Poverty

Network Updates

CBMS

Community-Based Community-Based Monitoring System

Vol. I No. 1 December 2003

Community-based poverty monitoring:

a pilot implementation in Vietnam’s poverty observatories*

T

Vu Tuan Anh and Vu Van Toan**

Why and how the system was chosen, how it was implemented, what its results are, and how useful they are, are detailed in this article.

o help in assessing poverty changes and the impacts of poverty reduction policies and measures on communities and households, a community-based poverty monitoring system (CBMS) was recently piloted in Vietnam’s poverty observatories.

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Poverty in Vietnam: a situationer

Located in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is bordered by China on the north, Laos

*Excerpt from a CBMS Network Research Paper of the same title presented during the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) Research Network Conference held on November 4-8, 2003 in Hanoi, Vietnam. **Leader of the research project on “Multi-dimensional poverty assessment in Vietnam” under the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)-sponsored international research programme Poverty and Economic Policy, and Deputy Director of the Managing Office of the Vietnam National Target Programme for Hunger Eradication, Poverty Reduction and Job Creation, respectively.

and Cambodia on the west, the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea on the south, and the Gulf of Tonkin on the east. The country, which consists mostly of mountains and forests, has a population of 79.9 million (July 2001), with an annual growth rate of 1.9 percent (1995-2000). 2

Editor’s Notes

We are pleased to bring you the inaugural issue of the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Network Updates, the official quarterly newsletter of the CBMS Network. This publication takes over the former MIMAP Project Updates which took its final bow in the September 2003 issue. The CBMS Network, which was officially established in October 2002, evolved from fundamental...