Can CBPM become a national system ? THE 3rd ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF PEP NETWORK Dakar (Senegal) - June 2004 _____________________________________________ Can CBPM become a national system ? Vu Tuan Anh Socio-Economic Development Centre Hanoi, Vietnam

Tasks of a poverty monitoring system To provide a clear understanding of the characteristics of the poor, causes of their poverty, and where they are located. To monitor the progress and impacts of poverty alleviation policies, programmes, measures and projects.  PMS collects, analyses, disseminates poverty-related data to policy makers, researchers, communities.

Existing popular PMSs (1) Household living standards survey quantitative income - consumption survey both census / sampled survey national scope centralised activities (2) Participatory poverty assessment qualitative survey sampled survey local scope decentralised activities

Disadvantages of existing PMSs Heavy surveys Too costly to be replicated frequently. Different coverage and reference periods of surveys => impossible to get a comprehensive profile of the different social groups at a specific point in time. Sampling designs do not usually correspond to the geographical disaggregation needed for policy planning.  do not provide regular and up-to-date picture of the poverty status of vulnerable groups.

CBPMS Frequently conducted Simple indicators (focussing on basic needs) Participation of the communities Different local scopes Decentralised and flexible activities   Low-cost.  Providing frequent and comprehensive information on poverty in localities.  Easy-to-sustain.  Enhancing local capacity.      

However... Concerns about CBPMS Does the set of simple indicators satisfy the needs of policy-making process? Does the participatory data collection meet the quality requirements? Can local communities properly process and analyse the collected data? Can results of CBPMS be aggregated and integrated in a national database? Can CBPMS extent scope and become a national system?

Decentralisation

CBPMS at localities

A national database of CBPMS

Implementation of CBPMS in Vietnam (1) Set of indicators: Basic needs + Income (2) Types of household surveys: Census (1st year) + Sampling (next 4 years) (3) Data gathering: Local surveyors + External supervisors (4) Data processing: Computerisation + Ready software

Buiding a national CBPMS (1) Steps in our top-down approach:  Implementing CBPMS in a national system of poverty observatories 2002: testing CBPMS in 20 communes, 12 provinces.  Implementing CBPMS in provinces 2003-04: testing CBPMS in 2 provinces: + Hatay with 30 communes + Yenbai with 10 communes

Buiding a national CBPMS  Encouraging other provinces to build provincial poverty observatory systems.  Integrating data of provincial poverty observatories in a national system => Provincial observatories become national.

Buiding a national CBPMS

Buiding a national CBPMS

Buiding a national CBPMS

Buiding a national CBPMS (2) Standardisation and unification of indicators at national and local levels: Set of main indicators (for all levels) + Set of specific indicators (different for localities and administrative levels) (3) Institutionalizing CBPM and searching financial support. (4) Integrating CBPMS with LSS and other national surveys.

Thank you