Social protection response to COVID-19: Experiences and lessons from Vietnam

ABSTRACT COVID-19 is not merely a global health crisis, but a comprehensive socio-economic disaster worldwide due to its multidimensional impacts and wide-range consequences for most countries. As a middle-income country in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has been suffering from the multifaceted consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and has made the most significant effort to respond. In response to challenges caused by Covid 19, Vietnam has been trying to introduce social protection policies to support the COVID-19 affected groups. The study conducted 58 in-depth interviews with different representatives from policymakers, policy implementors at different levels, and beneficiaries (the poor, persons with disabilities, informal/freelance workers and so on) to draws a picture of the pandemic impacts via the voices of different stakeholders. It then describes how the government and community’ social protection policies are responding to manage the pandemic and its multidimensional impacts. The paper highlights and discusses the lessons from Vietnamese experiences.