This ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council)-DFID funded project investigated why ethnic minority peoples have failed to share equally in the benefits of Vietnam’s recent rapid economic growth, despite the plethora of government programmes designed to assist them.
The project combined rigorous quantitative analysis of three rounds of household survey data from the 1990s and early 2000s, with a qualitative review of the policy implementation process at different levels of government in three provinces. Innovative quantitative methods drawn from the recent literature on labour market micro-econometrics were used to investigate which ethnic groups are lagging behind and why the ethnic gap has widened over time. The extent to which different ethnic minorities experience unequal treatment, both on average and at different points of the welfare distribution, was investigated together with whether the policies introduced to promote ethnic minority development have functioned as intended.
The project’s objectives, emerging findings and policy conclusions have been discussed extensively in a series of meetings and informal seminars with key stakeholders from the Government, donors and NGOs in Vietnam. This extensive user engagement strategy has stimulated a dialogue around appropriate measures to promote ethnic minority development.
The project was implemented by IDS and the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex in partnership with the Centre for Analysis and Forecasting of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences.
ESRC award number RES-167-25-0157
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