By Mark Smulian | 8 August 2014

The World Bank is to support Vietnam to rationalise a bewildering range of social assistance programmes.

Under the $60m Vietnam Social Assistance System Strengthening Project, the country will reduce its fragmented programmes, improve targeting through a database on recipients and adopt more efficient delivery mechanisms.

There will be a particular emphasis on helping poor children, so as break the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

Nguyen Trong Dam, vice-minister of labour, invalids and social affairs said: ‘There exist too many social assistance policies, creating a huge burden on management systems and difficulties for beneficiaries, leading to low uptake.

‘The current management system has not kept pace with the speed of Vietnam’s development.

‘Our objective therefore is to build a consolidated and modernised social assistance system which lays the foundation for delivery of social assistance in the long term.’

Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank country director for Vietnam, added: ‘Vietnam has an established system of social assistance cash and in-kind transfers.

'But the system is not as effective as it could be in addressing Vietnam’s poverty challenges today. The project aims to support efficiency enhancing reforms to the social assistance system.’

The project will see the creation of a single national database of poor households and social assistance beneficiaries.

In four pilot project provinces (Hà Giang, Quảng Nam, Lâm Đồng and Trà Vinh), the project will also test a consolidated cash transfer programme, where existing and new cash transfers for poor households with children and pregnant women will be put into a ‘family package’, with income security. Parenting advice will also become available.

The pilot also aims to simplify processes and reduce workloads for local social officers and to make monitoring more effective at provincial and central levels.