The Dynamics of Livelihood Vulnerability Index at Farm Household Level: An Empirical Analysis of the Coastal Sandy Zone in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam

Southeast Asia is considered one of the world’s climate hotspots as the countries in the Mekong region, in particular, will be the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change if the global temperature continues to rise. This study aims to evaluate the differences in climate change-induced vulnerability of farm households in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. The total sample size was 999 farm respondents, of which 304 were from Myanmar, 350 from Vietnam, and 345 from Cambodia. The farm households’ vulnerability was measured using an advanced indicator or indexing method with balanced or equal weighting. A total of 36 indicators were selected based on an extensive literature review and expert judgment. Each major component was comprised of sub-components and indicators, which were standardized using a balanced weighted average approach. The findings reveal that Myanmar was high in all components of climate change vulnerability, whereas Vietnam was the second most vulnerable country, followed by Cambodia. Based on the findings, we suggest implementing policy measures that aim to reduce the sensitivity dimension of farm households, such as by improving early warning systems, increasing public funding investment in infrastructure development, and creating embankments to prevent saltwater incursion, while empowering the adaptive capacity of farm households. Furthermore, we also recommend establishing the necessary healthcare facilities, strengthening the public-private partnership, increasing outreach and healthcare services, and improving access to the formal credit system.

The key farming communities in Vietnam are generally poor and lack resources to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate extreme events (CEEs), but the extent of their adaptation strategies is not well understood. This study aims to analyze the impacts of CEEs, current barriers, and adaptation strategies based on three categories of livelihood strategies. The classification method is first used to divide the livelihood strategy into these three categories, and a multinomial logistic model (MLS) is then applied to determine the set of parameters that affect adaptation options. CEEs result in significant damage in terms of both financial and health dimensions. Various barriers remain, such as the low capacity of relevant staff, lack of local budgets, and outdated methods being used to estimate and mitigate the impacts of CEEs. Notably, there were over 44%, and 28% conducted reactive and proactive adaptations, respectively, while a high percentage of households did not implement at least one adaptation method, around 27%. The MLS model is able to explain about 51.2% of the driving factors that influence adaptation strategies. In addition, the behavior of households in choosing adaptation methods shows the difference between perceptions of CEEs’ impacts and livelihood strategy profiles. There is a need for a package of adaptive solutions to address the impacts of CEEs that cover the many different household perspectives and involve stakeholders at multiple levels.

Farm households along the coastlines of Myanmar and Vietnam are becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding, saltwater intrusion, and rising sea levels. There is little information available on the relative vulnerability of men- and women-headed households, and the governments of Myanmar and Vietnam have not identified or implemented any adaptive measures aimed specifically at vulnerable peoples. This study aims to fill these gaps and assess the relative climate change vulnerability of men- and women-headed farm households. This study considers 599 farm households from two regions of Myanmar and 300 households from Thua Thien Hue province of Vietnam for the period 2021–2022. We offer a livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) analysis of men- and women-headed farm households using 46 indicators arranged into seven major components. The aggregate LVI scores indicate that farm households in Myanmar are more vulnerable (scores of 0.459 for men and 0.476 for women) to climate-related natural disasters than farm households in Vietnam (scores of 0.288 for men and 0.292 for women), regardless of the gender of the head of household. Total vulnerability indexing scores indicate that women-headed households are more vulnerable than men-headed households in both countries. Poor adaptive capacity and highly sensitive LVI dimensional scores explain the greater vulnerability of women-headed farm households. The findings also highlight the importance of the adaptive capacity components reflected in the LVI analysis in reducing farm households’ vulnerability.

This study aims to analyze the impact of 7 components on the marketing - mix strategy on the satisfaction and loyalty of programming course students at the branch of CodeGym Vietnam Joint Stock Company in Hue. The study combined exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to measure the impacts of each component into the success of marketing - mix strategy then applied linear structural modeling (SEM) to test the related hypothesis of driving parameters to the customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. The finding indicated that there are 3 major factors having positively impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty, including: product, distribution and process. On the contrary, price, promotion, people and facilities factors have a negative impact on student satisfaction. The study also suggests several important implications to enhancing the efficiency of marketing mix strategy - with a need to focusing on developing marketing mix programs for centers to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

This study aims to identify the adaptation capacity undertaken by households in response to natural disasters and climate changes (CC). A total of 100 households in two communes including Quang Phuoc and Quang Cong, Quang Dien district were interviewed. The findings indicate that in the last few years, these communes have been badly affected by various types of natural hazards, including typhoons, floods, droughts and, and extremely cold weather. The study demonstrates that the adaptive capacity index in Quang Cong is significantly lower than that in Quang Phuoc (0.50 and 0.52). Also, the current adaptation actions of local households in response to natural disasters and CC have focused on short-term actions only. On the basis of the findings, the study proposes key recommendations to local households in Quang Dien district to effectively mitigate and adapt to natural disasters and CC. The recommendations encompass three groups, namely (i) raising awareness and understanding about CC; (ii) improving the infrastructure system; and (iii) diversifying livelihood strategies to increase income.Keywords: climate change, natural disasters, adaptive capacity, index