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Impacts of Price Hikes on the Lives and Livelihoods of Poor People in Viet Nam Craftsmen also experience a reduction in real income. A survey in a handicraft village making rattan frames of fake horses in a suburb in Hai Phong shows that income from the business is growing more slowly than food prices. “We could make the value of a pack of instant noodles from selling one fake horse frame before. Now we sell two frames and still cannot buy one pack of instant noodle”. Tiên Cm 1 hamlet (An Thái commune, An Lao, Hai Phong) is a traditional craft village that was recently officially recognized as such by the municipal government. Each of the 153 households in the hamlet are involved in the craft. Most villagers under years of age have left to find jobs (mostly shoe making and carpentry) elsewhere. Only the elderly and children are left behind to make crafts “while watching TV”. Each can make 20-25,000 VND a day. The ratio of material cost to labour cost is 50:50. There is a new trend (which may become clearer in the next few years) of a slower or even reduced flow of migrants from rural to urban areas due to the high cost of living in the urban areas and the fact that there are now more jobs available in the countryside. Poor migrants may gradually be leaving urban centres putting less pressure on infrastructure and social services. The smaller cities may become a more preferred destination for migrants. 68
5. Rising Prices, Poverty Reduction and Relevant Policies 5.1 Poverty Reduction The “double-edged price” effect, unsecured jobs, unfavourable weather conditions, disease and land infertility make the division between the poor and non-poor more fragile. The number of poor households in terms of the ability to meet their basic needs may be increasing at the study sites. Poverty: rising rather than falling The poverty rate in Xy commune, Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri, fell from 70 percent at the end of 2006 to 53.4 percent at the end of 2007. According to the commune leaders “this was because the output of cassava crops increased sharply and people were hired to transport wood from Laos. At the end of 2007 when the price of rice was lower, people in the commune purchased TVs and motorbikes. However, towards the end of this year, 2008, the poverty rate may be increasing rather than falling as there is no more extra land for cassava cropping. There is still some in the former villages. However there is no road access for vehicles. Productivity is also declining because of deteriorating soil conditions and wood exploitation from forests in Laos is no longer allowed”. Prices continue to rise. The Thai village of Pa Dong is considered one of the poorest villages in Thanh Xuong commune, Đien Bien. The village head noted “Paddy land allocated to this village is very limited (only 500 m 2 /head on average). Households who failed to repay loans to the Cooperative only got 200-400 m 2 /head. During the dry season there is often water supply shortage (even the fish ponds dry up) so we can only grow one single upland paddy crop per year. Only a few households have forest land. There are no crafts available locally so people seek work elsewhere. Drug use is still a problem and meant the village was not recognized as a “cultural village” (two people died of HIV/AIDS in 2007 and five more died in the last six months of 2008). That’s not to mention the district town development project that has been pending for the last three years now. In order to survive each household needs at least 700m 2 of farm land. As prices continue to rise I believe the poverty rate will increase rather than fall. The number of poor households in Pa Dong village has actually risen from 27/72 at the end of 2007 to 35/77 as of mid 2008 (including six new poor households and two who have fallen back into poverty)”. Of the 2,896 households in Lam Ha ward, Kien An district, Hai Phong only 25 are officially recognized as “poor”. However the real figure must be much higher given that most have moved from city centres or other suburban districts in order to move from farm work to small jobs such as construction workers or cyclo drivers and because land in this ward is still rather cheap to buy. According to the ward management, 50 percent of households do not have permanent residence (classified as KT3 and KT4 households). The actual number of poor households at present must be approximately 200-400, including new residents and those whose land has been recalled for industrial development (with compensation of 20-30 million VND for each 4-5 sao). The existing criteria for identifying poor households appear to be no longer appropriate. At the study sites both the local residents and the grassroots cadres feel the current poverty rate is too low when increases in the cost of living are considered. The nominal reduction of the poverty rate according to the existing poverty line simple indicates which households “are removed from the list of poor households” but does not say anything about “whether their quality of life has been improved or not”. 69
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Preface 1 Viet Nam has made strikin
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Table of Contents Executive Summary
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Executive Summary 1. Between May an
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Tóm tt budget. Women also tend to
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Tóm tt 34. A frequently asked ques
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1. Introduction 1.1 Context Rising
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Introduction • Go Vap district (H
Page 17 and 18: 2. Overview 2.1 Inflation Rising in
Page 19 and 20: Overview Table 2.2: Percentage of N
Page 21 and 22: Overview Maize. The average output
Page 23: Overview and policies for new targe
Page 26 and 27: Impacts of Price Hikes on the Lives
Page 52 and 53: away…. we go into the forests up
Page 80 and 81: Annex: Brief description of study s
Page 82 and 83: Province/ City (Urban/rural) Distri
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