The main objective of this paper is to suggest a framework for addressing and monitoring vulnerability over the coming decade in order to reduce extreme poverty and to improve the objective and subjective experience of security. Government action should be oriented not only towards improving the robustness of gains in economic growth and poverty reduction: it should also aim to alleviate the burden of living with the constant fear of future impoverishment, reducing the degree to which people feel themselves to be passive, exposed, dependent upon factors outside one’s control – and increasing their capability to feel able to control one’s life, and not at the mercy of external forces. This expands the current, popular definition of vulnerability in Vietnam beyond the identification of disadvantaged groups who require social assistance to include those who are exposed to the more general insecurity of current or future deprivation – and who require other forms of help.