The site reports and local-level workshops have sparked off this debate at a local level and _Vietnam: Attacking Poverty_ and the discussions at the CG meeting have really opened up the space for this debate at a national level. Examples of such topics include: how to bring households closer to decision-making processes, how to deal with their lack of information; the need to investigate policies and procedures around revenue-raising at a local level; the need to re-think the status of migrants; the need to look at equity issues within the households and across ethnic groups. Now that these topics are out in the open, in a published document that has the endorsement of Government, there is a sense of greater legitimacy in pursuing these topics in policy formation and program design.

# Actual policy change

It is now six months since the PPAs were published and first circulated. _Vietnam: Attacking Poverty,_ the poverty assessment that provides a key link between the PPAs an(d policymaking, has been in the public domain for slightly less time. It is still quite early to expect major policy changes to be in place. There are encouraging signs that many of the PPA findings are filtering through the system and will lead to changes in the future. These early steps are collated in Table 2 below: Table 2: How PPA findings might translate into policy changes

|**_PPA findings_**|**_Policy change_**_in_**_the making_**|
|---|---|
|A strong demand for a greater range of<br>opportunities to develop sustainable livelihoods,<br>particularly those which reduce the dependence on<br>landholdings of reducing size (all PPAs)|Study of constraints to the development of the off-farmn<br>sector in Tra Vinh (funded by World Bank, UNDP,<br>Mekong Project Development Facility (MPDF) and<br>DFID, conducted by MPDF)|
|Marginalisation of ethnic minorities in upland<br>areas (Lao Cai and Tra Vinh PPAs)|Study planned, funded by UNDP. To feed into an ethnic<br>minority development plan|
|A strong sense of vulnerability to both household-<br>level and community level shocks, with ill health|*High costs of curative health care currently being<br>looked at as part of the health sector review and the|
|<br>being the single most significant shock which<br>poor households endure|<br>Public Expenditure Review<br>*<br>Government request to donors to work intensively<br>to help develop a more integrated approach to<br>dealing with community-wide shocks and disasters|
|A voiced concern about the lack of information<br>about initiatives, plans and programs which affect<br>their livelihoods and a sense of alienation from<br>decision-making processes|Lack of access by poor households to information orn<br>legal rights and "knowledge of the poor" included by<br>Government as an issue to be addressed in the poverty<br>reduction strategy|
|Links between poverty and mechanisms for<br>commune-level financing (Ha Tinh PPA)<br>I|Study on fees and voluntary contributions included in<br>the Public Expenditure Review and discussed with<br>Ministry of Finance. This has had an important<br>awareness-raising<br>function and actions are being<br>considered to rationalize the system.|
|.......**..**.... ..... ...............**.....**...**..**.....**.**.......................**........**<br> **...**....**..**... _....**.**..**...**....**.**... .....**.**..................**........**..**.**.<br>____<br>High direct costs of education for the poor<br>...**.**<br>.....<br>..................**.............** **.**.....**.**.<br>..... ---<br>.<br>**................**<br>..**..**<br>.......<br>.<br>.**...**|.........<br>______._.._.....<br>Currently being looked at as part of the Public<br>Expenditure Review|

20