Diversifying livelihoods and vocational training for sustainable poverty reduction

Leaders of departments, branches and units attended the meeting.

According to the Provincial People's Committee, in recent times, policies and programs to implement the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction in the area have been effectively implemented with the attention of all levels and sectors and the consensus and support of the people, contributing to stabilizing people's lives, increasing income, reducing unemployment, reducing the rate of poor households, and initially transforming the structure and quality of labor in a positive direction.

By the end of 2022, the multidimensional poverty rate in the province was 4.27% (including the poverty rate and the near-poverty rate), of which 7,407 households were poor, accounting for 2.41%. The total capital for the 2021-2025 period was over VND 365 billion. By the end of March, the mobilization of credit capital for poverty reduction targets reached VND 3,657 billion, an increase of VND 79 billion compared to 2022.

Ca Mau strives to reduce the poverty rate in the area to below 1% by the end of 2025 (illustrative photo)

Identifying poverty reduction and ensuring social security as one of the important political tasks, the province has proactively developed plans, measures and specific steps. Strengthening dissemination, propaganda and education work, making cadres, party members and people clearly see the role, position and importance of sustainable poverty reduction work to effectively organize and implement each policy when deployed and implemented.

In particular, the role of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations has been maximized, making an important contribution to poverty reduction results. Youth Union branches, associations, and Front working committees have registered to sponsor, help, and support in many forms 2,439 poor households, near-poor households, and newly escaped poverty households. Thereby, 1,793 households have been helped to escape poverty, accounting for 73.5% of the total number of households receiving help.

It is known that the capital from the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in 2023 has been disbursed very low so far, the disbursement rate of the central budget has only reached 1,529/79,721 billion VND, reaching 1.91%; investment is still scattered and small-scale, leading to ineffectiveness.

Pointing out the contents that need to be focused on and implemented drastically in the coming time, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Minh Luan emphasized that investment work needs to be focused and key to bring about practical results; closely reviewing programs and projects; determined to increase the disbursement rate of the Program...

Ms. Nguyen Thu Tu, Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that in 2022, the allocation of central budget capital to implement the Program for localities was slow, which affected the progress of implementation and implementation of the Program in localities as well as the results of achieving the Program's objectives; it is necessary to have institutions according to the provisions of Decree No. 27/2022/ND-CP dated April 19, 2022 of the Government.

“In the 2021-2025 period, Ca Mau province does not have any poor districts, so it does not benefit from the central budget to support housing for poor and near-poor households. Therefore, it is proposed to consider providing financial support to Ca Mau province to support housing for poor and near-poor households,” Ms. Nguyen Thu Tu proposed, at the same time informing that according to the results of the poverty household review at the end of 2022, the whole province of Ca Mau has 4,598 poor households that are lacking in housing.

At the meeting, the province proposed that the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs consider providing general guidance for low-income groups and expanding the target groups for the Program, so that localities can use it as a basis for implementation. It is recommended that consideration be given to removing obstacles or submitting to the Prime Minister for consideration to increase the level of support for food and travel expenses for the subjects specified in Article 5 of Decision No. 46/2015/QD-TTg on policies for elementary level training and training under 3 months, because the current level of 30,000 VND/person/day of actual vocational training is low, making it difficult to attract participants.

- Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh noted and suggested key contents that Ca Mau needs to prioritize in the coming time and effectively promote the Program's capital.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh noted the goal of building infrastructure for 6 extremely disadvantaged communes in the area. This is a resource for building roads, with a focus, long-term use, facilitating production, circulation, and transportation of goods, improving living standards, facilitating sustainable poverty reduction, and contributing to new rural construction.

“Regarding livelihood diversification, when completing the production support model, it must be large-scale, leading, and spreading so that many people can follow. It is necessary to improve production skills and change production thinking. To escape poverty, we must focus on vocational training and stable, long-term income to escape poverty sustainably. From here, improve the quality of human resources, consider exporting labor…”, the Deputy Minister emphasized./.

Tran Nguyen - Chi Dien