Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City faces significant and growing flood risk. Recent risk reduction efforts may be insufficient as climate and socio-economic conditions diverge from projections... Show More + made when those efforts were initially planned. This study demonstrates how robust decision making can help Ho Chi Minh City develop integrated flood risk management strategies in the face of such deep uncertainty. Robust decision making is an iterative, quantitative, decision support methodology designed to help policy makers identify strategies that are robust, that is, satisfying decision makers' objectives in many plausible futures, rather than being optimal in any single estimate of the future. This project used robust decision making to analyze flood risk management in Ho Chi Minh City's Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal catchment area. It found that the soon-to-be-completed infrastructure may reduce risk in best estimates of future conditions, but it may not keep risk low in many other plausible futures. Thus, the infrastructure may not be sufficiently robust. The analysis further suggests that adaptation and retreat measures, particularly when used adaptively, can play an important role in reducing this risk. The study examines the conditions under which robust decision making concepts and full robust decision making analyses may prove useful in developing countries. It finds that planning efforts in developing countries should at minimum use models and data to evaluate their decisions under a wide range of conditions. Full robust decision making analyses can also augment existing planning efforts in numerous ways. Show Less -

This paper investigates the role of employment opportunities created by foreign-owned firms as a determinant of internal migration and destination choice using the Vietnam... Show More + Migration Survey 2004 and the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey 2004. Multinomial logit and conditional logit models are estimated to study both origin and destination-specific characteristics of migrants. The paper finds that the migration response to foreign job opportunities is larger for female workers than male workers; there appears to be intermediate selection in terms of educational attainment; and migrating individuals on average tend to go to destinations with higher foreign employment opportunities, even controlling for income differentials, land differentials, and distances between sending and receiving areas. Show Less -

Using newly collected survey data on direct supplier-multinational linkages in Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Vietnam, this paper first evaluates... Show More + whether foreign investors differ from domestic producers in terms of their potential to generate positive spillovers for local suppliers. It finds that foreign firms outperform domestic producers on several indicators, but have fewer linkages with the local economy and offer less supplier assistance, resulting in offsetting effects on the spillover potential. The paper also studies the relationship between foreign investor characteristics and linkages with the local economy as well as assistance extended to local suppliers. It finds that foreign investor characteristics matter for both. The paper also examines the role of suppliers' absorptive capacities in determining the intensity of their linkages with multinationals. The results indicate that several supplier characteristics matter, but these effects also depend on the length of the supplier relationship. Finally, the paper assesses whether assistance or requirements from a multinational influence spillovers on suppliers. The results confirm the existence of positive effects of assistance (including technical audits, joint product development, and technology licensing) on foreign direct investment spillovers, while the analysis finds no evidence of demand effects. Show Less -

This paper uses small area estimation techniques to update Vietnam's province and district-level poverty map to 2009. It finds that poverty rates continue to be highest... Show More + in the northern and central mountainous regions, where ethnic minorities make up a large fraction of the population. Poverty has fallen in most provinces and districts over this decade, but the pace of poverty reduction has been least pronounced in those localities with high initial poverty or inequality levels. As a result, poverty rates have become more spatially concentrated over time, which is consistent with widely observed growth processes linked to agglomeration. The authors hypothesize that this makes geographic targeting of the poor more relevant as a means to re-balance growing welfare disparities between geographic areas. Simulations indicate that in both 1999 and 2009, geographic targeting for poverty alleviation improves upon a uniform lump-sum transfer and this becomes more evident the more spatially disaggregated the target populations. The analysis further indicates that the gains from geographic targeting have become more pronounced over time in Vietnam. Although poverty reduction in Vietnam has been impressive, further progress may thus warrant increased attention to geographic targeting. Show Less -

This case study is aimed at providing a descriptive assessment of the key features of Vietnam's Social Health Insurance (SHI), focusing on the impediments to integrating... Show More + the poor into universal coverage. The trajectory of SHI in Vietnam is similar to that of many other countries in the East Asia and Pacific region. The poor were covered under a separate Health Care Fund for the Poor to begin with. The 2009 Law on Health Insurance merged all of the different programs into one. Health insurance premiums for the poor were fully subsidized by the government and enrolment became mandatory, resulting in almost complete enrollment of the poor by 2011. Vietnam has combined elements of contributory social health insurance with substantial levels of tax financing to provide coverage for the poor and informal sector. The case study is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the institutional structure and system characteristics of Vietnam's SHI. Section 3 addresses the main topic of the case study - the impediments to integrating the poor. Section 4 concludes by addressing the pending agenda. Show Less -

This guideline provides companies in Vietnam with some simple steps to follow to get started in sustainability reporting. In particular, it focuses on environmental... Show More + and social (E&S) aspects of business performance. The present draft is designed so Vietnamese companies can quickly apply it to prepare good quality sustainability reports to meet investor and stock exchange requirements. Companies that display a good sustainability performance and disclosure level will help improve Vietnam's overall E&S performance. This document serves to highlight the basic disclosure requirements for a company to begin its reporting journey. Once initial reporting experience has been attained, listed companies are encouraged to evolve beyond these guidelines with the objective of following international best practices. Studies show that companies that excel in managing sustainability are also likely to do well financially. For these and other reasons, a growing number of companies are taking the decision to publish sustainability reports alongside or integrated into their annual financial reports and websites. A sustainability report enables companies and organizations to report sustainability information in a similar way to financial reporting. Sustainability reports are released by companies and organizations of all types, sizes and sectors, from every corner of the globe. Show Less -

The Executive Directors approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit in the amount of SDR 131.5 million (US$200 million equivalent) for the Vietnam... Show More + Results-based Rural Water Supply and Sanitation under the National Target Program (NTP) on the payment terms and conditions set out in the President's Memorandum. Directors welcomed the use of the program for results lending instrument for the operation, noting that this is the first time the instrument is being used in the East Asia and Pacific region and in the water and sanitation sector. Directors highlighted the importance of linking disbursements to concrete results in service delivery and strengthening country systems and governance at national and provincial levels. In this regard, Directors urged the team to work closely with the Government on implementation to address gaps in the NTP's governance, procurement and financial management systems and build capacity of the implementing agencies, so as to build sustainability of the program. Directors noted the importance of close supervision and monitoring of risks, engaging beneficiaries in the Program, maximizing transparency and ensuring wide dissemination of annual results achieved and lessons learned, and coordinating closely with other donors. Show Less -

Trung Son is a $411.57 million medium-sized hydropower and development project located in Northwest Vietnam that will supply least-cost electric power for domestic consumption... Show More + in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner and will contribute to improvements in dam safety in the power sector in Vietnam. The project will also contribute to the climate change agenda in Vietnam by avoiding CO2 emissions of about one million tons per year (net) taking into account the additional low emissions from its reservoir. Trung Son hydropower project includes the development, construction, and operation of the power plant using water from the Ma River and releasing it into the same basin. The project's development objective is linked to supply of the least-cost electric power in a safe and environmentally and socially sustainable way. The Trung Son hydropower project is an example of how hydropower can help support Vietnam's development in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable way. Show Less -

Handwashing with soap, which has been shown to reduce diarrhea in young children by as much as 48 percent, is frequently mentioned as one of the most effective and inexpensive... Show More + ways to save children's lives. Yet rates of handwashing remain very low throughout the world. Handwashing with soap campaigns are de rigueur in developing countries, but little is known about their effectiveness. Few have been rigorously evaluated, and none on a large-scale. This paper evaluates a large-scale handwashing campaign in three provinces of Vietnam in 2010. Exposure to the campaign resulted in a slight increase in the availability of handwashing materials in the household, and caregivers in the treatment group were more likely to report washing hands at some of the times emphasized by the campaign. However, observed handwashing with soap at these times is low, and there isn't any difference between the treatment and control groups. As a result, no impact on health or productivity is found. These results suggest that even under seemingly optimal conditions, where knowledge and access to soap and water are not main constraints, behavior change campaigns that take place on a large scale face tradeoffs in terms of intensity and effectiveness. Show Less -

The Vietnam Handwashing Initiative (HWI) began in January 2006 with the goal of reducing morbidity and mortality from diarrheal diseases in children less than five years... Show More + of age. In December 2006, Vietnam became one of four countries in the Water and Sanitation Program's (WSP) Global Scaling Up Handwashing Project. The objective of the project was to learn how to stimulate improved hand washing behaviors at large scale, sustain the activities after the project ended, and measure the impact on behavioral, health, and welfare outcomes. This learning note presents the achievements, learning, and reflections that resulted from implementing a large-scale hand washing program in Vietnam and provides recommendations for future hygiene promotion initiatives. During the four-year implementation (2006-2010), the program achieved all four of its key objectives. However, a randomized control trial (RCT) impact evaluation found no significant changes in hand washing behavior and no impact on health in children under two. Although much has been learned about how to implement a nation-wide communication program in Vietnam, behavior change at scale has proven challenging. Show Less -