REGIONAL POVERTY DISPARITY IN VIETNAM

Vietnam has 82 million inhabitants, living in different regions, which have different geographical, climate, economical and social characteristics. Economic growth, livelihood, income, living conditions and poverty of population are varried by regions. Vietnam has made cosiderable progress in poverty reduction. The poverty rate in the whole country has halved after less than ten years. However, speed of poverty reduction is still low in some regions. Identification of regional disparities of multidimensional poverty provides background for right targeting to the poor and elaboration of appropriate poverty policies in each specific region. In some last years, the Vietnamese CBMS project has co-operated with local partners in 5 provinces to conduct poverty studies. These 5 provinces are located in 5 different regions. This paper presents results of CBMS implementation in Vietnam's localities and using CBMS data for analysis of regional disparities of poverty. The main objective of the analysis is to find out the possible explanatory factors affecting the disparity. Based on results of analysis of regional disparity in poverty, some poverty alleviation policies and proposal of application of a multidimensional poverty index are recommended