From Livelihood Support to Sustainable Poverty Reduction

Livelihood support opens pathways out of poverty

H'Luyen's family in N'Jang Bo bon, Truong Xuan Commune, has five sao of coffee (approximately 5,000 square meters). However, a lack of investment capital has prevented the family from properly tending the coffee plantation, leaving their income unstable. She and her husband have mainly relied on casual labor to cover living expenses and support their children's education.

In response to their circumstances, the family received a pesticide sprayer and a brush cutter, enabling them to better care for their coffee plantation, reduce labor requirements and gradually improve production efficiency.

“Previously, my husband and I mainly worked as hired laborers to make ends meet. Now, with additional machinery to care for our coffee plantation, life is less difficult. We can invest more in production and improve our income. As a result, I have now been removed from the list of poor households,” H'Luyen shared.

H'Luyen's experience demonstrates that livelihood support is most effective when it addresses each family's actual needs, providing the means to expand production and gradually improve living conditions through their own efforts.

Truong Xuan Commune has continued to put this approach into practice through its project, “Party Organizations, Officials and Party Members Accompanying and Supporting Poor Households in the Commune, 2026–2030, with an Orientation Toward 2035.” Under the project, Party cells, officials and Party members have implemented various forms of assistance tailored to the circumstances of individual poor households.

In Pang Sim bon, Le Van Thuong received 300 grafted coffee seedlings worth VND 4.2 million, while Nguyen Thien Du Vy received 1,020 coffee seedlings and 300 pepper plants, with a total value of VND 8 million. In Bu Pah bon, H'Di received support for a livelihood model involving meat-pig farming.

Thi Trai, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Truong Xuan Commune Party Committee, said: “The commune currently has 141 poor households and 196 near-poor households. In response, we have assigned Party organizations, officials and Party members to monitor and support individual households, selecting livelihood models suited to each family's circumstances. Alongside addressing practical difficulties, we focus on fostering self-reliance and resilience to help prevent households from falling back into poverty and to reduce the emergence of new poor households.”

Livelihood support gives poor households better opportunities to expand production and increase their incomes. However, since the causes of poverty vary from family to family, assistance must be tailored accordingly. Providing seedlings, materials or production tools is only the first step. More importantly, continued support is needed to help residents sustain production, stabilize their incomes and avoid falling back into poverty.

This is also a challenge facing the province's western communes, where many households still depend on agricultural production for their livelihoods.

Sustaining progress and preventing a return to poverty

Escaping poverty does not necessarily mean that a household's living conditions have become stable. For families dependent on agriculture, incomes fluctuate with growing seasons, weather conditions and agricultural commodity prices. A single poor harvest or an unexpected family crisis can undermine the progress they have made.

Therefore, alongside initial assistance, monitoring household circumstances, identifying emerging difficulties and providing timely support are essential to sustaining livelihoods and reducing the risk of falling back into poverty.

According to Pham Thi Thuy, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Duc An Commune Party Committee, escaping poverty is difficult, but preventing a return to poverty is even more challenging. For this reason, local authorities continue to visit households that have escaped poverty and monitor their living and production conditions so that assistance can be provided promptly when difficulties arise.

For farming households, improving incomes takes time, as crops must mature, produce harvests and generate a stable source of revenue.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Quoc Dung, Chairman of the Dak Mil Commune People's Committee, said the locality combines resources from various programs and projects with livelihood assistance and investment in essential infrastructure. Communication and awareness-raising activities are also emphasized to strengthen self-reliance and resilience, particularly among ethnic minority communities.