Magdalena Sepulveda, an expert on human rights and poverty, has been on a nine-day visit to Viet Nam at the invitation of the Government.
She has so far visited poor communities in Ha Noi and Bac Kan and Quang Nam provinces.
The Government needs to employ innovative strategies to reach minority groups who remain in poverty, Sepulveda said.
She said that as Vietnamese cities develop, greater strain would be put on public services and infrastructure.
"Several barriers that prevent ‘unregistered' migrants from coming to cities also prevent them from gaining accesses to social services, which undermines their human rights," she said.
She said local authorities should not only focus on urban development but on eliminating barriers to social services.
Sepulveda praised Viet Nam's new social protection strategy for 2011-20, but said the Government should boost support for social assistance programmes.
"Despite commendable efforts to expand the coverage of free health insurance cards and subsidies for education, most of these benefits are taken away because of user fees," she said.
She also emphasised the need for transparency and accountability when it came to social protection.
"The Government must immediately strengthen and implement effective and accessible mechanisms for complaints and adopt appropriate legislation to guarantee access to information, among other things," she said.
Sepulveda praised Viet Nam's engagement with international mechanisms for protecting human rights.
"The invitation of various human rights experts to the country opens space for promising dialogue. Viet Nam may further express this commitment through the ratification of human rights treaties such as the Convention against Torture," she said.
The national poverty rate is now 10 per cent, in comparison to 56 per cent in 1995. — VNS
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