A Proposal for An Effective Anti-Child Poverty Programme in Vietnam

This paper aims to gain insight into the types of strategies Vietnam can employ to improve its anti-poverty programme on children. Thanks to various economic reforms since the late 1980s, Vietnam has substantially decreased its poverty rates measured at international and national poverty lines. Despite these positive changes through targeted anti-poverty programmes, the child poverty rate in Vietnam remains high, with children of ethnic minority groups and/or from disadvantaged geographic locations disproportionately affected by poverty. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore different strategies applicable to the case of Vietnam to improve the impacts of its anti-child poverty programme. By reviewing relevant theories on anti-poverty policies and examining the impacts of two successful anti-poverty cash transfer programmes – Mexico’s Prospera and Brazil’s Bolsa Família, the paper argues that only a child-focused and ethnicity-sensitive approach which includes both a demand-side policy and a supply-side policy is effective to tackle child poverty in Vietnam.