and adequate to resident and production planning, contributing to
improvement of living conditions, production development, and income
generation.
· Monitoring
targets
- 80%
of communes have village road access for motor vehicle at least as motorbike;
- 80%
of communes have irrigation works that water 85% areas of wet paddy fields;
- 100%
of communes have enough permanent primary and secondary schools with teacher’s
dormitory, necessary accessory facilities, teaching tools and materials;
boarding schools where necessary; 100% of villages or village clusters have
adequate class rooms for primary class, kindergarten and day care services;
- 80%
of villages have electricity in residential quarters;
- Solving
basic needs in communal common houses of villages or village clusters;
- 100%
of communes have permanent clinics with adequate facilities to ensure normal
treatment for people.
To improve socio-cultural life of people in extremely difficult
communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in order to narrow the gap
among regions and ethnic groups.
Monitoring targets
- Access
to services: 80% of households have access to clean water; 80% of households
have electricity;
- Health
care and sanitation: control and prevention of dangerous epidemic diseases;
increase percentage of households with septic tank to 50%;
- Education:
90% of primary pupils and 75% of secondary pupils in the school age;
- Legal
support: 100% of communes exercise legal support; 95% of people in extremely
difficult communes have acess to legal services;
- Providing
standardization trainings for key managers at grassroots level. Strengthening
capacity of community in participatory management.
To soundly implement ethnicity
oriented policy of the Party and State, line ministries and provinces have
carried out the national targeted programmes and socio-economic development programmes
in the ethnic minority and mountainous areas, integrated important resources to
achieve the objectives of the programme:
- Regarding transportation: those communes that do
not have car roads to commune center will follow Prime Minister’s Official
Letter No.709/CP-CN dated 25 May 2005 ordering Ministry of Transportation to
take action and ensure car roads in 219 communes lacking car roads by 2007;
- Regarding schools/classes: The progress of implementing
Decision No.159/2002/QDD-TTg on elimination of temporary schools,
concretisation of schools, mainly focusing in extremely difficult
areas is accelerated and will be basically achieved by 2006;
- Ministry of Health has carried out the Decision No.
35/2001/QD- TTg dated 19 March 2001 of the Prime Minister on approval of the
health care strategy for people in the period of 2001 – 2010;
- Ministry of Industry has submitted to the Government the plan
to achieve the goal of 100% communes having electricity;
- Other ministries, such as Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Post and Telecommunication, Ministry of Culture, Committee of
Sports and Physical Culture, etc. are striving to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and the goals of Comprehensive Growth and Poverty
Reduction Strategy (CPRGS).
Targets of programmes and projects conducted by line ministries
and sectors are as follows:
- 100%
of communes have car road access to commune center;
- 100%
of communes have electricity;
- Leaking
and dilapidated houses are basically eliminated;
- 100%
of communes have a post office with at least 3 telephone lines;
- 100%
of villages have grassroots radio stations and VTRO television (where
television coverage is absent);
- To
reduce malnutrition rate of children under 5 to less than 25-30% according to
context of each areas;
- To
stabilize basically sedentary farming and settlement; terminate shifting
farming and dwelling;
- Culture and
information: 100 % of households have access to regular radio broadcast
and 70% of households have access to regular television broadcast; 100% of
villages have some certain newspapers and journals, etc.; 50% of villages
achieve “cultural village” standard.
The social economic development program for the most difficult
communes 2006-2010 continues and inherits the Program 135 but in a higher and
more comprehensive development level. The Program invests currently in 2,410
communes. According to the Criteria reviewing the completion of the program the
program, there are 850 communes which are supposed to achieve the objectives of
the program. There are 1,600 communes left which are still the most difficult
communes and need continuation of investment.
After 7 years of the implementation of the program, the most
difficult communes have been invested. But there are many communes
which belong to the Zone II and have not received any investment. The
development level of those communes are very low, even lower than those
communes of the most difficult areas. These communes need support from the
government.
Communes, which are the former revolutionary bases
during the war against France but are extremely difficult communes in Zone II;
ATK communes in Zone II, which do not receive investment from other
projects and programmes due to national security and defense reasons.
In
Zone II, there are many most difficult villages (estimated 2,500 extremely
difficult villages in Zone II according to the reports from provinces in
2004).
To
achieve above objectives, the investment area covers all identified target
groups to ensure equal development level and avoid the inequality. It is
obviously that the communes which have not yet completed the objectives of the
135 program continue the implementation of the programme. However, it is very
difficult and complicated to identify the most difficult communes and villages
in Zone II according to the new criteria. It is needed to have very concrete,
specific criteria and selection process for the local authorities.
For
the short term of 2005, the scope of the program are including:
The
communes, which have not yet completed the objectives of the program 135. It is
about 1,600 communes identified in 2005 (after the provinces have completed
their assessment of the classification).
In
2006, based on the Decision 393/2005/QD-UB by CEM, dated August 29 2005, on the
criteria in classifying mountain and ethnic minority zone using development
level, CEM will issue guidance for local authorities to review, and select
communes and village with extreme difficulties in a democratic and transparent
manner. CEM, in collaboration with other concerned line ministries, will
propose to Prime Minister to decide the inclusion difficult communes and
villages in Zone II into the programme. At the same time the communes, which are the former revolutionary bases
during the war against France and do not have any separate investment program,
are also reviewed to be included into the program. It is estimated about 250
communes of this types included in the program in 2006.
Therefore,
the program is proposed to cover:
-
1,850 most difficult communes.
-
2,500 most difficult villages in Zone II.
The
scope of the program will be reviewed every year. And from 2007 onwards there
will be annual review all communes which achieve the objectives of the program
and will be phased out of the program.
2. Criteria to identify extremely difficult communes and
villages
Criteria will be identified in accordance with the Decision No.
363/2005/QD-UB dated 29 August 2005 of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities on
regional
classification.
1. To accelerate production development and economic structural
shift
1.1. Contents of the activities
a) To develop production programmes aiming at production
structural shift, improved productivity, and production customs, including:
· Agro-forestry
extension programme aiming at improving production skills; food crop and cash
crop cultivation skills; cash crops with high economic values.
· High
economic value livestock and poultry husbandry;
· Market
oriented afforestation and forest protection;
· Support
in provision of crop varieties and animal breeds;
· Reclamation
and extension of cultivation land;
· Provision
of subsidies for crop varieties and animal breeds, fertilizer, purchase of
products;
· Development
of post-harvest processing and storage establishments by group of households.
b) To develop pilot economic models: household economies, farms,
cooperatives, etc.
c) To establish coalition of 5 ‘professions’, including
businesses, farmers, scientists, the government, and creditors; encourage
businesses to invest in extremely difficult areas;
d) To assist poor households in production inputs, reduce unit
cost price, develop post harvest processing and storage technologies, purchase
and distribute products in the market;
e) Training and fostering labor forces: labor forces in
extremely difficult areas are very rich but mostly untrained. People in some
areas are short of cultivation land. The best solution is to create more
employment for people:
- Provision of training for youngsters in industrial crop
agricultural farms, hydro power plant construction sites, etc.
- Provision of vocational training for young people.
For production development project, local authority is
decentralized in making sub-projects, action plans, contents and targets of
activities and integrating resources. Central ministries will only direct and
supervise the performance.
a) As far as for extremely difficult communes are
concerned: The Government will provide an average fund for commune in
order to fund activities according to proposed portfolio (which will be
specified under the Programme). Provincial and district authorities will guide
the preparation of commune production planning, formulation of production
development projects, identification of activities and investment needs through
democratic discussion at grassroots level. Based on approved projects, funding
structure will be defined, including government’s support, credit borrowing,
etc. Implement through sub-projects with specific premises. Selection of
activities will base on actual conditions and conducted at village level to
exercise grassroots democracy. Annual and multi year objectives and activities
will be identified using this approach, for example cultivation, livestock,
training, assistance in crop varieties and animal breeds, etc.
b) As far as Zone II extremely difficult villages are
concerned, project implementation and management will be assigned to
commune authorities and villages as identified by the programme.. Villages will
be involved in planning and implementing, while commune authorities assume the
role of state administration according to existing provisions.
1.3. Specific solutions through production development projects
and assistance policies
a) Production Development Project is managed by CEM, and
implemented by People’s Committee at provincial level, and may
consist of following activities
1) Training of village extension workers and vocational training
for youth
- Provision of basic professional training for at least one
extension worker in each village in order to assist village households in
production skills, trading and marketing of products. Training duration will be
3 months and more with a refreshment course in at least 15 days per year.
Compensation for village-based extension worker will be decided by the
community and supported by the project in the first 3 years.
2) Agriculture, forestry, and fishery extension
The purpose is to assist poor households, which
have labor and cultivation land but lack knowledge, production skills or in
difficult conditions. Priority will be given to ethnic minority people,
focusing on knowledge and skills on production, business, marketing, planning,
and production arrangements based on application of technological advances to
improve cultivation and livestock productivity.
Expected outputs will
be transfer of knowledge and skills on agriculture, forestry, and fishery
production and business, selection and application of suitable science and
technology in the local conditions, investment feasibility, local support
services, market and community’s demands, production organization
methodologies, product processing, storage, and distribution.
It is estimated that 70% of households will benefit from
knowledge improvement in extension projects.
3) Development of effective production models
Development of effective high-income production models, such as
high productivity crop production model, herbal medicine plantation, industrial
crops, livestock, etc. Provision of training and rollout through these models.
It is expected that one model will be developed in each village.
4) Development of processing and preserving industries
The Government will provide support in terms of equipment,
instruments, facilities, and technical instruction for group of households
based on identification of quantity, quality, and type. Commune People’s
Committee will be responsible for ensuring the effective use of equipment and
facilities.
Target beneficiaries will consist of group of households and
villages, which have products but are difficult in processing and preserving.
5) Production development: forest economic development, high
productivity crop and high value animal and poultry production
The purpose is to provide financial, varieties and breeds, and
technical support in order to develop production of high yield crops, medicinal
herbs, industrial trees in large area with high potential but lack of
investment funds and techniques. Support high value animal and poultry
production in potential areas, such as cattle and goat raising, etc.
Target beneficiaries will be poor households, who are short of
production capital, possibly in form of household or farm production.
b) Household support policies
- Carry on price subsidies, i.e. for crop varieties and animal
breeds with high productivity, production materials and tools, pesticide,
fertilizer. Production input and output subsidies.
- Credit support for
the poor[w1] to borrow funds for production development.
- Support for services, such as irrigation, electricity for
production, etc.
- Adjustment and supplement policies on rights to benefits,
obligations of the households and individuals who are transferred, hired,
contracted forest and forestry lands in accordance with the Decision No.
178/2001/QD - TTg dated November 12, 2001 by the Prime Minister.
- Financial
support for agro-forestry farms in order to provide vocational training for
ethnic minority children and people. Link training effectiveness with financial
support. Provide support to economic institutions that employ seasonal workers.
- Provide
incentives to economic sectors to buy and distribute products. Adopt
preferential policies for ‘professions’ to set up coalition with
farmers.
Target beneficiaries will be the poor and marginalized
households.
1.4 Investment fund in production development
The Government will provide an average of 200 million VND per
year for each extremely difficult communes and 30 million dong per year for
extremely difficult villages in Zone II communes.
Total production development investment fund: 1,850 communes,
2,500 villages: 2,225 billion VND.
It is necessary to revise infrastructure
planning in extremely difficult communes and villages with scattered population
in order to develop resettlement and production plans toward establishment of
new villages suitable to specific conditions of each area. 30
households or more are planned to
be suitable to a new village in the Northern mountainous areas. The planning
for a new village in other areas should be based on the population size guided
by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This will help increase effectiveness of the
infrastructure investment, undertake resettlement, contribute to successful
sendentarization. The planning will focus on potential communes appropriate to
become sub-region centers. It is necessary to prepare facilities with scale
adequate to commune cluster level: markets, boarding schools,
regional clinics, irrigation works, agro-forestry extension.
2.2 Essential infrastructure facilities to be
developed in the most difficult communes
a)
General situation
At present, there are
still many communes under Program 135 lacking basic infrastructure facilities:
car roads to commune center, electricity from national power network,
telephones, schools, irrigation, etc. The Government has directed line
ministries to make efforts to ensure that all these communes will have all
basic facilities by 2010.
However, above line ministries have mainly
conducted projects that are focused, large scale, being driving
force and locate in center areas. Projects having special features,
village-scale projects and projects not qualified for national level have not
been assigned to any ministries in spite of resource constraints of local
levels. Therefore, the Program will pay attention to basic infrastructure
facilities in the commune and village levels.
b) Project items to be
invested in the most difficult communes
- To build roads from villages to commune centers and
inter-village roads. Upgrade existing road access to commune centers where
necessary;
- To build small scheme
irrigation works, including dykes, grade-one and grade-two canals, pump
stations, and concretize irrigation works to combine agriculture
production watering and clean water supply;
- To build low voltage power
system to villages. Where power grid is not available, to develop
alternative energies if possible;
- To build houses and other
related facilities for the pupils living in primary and secondary
semi-boarding schools at the the commune centers in the areas where
needed;
- To build communal common houses
in communes, villages or commune complexes with necessary equipment
according to traditions of each ethnic group, for example play yard, Rong houses,
incinerators (Kh’mer tradition), cultural houses;
- To build permanent clinics and
upgrade clinics in bad conditions with necessary equipment and accessory
facilities;
- To build markets or trade malls
of essential commodities where required;
- To build clean water supply facilities in residential
quarters; and
- To build co mmune cluste r exte
nsion stations in proposed com mune c luster cente rs in order to d
isseminate infor mation and p rovide training in pro ductio n knowledge.
To upgrade scale of some communal facilities, such as markets and boarding
primary schools, to meet demands at inter-communal level.
2.3. Essential facilities to be developed in extremely difficult
villages in Zone II
- To build access road from villages
to commune centers with scales adequate to availability of mobilized
funds;
- To build small scheme
irrigation works, including dykes, grade-one and grade-two canals, pump
stations, and concretize irrigation works to combine agriculture
production watering and clean water supply;
- To build low voltage power
system to villages. Where power grid is not available, to develop
alternative energy sources if possible;
- To build clean water supply
facilities in residential quarters; and
- To build common houses in villages
(in accordance with traditions and customs) where necessary.
The above include projects to be developed under the programme.
Based on actual conditions of communes and villages and funding sources,
investment will be prioritized to meet specific local demands.
2.4. Infrastructure development investment funds
It is complicated to evaluate infrastructure investment needs in
communes and villages since extremely difficult communes and villages have
different investment needs at different ratios, while Government’s resources
are limited. On the other hand, the guiding principle of the Programme is to
provide assistance; therefore, lessons learnt from Programme 135 demonstrate
that it would be better if central agencies specify assistance rate and local
authorities select projects based on actual conditions. It is necessary to
define average assistance rate for communes and villages. It is proposed that
the Programme will provide 700 million VND per year from state budget for each
commune, 100 million VND per village in Zone II extremely difficult communes, 2
billion VND in two years. During the project implementation, the living
standards of the inhabitants are still very low and they are unable to
contribute to the cost of maintaining an repairing the construction
work. Therefore, support required should include fund for maintenance,
repairing which equals 2% of initial investment of each year[4], from the
second year until the conclusion of the program. After the completion of the
program, the maintenance and repairing will be funded by resources
that commune authorities mobilize from the local people.
Investment capital:
1,850 communes x 700 million VND x 5 years = 6,475
billion VND
2,500 villages x 150 million VND x 5
years =
1,875 billion VND
200 commune cluster centres x 2 billion
VND = 400 billion VND
Operation and
Maintenance
875 billion VND
Total: 9,625
billion VND
2.5.1 Operational
mechanism
a) For extremely
difficult communes
Infrastructure development will be implemented through
investment projects in accordance with Construction Law. Most of projects,
however, are proposed with simple scale and not very big investment capital.
Therefore, management of most of projects will be assigned to commune
authorities based on actual conditions. The proposed mechanism will be simple
and easy to adopt.
b) For extremely difficult communes in Zone II
Management of infrastructure development projects will be
assigned to commune authorities, which are legitimate administration bodies,
and projects will be implemented in named villages as planned.
c) For effective but incompletely built inter-commune centers,
continuing investments will be made: Central authority will provide financial
support to local levels to complete within 2 years 2006-2007.
2.5.2.
Solutions to implement infrastructure development projects
- To review settlement and production development planning in
communes and villages;
- To renovate management mechanism toward empowerment of commune
authorities and local people, and transparency; Some projects will have
investment costs whose amount is appropriate to delegate to community level: roads
within villages[5], community meeting house, level 1 and level 2 irrigation
canals;
- To establish Community development fund or commune investment
fund under management of commune People’s committees with participation of
village representatives in order to: be responsible for management of
Government’s assistance funds for project operation and maintenance and
contribution made by organizations and individuals, organization of community’s
participation in planning, prioritizing, operating and maintaining communal and
village facilities, supervision of construction and investment in the area
according to Decision No.80/2005/QD - TTg of 18 April 2005, and supervision of
Community development Fund, which may also acts as commune supervision boards.
- To communicate and disseminate information on construction
planning, funding, progress in communes and villages.
- To establish technical supporting units at
provincial and district levels to assist commune level in investment
management.
- To strengthen capacity of grassroots cadres.
3. Strengthening capacity of
grassroots cadre and community
To
provide training and fostering for commune and village grassroots cadre in
according with position and classification, provide and supplement professional
and managerial knowledge and skills in order to create good conditions for
capacity building of grassroots cadre so that they will accomplish state
administration and social management duties. To strengthen community’s capacity
in all aspects, to create enabling conditions for effective participation and
supervision of management in the area.
The
training target groups include: key Party’s and Government’s leaders
(People Council, People Committee), Mass organizations
(Socio-political organisations), professional officials at the
commune level, heads of villages, commune supervisory board and training for
the capacity building for local people.
(a) For key officials of the Party,
governments, Father Front and socio-political
organizations
-
To provide training in organization and implementation of ethnicity oriented policies of the Party and State;
- To strengthen capacity of dissemination in the
programme implementation;
- To provide training in construction and
investment management to ensure that commune authorities will be able to manage
infrastructure development projects in communes;
-
To provide training in supervision and examination of projects in communes.
(b) For professional officials in commune people’s committees
-
To provide professional trainings to ensure 100% of professional officials will
obtain basic technical skills and knowledge.
(c) For village officials
To provide training in management knowledge and skills, solving
administrative issues in villages, and knowledge of investment supervision,
production and construction planning, dissemination and organization of people
in the process of infrastructure design, handover and utilization.
(d) Strengthening community’s capacity in order to implement regulations on
community’s supervision pursuant to Decision No.80/2005/QD-TTg dated 18 April
2005 of the Prime Minister, focusing on:
- Effective participation in preparing construction and
production plans in villages and communes;
- Supervision of construction investment and production
development projects;
- Supervision of land use planning, sanitation and environment
protection, deforestation, political security related activities of
organization and individuals in communes and villages;
- Improved capacity in management of household economy;
- Improved legal understanding of community.
e) Provision of training for high school graduated young
people in the age of between 16 – 25 in vocational schools, which will be
decided by provincial authority, to work in agro-forestry farms and
construction site or prepare them for labor export,. Priority will be given to
households, who are short of cultivation land, poor households, women, and
ethnic minority people. Training duration will last at least 45 days.
- Implementation mechanism and financial support for vocational
training and training in extension will be in accordance with Decision
81/2005/QD - TTg of 19 April 2005 by the Prime Minister on provision of
vocational training for youth in rural areas.
3.4. Capacity building
funds
50 million VND per commune per year and 5 million VND per
village per year on average to implement the above contents.
Total fund[6] for this part is 525 billion VND.
a) Organizing clear
work assignment linked to specific responsibilities
Since training objectives cover many fields in the same area and
for the same objects, in order to ensure effective implementation and to avoid
dispersion, duplication, it is necessary to integrate different resources and
assign implementing agencies in accordance with sectoral subjects. Each
training subject will be implemented by only one agency who is responsible for
this. The focal agency supporting the provincial leadership is the Provincial
Ethnicity Board.
Regarding the training of commune level staff, the training is
implemented by provincial sectoral departments (Home affairs, Political
schools, etc.) in line with Prime Minister’s Decision No.03/2004/QDD-TTg dated
7 Jan 2004. Provincial Ethnicity Board is the coordinating agency that is
responsible for the right selection of trainees and is in charge of monitoring.
The Program only focuses on training of village staff, members
of commune supervisory board and training for community training.
b) Implementing the training task through project on training
local staff and community and policies
In the project on training local staff and community and
policies, Committee for Ethnic Minority is an executing agency and Provincial
People’s Committee acts as implementing agency. For full-time and
short-term training courses, Provincial People’s Committee provides incentive
policies for participants and the expenses for participating staff shouldered
by commune budget will be minimized.
c) Other solutions
- According to assigned duties and responsibilities, concerned
agencies will consolidate and strengthen training institutions, strengthening
training capacity of provincial and district political training institutes,
central and local sectoral training institutes in the area.
- To develop training plan in order to strengthen capacity of
teachers in training institutions;
- To conduct survey,
statistics, analysis and evaluation of current situation of cadre in order to
come up with a practical training plan;
- To provide simple training materials with great focus on
practice;
- As far as community is concerned, a representative from each
village will receive short term training in available programmes and necessary
information in the commune area, including land use master plan, project
workplan, planning methodology, supervision of poverty reduction funds, major
Government’s policies on health care and credit in order to communicate with
the community. To conduct communication and information campaigns through
brochures, village loudspeakers.
4. Support in improving people’s living conditions
To improve living conditions, improve people’s access to essential
social services, improve people’s educational level, close living gaps among
different ethnic groups.
Improvement of living environment of the people should focus on
the most pressing issues, namely housing, clean water supply, environment and
sanitation, health care, education, etc.
- To continue housing and land use support programme for poor
households according to Decision 134.
- To assist in access
to clean water supply and increase gradually the percentage of households with
access to clean water supply according to targets set forth by Decision 134.
- To assist in addressing urgent environment and
sanitation issues currently, improve living environment and sanitation
in order to accommodate ecological features of each region/area, mitigating
negative impacts on the people’s health, in particular:
· Provision
of cement and roofing sheet for ethnic minority households to build hygienic
latrine and waste disposal hole and to relocate animal stables;
· Support
villages to duplicate hygienic residential model (latrine, waste disposal,
animal stables) which is adequate to ecological environment.
- To assist in access to health care services, medical insurance, public health care by
adopting preferential policies to assign commune medical workers to look after
initial health care and reproductive health;
· To
adopt preferential policies for medical workers in communes and villages;
· To
prepare plan and provide training of medical workers of extremely difficult
communes, including villages, in a suitable approach that accommodates local
needs and culture;
· To
provide incentives to encourage engagement of traditional doctors in public
health care, especially by using traditional herbs;
· To
strengthen mobile medical unit in each commune in order to provide services
timely on monthly basis, especially children health care;
· To
increase financial support for health care in extremely difficult communes in
order to cover high medical expenditure in local area due to natural features
and traditional customs that affect quality and capacity of public health care;
· To
carry on medicine subsidies for the people in extremely difficult communes. To
improve funding approval procedure and provision of medicine in order to ensure
effectiveness of health care services.
- To assist ethnic minority people in extremely difficult
communes in information and culture.
· To
develop “cultural village” and “cultural family” models adequate to ethnic
minority culture and residential area;
· To
support sport activities;
· To
assist in installation of grassroots radio and VTRO broadcast stations (where
television coverage is not available);
· To
continue and increase financial support for the implementation of programme
1,637 (free newspapers and journals) to villages.
- To assist in improving education and
people’s educational level
- To strengthen and foster local
teachers of ethnic minority groups at all level, especially kindergarten,
in order to help ethnic minority children get used with Vietnamese before
enrolling in primary schools
- To support ethnic minority
teachers in kindergarten and primary schools in extremely difficult
communes, adopt preferential policies for kindergarten teachers in order
to ease burdens of poor parents.
- To review the number of
illiterate ethnic minority people in the age of 15-24 to open
flexible illiteracy eradication classes
- To support ethnic minority
teachers to carry out illiteracy eradication for ethnic minority people at
a certain rate adequate to local conditions.
- To review the number of
communes in need of community-based boarding schools, provide financial
support at the rate of two third of financial support for district
boarding students so that all students, who live far from school, are able
to stay in the school.
- Legal support
· To
provide free legal consultancy; defend and protect legal rights and interests
of people at courts; make recommendations for competent agencies.
· To
diversify forms of legal support at the commune and village levels: establish
legal supporting units/branches/clubs, etc.; develop a network of justice
officiers, lawers, espcially ethnic assistants, conciliators; make a close
cooperation with village heads in consulting law-related issues and dealing
with problems in the community.
· To
conduct legal consultation programmes via newspapers, radio, television, etc.
with ethnic ethnic languages.
· To
conduct mobile legal supports. Justice officiers, lawers, and legal assistants
will provide explanation and guidance on law-related issues for ethnic people.
· To
build up institutions for legal support and enhance the supporting activities
at grassgroots level.
· To
building capacity for legal assistants, conciliators through national or
regional training courses, etc.
· To
provide free brochures, handbooks and other materials which answer the
law-related questions, especially regulations relating to rights and interests of
ethnic people, and preferential policies of the State for these target groups.
Proposed target beneficiaries consist of extremely difficult
communes and villages in the programme. As far as household is concerned,
target beneficiaries will be poor households.
4.4 Requirement for funding sources
To address difficulties and urgent needs, improve socio-cultural
life of ethnic minority people and extremely difficult communes, comprehensive
efforts and cooperation of all ministries and agencies are required through
national programmes and policies as well as specific programmes/policies (Programme 135, Decisions No. 134, 168, 186). The
above solutions will be adopted by integrating national programmes in different
sectors, especially health care, education, clean water supply, etc.
The programme will only focus on supporting target households
with following contents:
- Financial support for kindergarten teachers who are not
provided with salary from State budget;
- Financial support for semi-boarding students, ethnic minority
students in the schools;
- Provision of materials, e.g. cement, roofing sheets, and steel
to build hygienic latrine and relocation of animal stables from the resident
living place of some ethnic minority areas;
Each commune is provided with 50 million VND per year; each
extremely difficult village in communes of Zone II is provided with 5 million
VND per year. Total budget for 1,850 communes, 2,500 villages:
525 billion VND.
The above contents is implemented by supporting policies.
V. REQUIREMENT FOR FUNDING TO IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAMME
1. Total direct support investment under the programme
Table
8 Unit:
billion VND
Number |
Component |
Investment
budget (bill) |
Percentage
(%) |
Note |
1 |
Production
development |
2,225 |
17.18 |
Project |
2 |
Infrastructure
development (For
Maintenance) |
8,750 875 |
67.56 6.75 |
Project Policy |
3 |
Capacity
building |
525 |
4.05 |
Project |
4 |
Support
to increase people’s lives |
525 |
4.05 |
Policy |
5 |
Management
and monitoring at local and central levels |
50 |
0.38 |
|
|
Total |
12,950 |
100 |
2.1 Investment funds
under 4 components
- Central
budget 75%
- Local
budget 10%
- Local
contribution 5%
- International donor
support 10%
- Central budget (including ODA-funded budget
support) 50%
- Local
budget 25%
- Local contribution and other
resources 25%
3. Investment fund allocation mechanism
3.1. Resources
allocation principles
- Resources shall be
allocated according to clear, transparent, public and focus criteria;
- Resources will also
be allocated to be suitable to actual conditions, such as level of difficulty
(e.g. remoteness, high investment ratio, etc.), proportion of different
activities (e.g. production development or infrastructure, etc.), number of
villages in the commune, population size, poverty incidence, and available
local resources.
3.2 Central allocation to provinces
Fixed budget is allocated
by the central level to provincial level on the basis of number of communes and
villages; Fund will be allocated
to communes not based on average basis. This is a mechanism that has been used
in the Programme 135 over the past years. This mechanism has some
disadvantages: It takes no account of differences in circumstances of poor
communes: area, population, remoteness, investment needs, etc. But it is easy
to manage. To solve these disadvantages, the State has issued some policies for
specific areas, including Decision No. 168, 173, 186, 120, 174, etc.
3.3 Local allocation to communes
Fund will be allocated
to communes based on level of difficulty rather than on average basis. Communes
will be grouped by:
Allocation of fund for
infrastructure development project bases on:
- Level
of shortage and investment needs;
- Number
of villages (area, population, etc.);
- Remoteness.
Allocation of fund for
other projects bases on:
- Commune
population;
- Commune
production development planning.
Investment fund
allocation will be specified further in guidelines of implementation.
VI. SOLUTIONS TO IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAMME
1. Mobilization of resources for the programme
1.1. The Government
The Government will ensure financial support for the programme
and stable funding from state budget, at the same time lead the review,
supplementation, and development of policies to provide support. To issue
policies on encouraging investment in extremely difficult communes, meanwhile
seek international donor support for the programme. To assign public agencies
and state enterprises to support poor communes and districts.
1.2. Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations and other mass organizations to mobilize public contribution in
various forms.
1.3. Mobilization of domestic resources
To mobilize domestic resources for infrastructure development,
common houses, and public utilities. To assist poor households in overcoming
difficulties, housing, cultivation land, production and business knowledge,
etc. To manage and participate in operation and maintenance of infrastructure
facilities for the sake of sustainability.
2. Strengthen integrated assistance policies
In mountainous areas, a number of target programmes and policies
have been implemented, of which many have promoted high effectiveness and
contributed to improvement of people’s living conditions. However, a few other
programmes and policies, which were promulgated long time ago, are no longer
appropriate. Some rely on average basis without necessary differentiation
between rich and poor households and thus inadequate. To support target
programmes, following solutions are required:
- To continue the implementation of effective programmes and
policies, for example, land use, taxation, forest plantation and protection
contracting out, credit, etc.
- To review existing policies for necessary amendments, for
example, in price subsidies, preferential policies for extremely difficult
ethnic groups, health care for the poor, school and university admission, etc.
- To supplement specialized policies in the area: in-the-job
training for ethnic minority cadre, community-based boarding schools, improved
living conditions, access to electricity, water supply, media and information,
etc.
- To achieve infrastructure development objectives: priorities
will be given to 88 communes without car road access to commune center and 313
communes without access to power, which require large inve stment capital, in
proposals of ministries and agencies.
- There are a number of existing projects and programmes in the
local area; however, the integration is difficult due to different mechanisms.
Therefore, unified management mechanism is required.
3. Strengthening communication
To strengthen communication and motivation in
the community in order to promote self-help spirit, participation, effective
use of government’s support to escape poverty.
4. Monitoring, supervision and evaluation
Currently, although national programmes have been implemented
nationwide, extremely difficult regions are still lagged behind. There is no
monitoring, supervision, and evaluation system to provide reliable information
and data on extremely difficult regions to help policy makers make the most
appropriate decisions. Therefore, it is required that monitoring, supervision,
and evaluation system should be in place to evaluate social impacts on
extremely difficult areas.
To achieve comprehensive and accurate evaluation of programme
implementation, it is necessary to reform and strengthen monitoring and
supervision. Clear and transparent monitoring and supervision mechanism is
required to promote participation in supervision; establish specific
quantitative evaluation indicators, provide report and statistics timely and
properly; implement public administration reform, improve reporting
effectiveness. To link manager’s responsibilities with effectiveness of
monitoring and supervision.
Solutions include:
1)
To develop baseline database for annual evaluation and evaluation upon completion
of the programme.
2)
To develop a full set of indicators for monitoring, supervision, and evaluation
system at all levels.
3)
To build up a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, including regular and
periodic reviews of State bodies; evaluation of mass organizations, National
Assembly, and People’s Councils; independent evaluation of organizations. To
establish information sharing mechanisms among agencies, etc. To link evaluated
results with incentive mechanism.
4) To reform the allocation procedure of
planned fund: the program does not allocate 100% budget as currently done, but
install in different stages. The budget transfer for the next stage is made
only when results of the implementation of the previous activities is reported
and it needed the results should be checked and evaluated before fund
transferred.
5)
To allocate adequate funds for the management agencies and steering agency to
do monitoring and evaluation.
6) To strengthen the role and responsibility
of People’s Councils at various levels in the process of planning, supervision,
etc. To improve the responsibility of provincial committee for ethnic
minorities in collecting and processing data, monitoring and reporting the
implementation of programme.
7) To enhance the responsibility of line
ministries in guiding, directing and supervising the implementation of
programme.
The programme will commence from 2006 and finish in 2010.
Specific mechanism will be adopted to each component. Therefore,
the programme will be implemented in accordance with set components.
As far as infrastructure is concerned, the construction will be
conducted in conformity with Construction Law and its guidelines on
implementation. For small size projects, however, simplified mechanism will be
applied toward decentralization as presented above.
For production development, decentralization will be adopted
toward promotion of grassroots democracy so that people will prepare plan;
reform supervision mechanism; strengthen monitoring and inspection.
Based on clear and quantitative criteria, incentive mechanisms
will be adopted toward poverty-escaped communes, villages. These communes and
villages still enjoy supporting policies on education, healthcare, culture and
receive 100% of maintenance budget, etc.
3. Organization and arrangement
3.1. Establishment of the Central Steering Committee
of the Programme
There are many national targeted programmes implemented in the
whole country in general and in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in
particular but each of them has specific objectives. Although the overall
objective of both the National targeted programme on poverty reduction (NTP -
PR) in the period of 2006 - 2010 and the Programme 135 - Phase II is to
eradicate hunger and reduce poverty, two programmes have
different scope and target group. The NTP - PR provides some supporting
policies for the poor in the whole country, including policies on preferential
credit, agriculture-forestry extension, health care, education, etc.
Beneficiaries of these policies are poor households. Moreover, the NTP - PR
also has some projects such as project on infrastructure development necesary
for communes with special difficuties in coastal and island areas, and project
on capacity building for poverty reduction officers at all levels (see Document
of the National targeted programme on poverty reduction in the period of 2006 -
2010 - Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs). The Programme 135
- Phase II is a special programme of the Government for poverty reduction
activities. Target groups of the programme include extremely difficult communes
in ethnic minority and mountainous areas – the most difficult areas in the whole
country. The Programme 135 in the phase II does not include the same tasks and
solutions as given in the NTP – PR. With special solutions and concentrated
resources, the programme focuses on production development, economic structure
transformation, infrastructure development and capacity building for community
in extremely difficult communes and villages. Currently, most programmes are
lead by a deputy prime minister. The Programme 135 – Phase II is also under the
management of National Steering Committee. A deputy prime minister acts as a
chairman and the Minister-Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities acts
as vice-chairman of National Steering Committee. In Programme 135 phase I, the
orgainsational structure was relatively functional, but there was still a lack
of consistency in the organization of the Steering Committee of the Programme
135 because programme components were managed by two different executing
agencies. For this reason, there will be one standing agency responsible for
overall management in the Programme 135-Phase II. When requested by the
standing agency, line ministries will have participation in the implementation
process of the programme components relating to their functions and
responsibilities.
3.2. Responsibilities arrangement
3.2.1 Central agencies
1) The Committee for
Ethnic Minorities (CEM)
- To act as program
leading agency in cooperation with line agencies, assisting the Prime Minister
in monitoring, examination, and performance report according to regulations;
- To lead and
cooperate with line agencies and local authorities in preparing list of
communes and submitting to the Prime Minister for approval;
- To lead and
cooperate with line agencies in promulgating guidelines on implementation;
-
To lead and guide some policies of the Committee, for example price subsidies,
Decision No.134, support for extremely difficult ethnic minority groups, etc.
-
To monitor and supervise objectives and targets of programmes, which are led by
other ministries and agencies, for integration. To cooperate with other
ministries and agencies in revising and supplementing some policies in order to
achieve programme’s objectives.
2) Ministry of
Planning and Investment (MPI)
To lead and cooperate
with Ministry of Finance (MOF) and relevant ministries to allocate programme’s
funds and guide local authorities to integrate funding sources; to cooperate
with line agencies to guide implementation, monitoring and evaluation
mechanisms.
3) Ministry of Finance
(MOF)
To oversee fund
allocation, cooperate with line agencies to guide implementation, monitoring
financial supervision of the programme.
4) Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)
To lead and guide
local authorities to carry out production development activities, lead and
guide policies under management of the ministry such as irrigation, water
supply, agro-forestry extension, forest development and protection, etc. in
order to achieve integration objectives.
5) Ministry of Transportation (MOT)
To ensure car roads in
219 communes lacking car roads by 2007 according to the Prime Minister’s
Official Letter No.709/CP-CN dated 25 May 2005. To direct provinces in planning
rural transportation system.
6) Other ministries
and agencies, including Construction, Culture and Information, Health,
Education and Training, Justice, Home Affairs, etc. will review and supplement
policies and guide local authorities to implement and achieve integration
objectives according to approved programme’s objectives and assigned functions
and responsibilities.
3.2.2 Local authorities
Provincial People’s Councils and People’s Committees will
develop implementation workplan according to functions, responsibilities and
programme’s objectives. Chairmen of Provincial People’s Committees are overall
responsible for the programme performance in the provinces:
- To establish steering committees at different levels.
Provincial Committee for Ethnic Minorities shall be a standing
agency;
- To mobilize legitimate resources for integrating in the
programme;
- To issue specific guidelines on implementation in local area.
CONCLUSION
Thanks to the implementation of cohesive policies on ethnic
groups with great emphasis on equity, solidarity, and cooperation for the sake
of mutual development, which have been embarked and headed by the Communist
Party of Vietnam, significant progress has been made in all aspects of
socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Outcomes
of Programme 135 in the period from 1998 to 2005 are crucial but considered as
initial achievements since socio-economic conditions in many ethnic minority
and mountainous areas are still poor and has not been out of extremely
difficult situation, and this requires Government’s continued support and
investment. As guided by the Government, Committee for Ethnic Minority and
Mountainous Areas worked closely with ministries, agencies, sectors,
central and local organizations, and with active engagement and support of
international donors, to develop a socio-economic development programme for extremely
difficult communes in the period of 2006 – 2010. The programme is designed with
a coordinated system of mechanisms, policies and solutions in order to
sustainably eradicate hunger and reduce poverty, improve living standard of
ethnic minorities, accelerate socio-economic development in ethnic minority and
mountainous areas, narrow the gap among regions and ethnic groups and ensure
social equality./.
The Committee for Ethnic Minorities
Minister – chairman
Ksor Phuoc
Page
PART I
SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITION
IN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT COMMUNES IN ETHNIC MINORITY AND MOUNTAINOUS AREAS
I. OVERVIEW OF
OUTCOMES OF PROGRAM 135 AND POLICIES IMPLEMENTED IN THESE AREAS FROM 1998 TO
2005
1. Overview of extremely difficult communes
1.1 Classification of 3 categories according
to level of development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas - rationale to
formulate Program 135
1.2 Change in number of extremely difficult
communes over the years
2. Summary of Programs 135 outputs (1998 –
2005)
2.1. Infrastructure development (communal
infrastructure and commune cluster infrastructure projects)
2.2. Support for production development
coupled with products processing and marketing
2.3. Settlement planning where necessary
2.4. Training grassroots officials
2.5 Programme’s funding sources
3. Implementation of combined programmes in
the local areas
4. Evaluation of programme’s results
4.1 Organization of programme implementation.
4.2. Achievements
4.3. Weaknesses of Programme 135
4.4 Reasons for weaknesses in the
implementation of Programme 135
5. Lessons learnt
II. CURRENT SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION IN
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT AREAS
1. Conditions for socio-economic development
1.1 Location in areas that are far from
centers and not enabling to attract investment
1.2 Infrastructure system has initially
satisfied essential needs of production and living conditions
1.3. Economy is characterized by predominantly
agricultural production and autarky-oriented. Cultivation skills are backward.
Market economy is rather passive and underdeveloped
2. Some socio-cultural characteristics:
population, ethnicity, culture
3. Living conditions
4. Local staff in
communes with extreme difficulty
5. Political security and national defense
6. Overall review
6.1 Opportunities.
6.2 Challenges for the social-economic
development of the most difficult communes
6.3 Recommendations
PART II
OBJECTIVES AND DUTIES IN THE PERIOD 2006 –
2010
I. PRINCIPLES TO IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAMME
II. PROGRAMME’S OBJECTIVES
1. Overall objectives
2. Specific objectives
2.1 Economic development objectives
2.2 Social objectives
2.3 Objectives to monitor the outputs of the
other programs and projects that are implemented in the area:
III. SCOPE OF PROGRAMME
1. Background
2. Criteria to identify extremely difficult
communes and villages
IV. PROGRAMME’S
DUTIES
1. To accelerate production development and
economic structural shift
1.1. Contents of the activities.
1.2 Implementing mechanism
1.3. Specific solutions through production
development projects and assistance policies
1.4 Investment fund in production
development
2. Infrastructure development
2.1 Infrastructure planning.
2.2 Essential infrastructure
facilities to be developed in the most difficult communes
2.3. Essential facilities to be developed in
extremely difficult villages in Zone II
2.4. Infrastructure development investment
funds
2.5. Solutions to implement
3. Strengthening capacity of
grassroots cadre and community
3.1. Objectives
3.2. Target group of training
3.3. Training Contents
3.4. Capacity building funds
3.5. Solutions
4. Support in improving people’s living
conditions
4.1. Objectives
4.2 Contents of activities
4.3 Target beneficiaries
4.4 Requirement for funding sources
4.5 Implementing solutions
V. REQUIREMENT FOR FUNDING TO IMPLEMENT THE
PROGRAMME
1. Total direct support investment under the
programme
2. Funding structure
2.1 Investment funds under 4 components
2.2 Operation and Maintenance
3. Investment fund allocation mechanism
3.1. Resources allocation principles
3.2 Central allocation to provinces
3.3 Local allocation to communes
VI. SOLUTIONS TO
IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAMME
1. Mobilization of resources for the programme
1.1. The Government
1.2. Fatherland Front and socio-political
organizations and other mass
organizations to mobilize public contribution in various forms
2. Strengthen integrated assistance policies
3. Strengthening communication
4. Monitoring, supervision and evaluation
VII. ORGANIZATION
1. Programme duration
2. Management mechanism
3. Organization and arrangement
3.1. Establishment of the Central Steering
Committee of the Programme.
3.2. Responsibilities arrangement.
[1] In 2001, 17 districts of 5 provinces
under Programme 135 were audited by the State Audit.
[2] In 2000, 697 of 1,017 civil works in 484
communes of 86 district, 25 provinces were supervised by the State Supervision
in cooperation with local authorities.
[3] Average distance to the closest commune
centre is about 17.18 km (VHLSS 2002).
[4] According to the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development, maintenance funds for irrigation works
is 1.1% of initial investment (as per Decision No. 211/1998 dated
February 19, 1998). A study of UNDP shows that maintenance funds for
transportation: 3 million VND per kilometre per year; for electricity: 2.5% of
initial investment.
[5] In Son La province, villages are
contracted to build roads within villages. The State provides 20 million VND
per one kilometre and dynamite.
[6] Average investment from 135 for each
commune is 4 million VND per year for the period 2001 - 2005, particularly
8 million VND in the year 2005.
[w1]I read it means subsidized credit under
the VBSP