Communist Review - In the period of renewal and international integration, the Communist Party and State of Viet Nam have always paid great attention to building and implementing social welfare policies, considering them as goals and driving forces for sustainable development, maintaining socio - political stability, demonstrating the superiority of the model of socialist-oriented market economy. The Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) affirms that the social welfare system should be diverse, comprehensive, and shareable among the State, society and people, between resident groups within a generation and between generations etc. to ensure sustainability and equality. The State guarantees to implement the preferential policies for people with meritorious services, plays a leading role in implementing social welfare policies, promotes socialization and encourages organizations, businesses and people to participate, and creates favorable conditions for people to improve their ability in guaranteeing their own welfare.⁽¹⁾

On the basis of determining that social progress and equality should be considered in each step and each policy of development in order to create jobs, incomes and ensure social welfare, etc. so all people can enjoy the opportunities and conditions for comprehensive development, the social welfare contents in the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam 2013 as well as the social welfare laws and policies of Viet Nam have been timely revised, supplemented, implemented and achieved a lot of outstanding results.

Firstly, the implementation of policies for job creation, income boost and poverty reduction has achieved many positive results.

The policies to support job creation through the National Job Creation Fund, the Fund “For the Poor”, preferential credit policies, vocational training, career guidance, etc. have made an important contribution to high percentage of job creation for people of 15 years and above (over 77%) and sustainable poverty reduction. Over the past 10 years, Viet Nam has always maintained a low unemployment rate (from 2% to 3%) and is among the countries with the lowest unemployment rate in the world. The average income of employees has improved, increasing by 8.7% per year on average in the period of 2013 - 2018⁽²⁾.  

The National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction has been effectively implemented, focusing on the poorest districts and extremely difficult communes. The emulation movement of “The whole country joins hands for the poor - leaving no one behind” has achieved many positive results. The rate of poor households rapidly decreased from 11.76% in 2011 (according to the poverty standard for the period of 2011 - 2015) to 3.75% in 2019 (according to the poverty standard for the period of 2016 - 2020), reducing more than 1.3% per year on average. Viet Nam’s achievements in poverty reduction are highly appreciated by the international community.

Secondly, the revised social and health insurance policies have created opportunities for people to participate and receive the benefits of such insurance, strengthening the financial sustainability of insurance funds.

Social insurance has been extended to all employees, according to 3 major policy groups, namely: compulsory, voluntary social insurance and unemployment insurance. The proportion of the labor force in the age group eligible for participating in social insurance has increased from 21.8% in 2011 to 32% in 2019. In particular, voluntary social insurance in the whole period of 2008 - 2018 only attracted more than 270 thousand participants, but it had increased to 545 thousand people by the end of 2019. The proportion of the labor force of the age group participating in unemployment insurance increased from 17.1% in 2011 to over 27% in 2019. The whole country has 85.39 million people participating in health insurance, accounting for 90% of the population in 2019, basically covering the entire population⁽³⁾.

Social and health insurance becomes an important social welfare guard-net, supporting people to overcome illness, occupational accident - disease, maternity, unemployment etc. Currently, the whole country has over 3.1 million people receiving the monthly pension and social insurance allowance; every year the Social Insurance Fund pays for 6-10 million people who suffer from sickness or accident, or on maternity; due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 500,000 people received unemployment insurance for only the first 6 months of 2020. Health insurance helps reduce direct expenditure from household funds for health services, contributing to equity in health care, especially for vulnerable people in society. In 2019, the Health Insurance Fund paid the fee of medical examination and treatment for 186 million people covered by the health insurance (92.1 million people in 2009). Several cases are paid up to billions of VND for medical examination and treatment per year by the Health Insurance Fund. 

Thirdly, the work of social assistance for people in extremely difficult conditions has gradually shifted to human right-based and human-centered approaches.

The number of beneficiaries of social insurance has been expanded and the amount of social allowance has increased, contributing to stabilizing the life of the vulnerable. The number of people receiving monthly social allowance in cash increased from nearly 1.7 million people in 2011 (accounting for 1.9% of the population) to more than 2.9 million people in 2019 (making up 3% of the population). Unscheduled social assistance policies provide timely support to people at risk due to natural disasters and other objective causes. From 2012 to 2019, the Government of Viet Nam has supported more than 343 thousand tons of rice (famine relief in between-crop period and on the occasion of the Lunar New Year) to about 18.4 million people in short of food; supporting more than 3,700 billion VND for localities to overcome the consequences of natural disasters⁽⁴⁾. In particular, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic having negative impacts on Viet Nam’s society and economy, the Vietnamese Government issued Resolution No. 42/NQ-CP, dated April 9^th, 2020 on “Measures to support people facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic” and the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 15/2020/QD-TTg, dated April 24^th, 2020 on “Regulations on implementing policies to support people facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic” with a support package of 62 trillion VND for people facing difficulties due to the pandemic. The Vietnamese Government’s quick responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are highly appreciated by the international community and strongly supported by the people.

On the other hand, public and non-public social support facilities have basically met the requirement of nurturing and caring for people covered by social protection. Currently, there are 425 social support facilities (191 public facilities and 234 non-public facilities) nurturing and caring for more than 41 thousand people nationwide.

Fourthly, the basic and essential social service system has been highly invested and developed, creating favorable conditions for people to access and enjoy.

- On education universalization: Education universalization has been completed from preschool to junior high school with 99% of children going to school at the right age at the primary level from 2015, over 90% at the secondary level since 2014, contributing to the increase in the literacy rate of people of 15 years old up to more than 97%. Paying more attention to discovering children who are in difficult circumstances or with disabilities to timely provide support for their community integration. In 2018, 70% of disabled children but being capable of studying were sent to school. Education support programs and policies for children of poor households, ethnic minorities and disadvantaged areas have been effectively implemented. In the school year of 2017-2018, more than 520,000 students received rice support and more than 1,800 billion VND given to students in extremely difficult communes and villages in the form of lunch support.

- On vocational training for rural workers: Over 8.3 million people in the period of 2012 – 2019 was provided with vocational training, contributing to improving the quality of rural labor and speeding up the shift of labor structure from agriculture to non-agriculture, from low to high productivity industries. The proportion of laborers working in agriculture, forestry and fishery from 48.3% in 2011 decreased to 34.7% in 2019.

The grassroots healthcare and preventive medicine systems provide more opportunities for people to access and use health services, especially in remote and ethnic minority areas: By the end of 2018, 98.4% of communes had local health centers; 96% of villages and hamlets had medical staff, 90% of communes had doctors, 76% of communes met the National Criteria on commune health for the period of 2011-2020, and over 95% of communes having obstetrician or midwife. Also, the network of maternal healthcare service has been consolidated and developed, covering 100% of districts, 93% of communes, 96% of villages and hamlets.

Preventive medicine plays a decisive role in preventing dangerous diseases and major epidemics. The model of military-civil medicine cooperation has been promoted and brought into full play. The rate of children under 1 year old who are fully immunized is extremely high, from 96% to 98%; the rate of children under 5 years old being ill-nourished or undersized gradually decreased from 16.2% in 2012 to 12.7% in 2018, being estimated at 12% in 2020.

- Houses for disadvantaged and vulnerable people are being built, suitable to the actual conditions of the country: 530,000 poor households were the beneficiaries of the house support policy in the period of 2011 - 2015. In the period of 2016 - 2018, 89,378 poor households were supported to borrow money to build houses, and in 2020 about 144,000 poor households are expected to enjoy the policy. Being funded by businesses, communities, socio-political and mass organizations, 332,229 houses have been built and repaired for the poor and disadvantaged people. By the end of 2018, the country had completed 198 social housing projects with more than 81,700 apartments covering ​​​over 4,085,000m² for low-income people. Currently 226 projects with about 182,200 apartments covering ​​about 9,110,000m² are being implemented. The social housing development program for workers working in industrial parks has started with 100 projects being invested with 41,000 apartments covering 2,050,000m²; another 73 projects with 88,400 apartments covering 4,420,000m² are being carried out. 

- The rural clean water supply network, especially in remote and isolated areas with difficult socio-economic conditions has contributed to increase the percentage of rural population using clean water from 80.5% in 2012 to 88% in 2018 and to 90% by 2020. The percentage of rural population using national standard clean water increased from 38.7% in 2012 to 52% in 2018 and reached 57% in 2020.

- The grassroots information and communication systems have shortened the gap in information access among regions: The target of 100% of communes in mountainous, remote, border and island areas covering by terrestrial radio and terrestrial television has been completed since 2017. 90% of communes in mountainous, remote, border and island areas were equipped with radio stations in 2018 and 100% in 2020.

Fifthly, the social welfare fund is strengthened, in which the state budget plays a leading role, promoting the participation and contribution of businesses, people and social communities. In the period of 2012 - 2019, the total expenditure from the state budget to implement preferential policies for people with meritorious services to the revolution was 256 trillion VND, of which 1,100 trillion VND for social welfare. Viet Nam Bank for Social Policies implemented 20 preferential credit programs with a total loan turnover of about 104,836 billion VND. From 2012 to 2018, the Vietnamese Fatherland Front and its member organizations received support from domestic and overseas businesses, agencies, units, organizations, and overseas Vietnamese with more than 32,980 billion VND. In case of both social welfare and incentives for people with meritorious services to the revolution, the proportion of expenditure from the state budget account for about 3% of GDP.

The achievements of social welfare have contributed to the realization of the people-centered and no-one being left behind policies in the development process. Viet Nam is recognized by the United Nations as one of the leading countries in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. The results of social welfare policy implementation have made an important contribution to the efforts to develop Vietnamese people in terms of economy, education, health, and happiness. The Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) confirms that Viet Nam’s Human Development Index (HDI) has improved and is now classified as one of the “top ranking countries” in the average human development group. Regarding the HDI score, Viet Nam increased from 0.48 in 1990 to 0.63 in 2019. In terms of ranking, from 128^th out of 187 countries and territories in 2010, it rose to 118^th in 2019.

However, Viet Nam’s social welfare system is not really sustainable, showing some major limitations as follows:

Firstly, the coverage of the social welfare system is not extensive and its beneficiaries are still limited. The rate of labor force participating in social insurance is still low because of ineffective solutions to increase the number of participants. In addition, the Social Insurance Fund is not sustainable. The scope and quality of social service supply are not really high, especially in rural, mountainous and ethnic minority areas.

Secondly, resources to implement social welfare policies are limited; the support level is still low and unable to meet the minimum living needs while some beneficiaries still heavily depend on the State’s policies. The participation potential of people and businesses has not been fully exploited.

Thirdly, the poverty reduction results are not sustainable, absolute inequality between the rich and the poor tends to increase; development gap among regions and population groups has not been narrowed. The poverty rate is high in the ethnic minority group.

In order to overcome these limitations, toward a sustainable social welfare system, timely responding and adapting to population aging, rapid urbanization, socio-economic risks and unpredictable impacts of climate change, Viet Nam should focus on implementing the solutions as follows:

Firstly, strengthening the leadership of the CPV; promoting the role of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front and other socio-political organizations, as well as people’s participation in the implementation of social welfare policies.

Party organizations at all levels should grasp the social welfare policies thoroughly, proactively play the core role in strengthening the coordination among sectors and localities; promoting the role of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, as well as the participation of cadres, party members and people. Promoting information and communication to all levels, sectors and localities. Strengthening the sense of initiative of localities, organizations and communities in implementing, consulting, criticizing, recommending and monitoring.

Secondly, continuing to improve social welfare mechanisms, policies and enhance the effectiveness of implementation towards universal coverage.

- On employment support: Developing a healthy, synchronous, modern and integrated labor market; creating jobs, accelerating the formalization of the informal sectors. Focusing on skilled and high-quality human resource training; enhancing the enterprises’ role and responsibility in training. Strengthening the harmonious, stable and progressive labor relation building.

- On sustainable poverty reduction: Implementing multi-dimensional approaches  to reduce poverty, especially in ethnic minority areas; effectively, comprehensively and inclusively carrying out Vietnamese National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, ensuring that no one is left behind; supporting people with sustainable means of subsistence through training and job change.

- On social and health insurance: Accelerating the effective implementation, ensuring quality and progress in accordance with the Action Program of the Government of Viet Nam executing Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW, dated May 23^rd, 2018 of the 7^th Conference of the Central Committee of the CPV, namely “On social insurance policy reform”. Speeding up the process implementing universal health insurance and allowing people for direct medical examination and treatment with health insurance at provincial levels. Strengthening state-level management over commercial insurance business to better serve social security.

 - On social assistance for people of extremely difficult circumstances: Designing support programs in a flexible way, meeting the basic needs of people at risk and the community suffering from natural disasters; ensuring timely support for vulnerable people, groups and communities in overcoming risks caused by epidemics and natural disasters; preventing and combating violence and abuse, especially women and children. Paying more attention to the ethnic minorities, mountainous areas and others being affected by natural disasters and climate change. 

- On ensuring some basic social services: Developing social services in a professional manner. Paying more attention to the quality of grassroots health care and preventive medicine; solving the problem of child malnutrition, sex imbalance at birth. Completing the open national education system, building a learning society, and improving the quality of education universalization. Increasing investment, ensuring clean water and communication for ethnic minority, mountainous areas and islands. Promoting socialization to ensure safe housing for people, especially migrants, people in areas affected by natural disasters and climate change. In terms of management, the State should strengthen its supervision of standard and quality of social service provision, creating conditions for the non-state sectors to participate, especially in the form of public and private cooperation.

Thirdly, diversifying human resources, improving the efficiency of human resource utilization for social policy implementation.

Strengthening and ensuring the State’s investment resources which are prioritized for areas with low percentage of people accessing social services; mobilizing other domestic and foreign resources to solve social problems. Concentrating resources on disadvantaged areas without subsidizing any localities capable of socio-economic development.

Fourthly, modernizing the management system to meet increasing requirements in the formulation and implementation of social welfare policies.   

Promoting the review and integration of policies; reducing overlapping and repetition; focusing on applying information technology, unifying database digitization. Strongly reforming financial management to improve its efficiency and effectiveness by using science, technology, electronic payment and deploying centralized database platform.

Fifthly, strengthening the accountability of policy-making and social service providing agencies. Promoting independent research and assessment on social welfare policies and their implementation outcomes./.

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(1) The Communist Party of Viet Nam, Resolution No.15-NQ/TW, dated June 1^st, 2012 of the 5^th Conference of the Central Committee of the 6^th Communist Party of Viet Nam on “Some issues on social policy for the period of 2012 - 2020”

(2) Annual labor and employment survey data of the General Statistics Office, Ministry of Planning and Investment of Viet Nam

(3) Data reported by Vietnamese Social Insurance and labor and employment survey of the General Statistics Office, Ministry of Planning and Investment of Viet Nam

(4) Data reported by Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Welfare of Viet Nam

This article was published in the Communist Review, No. 956 (December 2020)