Tóm tắt Khóa luận Role of grassroots socio - Political organizations in ensuring social security for rural residents: case study in 2 communes

ct in Vietnam. Limitations of the research Since this research was conducted in the rural areas only, trade unions are not included in the study. Regarding the role of socio-political organizations in ensuring social security for rural residents, this research focuses only on two components, namely the labor market and social assistance. The research did not explore the social insurance component in this study as the researched communes are wholly covered by social insurance. Despite the fact that the labor market policy consists of several policies, this thesis assumes that the labor market policy system directly related to and having impacts on socio-political organizations only includes employment policies, vocational training policy and credit policy. 6. Theoretical and practical significance of the thesis Theoretical significance: The thesis contributes to verifying the universality as well as the accuracy, rationality and applicability of the role theory and organized sociological theory. In addition, the thesis also aims to contribute more foundations to political sociology. Practical significance: The thesis also helps policymakers, local authorities and residents to assess socio-political organizations’ effectiveness of in ensuring social security, thereby making appropriate operational policies and mechanisms, and at the same time helping organizations to evaluate their own operations to search for better performance. 5 Chapter 1. AN OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH SITUATION In terms of social policies, socio-political organizations are responsible for supervising the implementation of the law on social security, including receiving people's feedback, directly collecting information and data for reviewing, monitoring and detecting law violations of agencies, organizations, units or individuals in the implementation of the law on social security, and making direct recommendations to competent authorities for settlement. From the people's view, apart from their traditional advantages, socio-political organizations have long been operating in a bureaucratic manner, controlled by People’s Committees and therefore losing the true function of operating as associations. Regarding the role of socio-political organizations in grassroots democratic mobilization in localities, the Vietnam Fatherland Front has, together with these organizations, restricted the conflicts between people of different strata as well as between people and government through the propaganda, supervision, development and implementation of the grassroots democratic regulation. The people may also supervise the operation of the Government via organizations, and discuss and decide their own activities in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws. Though having good sources of investment, socio-political organizations tend to operate in a bureaucratic manner and stay away from the masses. Socio-political organizations were later organized and stereotyped in an authoritarian manner, dependent on the authorities and unable to inspect and supervise the operation of the authorities. Regarding the role of socio-political organizations in poverty reduction and socio- economic development, these organizations have shown a greater role in socio-economic development since Doi Moi by providing social services to the Government. They have shown their dual functions of both social and developmental issues. Poverty reduction activities were focused in the operation of social organizations in general and socio- political organizations in particular. The role of these organizations only became significant when the VBSP started entrusting credit programs to local organizations. It can be drawn from current studies that organizations and credit funds are functioned to support the people in the way social welfare organizations support and assist the citizens, especially vulnerable groups. The role of socio-political organizations is also particularly emphasized as one of the positive solutions that contribute to poverty reduction, education, health, culture and social security assurance for rural residents. 6 Chapter 2. THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL FOUNDATIONS OF TOPIC RESEARCH 1.1. Interpretation of terms According to the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, role is a key concept in sociological theory. It emphasizes the social expectations associated with certain positions in society and analyzes the performance of those expectations. Role is construed as socio-political organizations’ undertaking of social assistance activities for the people on two aspects of the national social security system: labor market and social assistance. Social security means the system of state intervention policies and supports of individuals and organizations (within the framework prescribed by law) in order to reduce the level of poverty and vulnerability, enhance the self-protection capacity of the people and society against risks of reduction or loss of income, ensure social stability, development and equity, and improve people's ability to cope with risks by supporting and equipping them with methods to improve the living standards of individuals and households. This system includes 3 main policy groups: i) Labor market policy; ii) Social insurance; and iii) Social assistance. According to the Vietnam Social Security terminology, labor market is an economic term used to refer to the labor exchange in a country, region or sector or line. Labor market policies include active and passive labor market policies. In this study, we focus on the labor market policies in terms of employment policies, training (vocational) and credit for those in need (looking for a job or being trained for production and economic development). Social assistance means the State and society (individuals and organizations)’s guarantee and support for members of the community to overcome initial and long-term difficulties in life as well as improving their living standards. This assistance is provided through financial support, workday assistance or in-kind support to ensure community welfare. Socio-political organizations, also known as mass organizations founded by the Communist Party, aims to reach out and mobilize the masses to join and support the Party's policies. The roles, duties and powers of socio-political organizations are defined in the laws or regulations of each organization. As the research was conducted in rural areas, only 5 socio-political organizations were mentioned, namely the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Women’s Union, the Farmer's Union, the Veteran's Association and the Youth Union. 7 1.2. Application of theories to the thesis Role theory: the change in the role of organizations and groups in the current process of Vietnam’s socio-economic development from the stage of centralized bureaucracy to the stage of socialist-oriented market economy has posed several problems. At this time, the role of socio-political organizations needs to be modified to suit the new context. In fact, the actual and expected roles of organizations need to be considered in order to ensure the conformity to help them operate more effectively. Theory of organized sociology: These organizations have specific rules, tasks and goals, and their members therefore must also have appropriate communication behaviors in line with their functions, duties and powers in that organization. The formulation of regulations and resolutions set out in the congresses of unions aims to ensure and serve the interests of the organization. These organizations will operate more effectively with clear unification and operational principles. 8 Chapter 3. SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS’ PARTICIPATION IN LABOR MARKET POLICIES IN RURAL AREAS 3.1. Information support and consultation on production development In recent years, Tuyen Quang and Ca Mau provinces have actively implemented programs and organized counseling campaigns on employment and socio-economic development. However, only 11.6% of the people are interested in these activities, mainly on job consultation and placement programs. Only 11.8% and 8.4% of the surveyed residents have heard about scientific and technological transfer and production consultation, respectively, recording no difference between Ca Mau and Tuyen Quang provinces. Among the three forms of support provided by mass organizations to support citizens’ production development, there is no big difference between the forms supported by the Women’s Union (less than 3%). However, relatively different opinions are received in other organizations (more than 10%), such as the Farmer's Union, Veteran's Association and Youth Union. The form of providing information, advice and consultaton and the support of scientific and technological transfer in economic development are highly appreciated by the people compared to the remaining form, specifically 44.4% and 47.8% in the Farmer’s Union and 31.2% and 33.9% in the Women’s Union. Compared to the other three organizations, the Youth Union tends to be underestimated by the people in its way of effectively providing assistant forms. When answering what values among the 12 offered values they expect to receive by joining organizations, the surveyed people highly appreciate the role of organizations in providing information, advice and consultation in supporting production development. This value was selected in all four organizations, in which the Farmer's Union and Women's Union are the two most appreciated organizations. The rate of people receiving support from organizations accounted for a relatively high proportion in all 5 organizations, only lower than the rate of those who are visited or encouraged by the authorities when being sick. The highest proportion falls in the first group, with the Women's Union (36.9%) followed by Farmer's Union (34.4%), while the latter group includes the Veteran’s Association (15.3%) and the Fatherland Front and Youth Union of less than 10 %. Comparing support activities between members and non-members of organizations, it can be seen that members of these organizations tend to receive more 9 supports than those who are not members of organizations. This difference is surprisingly high in the Farmer’s Union, Women’s Union and Veteran’s Association (nearly 50%). 3.2. Đào tạo nghề và giới thiệu việc làm a) Đào tạo nghề 3.2. Vocational training and job placement a) Vocational training The current vocational training and scientific and technical transfer activities are mainly carried out by mass organizations, focusing on the Farmer's Union and Women's Union. Among the 8 stages of vocational training activities that socio-political organizations may participate, only 4 stages are highly appreciated by the people, according to the survey. Notably, the propaganda and advocacy stage ranks top with over 90% and sees no big difference between organizations (less than 5%), of which the Veteran’s Association is highest among the five groups. The second most highly appreciated stage is the training and provision of information on local vocational training programs. Accordingly, the Farmer's Union (53.8%) and the Women's Union (53.5%) are significantly higher than the other two organizations, especially the Youth Union, which is more-than-10-percent lower than other organizations. The managerial role in vocational training activities ranks last among the 4 stages in all organizations (below 28%), with the Farmer’s Union and the Youth Union being the lowest (23.1%). Those who participated in vocational training courses are mainly people with average education level (54.5% of secondary school graduates) while the proportions of high school graduates and from primary school and below are 30.3% and 15.1%, respectively. A significant proportion of 37.9% of respondents cited the reason for not participating is because they did not know about these training courses. This poses a problem in the way of propaganda, notifications and provision of information to local residents. In terms of vocational training, it seems like the membership of a socio-political organization can be considered as an advantage. And this was further confirmed through in-depth interviews with leaders of a number of organizations (the Farmer’s Union and the Women’s Union) as they considered this as an obvious factor upon consideration of participants in training classes for organizations. As long as the people are aware of the importance of vocational training classes, the membership of socio-political organizations will still be an important value and necessary motivation to attract people to participate in these organizations. b) Job placement 10 Those who get a job through unions are often those with average or higher income (85.7%) while those who were not introduced by unions came from the group with lowest income (46.6%). There is no big difference in the two remaining income groups. Among those who got jobs through the introduction of mass organizations, there was no big difference between members and non-members of organizations (14.2%). Meanwhile, for those who were not, the difference was up to 25.4% with a large percentage concentrated in non-members of unions. Most of those who were not introduced to jobs have average educational levels, 31.2% and 45.7% graduated from primary and secondary schools, respectively. Meanwhile, those whose jobs are introduced by groups often have higher levels of education, 47.6% and above 38% graduated from secondary and high schools, respectively. Among the mass organizations, the Women's Union has the highest rate of job placement with 66.7%. Most of those whose jobs were introduced by socio-political organizations were young people aged under 35 years (42.9%) and working in agricultural sector (61.9%), while women accounted for a high proportion (43.2%). In addition, 59.7% of people with high income are not interested in knowing or participating in job placement programs. 3.3. Loan support through the local credit system a) Loans entrusted by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies The Farmer's Union and the Women's Union are considered two important organizations as they account for a majority proportion of having households borrowed loans from the VBSP (52.8% and 42.2%, respectively). This was also shown and demonstrated specifically in the annual reports of mass organizations. Those who borrow capital from the Youth Union were households with average or good income. The proportion of poor households who borrow loans is mainly concentrated among people who are members of Veteran’s Association (53.8%) and Farmer’s Union (42.1%). Meanwhile, the number of households with good income are not so different between groups, more or less than 30%), a rate not too high but significant for a lending program for poor households. It seems like the role of socio-political organizations has not yet been fully recognized as the way they expected. People only knew that they were granted loans thanks to the VBSP, and need not to know which union entrusted them. As for the cadres of grassroots organizations themselves, they also find themselves acting as a bridge between the bank and the people, or work for the bank in other way. In fact, grassroots organizations expect this to be one of the most important ways to increase members for 11 organizations, which may attract people to organizations by giving them direct benefits from loans for production development. b). Other funds and groups and lending or loan programs Borrowing capital can be considered as one of the key benefits that members of unions are interested in joining these organizations, specifically the Women's Union (18.9%), Farmer’s Union (14.1%) and Veteran’s Association (14.7%). 21.5% and 15.2% of the surveyed people shared that the opportunities of capital borrowing have motivated them to join the Women’s Union and the Farmer’s Union, respectively. Meanwhile, this is not a reason for them to decide to join the Veteran’s Association and the Youth Union, with only 8.3% and 8.2% of the answer, respectively. However, there is a difference between Tuyen Quang and Ca Mau provinces in providing reasons for joining organizations to receive concessional loans. Apart from the association's funds which are required to pay 60% to district-level funds for operation, there are several forms of capital support for members of these organizations, especially the Farmer’s Union and the Women's Union. Through the activities of these groups, people may have another source of funding support for economic development and household activities. This is especially meaningful for low- income households who do not have chanes to access to different forms of loans. For a locality with a high number of ethnic people and another in the southernmost point of the country whereas the life of rural residents is still difficult, supports from lending groups or sub-groups which are formulated, organized and managed by unions are extremely necessary and meaningful. 12 Chapter 4 SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS’ IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES IN RURAL AREAS 4.1. Regular social assistance Regular social assistance in the community is currently a fairly widespread development activity in localities. According to survey results, there are diversified activities in the surveyed areas such as building houses of gratitude (15.2%), helping people with special difficulties (16.1%), donation and supporting programs (21.7%), helping policy families (14.7%), and visiting or caring for Vietnamese heroic mothers and people with meritorious services (11.6%). People’s levels of information accession to different supporting forms in the community are relatively similar. Among them, donation programs still account for the highest proportion with 27.1%, probably thanks to the abundance of beneficiaries and the diversity of supporters. Communication activities for these activities are also diverse, with people being aware of local social assistance activities through different channels, especially the 3 main channels of village or hamlet meetings (51.3%), mass organizations (50.6%), and from heads of villages or hamlets (44.1%). The mass organizations’ supports focus on helping two main target groups, the poor in general (96.2%) and different groups within the framework of supportive activities mobilized by the State and the Vietnam Fatherland Front (98.6%). According to summary reports of local mass organizations, the building of member contribution funds has also been actively implemented by mass organizations. People may join hands in charitable activities in various forms such as donations with money, in kind or workdays, either in formal or informal way. Except for the Youth Union that records no variations in the values, the remaining organizations showed different viewpoints in considering the three values they received when participating in socio-political organizations. Members of the Youth Union highly appreciated the values of interaction and junkets (the highest with 33.3%). The Veteran’s Association, meanwhile, appreciated the benefits of expanding social relationships more than other organizations (53.1%, far high than the lowest organization, the Women's Union). Visiting and encouraging people remain the most highly appreciated values in all organizations compared to the remaining values. In terms of subjects, the subjects of this charitable donation include the authorities and mass organizations, in which the citizens highly value the role of the authorities in this activity (40.2%), with less recognization given to other socio-political 13 organizations (less than 25%). Comparing these organizations, the roles of Women's Union and Farmer's Union are highest with 38.7% and 37.6%, respectively, while the Youth Union is the lowest with less than 15%. While people in Tuyen Quang province tend to associate charitable activities with the role of mass organizations (over 70%), those in Ca Mau tend to appreciate this role for other groups of individuals and organizations (57.1%). In terms of operational methods, charitable activities of the Fatherland Front, the Veteran’s Association and Youth Union are the three least-known organizations (around 70% are not aware of their presence in this activity), while the percentage of people acknowledged charitable activities of the Women's Union as well as the Farmer’s Union are significantly higher. Meanwhile, the percentage of people who are aware of charitable activities of the Farmer’s Union and the Women's Union through organizations’ meeting account for 66% and 55.8%, respectively, much higher than the rate of those who heard from radios (21.8% and 21.4%) as well as other forms. This shows that the method of communication through meetings still achieves the best effect. There are not so many forms for people to engage in charitable activities launched by mass organizations. Among the 4 forms of cash, artifacts, working days and consultation, only two of them are used by local people, cash and working days, in which cash accounts for a majority of 66% as it is convenient and saves time. Basically, the contribution rate in Ca Mau is much lower than that in Tuyen Quang province. Although the form of cash support in Ca Mau province is the highest compared to other forms (33.2% while the proportion of non-support accounts for 66.3%), it is still lower than Tuyen Quang province with 49.6%. Residents in Tuyen Quang province tended to support cash (74.8%) while this trend was not significant in Ca Mau province, and the form of support by workdays witnessed the same trends in the two provinces. People with low incomes tend to donate cash while high-income groups tend to spend workdays for support (42.9% in the highest-income group and 0% in the group with lowest income). The group of union members had a higher percentage of workday support of more than 85.7%, while the percentage of cash support is similar among groups. Meanwhile, 31.8% of respondents do not support in any form, which may be explained by such reasons as income; job; non-membership of unions; localities. Most of them are from the poor group (64.7%) or working in agricultural sector (74.7%) or are not member of unions (85.8%). They do not support via mass organizations because most of them make supports through the government (51.2%) as they are neither mobilized to support (25.6%) nor aware of supporting activities (18.6%). Ca Mau people have a 14 notably higher rate of non-support (98.5%) than those in Tuyen Quang province because the proportion of people participating in unions in Ca Mau is lower than the remaining surveyed localities. From the scale of organizations, it can be seen that mass organizations have actively set up funds to support members and families with difficulties in their localities. In addition, along with the support from district- and provincial-level mass organizations and human resources of local organizations, many activities have been carried out to support members of organizations such as building houses of gratitude and helping poor households to build and repair houses; launching the movement of savings made from plastic pigs or bamboo tubes; and establishing such funds and groups as capital contribution funds and farmer support funds, among others. In addition to funding support, mass organizations also provided different forms in which residents’ support can be provided by workdays or in kind, among others. These forms of assistance may increase the number of beneficiaries who are members or non- members of organizations. 4.2. Irregular social assistance While cash is the main choice for regular support activities (donations support for central, local and institutional funds), irregular activities that require quickliness and effectiveness attracted various forms of monetary support (95%) and workdays (92.8%). Workdays account for a sizable proportion such organizations as the Youth Union (85.4%) and Farmer’s Union (82.4%), same for Tuyen Quang and Ca Mau provinces. However, in general, locals in Tuyen Quang province tend to contribute in cash to mass organizations while in Ca Mau province its people choose to spend workdays. These organizations are mos