Ethnic Minorities Need Stronger Voice in Public Policy on Poverty
Ahead of next Monday's Consultative Group meeting on breakthroughs in
poverty reduction, Oxfam's associate country director Bert Maerten talks
about the importance of local voices in achieving poverty reduction.
Lives have improved tremendously in rural areas during the last decade,
even in remote and mountainous areas. Prior to 2007, women in Ban Lien, a
remote commune in northern mountainous Lao Cai Province, had little
access to markets and the outside world. Since a market was set up in
2008, they have been able to sell surplus vegetables there. The market
is also a place for information sharing and has improved channels and
opportunities for communication. Such a sense of progress and
achievement exists among many communities around the country. Millions
have lifted themselves out of poverty. Despite such progress,
opportunities seem to be bypassing a significant number of people who
live in chronic poverty.
According to a joint poverty monitoring survey
conducted by Oxfam and ActionAid in 10 communes nationwide, 23 per cent
of those surveyed live in chronic poverty – 45 per cent or more of those
in ethnic minority communities. Nationwide, 5-6 million people are
estimated to be food insecure, while one of three children under five is
stunted. These are far from ‘pockets' of poverty but are large swathes
of the country mired in deep, intergenerational poverty. Similarly, new
forms of injustice are also emerging. The manner in which opportunities,
resources, risks and benefits are shared is critical in a middle-income
country. As access to and control over natural resources become more
valuable and contested, risks increase alongside new economic
opportunities. Winners and losers are created, shifts in power occur and
barriers can become more entrenched. In a more diverse economy and
society, the voices of people, especially the poor and marginalized,
need to be heard in order to confront exclusion and guarantee a fair
distribution of opportunities and benefits. Poverty is increasingly
concentrated among ethnic minorities. Minorities are five times more
likely to be poor than the Kinh majority. In 2010, minorities accounted
for 47 per cent of nation's total population living in poverty and
two-thirds of those in the poorest 10 per cent of the population.
Understanding sources of such inequality, including patterns of social
exclusion, discrimination and stigma, will be crucial in order for
public policy responses to be more effective. For example, ethnic
minorities suffer from poorer quality services, such as health education
and infrastructure.
They consistently have poorer quality land
allocations, even when statistics show they have more land. Restrictions
on access to forest lands has had enormous impacts on some ethnic
minority communities. But important innovations in public policy are
already underway or being explored. The social security strategy offers
opportunities to better target and tailor household assistance. Cash
transfers are being considered and piloted, while block grant
allocations to authorities in poor areas should enable better decisions
about what investments and approaches are needed to address local
poverty. We have also seen important changes in the media, although
other shifts are needed to overcome the exclusion of ethnic minorities.
Stronger and genuinely participatory processes need to be instituted
that enable discussion, debate, and advocacy of ethnic interests. A
broader dialogue about the role of culture in poverty reduction and
development is important. The ability for a people and nation to reflect
on and question the various forms and causes of exclusion is one of
biggest challenges facing the achievement of a prosperous and just
society. But it is through this that the fight against poverty and
injustice will ultimately be won.
Source: Vietnam News
