Social welfare and social work in viet nam 15 years of doi moi

VIET NAM NATIONAL CENTER FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES INSTITUTE OF SOCIOLOGY Social Welfare and Social Work in Viet Nam: 15 Years of Doi Moi Bui The Cuong, Ph.D Associate Professor of Sociology Email: cuongbuithe@yahoo.com Paper presented at the International Conference "Viet Nam in the 20th Century", held in Ha Noi, September 19-21, 2000 and organized by the Viet Nam National Center for Social Sciences and Humanities A Vietnamese version titled “Social Welfare and Social Work in Viet Nam During 1990s” has been published in “Review of Sociology” (Institute of Sociology, Ha Noi), No 3&4(67&68)/ 1999, pp 3-9 Ha Noi - August, 2000 Conference "Viet Nam in the 20th Century", Ha Noi 19-21 September, 2000 _htqtvn20.doc The major three institutions of the modern state are politics, economy and social welfare To play an important role, because the social welfare aims to meet basic social needs of social groups and to construct social relationships With such function, social welfare impacts strongly the reduction of social gaps and the strength of social cohesion (Harold L Wilensky & Charles N Lebeaux, 1965; International Labour Conference, 1993; Manfred G Schmidt, 1988) DOI MOI AND SOCIAL WELFARE During the 1990s, social and cultural structures in Viet Nam have been dramatically changed due to the transition from the central planned economy based on agricultural foundations to the socialistic-oriented market economy driven by the state The experiences of early Doi Moi indicated that the high rate of the Government budget for social welfare during the phase 1988-1993 contributed to the successful transition in its first years (The World Bank, 1995) It is recently noted that the role of the social welfare network should be increased in coming steps of the reform The social welfare agenda of the Government puts a series of emerging issues For example, the Multi-purpose Household Survey conducted by the National Statistic Office in 1994-1997 has shown that the income gap was being not de-, so increasing The income difference between the richest 20% households and the poorest 20% ones was 6.5 fold in 1994 It was 7.3 in 1996 The richest 20% households owned 47%, while the poorest 20% households owned only 6.4% of the total income in 1996 (National Statistic Office, 1998).1 The analysis of the World Bank revealed that although the public expenses for the social sector were very high, the social welfare policy of Viet Nam was still non pro-poor (The World Bank, 1995 and 1999; David Preston, 1999) During the 15 years of Doi Moi, in the general expansion of social sciences, numerous studies on social welfare have been carried out Today, it is needed to review the existed data and materials in order to give the recommendations and solutions for shaping a new social welfare system based on an appropriate theory THREE MODELS OF SOCIAL WELFARE Figure describes three types of social welfare that Viet Nam has been experiencing I would like to name them as the traditional type of social welfare, the social welfare of the socialistic central planned economy and the social welfare of the socialistic-oriented market economy The column presents major institutions (actors) participated in the functioning of the system The column identifies the characteristics (principles) of each type Those three types are the abstracts of the reality In history, they replace each other However, the The Viet Nam Living Standards Survey 1998 provided with the same indicators (Tong cuc Thong ke, 1999) Conference "Viet Nam in the 20th Century", Ha Noi 19-21 September, 2000 _htqtvn20.doc present reality is a mixture, a corporation by different way of these three types Figure Systemic Models of Social Welfare in Viet Nam Component Institutions Features Traditional social welfare v Immediate family v Extended family, clan v Community (associations at village level, neighbors, religious organizations) v Comprehensive social welfare within villages: The family and extended family play primary roles for support, but clan and community institutions are also important v Central state sets laws and regulations for social welfare in villages Social welfare based on socialistic central planned economy (since the end 1950s in North and the end 1970s in South until the end 1980s) v v v v State State enterprise/agency Cooperatives State-affiliated mass organizations v Neighborhood v External agency v Social security established for all citizens by incorporating them into state and cooperative sectors v Developing social insurance for state workers and social security for cooperative members, especially in rural areas v Emphasis on planning and managing of social welfare from central state Social welfare based on socialisticoriented market economy (since the end 1980s until now) v State v State-affiliated mass organizations v State, private and other enterprise/agency v Family v Community v Civil society v Individual v External agency v State plays key role in strongly increasing involvement of all sectors of society in contributing to social welfare v Role of private sector recognized and increased v Enhanced role of local governments relative to central government v Favoring role of individual households v Expanding social security and insurance for all citizens in all sectors v Greater economic and administrative independence of state agencies of social insurance v Open to external assistance Source: Bui The Cuong, Truong Si Anh, Daniel Goodkind, John Knodel and Jed Friedman Vietnamese Elderly Amidst Transformations in Social Welfare Policy PSC Reports 1999 SITUATION OF SOCIAL WELFARE Based on observations and recent studies, I try to give 10 comments on the current situation of social welfare They should be seen as the hypothesis that should be tested by appropriate empirical researches, rather than the conclusions The social welfare of Viet Nam has been experiencing three types of social welfare described in the figure They are not absolutely replaced each other The latter includes many characteristics of the previous one The present reality of social welfare is a mixture, a Conference "Viet Nam in the 20th Century", Ha Noi 19-21 September, 2000 _htqtvn20.doc corporation of these three types With that kind of the transition, the Viet Nam state and society could successfully overcome (experience) numerous historical events, such as wars, crisis, embargo, and transition However, even that kind of the transformation yields the difficulties and challenges, which the social welfare system is facing with In this matter, it is lack of social welfare studies to identify the current type of social welfare and to shape a new social welfare system for the next future of the country based on an appropriate theory or doctrine The 1990s are marked as an important phase, in which a legal and policy framework of social welfare for socialistic-oriented market economy is rapidly developed The Government of Viet Nam gave high investments in social welfare sector compared to many countries at the same economic level However, the effects and efficiency of these investments should be in question The economics of social welfare has been overlooked Emerging are some serious constrains and problems in several major components of the social welfare system, especially in the social insurance, health care and education The common dimension of those constrains and problems would be the increasing commercialization of the social welfare system, while there is lack of efficient official framework of the management The civil social welfare has been strongly developed during the 1990s However, there is lack of an appropriate legal and policy framework Consequently, the potentials of this sector are not encouraged Social welfare of the state and non-state sector is not yet basically restructured This leads to the situation that there is lack of new appropriate framework, while numerous outdated social welfare policies are obstructing the economic growth and efficiency Poor social protection for employees in private sector versus "overstaff" in public sector, poor social expenses in private sector versus too high social costs in state-owned enterprises, those are some evidences There is lack of the systematic social welfare policies in some important sectors, such as social welfare in the rehabilitation system and the school system The diversity of social welfare by region, sector, method is rapidly increasing during the 1990s to significantly address the social welfare needs However, it brings with many challenges to the state management of social welfare, which is very slowly changed to adapt to new developments The decentralization of the social welfare system is increasing, while there is lack of strong legal and policy framework to efficiently manage on this tendency 10 The research and education of social welfare (including social workers and policy- Conference "Viet Nam in the 20th Century", Ha Noi 19-21 September, 2000 _htqtvn20.doc makers) have been developing during the 1990s However, those remain still in out-dated theories, methodologies, methods and techniques There are very few good textbooks and studies on social welfare Professional social welfare researchers and workers are still rarely found out DIVERSITY OF SOCIAL WORK The reality of social work in Viet Nam today combines of different origins, including the tradition of mutual assistance in traditional family and clan systems as well as in indigenous village culture; the values and norms of social welfare in the Confucianism, Buddhism and Christians; the social work in the socialistic central planned economy; the social work in terms of the Western tradition Doi Moi opened a new phase for social work with new opportunities and challenges Emerging are new social problems ever unknown A new legal and policy framework is setting up New actors of social work are born Roles in social work are restructuring New approaches, methodologies and methods of social work are being applied The reality of the present transformation in Viet Nam is likely one among the most interesting laboratory of social work as a politics, a science and an art DISTRIBUTION OF SOCIAL WORK What does the social work contribute to the current transformation? To answer, there is not any sound study However, a series of assessment researches on different social programs and projects could suggest a portrait with some light points as follows The policy of the Government, which emphasized on the social sector, led to developing a series of national and local social programs This significantly improved social conditions for the population and also for disadvantaged groups in many regions A noteable evidence was that the rate of the poverty was reduced from the half of the households to 3035% of ones during the period 1993-1998, as indicated in the data of VLSS conducted in 1993 and 1998 The mass organizations, strongly supported by the state, well organized from central to commune level, and having rich experience in the people mobilization, have been trying to overcome their weakness, to improve their methods of social work Doi Moi creates a new sector of social work beside the one of official mass organizations and agencies It is non-government sector, including volunteer social work agencies and workers to support and advocate for vulnerable aged, children, disabled, etc With the open-door policy, an important component of the reform named Doi Moi, the international assistance is strongly increased Some hundreds of international agencies are conducting social programs and projects to help the Vietnamese people Through the collaboration with international projects, many Vietnamese development workers learn so Conference "Viet Nam in the 20th Century", Ha Noi 19-21 September, 2000 _htqtvn20.doc much experiences and skills of the modern social work WEAKNESSES OF SOCIAL WORK Above, only positive aspects of the current social work have been mentioned To be thinking for next phases, it is needed to discuss about its weaknesses In my knowledge, I would like to highlight the points as follows: There is no match between the large investments of the state and society in social sector and their effects Much money invested in the social sector is inefficiently used, due to three reasons: (a) Not all financial sources are given to the people; (b) Not everywhere and at any time the money is given to the competent social workers and agencies; (c) It is not well monitored The state and mass organizations have been trying to overcome their bureaucratic methods of social work However, it is not yet met the present demands In other hand, the prevalence of current complicated social problems requires the increasing participation of broader stakeholders In the paper “Empirical Rresearch in Social Policy” published in 1994, I had comment that until now there was lack of a full legal framework for social work Even given such a framework, it was needed to change the actual attitude and behavior to nongovernment social work to set up an encouraging environment for this sector The dominated situation in the economic sector was that foreign investors were more respected than the domestic ones, state-owned enterprises were more emphasized that did the non-state ones Similarly, in the social sector there was still significant difference in attitude and behavior toward the state versus the non-state social workers and agencies, the foreign social workers (much money) versus the domestic ones That comment is still right today The social work practice established some networks of collaboration, information and experience exchanges However, it is narrow It is needed to set up a broader, national network for domestic social workers Viet Nam has numerous full-time social workers, who are playing key role in social welfare activities However, one among their weaknesses is that the majority of them are lack of knowledge and skills of modern social work Even if they have, it is difficult for them to realize their knowledge and skills due to many institutional and organizational constrains Viet Nam owns not few institutions of social work education and training However, in those agencies the qualification of teaching is low, the research and education methods are out-dated compared to current international developments The reasons would include poor human resource and bad organizing, especially at medium level It should be emphasized on the latter In my knowledge, we would have competent social work educators, who could well implement an university curriculum at the regional (Southeast) level Conference "Viet Nam in the 20th Century", Ha Noi 19-21 September, 2000 _htqtvn20.doc In summary, the Vietnamese social workers today need urgently (a) An appropriate and open legal and policy framework functioning in fact; (b) A broad network of collaboration; (c) A long-term national program on social work education REFERENCES Bui The Cuong, Truong Si Anh, Daniel Goodkind, John Knodel and Jed Friedman Vietnamese Elderly Amidst Transformations in Social Welfare Policy PSC Reports 1999 Bui The Cuong Nghien cuu Thuc nghiem Chinh sach Xa hoi [Empirical research of social policy] In: Tuong Lai (editor) Xa hoi hoc Tu Nhieu Huong Tiep can [Sociology from different approaches] Ha Noi, 1994 David Preston Social Safety Nets in Viet Nam International Labor Organisation October, 1999 Harold L Wilensky & Charles N Lebeaux Industrial Society and Social Welfare The Free Press New York, 1965 International Labour Conference, 80th Session Social Insurance and Social Protection Report of the Director-General (Part I) Geneva, 1993 Manfred G Schmidt Sozialpolitik Historische Entwicklung und Internationaler Vergleich Leske + Budrich Opladen, 1988 The World Bank Viet Nam Development Report 2000: Attacking the Poverty Ha Noi, December, 1999 Tong cuc Thong ke [National Statistics Office] Dieu tra Ho gia dinh Da Muc tieu [Multi-purposes Household Survey] Ha Noi, 1998 Tong cuc Thong ke/VIE/95/043 [National Statistics Office] Dieu tra Muc song Dan cu Viet Nam 1997-1998 [Viet Nam Living Standards Survey 1997-1998] Ha Noi, August 1999 The World Bank Viet Nam: Poverty and Assessment Washington D.C 1995 ... social welfare researchers and workers are still rarely found out DIVERSITY OF SOCIAL WORK The reality of social work in Viet Nam today combines of different origins, including the tradition of mutual... framework is setting up New actors of social work are born Roles in social work are restructuring New approaches, methodologies and methods of social work are being applied The reality of the... for the social sector were very high, the social welfare policy of Viet Nam was still non pro-poor (The World Bank, 1995 and 1999; David Preston, 1999) During the 15 years of Doi Moi, in the general