Worldwide, October 17 was the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. In Vietnam, October 17 was also the National Day of the Poor. Taking advantage of an apt date, the local United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) administrators used October 17 as an opportunity to present Vietnam’s new poverty reduction plans through 2015. Read the fact sheet here.
The most salient aspect of the new poverty plan is the push to alleviate poverty among ethnic minorities. As noted by several of the UNDP coordinators, poverty remains much more pronounced among ethnic minorities. Although Vietnam has successfully reduced poverty from 58.1% in 1993 to 14.5% in 2008 and malnutrition from 41% to 11.7%, poverty rates among some ethnic groups remains as high as 86%. In absolute terms, ethnic minorities make up 14% of Vietnam’s total population but 54% of its poor.
