Social protection response to COVID-19: Experiences and lessons from Vietnam

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 is not merely a global health crisis, but a comprehensive socio-economic disaster worldwide due to its multidimensional impacts and wide-range consequences for most countries. As a middle-income country in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has been suffering from the multifaceted consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and has made the most significant effort to respond. In response to challenges caused by Covid 19, Vietnam has been trying to introduce social protection policies to support the COVID-19 affected groups. The study conducted 58 in-depth interviews with different representatives from policymakers, policy implementors at different levels, and beneficiaries (the poor, persons with disabilities, informal/freelance workers and so on) to draws a picture of the pandemic impacts via the voices of different stakeholders. It then describes how the government and community’ social protection policies are responding to manage the pandemic and its multidimensional impacts. The paper highlights and discusses the lessons from Vietnamese experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• social impacts
• social protection policies
• community initiatives
• Vietnam

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The funding information Social Protection Response to COVID-19 in Southeast Asia Project, Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), Mahidol University, Thailand provided has been checked against the Open Funder Registry and we failed to find a match. Please confirm if the Funding section is accurate and also confirm the funder name Social Protection Response to COVID-19 in Southeast Asia Project, Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), Mahidol University, Thailand.

Notes on contributors

Lan Nguyen

Lan Nguyen, PhD, is senior lecturer and head of Social work devision, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Hanoi. She is among the pioneer qualified trained lecturers in social work in Vietnam at the beginning of the 2000s. Her contribution to the development of social work in Vietnam is well acknowledged in both field: education and professionalization of the social work profession. Her main interests are: social work in child protection, social work indigenization and authentization, social care, social work research and social welfare.

Minh Bui

Minh Bui is a lecturer at the University of Social Sciences andHumanities (VNU Hanoi). He also serves as Head of Policy Research andDiscussion affairs at the Private Sector Development Office (CommitteeIV), which belongs to the Vietnamese Prime minister of the administrativereform advisory council. He received his doctoral degree in social workat Vietnam National University Hanoi and master degree in public policy atFulbright University Vietnam. His researches focus on social welfare,public policy, and sustainable development in Vietnam.