Thạc Sĩ Phụ nữ nông thôn và việc làm ổn định Tình huống nghiên cứu tại Xã Krongpa

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SỸ MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY THESIS
NĂM 2011RURAL WOMEN AND GOOD JOBS A CASE STUDY OF KRONGPA VILLAGE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Problem Statement 1
1.2. The scope and the purpose of the study 3
1.3. Research questions of the study 3
1.4. The structure of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW . 5
2.1. Concepts . 5
2.2. Theoretical background . 5
2.2.1. Theory of Poverty and Poverty Reduction 6
2.2.2. Theory of Poverty in Ethnic Minorities 7
2.2.3. Theory among women 7
2.2.4. Employment 8
CHAPTER 3: DATA AND METHODOLOGY 9
3.1. Methodology . 9
3.2. Data 10
CHAPTER 4: KRONGPA CASE STUDY AND RESULTS 12
4.1. KrongPa case study 12
4.2. Results 17
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 33
5.1. Conclusion 33
5.2. Policy recommendations 34
5.3. Limitations of the study 36 v
ABBREVIATIONS
MOLISA: Ministry of Labor – Invalids and Social Affairs.
VHLSS: Vietnam Households Living Standard Survey.
VBSP: Vietnam Bank for Social Policy


INTRODUCTION
1.1. Problem Statement
While researchers and policy makers are finding out solutions to help people overcome their poverty, the poor themselves cannot wait for the benefits of economic growth. They actively seek ways to survive without help from the government. They do not even know that they are the subjects of the government’s concern. It is difficult to find out the causes and trends of poverty from the poverty data. But the story behind these causes and reasons are different in countries all over the world.
In order to understand the causes of poverty we must move beyond static analysis of headcount rates to investigate poverty dynamics, in other words, the reason households fall into poverty or climb out of poverty. According to Antolin et al (1999), job loss is one of the reasons that people become poor. Good jobs bring a stable income which is enough for daily living and expenses such as school and medical fees. Jobs are important to study because they bring income which is the only criterion to determine the poverty line in every part of the world.
The official poverty line in Vietnam has been changed from VND 200,000 to VND 400,000 per month in rural areas due to inflation in recent years (Decision No. 09/2011/QĐ-TTg date 31/01/2011). This change must make the poverty rate in rural areas increase dramatically where income from farm employment is much lower than in non-farm employment. In Vietnam, the bottom twenty percent of the population by comsumption works in agriculture while the richest twenty percent is in non-farm employment (Figure 1.1.1). It is obvious that most of the rural population participates is in farm employment (Figure 1.1.2) including wage and self employment.
Despite the uncertainty of income, the importance of farm employment to the economy is certain. The government tries so hard to create as much off-farm employment as possible in rural areas to diversify income. Empirical studies show that about fifty percent of rural women quickly join in off-farm jobs to diversify their income while their husbands keep in farm work. That helps their family cope with changes in agriculture product prices and the seasonality of agricultural employment and income
Studying access to jobs and their role in the individual’s life will shed light on the reasons why some households are not as poor as others and how some have escaped poverty. Through detecting the real causes behind the participation of women in the labor market, this study contributes a different dimension to the field of poverty research and poverty reduction which may be a reference for other studies. The study results will give a new story about how poverty is created and how it is overcome in practice. This topic is one of the important parts of national development strategies in every country. It is not only the responsibility of government but also a significant issue in the policy decisions of government.

1.2. The scope and the purpose of the study
The research is written as a case study so that all findings are just relevant to the context of the study location. More generalizable findings must await large-scale, national research on poverty dynamics. The contribution of this study is to investigate the dynamic processes of poverty reduction in one location. The findings contribute to poverty knowledge in an ethinic minority community. In order to understand poverty theories and to place these theories in context, the study will consist of an in-depth case study of one location in which poverty is a persistent problem. This study focuses on how women can earn a stable income and help their families escape poverty. A lack of information in quantitative studies and the absence of information on migrants are obstacles to understanding poverty and poverty escapes in rural areas in Vietnam. The study will tell an interesting story about a boundary village where many Rhade have lived for a long time. This story will shed light on some factors affecting employment that might be not the same as in other places.
For this purpose and context, the scope of this study will focus on a village which supplies a case study to implement the purpose of the research.
1.3. Research questions of the study
The study will attempt to answer three main research questions:
Question 1: Why do some women get better jobs than others?
Question 2: Why are some women more vulnerable to falling into poverty than others?
Question 3: What is the importance of jobs to poverty escapes?
1.4. The structure of the study
The study consists of five chapters. Following this introduction, the rest of the study is structured as follows.
Chapter 1 is devoted to the literature review in order to provide the analytical framework for the thesis. It presents concepts, discusses the theoretical background, and then lays out a framework for studying the reasons why some women get better jobs than others.
Chapter 2 reviews empirical studies concerning poverty among women, poverty in ethnic minority communities and employment which is tested in the thesis on a group of women.
Chapter 3 decribes the data, sets out the study methodology, and discusses the implementation of the survey. Chapter 4 presents the results from KrongPa village, the location that is the subject of the case study.
Chapter 5 concludes with a summary of main findings and policy recommendations. It also includes some remarks on the limitations of the study.