Technical meeting on social pension expansion in Viet Nam

ILO-MOLISA's technical meeting aims to provide guidance on implementation of the social pension expansion at province level under Decree 20/2021/NĐ-CP.

© ILO
Decree 20 regulates the expansion of social protection coverage for Viet Nam's most vulnerable persons, including children, older persons and persons with disabilities.

This is a significant demonstration of the Government’s commitments to leaving no one behind and realizing the right to social security for everyone.

On 2 July 2021, one day after the Decree 20/2021/ND-CP came into effect, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in collaboration with the ILO organized a nationwide technical meeting to discuss the expansion of the coverage of the social pension at the provincial level.

With technical support of the ILO, MOLISA has developed the National Guideline for provinces to develop their own social pension extension policy, making use of the provincial funding.

This expansion will be essential to enable Viet Nam to meet Resolution 28 target of having 60 per cent of pensionable population covered with at least one source of income security by 2030. Representatives from DOLISA in 30 provinces attended the meeting virtually, and have been introduced the simulation model which will support the development of policy options for Social Pension extension in each province.

The meeting was also recorded in order for the provide access to the meeting's content to the representatives of all remaining provinces.

MOLISA and ILO plan to pilot the simulation model in at least 10 provinces across the country during quarters 3 and 4 of 2021. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), within the framework of UN Joint Programme to Accelerate Viet Nam's Transition towards Inclusive and Integrated Social protection, will contribute to these efforts by supporting the pilot in 5 of these 10 provinces, exploring existing synergies between the UN agencies.

This activity is part of MOLISA-ILO’s Implementation Agreement in 2021 focused supporting the expansion of the coverage of the Social Pension in Viet Nam.

In 2018, the Central Commission of Vietnamese Communist Party issued the Resolution 28-NQ/TW, which endorses the Master Plan on Social Insurance (MPSIR) to guide social protection reforms in Viet Nam, with a commitment to achieve universal coverage through multi-tiered systems.

Through this, Viet Nam aligns itself with the key international normative references such as the ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation (No. 102), Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention (No. 102) and the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.