Poverty and Survival Prospects of Vietnamese Children under Doi Moi
By international standards, and given its relatively low per capita income, Vietnam has achieved substantial reductions in, and low levels of, infant and under-five mortality. The authors review existing evidence and provide new evidence on whether...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, D.C.
2013
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/04/1775831/poverty-survival-prospects-vietnamese-children-under-doi-moi http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14805 |
| Summary: | By international standards, and given
its relatively low per capita income, Vietnam has achieved
substantial reductions in, and low levels of, infant and
under-five mortality. The authors review existing evidence
and provide new evidence on whether, under the economic
liberalization program known as Doi Moi, this reduction in
child mortality has been sustained. They conclude that it
has, but that the gains have been concentrated among the
better-off. As a result, socioeconomic inequalities in child
survival are evident in Vietnam-a change from the early
1990s when none were apparent. The authors develop survival
models to find the causes of this differential decline in
child mortality, and conclude that a number of factors have
been at work, including reductions among the poor (but not
among the better-off) in coverage of health services and in
women's educational attainment. They argue that if the
experience of the late 1990s is a guide to the future, the
lack of progress among the poor will jeopardize
Vietnam's chances of achieving the international
development goals for child mortality. The authors examine
various policy scenarios, including expanding coverage of
health services, water and sanitation, and find that such
measures, while useful, will have only a limited effect on
the mortality of poor children. They find that programs
aimed at narrowing the gap between the poor and better-off
may have large beneficial effects on the various
determinants of child survival. |
|---|