Young Lives Country Report. Young Lives: Vietnam Round 2 Survey

Abstract

This report presents initial findings from the second round of data collection which was carried out in Vietnam in late 2006 to early 2007. It does not aim to give a comprehensive overview of all the findings from Young Lives, rather it gives a broad outline of the some of the key indicators of childhood poverty and changes that have taken place in the children's lives between the first round of data collection in 2002 and this second round. Data are mainly presented for the entire age group cohort, in most cases separated into wealth groups or by rural/urban location. Following the introduction, the next section of the report introduces the socio-economic context of Vietnam and the policies that have affected children and childhood poverty over the past 15 years. The third section gives an overview of the methodology used by Young Lives to collect quantitative data for Rounds 1 and 2 respectively. Greater detail is provided on the preparation and implementation of the Round 2 data collection. Post-fieldwork operations such as data entering, cleaning, and archiving are also outlined. The fourth section presents some preliminary analysis of data from the two survey rounds - both descriptive statistics and regression analysis - on several issues of interest. Indicators of child well-being including household wealth and consumption, health, education and subjective well-being are examined. The factors behind these outcomes include a range of child, household and commune characteristics. Although the analysis is preliminary it gives important insights into trends between the two rounds, key factors affecting children in Vietnam and the extent of inequalities between children of different groups. The analysis enables the identification of policy implications for tackling childhood poverty in Vietnam as well as important and interesting avenues for future research