Viet Nam and the MDGs

Viet Nam’s success in the MDGs is well-known. Poverty levels and maternal health figures are - according to reported data - already meeting the standards set by the MDGs, and Viet Nam is on track to meet several other goals. But this progress is tenuous and issues of quality, equity and distribution are key to measuring Viet Nam’s achievements. With so many of Viet Nam’s people on the precipice of the poverty line, any major economic or natural disaster could easily set Viet Nam back. The UN advocates for quality and equity and ensuring that the MDGs are achieved in each and every commune of Viet Nam.

Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Although world poverty rates have declined since 1990, 1.2 billion people still live on less than $1 a day. Viet Nam met the target of halving poverty by reducing the proportion of people living below the poverty line to approximately 35% in 2000. By 2006 the incidence of poverty had declined further, to 15.9%. Viet Nam has also seen a marked decline in child malnourishment, with prevalence of underweight children under-five years age down from 41% in 1990 to 20% in 2006. While these are impressive achievements, the challenge now is to reduce increasing disparities and address the foundations of poverty and hunger in every region of the country.

Achieve Universal Primary Education

Globally, 113 million children do not attend school, but this goal is within reach. Viet Nam is very likely to achieve full primary school enrolment by 2015, given its 96% primary school net enrollment rate in 2006, up from 87% in 1990. In 2006, secondary school net enrollments had climbed to 88.83% – close to reaching the national target of 90% by 2010. However, there are still challenges to improving the quality of education, expanding basic education towards universal primary education targets and reducing disparities in access and coverage in remote areas and among ethnic minority groups.

Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

Two-thirds of the world's illiterates are women. Viet Nam is well on its way to achieving its goal of eliminating gender gaps in primary and secondary education, and has already achieved a gender balanced youth literacy rate. In 2006, some 91% of girls and 92% of boys attended primary and lower secondary schools. In tertiary education, women now outnumber men. Today, women account for 50.8% of the national population and 49% of the workforce, playing an important role in Viet Nam’s socio-economic development. However, despite these achievements, Vietnamese women continue to face serious obstacles - including poverty, limited access to higher education and employment opportunities, as well as persistent discriminatory attitudes and behaviour.

Reduce Child Mortality

Worldwide, I I million young children die every year, but that number is down from 15 million in 1980. Viet Nam has successfully reduced its under-five child mortality rate from 58 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 25.9 per thousand in 2007, and its infant mortality rate from 44.4 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 16 per 1,000 in 2007. While the under-one child mortality rate already surpassed the national target of 25 per 1,000 live births, reaching the full target of a two-thirds reduction of under-five mortality rate by 2015 will require sustaining greater efforts and assistance, particularly in remote and ethnic minority areas.

Improve Maternal Health

In the developing world, the risk of dying in childbirth is one in 48. But virtually all countries now have safe motherhood programmes and are poised for progress. Within a sharp decline in maternal mortality from 223 deaths per 100,000 births in 1990 to 75 per 100,000 in 2007, the trend has slowed down in recent years, with no reduction from 2006 to 2007. This suggests a challenge for Viet Nam in maintaining the steady progress to achieve the MDG target by 2015, and its national target to reduce the rate to 70 per 100,000 by 2010 with a particular focus on disadvantaged and ethnic minority areas.

Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

HIV/AIDS threatens to erase a generation of development gains in many nations. Countries like Brazil, Senegal and Thailand have shown that we can stop HIV in its tracks. While Viet Nam has made significant improvements in the legal and policy framework in recent years, and has a sound national strategy and plans of responding to HIV, the implementation is lagging behind. As a result, HIV continues the spread in Viet Nam with little sign of slowing down. This suggests that the MDG target of “Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS” may not be achieved if strong leadership and much greater efforts of all stakeholders at all levels are not be mobilized for an effective and coordinated response to HIV/AIDS. The impressive progress on prevention and control of malaria shows that Viet Nam has already achieved the MDG target on malaria control. Viet Nam will not be in a position to reverse the spread of TB, however, without a stronger, coordinated response at national and provincial levels that also brings in civil society groups and the private sector.

Ensure Environmental Sustainability

More than one billion people worldwide still lack access to safe drinking water, but during the 1990s, nearly one billion gained access to safe water and sanitation. Viet Nam has increased the share of the population with access to safe water from 65% in 1990 to 89% in 2006, and the country has also made positive gains in working towards environmental sustainability, increasing forest land coverage by 0.6% annually, now accounting for 38% of the total land area. Integration of sustainable development principles into national development frameworks and plans has been good, though the implementation needs speeding up to effectively deal with the urgent problems of pollution and increasing bio-diversity loss. The slowest progress has been with improving sanitation. It is estimated that 20 million children (59% of all children) still lack access to proper sanitation.

Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Poverty reduction and sustainable development are clearly linked to trade, debt relief and aid, better enabled by developing global partnerships. Fair terms of trade for developing countries are necessary to generate employment opportunities and income. In this regard, Viet Nam faces some significant challenges in light of the country's planned accelerated integration into the regional and global economies. Ensuring social equity and sustainability of the country's development process will require great efforts.