Summary of PhD thesis in Economic Management: Housing support policies for ethnic minority people in the Northwest region

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INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale

Vietnam has 53 ethnic minorities comprised of 13.4 million people, accounting for 14.6% of the country's population; they live in community in 51 provinces and cities, 548 districts, 5,266 communal administrative units. Ethnic minorities mainly dwell the Northwest, the Central Highlands, the Southwest and the Central Coast, accounting for three fourth of the country's territory. These are mountainous, border areas with divided terrain, harsh climate, or in other words the most uncompromising living habitat in our country. On the other hand, these areas assume particularly strategic position in terms of defense, security and ecological environment.

The 1980 Constitution stated "citizens have the right to own housing" ... "The state expands housing construction, and at the same time encourages and helps collectives and citizens to build houses which aligns with the general planning, in order to step by step exercise that right. The distribution of housing areas managed by the State must be fair and reasonable”; The 2013 Constitution also states "Citizens have the right to own their legal residence", "Everyone has the right to his/her ownership of legal income, savings, housing ...", and the State must “devise a policy for housing development, facilitate its people to have a place to live". On that basis, the Party and State have over the years implemented many programs and projects such as Program 134, Program 135, Program 167, National Targeted Program for Poverty Reduction, Supporting Program for Implementation of Sedentary Cultivation and Life Settlement for Ethnic Minorities, which so far have achieved remarkable results. For instance, the Program 134 (period 2004-2008) has supported accomodation for 373,400 poor ethnic minority households; the Program 167 (period 2009-2012) has supported 224,000 poor ethnic minority households, of which housing support has been given to nearly 89,000 poor households in 62 poor districts...

Therefore, the State has had for years devised policies aimed at eradicating hunger, reducing poverty, quickly narrowing the gap in material and spiritual life among regions and ethnic groups. Our Party and State have issued a vast array of policy for socio-economic development of ethnic minority areas such as: Support of settlement of residential land, productive land, domestic water; production development and livelihood stablization for poor ethnic minorities, poor households in extremely uncompromissing areas; livelihood stablization for spontaneous migrating ethnic minorities; socio-economic development for scantily populated ethnic minorities...

However, ethnic minority areas have been heretofore the core of poverty of the country, the gap between the rich and the poor has not been narrowed down, the average income of ethnic minority households is only 2/5 the average income of the country, especially in the Northern and the Central Highlands where remain 865 thousand poor ethnic households, accounting for 52.66% of the total number nationwide (Government, 2018)... This requires the State to pay attention to socio-economic development of ethnic minority areas, heading towards narrowing the socio-economic gap.

However, the housing shortage for ethnic minority people has not been completely resolved. Looking at the census results on poor households and near- poor households according to the multidimensional poverty index applicable for the period 2016-2020, published by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs on June 22, 2017, there were still more than 1.98 million poor households, accounting for 8.23% of total number in the country, of which it is worth mentioning that there were more than 740 thousand households that fell short of housing quality index and 571 thousand households that fell short of housing area index, accounting for 37.29% and 28.79% respectively of the total number in the country. Moreover, nearly 460 thousand poor households lacking housing are ethnic minorities, which accounts for more than 62% of poor households in the country. The increase in living area per capita/m2 of ethnic minority regions is still the lowest in the country, standing at nearly 3m2/person.

The shortage of housing/residential land is one of the reasons for people’s unstable life, entailing multifaceted negative consequences. Taking advantage of the underdeveloped and unstable living condition, as well as their poor understanding, malice-fueled men have incited and persuaded people to leave off One of the key factors creating a premise for the country's socio-economic development is addressing housing needs. The Party and State have always determined that the housing demand is one of the essential needs of the people, which contributes to the development of our country, and considered the promotion of housing development for the poor in general and the ethnic minorities in particular one of the key socio-economic development tasks of the country.

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(iv) What solutions can be implemented to improve housing support policies for people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area? 3. Subjects and scope 3.1. Subjects their residence for a better place. This causes disturbance within the community, difficulties for population management, especially border management, and potentially causes threats to the security of the border area. Not to mention the risk of disrupting the socio-economic development plans and destroying the ecological environment caused by deforestation, slash-and-burn farming.

Subjects of the study: (i) Housing support policies for people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area; (ii) Results of implementing housing support policies for people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area; (iii) Impacts of the policy on the people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area. 3.2. Scope (i) Content scope: The thesis studies housing support policies for ethnic minority people in the Northwest. (ii) Spatial scope: The thesis carries out research in ethnic minority areas The Northwest sub-region is one of two sub-regions in the midland and mountainous region of Northern Vietnam, assuming a strategic position in terms of security, politics, defense, economy and ecological environment. The Northwest region is also home to the largest concentration of ethnic minorities among the 7 regions of the country (over 18%); the income per capita here is the lowest and the poverty rate is the highest in the country nonetheless. The rate of housing area per capita also remains the lowest, while the rate of temporary housing remains the second highest among 7 regions (following the Northeast). in the Northwest. (iii) Temporal scope: The thesis studies housing support policies for

ethnic minority people in the Northwestern region in Vietnam (2008 - 2018) and solutions to finalizing policies in 2025 and towards 2030. 4. Methodology

Desk research: This method was to collect documents related to theories, reviews and secondary data that provided basis for the research. This method helped to give an overall overview of the research problem.

Therefore, housing support for people in ethnic minority areas in general and the Northwest region in particular is an urgent cause at present. Besides, many policies have been implemented ineffectively, which entails the need to conduct a study that should provide a scientific basis for state agencies and related organizations on housing support policies in ethnic minority areas in general and ethnic minority areas in the Northwest in particular. Thus it can contribute to helping the people improve their accessibility to housing, enhancing the quality of housing, improving the quality of life and escaping poverty. Therefore, the topic: "Housing support policies for ethnic minority people in the Northwest region" was selected for this study. 2. Objectives The general goal of the topic is to evaluate housing support policies for people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area. To achieve the research objectives, the thesis answers the following questions: (i) What is the current state of the work of planning and implementing housing policies and housing support policies for people in the Northwestern region? (ii) What are the current results of implementing housing support policies Interview: This method was conducted with households in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, officials from relevant ministries (Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance, People's Committee) and other departments selected for investigation. The method was conducted to: (i) learn and discover difficulties and advantages when implementing housing support policies for people in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the Northwest; (ii) discovering the hit and miss of the current policy; (iii) predicting the development trend of the continued implementation of the policy. The results provide the basic for exploring new variables or provide in-depth data to explain additional research results. for ethnic minority people in the Northwest? (iii) What is the impact of housing support policies on people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area? Survey: This method was applied to ethnic minority people in the Northwestern region, which consists of households both receiving housing support and not receiving support. The dissertation surveyed households on

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CHAPTER 1: RESEARCH OVERVIEW

1.1. Research overview on housing and housing support policies for ethnic minority people 1.1.1. Research overview on housing 1.1.2. Research overview on housing support policies for people in ethnic minorities areas household characteristics, basic indicators about the household such as employment, level... These income, health, expenditure, educational information help assess the impact of the policy on the people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area. In addition, information on the ability of the policy to respond to the needs of the poor, barriers to access to policy, and comments on people's satisfaction with the policy are also collected for the purpose of the thesis research. (i) The study focuses on gathering experiences and practices of policies in all over the world (ii) The study focuses on housing policy implementation 1.1.3. Research overview on factors influencing planning and implementation of housing support policies for ethnic minority people (i) Policy making Descriptive statistical analysis method: This method was used to analyze the current housing situation and housing support policies over the years; the accessibility to housing assistance, the satisfaction level and the factors affecting the level of satisfaction with housing support policies in the Northwestern ethnic minority areas. On that basis, the research proposes suitable solutions to increase the effectiveness of the impacts, the accessibility, and the people's satisfaction with housing support policies in Northwestern ethnic minority area. (ii) Policy implementation 1.2. Research overview on housing support policy assessment in general and for ethnic minorities in particular 1.2.1. Research on assessment of the impacts of housing policy 1.2.2. Research on population satisfaction with the quality of public and housing services Regression analysis method: The study uses regression analysis to examine the factors that have impact on the satisfaction with housing support policies of people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area. Keeping up with the aim of the thesis, the multivariate linear regression model was used to provide more empirical evidence on the impact of these factors on the satisfaction of people in the Northwestern ethnic minority area (beneficiaries of housing support policies). 1.2.3. Studies related to assessment of the policy for the Northern ethnic 5. Structure minority areas Chapter 1: Research overview 1.3. Research gap Chapter 2: Theoretical and practical basis of housing support policies for On the basis of an overview of previous researches, it can be found that: ethnic minority people Chapter 3: Research methodology Chapter 4: Characteristics of the locality and the housing situation in the (i) Studies of policy analysis on the Northern ethnic minorities are quite diverse, but there remains a shortage of research on the housing support policy for people in the ethnic minority areas in general and in the Northwest region in particular. Northwestern ethnic minority region Chapter 5: Housing support policies for ethnic minority people in the Northwest Chapter 6: Solutions to improving housing support policies for ethnic minority people in the Northwest

(ii) Studies of policy analysis on the Northern ethnic minorities mostly limit to analyzing the current situation and the implementation criteria, conducted with the main methods which are theoretical methods and descriptive statistics. There have been researches of policy analysis based on the accessibility and satisfaction of people with the services, but the impact of the policy on the improvement of people's lives has not been investigated. Moreover, people's satisfaction with the implementation of the policies at all levels of local authorities has not been

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2.3.2. Criteria to policy evaluation studied, while this is an important reflector of the results and the effectiveness of policy implementation. 2.4. International experiences in housing policy for the low-income 2.3.1. The USA 2.3.2. Wales 2.3.3. France 2.3.4. Singapore 2.3.5. Japan 2.3.6. Lessons for Vietnam (iii) Both domestic and oversea existing studies of housing policy mostly focus on case studies (lesson of experiences) on housing policy implementation for people with difficult circumstances (low-income people, ethnic minorities...) and mainly assess the quality of housing services in terms of housing characteristics, rent, living environment... However, there still lacks studies focusing on housing support policies, at the level of policy planning and implementation and beneficiaries' opinions on the policy implementation process. CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research framework 3.1.1. Framework for evaluation of housing support policy for ethnic minorities in the Northwest (iv) In addition, studies on the assessment of people's satisfaction with the quality of public services are limited to the evaluation scale of the quality of public service implementation. They lack the assessment of the engagement role of the people in the implementation of public services, as well as the degree of policy response in terms of living improvement, income improvement, and access to policy. The thesis proposes this research theoretical framework as follows:

These are the reasons why it is necessary to research HTNO policies for ethnic minority people and help fill in the gaps left by previous research works.

CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BASIS OF

HOUSING SUPPORT POLICY FOR ETHNIC MINORITY PEOPLE IN THE NORTHWEST

2.1. Ethnic Minority Areas and Ethnic Minority People 2.1.1. Ethnic minority 2.1.2. Ethnic minority areas 2.1.3. People in ethnic minority areas 2.2. Housing support policy for people in ethnic minority areas 2.2.1. Concepts and foundaions for forming housing support policies for people in ethnic minority areas 2.2.2. Objectives and principles of the housing support policy for ethnic minority people 2.2.3. Subjects of housing support policies for ethnic minority people Figure 3.1. Framework for evaluation of housing support policy for 2.2.4. Policy content ethnic minorities in the Northwest 2.3. Basis for policy analysis and evaluation Source: Synthesized and demonstrated by the author 2.3.1. Approaches to public policy evaluation

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Table 3.1. Interpretation of the scale, the basis and the hypotheses on the impact of the variables 3.1.2. Models, scales and hypotheses on the factors affecting the satisfaction of people in ethnic minority areas with housing support policy Interpretation 3.1.2.1. Research theoretical model Variable Nhóm đặc điểm hộ sản xuất

Hailong People's satisfaction with the policy, measured by a 5-level likert scale Basis for selecting the variable Canter &Rees (1982), Parasuraman et al. (1988), Le Duc Niem & Truong Thanh Long (2017)

gioitinh Onibokun (1974), Galster (1987), Varady et al. (2001) The sex of the head of household equals 1 if the head is male, and 0 if the head is female

tuoi Age of the head of the household Onibokun (1974), Van Praag et al. (2003), Vera Toscano & Ateca- Amestory (2000)

The policy's goal is to help people have a better life, safer living conditions and more sustainable development. To evaluate these critaria, it is impossible to base solely on subjective opinions of the local authorities. Instead the evaluation must be measured by the level of people's satisfaction and policy beneficiaries. The higher people's satisfaction, the more effective the policy is. Therefore, in order for the policy to be more wholy implemented, to better meet the needs and the aspirations of the people, it is necessary to identify the factors that affect people's satisfaction, to provide grounds for proposing and building solutions. The thesis determines the factors and the degree of influence of these factors on the satisfaction of people in the Northwestern ethnic minority areas with housing support policy: dantoc Onibokun (1974), Jagun et al. (1990), Lu (1999)

giaoduc Onibokun (1974)

Onibokun (1974) ctxh

Kc Onibokun (1974), Nguyen Dinh Hung (1999)

honnhan Onibokun (1974), Galster (1987), Varady et al. (2001)

Proposed by the research context htro

ictb Figure 3.2. Model of factors affecting the satisfaction of people in the Northwest region with housing support policy Feeman (1998), Varady et al. (2001) 3.1.2.2. The scale The scale of the variables in the model is explained in Table 3.1 caithien Proposed by the research context The ethnic composition of the head of household equals 1 if the head is of the Kinh ethnic group and 0 if the head belongs to another ethnic group The education level of the head of household equals 1 if the head is at high school or higher, otherwise 0 If the head of household is a member of political – social groups then the variable is 1, if the head is not a member a political – social groups, then the variable is 0 Distance from home to commune center, measured in kilometers Marital status of the head of the household equals 1 if the head is married, equals 0 if the head is unmarried Household receiving support equals , not receiving support equals 0 Income change thanks to the policy is measured by the difference between the income before and after the policy is in place, unit: million dong The level of household improvement the housing after implementing

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Basis for selecting the variable Variable

provinces, summary reports on policy implementation by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities, etc. In addition, secondary data are also collected through magazines, journals, mass media, the Internet ...

Proposed by the research context tiepcan Interpretation support policy: equals 1 if less, equals 2 if not changing, equals 3 if there is improvement but not much, equals 4 if significantly improved Level of accessibility improvement to housing / residential land. Measured using a 5-level likert scale

TD the The people's assessment of attitude of government officials. Measured using a 5-level likert scale 3.2.1.2. Collecting primary data a. Qualitative research Sample size: The number of interviewees was 30: 05 officials at relevant ministries and central departments; 15 local government officials in the two provinces where the research was conducted and some provinces in Northwestern ethnic minority areas; 10 people living in the Northwestern ethnic minority areas in the Northwest, thus grasping the difficulties and problems in implementing the housing support policy for ethnic minority people in the Northwest.

NL The people's assessment of the capacity of government officials. Measured using a 5-level likert scale Pham Thi Hue & Le Dinh Hai (2018), Pham Thanh Dau & Dang Thanh Ha (2019), Le Duc Niem & Truong Thanh Long (2017) Pham Thi Hue & Le Dinh Hai (2018), Pham Thanh Dau & Dang Thanh Ha (2019), Le Duc Niem & Truong Thanh Long (2017) The content of the interview includes two parts: Information of the interviewee and the content of the interview (Housing support policy for ethnic minority people, advantages and disadvantages of implementation, the advantages and disadvantages of access to support policies ..)

TG Le Duc Niem & Truong Thanh Long (2017)

QT Pham Thi Hue & Le Dinh Hai (2018) b. Quantitative research Research sample ● Criteria for sample selection The thesis selects a research sample based on the following criteria: (i) Households living in Northwestern ethnic minority area that are subject to the housing support policy and have received support from the policy. (ii) Households living in Northwestern ethnic minority area that are subject DU Phan Thi Dinh (2013), Nguyen Dinh Hung (2019) to the housing support policy and have not received support from the policy (yet). assessment of policy time. Measured T Pham Thi Hue & Le Dinh Hai (2018)

of CK Nguyen Thi Tram Anh & Nguyen Dinh Manh (2017) People's assessment of people's engagement in the policy. Measured using a 5-level likert scale People's assessment of housing support policy implementation procedures. Measured using a 5-level likert scale People's assessment of the response to the policy content. Measured using a 5-level likert scale People's implementation using a 5-level likert scale People's the assessment transparency of the policy. Measured using a 5-level likert scale Source: Synthesized by the author 3.2. Research methods ● Sampling method The thesis performs stratified random sampling through three steps: Step 1: Select the sample by location and by household. In terms of location, based on the scope of the poor households and the level of difficulty in terms of housing and residential land, the thesis chose research sites in Dien Bien and Lai Chau. In each province, the thesis selected two districts from which 2 communes with a large number of households that needed assistance were surveyed. Specifically: 3.2.1. Data collection methods (i) Dien Bien: Quai Cang and Quai To in Tuan Giao District, together with Xa Nhe, Muong Dong and Tua Chua were selected as study sites. ii) Lai Chau: Mu Sang and Si Lo Lau in Phong Tho district, together with 3.2.1.1. Collecting secondary data Secondary data are collected and synthesized from publications such as: National Statistical Yearbook and Yearbooks published by the Northwestern Ta Tong and Ta Ba in Muong Te district were selected as study sites.

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(iii) Differerence comparision in the levels of satisfaction between the two research groups of households

Regarding sampling of households: Based on the list of poor households receiving housing (residential land) support under the Decisions 134, 1592, 2085, 755 of the communes, the thesis selected the households by simple random sampling method (simple random sampling) according to the journey of the author. 3.2.2.3. Factor analysis method The thesis uses the method of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to calculate variables using perceptual scale (measured by likert) employed in the research model.

3.2.2.4. Regression analysis method Assessing satisfaction and determining factors affecting the satisfaction of ethnic minority people in the Northwestern region with HS policy are one of the research objectives of the thesis, so the regression analysis method is used to estimate the impact of these factors on people's satisfaction. The model is as follows: Y = βo + β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X3i+ ... βnXni + ei Step 2: Determine the sample size With 95% confidence, the overall size of over 10,000,000 households, according to Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai et al. (2015), the sample size is determined to be 384 observations. Of which 192 households (50%) were entitled to the support policy and 192 households were eligible for support but did not receive support from the policy. In fact, to ensure the sufficient number of collected questionnaires, the thesis has surveyed on a total of 430 questionnares, and the number collected questionnaires reached 415. After checking the number of the collected questionnaires, only 401 were satisfied. Therefore, the actual sample size is 401 observations.

Proceed with data collection The thesis collected data using direct questioning method: which households received support and which did not receive support from the housing support policy in the selected research sites. The interviews and questionnaires survey with households in Dien Bien and Lai Chau provinces took place from December 2018 to December 2019. In which Y is the dependent variable, depending on variables X1, X2, X3 ... Xn. In this model, Y is the variable representing the assessment results of the HS policy, through measuring the levels of people's satisfaction with the HS policy. X1, X2, X3 ... Xn are independent variables affecting the dependent variable, the cause of impact on variable Y. Coefficient βo is the Y-Intercept of the model, coefficients β1, β2, β3… βn are determined through the estimation model, reflecting the impact levels of factors on Y. 3.3. Research data Table 3.2. Description of the data in the research sample

Quota

Average

Min

Max

3.2.2. Data analysis method 3.2.2.1. Descriptive statistical analysis method 3.2.2.2. Group mean comparison method (i) DID - Difference in Differences on the impact of HS policy on: (i) income of households before and after the policy was in place and (ii) cross difference between the group of households receiving support and the other not receiving support.

(ii) Differerence comparision in the levels of improvement in living standard/access to material basics between the two groups of households that received support and did not receive support after the policy was implemented.

(i) Differerence comparision in the perception assessment of policy content and implementation of the two groups of households that received and did not receive support.

45.6 Dien Bien (%) 54.4 Lai Chau (%) Male head of the household (%) 83.04 Age of the head of the household (years old) 37.05 3.49 Kinh people (%) 1.99 People with high school education and above (%) 64.08 Members of socio-political organizations (%) 98.75 Married (%) 9.71 Distance to the center of the commune (km) 47.13 Households that received support (%)

Standard deviation 0.4986 0.4257 0.3757 9.324 0.1837 0.1400 0.4803 0.1111 2.6736 0.4998

0 0 0 18 0 0 0 1 8 0 1 1 1 66 1 1 1 6 20 0 (ii) Differerence comparision in the perception assessment of the levels of participation in the HS policy of the two groups of households that received and did not receive support. Source: Extracted from survey results (2018-2019)

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4.2.3. Need for housing and residential land support 4.2.3.1. Need for housing and residential land of poor ethnic minority areas nationwide 4.2.3.2. Need for housing and residential land of the Northwestern ethnic CHAPTER 4. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AREA AND HOUSING SITUATION OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE NORTHWESTERN REGION minority people 4.1. Natural and socio-economic characteristics of the Northwestern Over the past years, a large number of people in the Northwestern ethnic ethnic minority areas minority areas do not have houses and residential land (CEMA, 2019). 4.2. Current housing and residential land situation of people in the Northwestern ethnic minority areas Table 4.2. Need for housing and residential land of the Northwestern ethnic minority people 4.2.1. House size Unit: Household Table 4.1. House area per capita by economic region Unit: m2/person House area per capita by economic region Period 2011-2015 2016-2018 Need for residential land 8037 2660 Pursuant to 755/2013/QĐ-TTg, 2085/2016/QĐ-TTg Source: CEMA (2017,2019) 4.2.3.3. Cause of the shortage of housing and residential land in the Northwestern ethnic minority areas

Red River Delta Northeast Northwest North and Central Coasts Central Highlands Southeast Mekong River Delta 2016 24.6 21.3 15.8 21.6 19.7 22.5 22.2 2018 2014 26.6 23.2 22.76 20.45 16.93 14.65 23.1 20.6 21.1 18.5 23.5 22.7 24.1 21.4 Source: General Statistics Office (2019).

Actual investigation revealed a number of reasons for the shortage of housing and residential land in the Northwestern ethnic minority areas: (i) Small area of owned house (land) and natural disasters’ destruction; (ii) Land selling and transferring to high-income earners or people from other places; (iii) Existing nomadic practices; (iv) Changes in population due to planning, redistribution or free migration, which affects the residential land bank; (v) Rapid increase in the population of ethnic minorities; (vi) Decrease in land bank due to acquisition for infrastructure construction and socio- economic development; (vii) Natural disasters (earthquakes, floods ...). The level of home ownership of people in the Northwestern region is low with many people being homeless and it is necessary to support the people in this area, especially the ethnic minority people. 4.2.2. Housing situation CHAPTER 5. HOUSING SUPPORT POLICIES FOR THE NORTHWESTERN ETHNIC MINORITY PEOPLE

5.1. Housing support policy-making 5.1.1. The necessity of HS policy for the Northwestern ethnic minority people 5.1.2. The content of HS policy for the Northwestern ethnic minority people 5.2. Policy implementation 5.2.1. Assignment of policy implementation tasks 5.2.2. Mobilization of resources for implementing HS policy for the According to the General Statistics Office (2019), ramshackle and makeshift houses in the Northwestern region in recent years has been on the increase, of which the proportion of makeshift houses has increased by more than 3.4%, among the top highest compared to other regions of the country. In addition, according to the latest results from the census of population and housing (as of April 1, 2019, of the Central Population and Housing Census Steering Committee (2020)), the proportion of households with ramshackle houses in the Northwestern region has increased to 19.8%, ranking highest among the 7 regions of the country. Northwestern ethnic minority people

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5.2.3. Evaluation of HS policy implementation at the local level 5.3.3. Results of the inspection and evaluation of the HS policy implementation 5.3. Results of implementing housing support policies in the 2011-2018 period 5.3.1. Results of housing and residential land support for ethnic minority people Results of housing and residential land support for ethnic minority people

For the Northwestern ethnic minority areas, in the period 2011-2015, the number of households that received residential land support was 0 while over 8000 households in the Northwestern region were in the need of residential land support but could not have the access to it. The results of support for housing, residential land and production land in the period 2016-2018 are still in the capital allocation process, and the Decision No. 2085 is still in the implementation stage, so the implementation results in terms of the number of households receiving support have not been recorded. Some results from the monitoring and supervision found that: (i) the investigation, review, synthesis of the support needs and project support, formulation and approval of localities are unrealistic and inadequate, causing difficulties in implementation; (ii) The management and use of the allocated funds of some localities are ineffective, failing to serve the right objects and take the right forms of support, exceeding the prescribed level (Lai Chau (CEMA, 2019)); (iii) At the locality, the inspection, supervision, and information report are not timely, inadequate, causing difficulties for consultation, guidance and administration; (iv) Construction supervision, use management, repair and maintenance have not been carried out regularly, so some projects, after being invested and put into use, were quickly damaged, degraded and rendered ineffective. 5.3.4. Assessment of the accessibility of housing support policy for the Table 5.1. Results of housing and land support for ethnic minority people in the Northwestern region Northwestern ethnic minority people Residential land 5.3.4.1. The coverage and responsiveness of the HS policy for the Note Period Northwestern ethnic minority people Need (Household) Support result Number Percentage (i) Results of the policy’s coverage - accessibility Pursuant to 2011-2015 8037 0 0 2016-2018 2660 Pursuant to Source: Synthesized and calculated by the author from MPI (2019), CEMA (2019) 5.3.2. Results of capital support for housing and residential land need

The ability to access residential land, capital and loan support of the Northwestern ethnic minority people in the period 2011 - 2015 (the results shown in Tables 5.13 and 5.15) is 0% and 17.81. Thus, in the period 2011-2015, no households in the Northwestern ethnic minority areas had access to residential land, and only 17.81% of households had access to capital support and loan support from the government’s housing support policy. This rate shows that the accessibility of the housing support policy for the Northwestern ethnic minority people is very low. (ii) Survey results of people on the extent of improvement in access to In the period 2011-2015, the amount of support capital was 397,874 million VND, equivalent to 17.81% of the capital support and loan needs of the people here.Over 80% of households have unmet need for loans (capital support) for residential land. So far th results of capital allocation in the period 2016-2018 have only achieved 0.355% and Decision No. 2085 is in the implementation process. housing and residential land after HS policy implementation

Table 5.2. Results of capital support for ethnic minority people in the Northwestern region Table 5.3. Extent of improvement in people's access to housing (residential land) after HS policy implementation Support result Basic material Househol Househ Difference Period Note Need (million VND) Number Percentage Access to 2.363 3.449 1.086*** 2011-2015 2,234,022 397,874 17.81 Pursuant to 755/2013/QĐ-TTg Source: Author's survey 2016-2018 2,971,487 10,571 0.355 Pursuant to 2085/2016/QĐ-TTg 5.3.4.2. Barriers to accessing HS policy of the Northwest for the Source: Synthesized and calculated by the author from MPI (2019), CEMA (2019) Northwestern ethnic minority people

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5.3.5. Satisfaction of the Northwestern ethnic minority people with the HS policy

Satisfaction

Standard error (Std Err)

Significance (Sig)

Coefficient (Coef)

5.3.5.1. Survey results of the satisfaction of the Northwestern ethnic minority people with the HS policy

Access (extent of improvement in access to housing/residential land)

0.2072

0.0481

0.000

Table 5.4. Satisfaction of the Northwestern ethnic minority people with the HS policy

Officials (assessment of the quality of government officials)

0.0221

0.0465

0.635

Content

Participation (of the people)

0.0417

0.0517

0.000

Process (of policy implementation)

0.1914

0.0547

0.001

Househ olds with support

Househ olds without support

Responsiveness (of the policy)

0.0899

0.0387

0.021

Difference Mean Xi (Support=1) – Mean Xi (Support=0) 0.73***

You are satisfied with the HS policy implementation process

3.16

3.89

Time (of policy implementation)

0.0562

0.0337

0.096

2.73

3.86

1.14***

Transparency (the policy being overt and transparent)

0.0764

0.0331

0.022

You are satisfied with the HS policy content and level of support

Cutting coefficient

-0.5041

0.3398

0.139

You are satisfied with the HS policy implementation results

2.65

3.70

1.05***

Number of subjects

401

Source: Author's survey

Corrected R2

0.6222

5.3.5.2. Estimated results of factors affecting the satisfaction of the Source: Calculated by the author based on survey data (2018-2019) Northwestern ethnic minority people with the HS policy 5.5. Assessment of the housing support policy’s impact on the lives of the Northwestern ethnic minority people Table 5.5. Regression results of factors affecting the satisfaction of the Northwestern ethnic minority people with the HS policy 5.5.1. The impact of policy on the improvement in living standard

Satisfaction

Coefficient (Coef)

Standard error (Std Err)

Significance (Sig)

Gender (male head of the household)

0.2572

0.0851

0.003

Age (of the head of the household)

0.0037

0.0034

0.271

Ethnicity (Kinh head of the household)

0.1473

0.1732

0.395

Education (head of the household with high school education or above)

-0.0243

0.0338

0.473

Social work (head of household participating in social work organizations)

0.1345

0.0773

0.083

Marital status (married head of household)

-0.2362

0.2884

0.413

Distance (from the household to the center of the commune)

-0.0170

0.0073

0.02

Improvement (extent of improvement in living standard)

0.0974

0.0606

0.109

Table 5.1. Assessment results of the improvement in living standard of the Northwestern ethnic minority people after the HS policy

Support (household with support)

0.2057

0.0835

0.014

Source: Author’s survey

ictd (change in income)

0.0706

0.0473

0.136

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*Impact of the policy on income

improvement is modest and has facilitated households’ access to basic social services in life. Besides, it is found that 40% of surveyed households feel relatively satisfied with the HS policy. Table 5.6. Difference in differences in terms of income of households in the Northwestern region Unit: million VND/household Difference Difference in differences Some unsolved problems. The coverage or accessibility of the HS policy remains low. Most of the households without residential land have no access to it and over 80% of households have no access to loans from the government's HS policy. No Quota Sig Sig ∆Xi (s, support = 1) - ∆ Xi (s, support = 0) Xi (s) – Xi (t) 1 Income (Support=1) 0.7005 0.000 0.3467 0.000 2 Income (Support=0) 0.3538 0.000 Source: Author's survey 5.5.2. Impact of HS policy on the extent of access to life’s material basics 5.5.3. Impact of the policy on poverty reduction

Table 5.2. Rate of poor households in the Northwestern region in the period 2010 - 2019

The extent of improvement of households after receiving support is mostly recorded as "little” while still more than 40% of households (receiving support) think that their life has not been improved. The policy content has many big goals, low quota of support and fails to take into account regional factors as well as the local actual situation. This leads to the fact that many parts of the content are not relevant to the local actual situation (the support quota of 5 million VND - 15 million VND /household/ha is too low). Resources for policy implementation are facing many difficulties. The land bank in the localities is no longer available or is running low; the support budget is tight while the number of beneficiaries is large; the source of mobilized contributions from people is negligible; the scale of project attraction (ODA, WB, ADB ...) is small. The content of policy documents is listing, vague and dispersed in many documents; in addition, there is a lack of action plans or specific strategies. Implementation was slow from the issuance of documents (mainly guiding circulars) to the process in localities. The assignment of tasks and the coordination mechanism are unspecific and unclear and there is no effective method to link localities. Policy implementation lacks the stage of doing survey to collect feedbacks or needs from the people. In many localities, the verification and classification (selection) of the beneficiaries are inaccurate. In addition to the HS policy, many other policies are also implemented at the same time, so there is an overlap in policy contents, making it difficult for the localities to allocate (integrate) the budget. Moreover, many localities still do not take the initiative, but just look for and rely on the policies. Source: General Statistics Office (2019). 5.6. General assessment

In policy evaluation, there is currently no specific(institutionalized) relevant process . There is also no set of tools or criteria applicable to monitoring and evaluating policies. The policy evaluation is still mainly internal, done by the policy-making agencies, or localities, ministries and agencies responsible for reporting implementation results, which renders the reported results not really objective and the accuracy of the information limited. Some achieved results. As a result, the policy has supported nearly 20% of the loan needs of people in the area (including both phases). In addition, it has contributed to the increase in the households' income and brought about improvement in the lives of the people here, although the extent of

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CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 6. SOME SOLUTIONS TO COMPLETE THE HOUSING SUPPORT POLICY FOR THE NORTHWESTERN ETHNIC MINORITY PEOPLE 6.1. The basis for creating solutions 6.1.1. Perspectives and goals for ethnic minority policies 6.1.2. Main research findings 6.2. Solutions to improve the effectiveness of the HS policy for the Northwestern ethnic minority people 6.2.1. Group of solutions for policy making 6.2.1.1. Reviewing the content of policy documents to avoid duplicate content and overlapping agencies of management 6.2.1.2. Surveying and collect people's opinions on policy content

After nearly 35 years of reform, Vietnam is increasingly developing with great historic achievements. The overall picture of the country has undergone many significant changes, as General Secretary-President Nguyen Phu Trong said, “Our country has never earned such a status, a position and prestige in the international arena like today". The people's life has been improved and the economy has flourished and thrived. However, the gap between the rich and the poor is also increasing, and so is the development gap between urban and rural areas. Especially, the rich and poor gap between ethnic minorities and developed regions tends to increase. Ethnic minority areas are the ones that benefits less from the reforms and is more vulnerable to market mechanisms in the context of climate change and global integration. A part of ethnic minority people still faces many difficulties in their lives and free migration and lack of residential land and housing still remain fairly common. If his situation persists, it will be a potential threat to national security, to the ecological environment and above all to the overall development of the ethnic minority community and ethnic minority people.

6.2.1.3. Reviewing and checking information on resources for policy implementation, on the basis of needs for support of the people along with the price of land, materials and labor in localities. 6.2.1.4. Developing a coordination mechanism for vertical and horizontal implementation of the policy at all levels, from central to local government. 6.2.1.5. Renovating the process of public policy making in a democratic form. Mobilizing wisdom of experts, scientists and the whole people for policy making Over the past 10 years, the Party and the State, all levels, sectors and the whole political system have paid special attention to ethnic minority areas and many policy documents have been issued to settle and support housing, residential land for ethnic minority people. However, the results are still modest, the number of households lacking residential land and housing is still high, and people's living standards have not been much improved. By field survey method, collection of people's opinion; in-depth interviews with central government officials and local government officials at grassroots levels, the thesis pointed out: 6.2.1.6. Focusing on improving the qualifications of policy makers 6.2.2. Group of solutions for policy implementation

6.2.2.1. Promoting propaganda and raising awareness of the entire population about the HS policy for ethnic minority people, on the basis of which, expanding community participation in policy implementation and enforcement In terms of policy making and implementation. Many documents and regulations related to the policy have been issued, but their content is limited; policy implementation and the issuance of guiding documents are slow; resources for policy implementation are insufficient, dispersed and difficult to integrate; mechanisms, processes and criteria of policy evaluation have not been formulated and institutionalized; the selection of the policy beneficiaries in localities is not really accurate;

6.2.2.2. Developing a clear and transparent mechanism for assigning tasks among ministries and departments and assigning implementation contents down to the grassroots level. 6.2.2.3. Speeding up the policy implementation, ensuring timely and In terms of the results, HS policy for the Northwestern ethnic minority people is not really effective. In the period 2011-2015, households in need of residential land support cannot get access to the policy. The proportion of households receiving loan support is still low; people's level of satisfaction with the policy content, implementation process and results is not high; effective support for policy beneficiaries 6.2.2.4. Selecting to implement the priority policy, specifying the policy with specific programs and action plans In terms of the policy’s impact on people's lives, the ability to improve their lives, income and access to basic services is not noticeable and not much enhanced. Based on the research findings, the thesis proposes 3 main groups of solutions 6.2.3. Group of solutions for policy evaluation to further improve the HS policy for the Northwestern ethnic minority people.