It is urgent to create a common legal framework for the reform of the decentralization and granting of authority to communes and community with a view to sustainably reducing poverty. The suggestion was proposed at a policy dialogue on the issue held by the National Office on Poverty Alleviation under the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in collaboration with British Oxfam in Vietnam. The dialogue shared information concerned in order to revise mechanisms and policies relating to poverty alleviation in the upcoming time, especially the mechanism to decentralize and grant authority to communes and community. Oxfam undertook a policy-analysis work on “Commune-level planning with the participation and decentralization of finances to grassroots levels” within the “Supervising and analysing poverty-alleviating policy” project in Lao Cai, Hoa Binh, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Dak Nong, Ninh Thuan and Tra Vinh in 2014-2016. The results showed the provincial government plays a key role in implementing the reform of commune-level planning and increasing the decentralization of investment to communes and granting rights to community to implement small-sized, simple projects in poverty-alleviating programs. The observations also showed that a common central legal framework on commune-level planning and decentralization as well as the granting of authority to community will help multiply initiatives at commune levels. The reform of commune-level planning for economic-social development with the participation of community has been a nationwide movement following the period of piloting village-and commune-level planning in some provinces in 1990s. Thirty provinces, including the seven aforementioned provinces, are carrying out the reform of the commune-level planning, which proved effective in most disadvantaged communes in Muong Khuong district in northern Lao Cai province, Dak Rong in central Quang Tri province and Bac Ai in central Ninh Thuan province. (vietnamplus.vn Dec 10)
