Shortage in Access to Basic Social Services: A Case Study of Ethnic Minority Groups in Vietnam

The research uses shortages in the multi-dimensional poverty criteria and household living standards survey data collected by the General Statistic Office to evaluate the access to basic social services by ethnic minorities. The result shows significant differences in shortages between the Kinh and ethnic minorities, among ethnic minority groups and among localities. Differences in geographical location, level of development and lacking specific policies are the main causes. A number of policy recommendations has been made to narrow the gap in access to basic social services among ethnic minority groups in Vietnam.

primary health care, and family planning services, low-cost water and sanitation, and nutrition programs ( UNDP, 2001).
The basic components of social services are not consistent in the research and practice of policy implementation in countries. Mehrotra, et al. (2000) confirmed the components of basic social services such as healthcare (healthcare for mothers during pregnancy; care and prevention of child malnutrition), basic education (primary school), clean water and housing would help people have opportunities to escape poverty and lead to a better life. Mehrotra (2006) argued that water and sanitation, basic education, basic healthcare, nutritional supplements for pregnant women and young children, and school lunches are components of basic social services. The State plays the most important role in providing these basic services. Studying the common benefits of social services in the European community, Polacek (2011) pointed out four components of basic social services that have the interest of member countries: (i) long-term healthcare, (ii) healthcare and education for children, (iii) employment services, and (iv) social housing. Těšín (2011) argued that for developing countries, basic social services include not only support for healthcare, food security, housing for target groups but also support for raising young children, accessing information and communicating with outside parties to ensure human rights and human interests. In South Korea during the period of President Park Chung Hee, the Saemaul Undong program focused on basic social services for rural people in order to improve the living conditions for this group of people with the goal "to make Rural is the dream of the city". Kim & Kim (1977) pointed out the components of the basic social service system implemented during this period including (i) environmental improvement, (i) training to improve labor productivity in agriculture-forestry-fishery sector, (iii) housing welfare and healthcare for disadvantaged rural areas, (iv) childcare, (v) vocational training people in village regions.
In Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Lan Huong (2010) stated that basic social services consist of four main components: (i) services that meet basic physical needs: food, sanitation, care, housing; (ii) medical services including medical examination and treatment, convalescence and physical rehabilitation; (iii) educational services such as schools, training classes, life skills training, integrated, integrated and specialized forms of education; (iv) entertainment, participation and information services. The understanding of basic social services from the point of view above is limited to disadvantaged people; it is not of high universality. FitzGerald (2011), in the study of social services for human development in Vietnam, only deal with health and education issues. Yamazaki & Phuoc (2011), when researching poverty among ethnic minorities in Vietnam, only focused on the access of the poor to health, education, and infrastructure issues. Access to basic social services is not only the goal of policies but also the criteria used to assess poverty in a multi-dimensional approach. The lack of opportunities, accompanied by malnutrition, illiteracy, illness, unhappiness and despair, are issues of interest in the concept of multi-dimensional poverty. Lack of economic, social or political participation and voice will push individuals, to the extent of being excluded, from enjoying socio-economic development benefits and thus being deprived of basic human rights (UN, 2012).
The international multi-dimensional Poverty Index, with three main dimensions: health, education, and living conditions, is now an important measure to complement the traditional poverty measurement method based on income (Alkire, S. & Santos, 2010). Since 2015, Vietnam has also transformed its poverty line measurement from a unidimensional approach to a multi-dimensional approach, in which the level of shortages of access to basic social services in education, health, housing, clean water and sanitation, information is used as the evaluation criteria along with income criteria (Prime Minister, 2015).
The above concepts show high unity of nations, politicians, and scholars with the view of poverty that it is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, which needs to be recognized as lacking or unsatisfactory of the basic needs of the person. A lack of access to social services is a situation where people do not meet the minimum basic needs in life.

Methodology
This paper relies on data from the recent Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey in 2006, 2014, and 2018. These data were collected by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO). The 2006 -2018 VHLSS covered 29,530 households. The samples are representative of the national and regional levels. The surveys gathered information through household and community level questionnaires. Information on households includes basic demography, ethnicity, education, health, housing, using clear water and environment service, accessing information assets. The VHLSSs allows for the analysis of shortage in accessing to households' basic social services. Besides, we will also use the locality government reports to compare shortage levels in access to basic social services between ethnic minority regions.
The main methods used in the report are descriptive statistics and graphics. Descriptive statistics is used to European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol.12, No.17, 2020 examine shortages in access of different people groups to basic social services. The method of comparison between ethnic minorities and the Kinh, between ethnic minority groups and between ethnic minorities among localities is used to make findings on the gap between these groups. This approach also helps to identify the factors affecting the lack of access to basic social services of ethnic minorities, such as differences in ethnicity and regions. Simple graphics are also used to provide virtual analysis.
The study used indicators to measure the level of deprivation in access to basic social services according to the multi-dimensional poverty line published by The Prime Minister (2015), including five dimensions of education, healthcare, housing, living conditions, access to information with ten indicators (see Table 1).

Adult education
Households with at least 1 member who ages 15 or older, born in 1986 to now and has not graduated from secondary but currently not attending school

School attendance
Households with at least 1 school-age children (5-14 years old) but currently not attending school

Access to health
Households with ill members but do not have health examination (illness is defined as being sick / injured so badly that they must lie in one place. They must have another person to take care of. They have to leave their job/study. They cannot participate in normal activities)

Health insurance
Households with at least 1 member who ages 6 or older, currently does not have health insurance

Housing quality Households are in indecent or simple houses
Housing area (Housing is divided into 4 levels: permanent, semi-permanent, indecent and simple).

Safe water
The average housing area per capita is less than 8m2

Assets for access to information
Households without any members using telephone and the internet Source: The Prime Minister (2015)

Research results
Although there have been many advances in accessing basic social services of ethnic minorities, the level of deprivation is still significant in the indicators of water and sanitation. Except for adult education and access to information, the shortage in access to basic social services decreased during the period 2006 -2018. The health insurance index improved due to the fact that health insurance policies for the poor and ethnic minorities have been promoted significantly. The shortage of telecommunication services has decreased sharply due to the development of mobile phone production and internet service provision (Figure 1).  The shortage propotion varies significantly between ethnic minorities and the Kinh. Figure 2 shows that ethnic minorities have large gaps in almost all indicators reflecting access to basic social services. This represents a huge gap in access between the majority and the minority in society. However, the only bright spot is health insurance. The propotion of accessing to health insurance of The Kinh is much lower than that of ethnic minorities. The main reason is that free health insurance is provided for the poor and ethnic minorities. Source: VHLSS The level of shortage in access to basic social services is also uneven among ethnic minorities.
The Mong, Co, Xo Dang and Ra Glai ethnic groups have a higher level of deprivation in most of the basic social services than many other ethnic minorities and the Kinh. In contrast, ethnic minorities with a low level of basic social services are the Tay and the Thai. However, the shortage in access to health insurance by the Kinh is high among ethnic minorities, as the government provides free health insurance for ethnic minorities (Figure 3). Vietnam has very different geography among localities and regions. The level of access to social services is also different. The average rate of shortages is highest in Quang Ngai and the two provinces of the Central Highlands, in which Lao Cai has achieved very high efficiency in improving access to basic social services of ethnic minorities (Figure 4). Source: Local reports i Differences in access between localities are reflected in all basic social services. However, the highest level of deprivation in localities still focuses on sanitation and housing services. On the other hand, access to health services and school attendance of children has significantly improved with relatively low levels of shortage ( Figure  5). European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905(Paper) ISSN 2222-2839(Online) Vol.12, No.17, 2020 Figure 5: Degree of shortage of basic social services by ethnic minorities regions, 2018 Source: Local reports i

Conclusions and recommendations
There is a significant difference between ethnic minorities and the Kinh in terms of the level of shortage in access to basic social services, although supported by a number of state guarantees. However, the level of access of ethnic minorities is largely lower than the Kinh due to differences in geographical areas, natural conditions, educational level, income level, customs, and practices. Ethnic minority groups in Vietnam have many similar characteristics, but there are also many differences in the level of deprivation in access to basic social services due to (i) different living areas and natural conditions (ethnic groups live in high mountains and remote areas normally have difficulties in accessing to infrastructures such as divided transportation, livelihoods based on forests and upland fields. Therefore, their socio-economic development faces more difficulties than ethnic minorities living in plains and lower regions); (ii) many policies on poverty reduction and support to access basic social services are designed in general, there is no specific policy system for each ethnic minority group; (iii) distintive intellectual levels, customs, and cultures of different ethnic groups (some still retain their own identities).
The findings of the study suggest some of the following policy recommendations as following: Firstly, it is necessary to renovate the approach and formulate policies for ethnic minorities. Need to clearly define relationships, scope, contents of regional policies, comprehensive public policies, and specific policies for ethnic minority areas.
Second, legalize issues related to ethnic policies in the national legal system as an institutional basis to build policy systems for ethnic minorities. Also, the goals and targets that need to be achieved on access to basic social services for ethnic minorities also need to be reviewed, supplemented, and included in the system of legal documents.
Thirdly, to be able to orient ethnic policies in general and policies to ensure basic social services in particular in order to support the right people, according to the development level. There is a need to delineate ethnic minority areas according to development criteria. On that basis, build a system of continuous and regular information collection on ethnic minority areas to serve the planning and implementation of policies.