Decision No. 1614/QD-TTg dated September 15th 2015, approval for overall scheme for "conversion of uni-dimensional poverty measure into multi-dimensional poverty measure for the period of 2016 - 2020"

DECISION

APPROVAL FOR OVERALL SCHEME FOR "CONVERSION OF UNI-DIMENSIONAL POVERTY MEASURE INTO MULTI-DIMENSIONAL POVERTY MEASURE FOR THE PERIOD OF 2016 - 2020"

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Government organization dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 76/2014/QH13 dated June 24, 2014 of the National Assembly on achievement of the sustainable poverty reduction goal by 2020;

At the request of the Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs,

DECIDES:

Article 1. Approve the overall scheme for "conversion of uni-dimensional poverty measure into multi-dimensional poverty measure for the period of 2016 - 2020" (hereinafter referred to as the Scheme), including:

I. REQUIREMENTS

1. The Scheme is formulated on a scientific basis, consistent with the level of economic-social development and capacity of mobilization and balancing of the country’s resources in each period.

2. The Scheme determines beneficiaries of poverty reduction policies and social security; programs and policies on economic-social development of the country, each region and sector.

3. All citizens gradually reach minimum income standards and access to basic services.

4. The Scheme is formulated conformable with international trend and may be compared with the international and regional levels.

II. CONTENTS

1. Creation of poverty indices for the period of 2016 - 2020

a) Income-based indices

- Minimum income standard is the income level necessary to afford minimal living standards, including the demand for food and non-food consumption suitable for the economic-social conditions of the country in each period.

- The poverty line is the standard household income threshold below which the family is officially classified as poor. The poverty line is used to determine the national poverty income scale and beneficiaries entitled to welfare assistance (hereinafter referred to as policy poverty line)

- Median income standard is the income level necessary to afford medium living standards, including the demand for food and non-food consumption suitable for the economic-social conditions of the country in each period.

b) Lack of access to basic services

- The basic services include the 5 following services: health, education, housing, clean water and sanitation, and information access;

- There are 10 indicators measuring the deficiency levels: (1) the level of adult education; (2) the education of children in school; (3) access to health services; (4) health insurance; (5) the quality of housing; (6) floor area per capita; (7) tap water supply; (8) type of toilet/latrine; (9) the use of telecommunications services; (10) asset serving information access.

- Multi-dimensional deficiency threshold is the deficiency level over which the household is classified as lack of access to basic services or the household is deprived in a third or more of ten indicators.

2. Building poverty line for the period of 2016 - 2020

The poverty line for the period of 2016 – 2020 shall be built as follows: combine income-based poverty line and the lack of access to basic services; establish minimum income standard to ensure social security for the people, and apply policy poverty line to classify poor households in accordance with government budget, in particular:

- Poor households  is a household whose per capita income does not exceed the policy poverty line or exceeds the policy poverty line but lower than the minimum income standard  and it is deprived in a third or more of ten indicators of basic services.

- Near poor household is a household whose per capita income exceeds the policy poverty line but does not exceed the minimum living standard and it is deprived in a third or more of ten indicators of basic services.

- Household without complete access to basic services is a household whose per capita income exceeds the minimum income standard and it is deprived in a third or more of ten indicators of basic services.

- Household with below median living standard is a household whose per capita income is lower than the median living standard but exceeds the minimum living standard.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

1. Ministries or central agencies

a) The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs

- Act as a standing agency and support the Prime Minister to implement the Scheme.

- Cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and relevant Ministries and agencies in formulation of the following indices: minimum living standard, policy poverty line, median income standard; poor household, near poor household, household without complete access to basic services and request for the Prime Minister to issue for the policies on poverty reduction and social security in the period of 2016 – 2020.

- Formulate plans, methods and instruct local governments to investigate and determine beneficiaries at the begin, middle and end of the period (biannually).

- Send a final report on rate of poor households, near poor households to which the multi-dimensional poverty measure is applied at the begin, middle and end of the period nationwide and in provinces or cities.

- Build data for management of poor households and near poor households nationwide in the period of 2016 – 2020.

b) The Ministry of Planning and Investment

- Complement data collection system of dimensions, multidimensional poverty index in the Living standard of household survey to monitor and evaluate the multidimensional poverty of the country and the local governments.

- According to the annual living standard of  households survey, the General Statistics Office shall announce the general poverty rate (updated consumer price index - CPI), the proportion of households lacking in basic services, the multidimensional poverty index (MPI), as a basis for orientation of policies on development of regional economic and policies for poverty reduction and social security.

- Study and complement indicators measuring multidimensional poverty in indicators of living standards of household survey to clearly reflect poverty aspects of the people, especially those indicators for results and impact.

c) The Ministry of Finance

Take charge and cooperate with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to balance resources to implement poverty reduction policies when conversing to multidimensional poverty measurement.

d) The Ministry of Health

- Research and implement solutions to improve the access of people to health care services, increase the coverage of health insurance and improve the quality of healthcare services;

- Cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in complement and update of indicator for access to health services.

dd) The Ministry of Education and Training:

- Research and implement solutions to increase the percentage of children going to school at the right age for each grade, reduce the dropout or repetition rate and increase the literacy rate of adults;

- Cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in complement and update of indicator for access to education.

e) The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

- Research and implement solutions to increase the rate of people using clean water, hygienic toilet in the rural area;

- Cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in complement and update of access to sanitary and clean water in rural area services.

g) The Ministry of Construction

- Research and implement solutions to provide housing for poor households and near poor households and increase the rate of housing meeting requirements pertaining to area and quality;

- Cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in complement and update of indicator for access to housing.

h) The Ministry of Information and Communications

- Research and implement solutions to improve the access to information of the people;

- Cooperate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in complement and update of indicator for access to information.

i) Committee for Ethnic Affairs shall cooperate with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and relevant Ministries in formulation of solutions for sustainable poverty reduction appropriate to ethnic minorities.

k) Relevant Ministries and agencies: request the Government and the Prime Minister to implement solutions to improve the access to basic services of the people, especially areas with low access rates according to the lack of access to basic services nationwide and each local government.

2. People’s Committees of central-affiliated cities and provinces

- Raise awareness of agencies and the people in purposes and significance of the conversion of uni-dimensional poverty measure into multi-dimensional poverty measure;

- Investigate and classify beneficiaries of poverty reduction policy annually;

- Build data for management of poor households and near poor households nationwide in the period of 2016 – 2020 in the province;

- Research and implement solutions to improve the access to information of the people in the province;

- According to actual condition of the province, the province may complement dimensions or deficiency indicators, adjust the threshold of deficiency indicators, apply the multi-dimensional poverty measure completely, and increase the poverty line of province which is greater than the national poverty line using the local budget as prescribed to adopt policies on poor or near poor households.

3. Budget

The budget for the Scheme shall be allocated from the recurrent expenditure funding provided by Ministries, agencies, central authorities and local governments according to the decentralization of the Law on State budget.

Article 2. This Decision comes into force from the day on which it is signed.

Article 3. Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of Governmental agencies, the Presidents of People’s Committees of central-affiliated cities and provinces shall implement this Decision./.