The Reality of Hunger and Poverty Among Khmer People in The Mekong Delta Region

Abstract

Today, hunger and poverty are not only national problems but also global problems. In Vietnam, our party regards eradicating hunger and reducing poverty as goals throughout the country’s economic and social development process. Poverty eradication is a fundamental factor in ensuring social justice, enhancing sustainability, creating material strength, and providing opportunities to support poor people in getting out of poverty. This is clearly reflected in the principles and policies of the Party Congress on eradicating hunger and reducing poverty. Recently, at the 13th National Congress, our party declared: “Focus on the development of hunger eradication and poverty reduction in remote areas and extremely poor areas. Diversification of resources and means of poverty reduction, linked to agricultural and rural development, educational development, vocational training and job creation, to eradicate hunger and reduce poverty sustainably." In the Ten-Year Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2011-2020) , the task of "implementing poverty reduction policies more effectively" is determined, poverty alleviation is adapted to different periods, diversifying resources and methods, ensuring sustainable poverty reduction, especially in the poorest areas and extremely poor areas, encouraging the enrichment of the people and the government in accordance with the law, and narrowing the Policies and solutions to the wealth gap. The Mekong Delta is an area with a large Khmer population, with approximately 1,201,691 people, accounting for 6.93% of the region's population. The provinces with the largest Khmer population are Soc Trang (397,014 people), Tra Vinh (318,288 people), Kien Giang (213,310 people), and An Giang (91,018 people). There are approximately 400,000 poor households in the region, of which more than 72,000 are Khmer poor households (ranking the highest proportion of ethnic minority poor households in the region). Faced with this situation, it is very important to study and understand the hunger and poverty problems of the Khmer people, and is of great significance to the country's overall development strategy, especially the development strategy of the Mekong Delta region