strategy note - uniceffiles.unicef.org/transparency/documents/viet nam cp...9 general statistics...

UNICEF Viet Nam Country Programme

2017-2021

Strategy Note

4 MAR 2016

DRAFT

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Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1

Programme Rationale ............................................................................................................................. 1

Lessons learned ....................................................................................................................................... 5

System-wide Bottlenecks ........................................................................................................................ 5

Programme Components and Outcomes ............................................................................................... 7

Programme Component 1: Accountability and System Building for Child Rights and Protection ......... 8

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 8

Prioritized issues and areas ................................................................................................................. 8

Theory of Change for the Programme Component .......................................................................... 10

Theory of Change Outcome 1 ........................................................................................................... 11

Social Policy & Governance ........................................................................................................... 12

Education ...................................................................................................................................... 12

Child Survival and Development ................................................................................................... 14

Child Protection ............................................................................................................................ 15


Social Policy and Governance ....................................................................................................... 16


Strategic interventions ...................................................................................................................... 17

Partners ............................................................................................................................................. 17

Assumptions and Risks ...................................................................................................................... 20

Results Structure ............................................................................................................................... 21

Monitoring Outputs and Demonstrating UNICEF’s Contribution to Outcomes ............................... 21

Resource Requirements .................................................................................................................... 22

Programme Component 2: Integrated Early Childhood Development ................................................ 23

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 23

Prioritized issues and areas ............................................................................................................... 23

Theory of Change for Programme Component ................................................................................ 27


Child Survival and Development ................................................................................................... 27

Education ...................................................................................................................................... 29


Social Policy and Governance ....................................................................................................... 32


Partners ............................................................................................................................................. 34




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Programme Component 3: Programme Partnership, Public Advocacy, and Communication for Child Rights .................................................................................................................................................... 38

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 38

Prioritized issues and areas ............................................................................................................... 38

Theory of Change for Programme Component ................................................................................ 40


Programme Partnership ................................................................................................................ 42

Public Advocacy and Communication ........................................................................................... 43


Partners ............................................................................................................................................. 46





2017-2021 Country Programme Resource Framework ........................................................................ 48


Fundraising Strategy ......................................................................................................................... 49

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Acronyms and Abbreviations

CP Country Programme

CPAP Country Programme Action Plan

CPD Country Programme Document

CPMP Country Programme Management Plan

CSO Civil society organisation

C4D Communication for development

DaO Delivering as One

DPO Detailed Project Outline

EAPRO UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office

ExB UNICEF Executive Board

GE Gender equality

GoV Government of Viet Nam

HRC United Nations Human Rights Council

MDCP Multi-Dimensional Child Poverty

MDGs Millennium Development Goals

ME Monitoring and Evaluation

MIC Middle Income Country

MICS Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey

MoRES Monitoring of Results for Equity Systems

MTR Mid-Term Review

SCF Strategic Cooperation Framework between the GoV and UN system in Viet Nam (formerly the ‘One Plan’)

SDGs Sustainable Development Goals

SEDP GoV Socio-Economic Development Plan (5 years)

SEDS GoV Socio-Economic Development Strategy

SMR Strategic Moment of Reflection

UN United Nations

UNCT United Nations Country Team

UNSCF UN Strategic Cooperation Framework

VCO UNICEF Viet Nam Country Office

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Introduction

This Country Programme (CP) Strategy Note1 provides a rationale for strategic engagement between the Government of Viet Nam (GoV) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), for the period 2017-2021. It describes the preliminary outputs of programme cooperation, how they will contribute to the expected outcomes for children and women in lower middle-income Viet Nam, and the multi-year strategies that will be pursued.

The intended users of this strategy note are: UNICEF Viet Nam Country Office (VCO), UNICEF Regional Office (EAPRO), and UNICEF Headquarters. The Strategy Note will be used to:

» Inform consultations and negotiations between the Government of Viet Nam and UNICEF for the formulation of the Country Programme Document (CPD) 2017-2021 and its results matrix

» Position UNICEF effectively with other UN system agencies in Viet Nam to define UNICEF priorities within the next One UN Strategic Framework which maintains a Delivering-as-One (DaO) approach;

» Provide basis for the development of detailed project outlines (DPOs), funding proposals, work plans, and monitoring and reporting systems; and

» Provide basis for strategic performance reviews and evaluations throughout the programme cycle. The Strategy Note has the following parts:

» Programme Rationale: Provides a summary of the situation of children and women and the key barriers and bottlenecks that prevent the realisation of their rights. It offers important lessons from past programme cooperation and the criteria for the selection of programme priorities.

» Theory of Change, Programme Results and Structure: Describes priorities, programme components, and expected outcomes and outputs from Government of Viet Nam and UNICEF cooperation.

» Monitoring Outputs and Demonstrate UNICEF’s Contribution to Outcomes: Describes the approach for monitoring and evaluation (ME) with a focus on the achievement of outputs and their plausible contribution to outcomes. It also describes how UNICEF will support monitoring for equity and strengthening national statistical systems including ME systems.

» Resource Requirements: Offers a preliminary scoping of the resources required to achieve the outputs from regular and other resrouces, the estimated funding available, the other rerouces ceilling, as well as approaches for resource mobilisation.

» Annex A: Contains detailed Theories of Change for programme components, related outcomes and outputs.

Programme Rationale

Viet Nam, as a lower middle income country since 2010, is at critical juncture in its development journey, especially under the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework which provides a strengthened partnership platform for supporting Viet Nam’s efforts towards achieving key national priorities. Since the Doi Moi reform began in 1986, Viet Nam has made significant progress in economic prosperity and human development. GDP has expanded five-fold and per capita income having quadrupled to US$1,9082. Poverty rates have declined markedly from 58% in 1993 to around 10% in 20143. Its Human Development Index (HDI) value of 0.666 in 2014 - which puts the country in the medium human development category—has shown consistent improvement despite a flattening trend. Nationally, by 2015 Viet Nam had achieved 3 Millennium Development Goals with notable progress towards 5 others4. One important change has been

1 This Strategy Note is informed by: (1) The findings of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in 2014; (2) The draft country Situation Analysis in 2015, including sectoral and thematic reviews; (3) A Strategic Moment of Reflection (SMR) from 21-22 October with the participation of the UNICEF Regional Office (EAPRO) that considered UNICEF’s strengths and future positioning in Viet Nam; and (4) Ongoing reviews and consultations by the UN system in Viet Nam to prepare a Common Country Assessment (CCA) and Strategic Cooperation Framework. 2GSO (2015) Statistical Yearbook of Viet Nam 2014, http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam/overview 3 Viet Nam Human Development Report 2015 on Inclusive Growth 4 Goals achieved are: MDG 1, 2, and 3 with notable progress towards MDGs 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam/overview

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the emergence of a middle class whose expansion is increasingly used as a measure of equity and inclusiveness.

One major challenge for Viet Nam in the coming decade is to ensure that the country’s nearly 26 million children benefit equally from economic prosperity. Disparities have increased due to fragmented income redistribution and social protection schemes that are severely under-resourced, although the Party’s Resolution 15 on Social Policies 2012-2020 provides guiding principles for social protection reform in Viet Nam5. Furthermore, the accelerated commercialization of basic social services through the ‘socialization’ policy has potentially triggered an increase in out-of-pocket spending for households. Urbanization triggered by fast-paced economic growth has intensified migration of children and young people who often do not possess residential rights to access basic social services. The Gini coefficient rose from 0.33 in 1993 to 0.356 in 20126, a sign of widening social inequality.

The government has currently identified three disadvantaged groups: ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and urban migrants who collectively make up one in four Vietnamese and have faced particular challenges, despite strong government commitments to their full inclusion in society7. There are 1.3 million children with disabilities, the large majority is without any social protection benefit and only a minority of them (about 10%) have the opportunity to pursue higher level secondary education.

A recent analysis of multi-dimensional child poverty shows that 26.1 per cent of all children – or approximately 6 million children – were experiencing deprivations in at least two of the following areas: education, health, nutrition, shelter, water and sanitation, child work, recreation, and social inclusion. Higher incidence of child poverty was found particularly among ethnic minorities (59.4 per cent) and people living in rural areas (31.5 per cent)8. The convening role of UNICEF has been recognized as a major asset in addressing multiple deprivations faced by the most vulnerable children.

The under-5 child mortality rate in Vietnam is 20 per 1,000 live births9, down from 36 in 1990 with 82 per cent of under 5 deaths are infants10. However, there are continuing and glaring disparities in under-five mortality rates amongst vulnerable populations. With every 1,000 live births, 20 children die before their fifth birthday. In rural areas, under five mortality is at 22 per 1,000 live births. Ethnic minority populations have the highest rate at 43 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Viet Nam is among the 34 countries in the world with the highest burden of stunting. Around 2 million children under 5 years are stunted (25 per cent11). The majority of them live in the Central Highlands region with 36.4 per cent followed by 32 per cent in northern mountains and 30 per cent in south-central coastal regions. Stunting also reveals vulnerabilities of urban areas, particularly Ho Chi Minh City as a mega city. According to 2014 Micronutrient Survey12, micronutrient deficiencies are also prevalent for 13 per cent of children under 5 and 34.8 per cent of breastfeeding women suffer from clinical vitamin A deficiency. The rates for early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding at just 27% and 24%, respectively.

There is a clear pattern of relation of high incidences of diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and stunting with the prevalence of open defecation, use of unsanitary latrines, and unsafe drinking water consumption. More than one in five households lack access to improved sanitation facilities and over nine in ten households have access to improved drinking water sources. A MoRES determinant analysis conducted with partners in 2014 highlights key bottlenecks and barriers in the water, sanitation and hygiene

5 The Public Expenditure Review (2015) conducted by the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank highlights the limited equity focus in current public sector resource allocation and service utilization patterns and the importance of promoting pro-poor equity focused growth. For example, children under six enjoy free health insurance, but this excludes nutrition services. 6 Socialist Republic of Viet Nam (2015) Viet Nam Country Report: 15 years achieving the Viet Nam MDGs. 7 Government of Viet Nam and the World Bank (2016) Viet Nam 2035 8 Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (2008). Children in Viet Nam: who and where are the poor? 9 General Statistics Office (2015) Inter-Censal Population Survey of 2014, Key findings 10 General Statistics Office (2015). Viet Nam: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014. 11 National Nutrition Surveillance Profiles 2014 12Data of micronutrient survey, 2014-2015 are available in October, 2015

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(WASH) sector including inadequate policy directives and guidance for sustainable WASH, poor budget and investment, limited program supplies for affordable sanitation and drinking water safety, low affordability among the lowest quintile of population, and widespread cultural acceptability of ‘open defecation’.

Although school completion rates are high (96% for primary school and 90% for lower secondary school13), children from ethnic minorities and low income families have lower completion rates and higher drop-out rates in secondary schools and children with disabilities often face discrimination. Early childhood education, excluding pre-school for children 5 years and older, is considered a family responsibility, financed by out-of-pocket. Approximately 77% of kindergarten-age children (0 to 3 years, 2.7 million) and 13% of pre-primary school age children (3 to 6 years, 570,000) do not attend any formal pre-learning programme14.

In 2009, almost 12 per cent of children aged five were out of school among whom 82.7 per cent were children with disabilities and 16 per cent were migrants (OOSC Study). Children are out of school as a result of the inefficiency of the education system characterized by the high parental cost but also because of other practices namely cultural. The Khmer and Hmong children have the highest rates of out of school children aged five (respectively 36 and 34 percent). To a large extent, the inequities in education affecting ethnic minority children have their root causes in the lack of school readiness.

According to Viet Nam MICS 2014, 16.4 per cent of children aged 5-17 years were involved in household chores and economic activities for more than the age-specific threshold of hours, which is considered as child labour. Especially, 7.8 per cent of children aged 5-17 years were found to work in hazardous conditions.

In 2015, the National Assembly amended Viet Nam’s criminal laws, introducing significant reforms on justice for children in Viet Nam. Viet Nam’s criminal laws now include stronger measures to divert children away from the criminal justice system. Child and gender-sensitive proceedings have been introduced to strengthen access to justice and the protection of all children during criminal proceedings. However, challenges remain to effectively implement these new regulations to address the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s concerns about Viet Nam’s approach to juvenile justice and more broadly justice for children.

Violence against children is pervasive with 68.4 per cent of children aged 1-14 years in Viet Nam who are subject to at least one form of psychological or physical punishment by household members and 14.6 per cent of parents believed that children should be physically punished.

Over 170,000 children are without parental care. Most are destitute orphans or abandoned children15. Without a comprehensive alternative or foster care system, there is no continuum of services or care for these vulnerable children.

Low level of awareness about essential child-care behaviours, especially in hard to reach communities, is a major barrier to realizing children’s rights to health, nutrition, education and child protection16.

While there are vertical interventions in health, nutrition, water and sanitation, child protection and education, little has been done to horizontally integrate services for early childhood development ECD), especially for children from 0 to 8 years old, and particularly at the household level. There is a lack of a coordination mechanism for integrated ECD services at both national and sub-national levels.

Although Viet Nam has made impressive achievements in gender equality such as minimal differences in school enrollment and attainment, there are still areas of concern, including early marriage, early pregnancy and gender-based violence. In 2014, proportion of young women aged 15-19 years being married increased to more than 10 per cent compared to 8 per cent in 2011. Child marriage persists, particularly in ethnic minority areas with nearly 30 per cent of ethnic minority women aged 15-19 years married. The adolescent

13 At the lower secondary level, large disparities emerge with only 66% of children from the poorest income quintile and only 70% of ethnic minorities completing school. General Statistics Office (2015) Viet Nam: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014, Key findings 14 According to MOET, as of July 2014 there were 3,494,766 young children from 3 to 36 months old in Viet Nam, and only 817,378 of them (23%) attended nursery school or kindergarten. There were 4,376,488 children of pre-primary school age (3 to 6 years old), and 3,810,238 of them (87%) were officially enrolled in school. 1,487,410 five year olds attended pre-primary school, and only 1,399,852 (95%) were having access to a full-day schooling. 15 Service data from Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), 2015 16 General Statistics Office (2014). Viet Nam: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014, Key Findings.

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birth rate for 3 years preceding the MICS 2014 was 45 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years with a striking difference between rural and urban areas (56 and 24, respectively). Recent domestic violence survey has revealed that 58 percent of surveyed women reported having experienced at least one form of physical, sexual or emotional abuse at home17.

The media environment in Viet Nam continues to be vibrant and expanding. Internet access and social media use in Vietnam has been growing at especially high rates in recent years. Number of internet users has increased more than 3 times (from 12.9 to 39.8 million) and the number of mobile subscriptions has increased 8 times (from 15.8 to 128.6 million) in 2014 compared with 2005. Vietnam internet users is dominated by the young generation in 15-35 years old18.

The corporate sector in Viet Nam is increasingly playing an important role of a key partner for the achievement of results for children, including the adoption of Child Rights and Business Principles (CRBP) and their non-financial contributions. Examples of non-financial corporate sector partnerships from the 2012-2016 Country Programme are for access to knowledge and behaviour change on key concerns for children in marginalised communities, such as migrant workers and their children through the workplace (Zeroworkplace), access to corporate sector based marketing expertise and communication channels for public advocacy and behaviour change purposes.

Viet Nam is the 6th most-affected country, worldwide, from extreme weather events. Each year, typhoons and flooding19 cause fatalities and extensive damage to infrastructures such as schools and health care centres, and impact livelihood measures among communities that are already disadvantaged. In addition climate change is increasingly a risk factor and part of emerging vulnerabilities for children in Viet Nam.

Changes to the legal and policy environment affecting children are driven by the new Child Law expected to be enacted in 2016, 5-year and annual Socio-Economic Development Plans (SEDPs) and National Targeted Programmes. The SEDP 2016-2020 focuses on macro-economic growth, decentralization, improving market institutions, and infrastructure development, in line with Viet Nam’s integration into global and regional market via Trans-Pacific Partnership and ASEAN Economic Community. The government has recognized the problems of fragmentation, high transaction and administrative costs, and low efficiency of national targeted programmes (NTPs) and poverty reduction policies in general, and social assistance policies aimed at the poor in particular. As a consequence it has rationalised 16 NTPs in the period 2011-2015 into 2 consolidated multi-sector NTPs, namely for New Rural Development and for Sustainable Poverty Reduction. This is an opportunity for UNICEF to support the government in addressing children’s deprivations in a more integrated and cross-sectoral manner.

In addition, the government has shifted from a monetary to a multi-dimensional system of measuring poverty. However, there is a very limited focus on the significance of social development and in particular the needs and rights of children as well as the appropriate financial allocation for the realisation of children’s rights. These constraints provide a framework within which UNICEF can use evidence and lessons learnt to advocate for policy and programmatic priorities that target child poverty and deprivation, and address the disparities affecting ethnic minorities. Support to design and/or amend laws and policies using data and evidence, a strength in the previous country programme, demonstrates that multi-sectoral policy dialogue at national level is fundamental to achieve results at provincial and local levels.

Decentralization of decision-making and service delivery to provincial and local levels is accelerating. Over half of general expenditures and 77% of capital expenditures are now initiated at the sub-national level20. Economic growth in Ho Chi Minh City is notable, accounting for nearly 40% of Viet Nam’s gross domestic

17 General Statistics Officer, Ministry of Planning and Investment, United Nations in Viet Nam and World Health Organization (2010), ‘Keeping silent is dying’: Results from the National Study on Domestic Violence against Women in Viet Nam, Ha Noi (GSO, 2008) 18 MOORE Corporation (2015) Vietnam Digital Landscape 2015 19 From 1993 to 2012, on average 420 people were killed annually in extreme weather events, with economic losses estimated at 0.91 % of GDP per annum. Six to eleven typhoons hit Viet Nam every year- in recent years this has increased with the country being hit by 15 typhoons and 4 tropical depressions in 2013. 20 World Bank (2014). Making the Whole Greater than the Sum of the Parts: A Review of Fiscal Decentralization in Vietnam.

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product. The government has prioritised implementation of Public Administration Reform with targets for user satisfaction with health and education services and a master plan for the education sector.

As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, the government of Viet Nam has a keen interest in international human rights mechanisms and dialogue and there is willingness to align with international norms and standards. The Prime Minister’s Decision 535 to follow up on the recommendations of the UN CRC Committee has enabled a draft Child Law to be developed with UNICEF assistance. The ratification of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in late 201421 offers an effective legal framework and platform to strengthen implementation and monitoring of child rights in Viet Nam.

Lessons learned

The ability to influence legislation and multi-sectoral policy dialogue at national level is fundamental to achieve results at provincial and local levels in terms of sustainable, coherent, quality service delivery. This requires greater capacity and ownership of an evidence-based approach to policy development at both national and sub-national levels.

A key lesson learned from the 2012-2016 programme of cooperation is the importance of cross-sectoral approaches in addressing equity gaps and overcoming bottlenecks and barriers impeding the full realization of rights, in particular for adolescents and early childhood development. Another lesson learned relates to the added value of using proven models at subnational levels in policy dialogues and advocacy with national authorities. Building on successful strategies, UNICEF will contribute through its convening power and systematic use of evidence to build robust policy dialogues, to support capacity-building, to promote a wide range of partnerships, to scale up successful innovations and to promote triangular cooperation, in line with national priorities.

Ongoing decentralisation provides an important rationale to strengthen sub-national engagement through appropriate modalities either directly or through national line ministries. Past successes to support decisions by Provincial People’s Committees and the quality of service delivery by sub-national governments have demonstrated UNICEF’s ability to influence decision-making for improved social service delivery including quality and reach of service with outreach to most vulnerable groups in hard-to-reach areas at provincial level. It is evident from this experience that partnership building will play a major role in closing equity gaps and addressing the unfinished business of the MDGs. Strengthening further strategic partnerships with selected provinces particularly linked to the unfinished agenda will offer a new avenue to influence the effective use of a growing fiscal space for children.

Taking full advantage of Viet Nam’s lower middle income status requires a new regulatory framework allowing for resource mobilisation from the corporate sector and private-public partnerships. These are instrumental to UNICEF’s capacity to fully implement the next Country Programme.

Participatory assessment and monitoring tools such as Monitoring Results for Equity System (MoRES) and the bottleneck analysis tool (BAT) have proven effective to analyse sub sectors and to define interventions and investment plans. The monitoring system for the national target programme provides coverage data, but addresses neither the quality of services nor equity dimensions. These are potential entry points for UNICEF cooperation.

In the Delivering as One context, strategic results for children could be achieved effectively through leading and coordinating specific initiatives within the One Plan Framework. For example, UNICEF’s Co-Convening role in the Social Protection Joint Programme Group has enabled UNICEF to both coordinate evidence-informed inter-agency advocacy towards social protection reform.

System-wide Bottlenecks

21 A National Committee on Disability chaired by a Deputy Prime Minister.

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The challenges described above share several system-wide barriers and bottlenecks that impede equitable results for Vietnamese children22 and highlight five pillars of change that are instrumental for achieving concrete and sustainable results for children in the next country programme. The pillars of change represent system-wide bottlenecks where UNICEF can offer distinct comparative advantage through country-based, regional and global experience, partnerships and expertise and through strategic result areas where progress would demonstrate UNICEF’s relevance and effectiveness.

Bottleneck 1: Delivering accountability for children’s rights

Efforts are needed to expand and strengthen strategic partnerships for children – primarily with leading government ministries and decision-making government bodies – and to increase alignment between results for children and women and national plan priorities and budgets. There are also specific legislative, policy, and regulatory gaps that constitute a highly targeted legal and policy advocacy agenda for the next Country Programme23.

Achieving this change would require, amongst others:

» A legal framework including a Law on Association which enables a broad, effective and engaging multi-stakeholder partnerships;

» Legal recognition and measures to operationalise the roles of CSOs, children and communities in child rights monitoring and delivery of services for children;

» Mechanisms to ensure the design, implementation, measurement, monitoring and evaluation of child-related policies and programs.

» Instituting statutory funding mechanisms for delivering on multi-sectoral commitments for children » Strengthened political will and capacity of State actors to respond to citizen needs and feedback

Bottleneck 2: Improved generation and use of data and evidence

Effective, operational mechanisms are needed for the systematic management, analysis, and use of child related data. Achieving this change would require, amongst others:

» Ongoing improvements in national statistical systems to provide disaggregated data that adhere to international definitions and standards and that enable equity-based planning, budgeting, and delivery of services;

» Institutional changes and incentives in the use data for planning, decision-making, and communication.

Bottleneck 3: Understanding and leveraging domestic public finance for children

There is a need to find ways to leverage domestic finance for critical investments in children and for their caregivers. This requires entry points to engage with and influence the government’s budgetary processes and to position future investments for children as good investments with a clear return on investment. Achieving this change would require, amongst others:

» Targeted advocacy for equity focused public finance management, with increased engagement from key development partners including World Bank, Asian Development Bank and key regional bilateral partners;

» Linkages with social protection programmes with clear messages about return on investment;

» An effective, evidence-based planning and public financial management system for programs and services for children, possibly in pilot provinces;

» Communication for child-sensitive budgeting framework ;

» A functioning mechanism at community level that facilitates participation of parents and children in planning, budgeting and delivery of basic services.

Bottleneck 4: Inter-sectoral coordination and convergence

22 These system-wide barriers and bottlenecks were identified by the VCO during the Strategic Moment of Reflection, based on a synthesis of sectoral and thematic papers and inputs provided by the UNICEF Representative and advisors from EAPRO. While not comprehensive, they are viewed as being among the most important barriers to progress. 23 Examples from sector and theme papers: (1) A national quality assurance mechanism for MNCH services; (2) Specific legal and policy measures to measure and address disparities; (3) A mandatory national food fortification law for select micronutrients; (4) A legal framework for the social work profession; (5) A comprehensive juvenile justice law and enforcement mechanism; (6) Legal and regulatory framework for partnership with the private sector and CSOs.

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Under the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goal framework, a re-focus on integration and multi-sectorality is highlighted given the interconnection of goals and targets in the new agenda. There is broad weakness in the government’s capacity for programme design, implementation, budgeting, and monitoring, especially for initiatives that require inter-ministry or inter-departmental coordination, such as: a functioning child protection system that can address multiple forms of violence and disadvantages, and integrated early childhood development programmes and services. As decentralisation gathers pace in Viet Nam, local governments at province and district levels will be under increasing pressure to deliver quality services in health and nutrition, sanitation, education, and protection through sustainable and scalable programmes. Governmental human resources capacities, especially at local levels, are not yet capable of performing at expected levels.

Bottleneck 5: Social change and demand creation

A range of social norms at family, community, service provider, and higher government levels continue to constrain implementation and results achievement. In particular, there are entrenched norms coupled with inadequate resource allocations that have generated discrimination against different groups in the society such as ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities and left Viet Nam with an unfinished MDG agenda. Service providers, parents and caregivers need to be better informed and provided with evidence and information to take actions for optimal child development. This requires, amongst others:

» An evidence-based C4D strategy addressing harmful social norms affecting the well-being of children including the most vulnerable;

» A citizen feedback mechanism (e.g. score cards) in place and operationalised. » Expanded partnerships with international and national NGOs, corporate sector and social

enterprises

Based on the identified system-wide bottlenecks and barriers and lessons from the 2012-2016 Country Programme, a set of objective criteria were developed to assess the relevance and effectiveness of future programme results which must:

1. Involve policy advocacy, in support of the alignment of national priorities including SEDP with the SDGs, with a strategic partner the government who has authority and control over resources;

2. Be inter-sectoral, converging capacity changes at local level and generating scalable models;

3. Base programmes on predictable resources to achieve results within a core commitment from the government to support these programmes

4. Support the implementation of human rights norms and standards;

5. Address the situation of vulnerable groups, especially ethnic minorities, urban migrants, and children with disabilities, children affected by climate change;

6. Broaden the partnership base within the spirit of the SDG framework; and

7. Be viable as a common result for DaO.

Programme Components and Outcomes

The pillars of change have informed the design of the country programme outcomes and outputs under three major programme components which are further described in below.

Programme Component 1: Accountability and System Building for Child Rights and Protection

Programme Component 2: Integrated Early Childhood Development

Programme Component 3: Programme Partnership, Public Advocacy, and Communication for Child Rights

The government has the primary responsibility and accountability for achieving the planned outcomes. Based on its comparative advantage, UNICEF Viet Nam will be working with UN system partners under the One UN Strategic Framework, contributing to key outcomes with specific results for children and women through policy advice and technical assistance. UNICEF will also contribute to build capacity at national and local levels to design, implement and monitor national strategies, policies and plans in accordance with international norms, standards, and best practices and for the realisation of the rights of all children in Viet

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Nam. It will contribute to the achievement of national priorities including SEDP and their alignment with the SDGs24 and human rights commitments of the government of Viet Nam

As a lower middle-income country25, traditional funding sources for development assistance are changing with a gradual decrease in concessional ODA especially from multilateral development banks and a definite decrease in the traditional UN-intermediated ODA grants, while other priorities related to environment, trade and infrastructures will still benefit from ODA flows (more or less concessional). At the same time, Viet Nam’s economic growth and international trade partnerships are making available new forms of partnerships and assistance. The government and UNICEF will work together, and in collaboration with UN system, civil society, and corporate sector actors to translate these commitments into actions, through jointly-managed coordination and implementation arrangements, partnerships, joint resource mobilization, and effective progress monitoring, reporting, and evaluation.

Programme Component 1: Accountability and System Building for Child Rights and Protection

Introduction

This section describes the Theory of Change with details on proposed outcome and associated outputs under Programme Component 1: “Accountability and System Building for Child Rights and Protection”. The Programme Component is designed to remove system-wide bottlenecks with a focus on strengthening accountability, leveraging domestic resources, improving inter-sectoral coordination, generating timely high quality evidence. It also addresses the removal of prioritized sectoral bottlenecks throughout the country programme cycle 2017-2021. The detailed theories of change can be found in Annex A.

Prioritized issues and areas

Despite progress in social and economic development across communities of Viet Nam, a significant number of families, women and children are left behind. Efforts to reduce monetary poverty26 have been successful, however it has not led to a decrease in vulnerabilities. The new economic order in lower middle income Viet Nam is introducing emerging vulnerabilities and new social pressure on families. The realization of children’s rights is constrained by a fragmented enabling environment. Systems and mechanisms for independent monitoring of state accountability27 are also very limited. Child rights issues do not fall neatly into the mandate of one government agency, they cut across many different sectors of State management resulting in fragmented policies and programmes that are likely to diminish the impact of government investment on the realization of children’s rights. Establishing an effective mechanism for inter-sectoral coordination and monitoring is a necessary condition for improving the delivery of inclusive and quality social services that effectively respond to the needs and rights of all children in Viet Nam. Gaps in the framework for child rights accountability represent a major bottleneck for the fulfillment of children’s rights in Viet Nam and is caused by major underlying and structural causes, including limited political commitment towards certain children’s rights such as the establishment of an independent child rights monitoring mechanism. The people of Viet Nam, and especially children, must be given a stronger platform for voicing their opinion, and social service providers must improve their capacity and ability to listen and respond with transparency and accountability.

The use of evidence in decision making is weak and neither based on rigours data analysis nor on the effective involvement of citizen feedback. This is mainly due to limited participation of citizens through civil society organizations. The generation of objective forward-looking data and analysis on children’s issues remains a challenge in the unique social and political context of Viet Nam. This represents a major

24 Sustainable Development Goals and targets, November 2015. 25 World Bank, Country and lending groups, November 2015, http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-and-lending-groups 26 The absolute monetary poverty rate (at US$1.25 a day, PPP) declined markedly, from 78% in 1993, to 22% in 2005, and just 6% in 2014 27According to the voices accountability Index (2014) ranked Viet Nam 174th http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Vietnam/wb_voice_accountability/ http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/pdf/c234.pdf

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld

http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Vietnam/wb_voice_accountability/

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constraint for evidence-based policy making informed by the availability of quality non-partisan knowledge about the situation of children. There is lack of access and transparency to public finance data and systems which limits opportunities for timely and effective influencing of government to efficiently allocate and utilize resources for the realization of children’s rights. Evaluation is under-utilized and does not follow international norms and standards. As a results, there is limited evidence to support critical assessments of the impact, effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and sustainability of key policies and programmes for child rights implementation.

The new Child Law that is expected to be enacted in the course of 2016 should provide a much improved legal framework for child rights implementation including an increased alignment with the norms and standards of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). However, the more specific legal and policy framework for social protection and child protection systems remains fragmented and does not adequately respond to the specific vulnerabilities that children in Viet Nam are facing including children with disabilities, children of ethnic minorities and children of migrant parents/caregivers. Traditional government propaganda campaigns have limited outreach and the general understanding of child protection amongst government and the public remains limited with child neglect, abuse and exploitation considered a private family matter and a matter of charity. The child protection system is in a nascent stage and very uneven in quality across the country. The system is over-reliant on volunteers and a potentially capable workforce of social workers is still in its infancy. There are massive gaps in terms of availability of services for children victims of and/or at-risk of child neglect, abuse, exploitation, orphans, abandoned children, children with disabilities, children in conflict with the law and children affected by HIV/AIDS. With a weak system and limited capacity for service delivery at all levels, there are growing concerns that child protection issues are exacerbated by the absence of a comprehensive child protection system. To respond to the growing child protection concerns Viet Nam needs a comprehensive child protective system, made up of an adequate legal framework and an efficient service delivery system protecting children at all levels. This system should aim at creating a comprehensive safety net for all vulnerable children, tackling all types of risks of harm and circumstances to which children are exposed. In recognition of fragmentation, high transaction costs, and low efficiency, the Government of Viet Nam has consolidated 16 National Target Programmes (NTPs), including Health, Nutrition, Education, Water and Sanitation, into 2 multi-sector NTPs, namely for New Rural Development and for Sustainable Poverty Reduction. This consolidation represents a unique opportunity for UNICEF to firmly position strategic priorities for children addressing major unfinished business for child rights realisation with a renewed and stronger focus on integration of social services for children with a life-cycle approach. The government of Viet Nam has shifted from a monetary to a multi-dimensional system of measuring poverty. However, there is a very limited focus on the significance of social development. UNICEF will use evidence and lessons learnt to advocate for policy and programmatic priorities that target child poverty and deprivation, and address disparities affecting ethnic minorities, migrants and children with disabilities. Decentralization of decision-making and service delivery to provincial and local levels is accelerating. More than 50% of general expenditures and 77% of capital expenditures are now initiated at the sub-national level28. Economic growth in Ho Chi Minh City is notable, accounting for nearly 40% of Vietnam’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The government has prioritised implementation of the Public Administration Reform with targets for user satisfaction including health and education services as well as a master plan for education sector reform. Through strategic partnerships with Provincial People’s Committees, UNICEF has demonstrated its ability to positively influence decision-making for improved quality and reach of social services to the most vulnerable groups in hard-to-reach areas. It is evident from this experience that partnership building plays a major role in closing equity gaps and addressing the unfinished business of the MDGs. Strengthening partnership with selected provinces particularly around the unfinished agenda will offer a new avenue to influence the effective use of available fiscal space for children. However, lessons learnt in current programme cycle also demonstrate that a multi-sectoral policy dialogue at national level is fundamental to achieve results at provincial and local levels.

28 World Bank (2014). Making the Whole Greater than the Sum of the Parts: A Review of Fiscal Decentralization in Vietnam.

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Equity and inclusion are major elements of an education sector reform process that is expected to transform the education system in a shift from a more passive and one way teaching and learning system to a modern education system promoting creativity, self-motivation, innovative thinking and practical application of knowledge. It will move from fact based teaching to competency based instruction. This is a strategic move in line with the global education 2030 agenda and it is aligned with several targets of the SDG Goal 4. There is evidence of private spending on children’s education29 in Viet Nam which is considered a major burden on households. The actual spending is up to three times more than the prescribed amount in Decree 49/2010 authorizing parental contributions to schools. This burden is heavier on parents living in urban areas than those living in rural areas. Poor families tend to contribute less money overall, but education costs are likely to be a higher proportion of their total household income. There is an increasing need to review public and private financing of education at all levels to improve evidence for policy monitoring and advocacy. Although there is gender parity at primary level, gender inequalities emerge in secondary as a result of social norms. More evidence is needed to develop a deeper understanding of the root causes to inform policy advocacy and communication for related behavioural change. Some evidences suggest that early marriage is a main reason for dropping out of school, particularly among ethnic minority girls30, but boys between 15-17 years old are also vulnerable to drop-out since they are put to work more often than girls, particularly in the agriculture sector.31

The legal and policy framework for health, nutrition and WASH has been gradually improving. With UNICEF support legislation on extended maternal leave has been revised, and the ban on advertising of breastmilk substitute products for children from 0-24 months and mandatory food fortification now serve as a strong legal basis for the protection of children’s rights from early in the life cycle. Continued policy monitoring for effective enforcement at all levels will be required in order to ensure the desired impact on children. Building on the success of provincial partnerships, UNICEF has been able to demonstrate effective models such as integrated management of malnutrition (IMAM) and Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS), however challenges in implementing and scaling up are evident and require continuous policy advocacy and technical support including the introduction of public finance and budgeting to develop strong investment cases. Widening income disparities and inequity in access to nutrition services are pronounced in ethnic minority communities and among the urban poor. Critical local evidence on institutionalization of health and nutrition services such as hospital quality criteria on early initiation of breastfeeding, severe acute malnutrition management, and IYCF counselling will be critical to influence health sector reform and system building with a clear view to close gaps emerging from an unfinished MDG agenda.

Theory of Change for the Programme Component

The programme component for Accountability and System Building for Child Rights and Protection responds to a fragmented enabling environment and limited accountability of state actors32 resulting in weak institutional capacity to promote and protect child rights, and particularly in the absence of a functioning child protection system. This Programme Component aims at improving both multi-sectoral and sectoral legal and policy environments with a focus on more coherent and coordinated policy advocacy efforts.

Programme Component 1 will contribute to national priorities (SEDP priority for social development) and the One Strategic Plan of UN in Viet Nam (Outcome 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and Outcome 4.1 and 4.2) as well as UNICEF Strategic Plan (Outcomes 1 to 7). It will also contribute to the achievement of SDG targets to adopt and implement nationally appropriate social protection systems for greater equality (1.3, 10.4), end abuse,

29 See Annex 2 for PSEV study. 1Ninh Thuan Provincial People’s Committee and UNICEF (2012). An Analysis of the Situation of Children in Ninh Thuan Province. 31GSO and UNICEF (2014). Vietnam Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. 32According to the voices accountability Index (2014) ranked Viet Nam 174th http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Vietnam/wb_voice_accountability/ http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/pdf/c234.pdf

http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Vietnam/wb_voice_accountability/

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exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against and torture of children (16.2), and to promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development (16.b).

Programme Component 1 consists of two outcome areas with two separate Theories of Change:

Outcome 1: By 2021, inclusive and protective legal and policy environment and State's accountability is strengthened for the realization of children’s rights

Outcome 2: By 2021, social protection system is child and gender-sensitive responding effectively to economic, social and emergency-related vulnerabilities

Theory of Change Outcome 1

Outcome 1: By 2021, inclusive and protective legal and policy environment and State's accountability are strengthened for the realization of children’s rights

This outcome will focus on strengthening the enabling environment for greater accountability by improving policy and legal frameworks and capacity of State actors. The outcome will contribute to strengthen systems, mechanisms and capacity of State actors in the implementation and monitoring of commitments for children’s rights. The outcome offers a platform to bring dividends from other outcome areas to inform national policy dialogue with high impact. Efforts to achieve this outcome involve critical investment in evidence based advocacy and child-sensitive improvements in socio-economic development planning, sectoral plans, inter-sectoral coordination and public sector financial management and capacity development with a focus on equity. There will be a main emphasis in this outcome area to shape the national policy agenda for child rights. UNICEF will engage in sustained and meaningful policy dialogue informed by international best practices and local evidence building to influence laws, policies, planning, financial management, monitoring and evaluation to improve government performance in delivery of basic social services for children. The outcome also requires capacity development of State actors to monitor and oversee newly introduced or amended laws and policies that are in line with the CRC and other relevant international treaties. Finally, citizen’s empowerment in understanding the policy environment and claiming their rights will be further fostered under Programme Component 3 addressing specific social norms through public advocacy and partnership.

Within Outcome 1 of Programme Component 1, six outputs are designed to offer strategic interventions across sectors with management responsibilities in 4 programme sections, namely Social Policy and Governance, Child Protection, Child Survival and Development, Education. This outcome structure aims at advancing an office-wide effort to remove system wide bottlenecks by improving government accountability and strengthening the legislative process and policy environment.

Output 1.1 responds to the current need for improving the legal environment and strengthening the currently weak capacity of elected bodies, particularly the National Assembly and selected People’s Councils, in carrying out oversight, policy monitoring and evaluation of newly introduced legislations. Support for evidence-generation and systematic monitoring and evaluation on the implementation of laws and policies for child rights will help elected bodies to make informed decisions in the best interest of children. Key interventions will involve capacity building of civil society actors to enhance their capacity and platform to provide feedback to government on its performance in implementing Viet Nam’s commitments to child rights and the CRC concluding observations.

Output 1.2 is the core intervention of social inclusion to influence socio-economic development planning and public finance management for children. With the timely utilization of disaggregated data policy makers will be equipped to take informed decisions on key child rights and equity-focused issues in planning and budgeting at both sub-national and national levels. Outputs 1.3 and 1.4 are the corresponding sectoral interventions specific to education, child survival and development aiming at improving sectoral planning, monitoring, evaluation and financial management with the use of equity focused disaggregated data and evidence and the improvement of overall accountability. Outputs 1.5 and 1.6 relate to strategic interventions in child protection system building and are designed to contribute to the improvement of the legal framework and the reform of the juvenile justice system. Both outputs will involve both government and civil society to bring about the desired change.

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Social Policy & Governance

Output 1.1: Improved national capacity to monitor and oversee child rights related legislations, policies and programmes in line with the CRC and other international treaties related to child rights

In contribution to Outcome 1, this output responds to the limitations of the legal reform environment and weak capacity of elected bodies, particularly the National Assembly and selected People’s Councils. UNICEF will help to strengthen capacity of national and sub-national State actors to monitor and implement children’s rights. Lessons from the last ten years of programme cooperation show that elected bodies do not have sufficient capacity to adequately review and assess new legislation and its compliance with norms and standards of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The output will support systematic monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of laws and policies related to child rights and assist elected bodies to generate high quality evidence to support the best interest of children. To enhance State accountability, UNICEF will work through public advocacy and partnership (Outcome 4) to expand networks and improve knowledge of civil society for child rights realization. With support from UNICEF, civil society organizations will have improved capacity to deliver inclusive, independent and transparent reporting and follow up of Viet Nam’s commitments under ratified human rights treaties and the concluding observations of their respective treaty bodies relevant to children’s rights.

Output 1.2: Enhanced national capacity for child rights focused, inclusive and equitable cross-sectoral planning and public finance management

In contribution to Outcome 1, this output is based on the recognition that inclusive and equitable outcomes for children rely on good planning as well as equity-focused budgeting and financial management including those for social protection programmes and particularly at sub-national level. UNICEF will provide technical support at both national and sub-national levels to improve child-responsive planning and public financial management (PFM). These interventions will be tied closely to the process of planning, monitoring and evaluating targets in the Socio-Economic Development Plans (SEDPs) and National Target Programs (NTPs). The main strategies involve efforts to increase the availability and utilization of disaggregated data on budgeting and spending patterns and their effects on child outcomes, to generate stronger evidence and advocacy strategies to inform a national dialogue on equitable and child-focused planning and public finance management. It also involves strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships and coordination, developing government and civil society capacity to conduct social audits and use findings in planning, monitoring, and evaluation, and enhancing public knowledge and feedback as an integral part of planning and budgeting processes for child rights.

Education

Output 1.3: Education sector policies, plans and programme from pre-primary to lower-secondary levels are strengthened to promote quality, equity and inclusiveness

As a lower middle-income country, Viet Nam will require a greater focus on the quality and inclusiveness of education. In contribution to Outcome 1, the output will support the on-going national education reform with a particular focus on equity in access to quality inclusive education and learning for all girls and boys from pre-primary to lower secondary education including the most disadvantaged children such as children with disabilities, migrant children and children of ethnic minorities. The Education Development Strategic Plan (EDSP) 2011-2020 is a critical foundation setting national strategic directions, objectives and targets for the Education Sector to improve quality human resources supporting the acceleration of human development and the Communist Party Resolution 29 on Fundamental and Comprehensive Education Reform. Output 1.3 will focus on improving the enabling environment for the education reform including aspects of planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes as well as improved civil society engagement and citizen feedback. Support will be provided to improve systems for evidence and knowledge generation in education and the collection of primary data on disadvantaged and excluded

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children with a focus on access, retention and learning. The planning and budgeting process for a decentralized education system needs to be strengthened and to become a systematic sector practice and included as a core investment case in the Social Economic Development Plan. Such efforts will have to be supported by critical data analysis and research shaping high level policy advocacy and informing the design of innovative solutions to remove existing barriers and bottlenecks in access to education for the most vulnerable and marginalized children including children of migrants in urban centers. UNICEF will also advocate for and support identification of innovative tools for tracking disparities and assessing education quality and learning outcomes with a gender sensitive lens. UNICEF will continue to focus on the effective implementation of policies related to ethnic minority education and ensure an up-to-date policy environment so as to ensure an inclusive quality education for the groups of children most at risk of not attending or dropping out of school including the sustainability of mother tongue-based and multi-language teaching.

The output will also address important issues related to financing of education, including out-of-pocket payments, full-day schooling, teacher management and training, and the tracking of out-of-school children as part of a renewed effort to look at school governance and efficiency. More evidence is needed to understand the impact of half-day schooling on learning achievements and how an expansion to full-day schooling can be financed without bringing major burden onto parents and caregivers especially for the most disadvantaged girls and boys. A comprehensive national reporting system for educational finance is crucial to safeguard equity and efficiency in education financing mechanisms. Tools to improve the efficiency of budget allocation and spending will help provincial authorities to avoid wastage and to promote accountability among school managers. Such efforts will strengthen governance capacity for education at all levels, including the community level. Disability needs to be placed higher on the public agenda and bridging knowledge gaps with government

and the public in general is an essential part of promoting inclusive education for children with disabilities.

There is a limited wider experience childhood disability in the education system and the internationally

accepted definition and classification of disability with a human rights-based approach is still not practiced

in Viet Nam. It is necessary to continue efforts to clarify the concepts and terms, and to introduce

methodologies for the classification of disability that are in line with international standards. UNICEF will

support the strengthening of coordination capacity and the development of an improved package of

services for children with disabilities. Continuous advocacy will be needed to ensure that the education

of girls and boys with disabilities are prioritized in the education budget. A system-wide approach is

needed to improve the capacity of teachers, especially at lower secondary levels, to work with

children/adolescents with disabilities in a mainstream school setting, especially children with autism or

intellectual delays, and children with learning disabilities.

UNICEF will promote a child-friendly inclusive learning environment especially in the lower secondary education with a human rights-based and learner-centered approach that addresses all aspects of inclusive quality education. The model will include standards for improved school infrastructures with emphasis on a safe, healthy, inclusive and gender-sensitive school environment. A child-friendly inclusive learning environment will also include efforts to improve relevant curricula integrating 21st century skills development with learner-centered teaching and learning practices. Addressing quality in education also means continuing to cultivate critical thinking and to develop skills to adapt to changing environmental conditions and their impact on child vulnerability and well-being. To help the promotion of the school safety and resilience framework, this output will work with the education management to strengthen capacity in the implementation of an integrated disaster risk reduction and climate change curriculum and to support the roll-out in targeted areas in relation to school safety education. This will be closely linked to national and subnational efforts to enhance capacity for the development and implementation of disaster risk reduction and climate change plans of action and related monitoring systems.

Extensive partnerships and collaboration across education development partners will be required in order to provide adequate levels of technical support to the government of Viet Nam for the implementation of the SDG Education 2030 vision. Improved mechanisms for accountability of state management in education will also be needed to effectively monitor the realization of the right to education for all in line

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with international obligations. This in turn should allow for stronger policy advocacy efforts with clear linkages to Programme Component 3 driving social change in support of education through expanded partnerships and public advocacy.

Child Survival and Development

Output 1.4: Health, nutrition and WASH sector reforms are strengthened to promote quality, equity and inclusiveness for child survival and development

In contribution to Outcome 1, this output will build institutional capacity responsive to an unfinished agenda in health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the context of lower middle income Viet Nam. The output will draw important dividend from Programme Component 2 in promoting quality, equity and inclusiveness for child survival and development in the context of integrated ECD. The output will support evidence generation and documentation of integrated ECD under Programme Component 2 and will offer a platform for influencing the development of national policies for integrated ECD including policy reviews and evaluations of integrated ECD initiatives in target provinces. From within Outcome 1, the output will work to strengthen inter-sectoral coordination from implementation of outputs related to education, child protection, and social protection. UNICEF policy advocacy and partnership engagement will be carried out in the form of organizing regular review meetings and workshops through existing mechanisms such as the Health Partnership (HPG) with participation of key decision makers, development partners, civil society organisations and mass media. Furthermore, strong linkages to Programme Component 3 on Programme Partnership and Advocacy will develop and strengthen platforms to maximize impact and promote positive social change for child rights realization.

The output will work with the aim to enhance national capacity to deliver equity based analyses and policy options in maternal and neo-natal child health (MNCH), WASH and nutrition with a focus on reduction of maternal and newborn deaths, stunting and open defecation. In health, critical issues include strengthening health governance at national level to support provincial capacity for the provision of quality maternal and newborn care services. Building an enabling policy environment for strengthening the rural healthcare system will offer the requisite environment for scaling up good practices expected to emerge from the implementation of Programme Component 2 on integrated ECD in target provinces. In Nutrition, with a focus on stunting, concerted efforts will work to improve multi-sectoral coordination and governance leading to national scale up of nutrition initiatives. This renewed focus on multi-sectoral, inter-ministerial planning, budgeting and collaboration for nutrition specific interventions is considered key for Viet Nam in order to achieve stunting reduction focussing on the first 1000 days. Enhanced human resources capacity development will be obtained through revising and updating skills building materials and guidelines, and through supportive monitoring and supervision, and information sharing and South-South collaboration.

This will require strategic support to enhance capacity of nutrition managers at both national and sub-national levels in the implementation of multi-sectoral nutrition specific that are sensitive to the integration of Health and WASH issues. The output will continue to support legislative environment for nutrition with particular focus on the enforcement of existing legislations (including the Code on marketing of breastmilk substitutes, Maternity protection, day care centres and lactation rooms, universal salt iodisation, food fortification). Furthermore, UNICEF is expecting to also start engaging in emerging areas such as the marketing of junk food and sugary beverages in efforts of public advocacy providing incentives for healthy food habits and addressing the issues of double burden malnutrition.

In support of the WASH sector reform, this output will focus on strengthening national and sub-national capacity to deliver equity-based bottleneck analyses with a focus on prevention of diarrhoea and stunting reduction. Application of innovation and information technology solutions will help improve data collection, reporting, and equity monitoring and is expected to strengthen the management of community and school water and sanitation systems. New capacities will be developed through revising and updating training materials and national guidelines for scaling up water and sanitation mainly under the NTP for Rural Development and in line with commitments made to Sanitation and Water for All targets for Water 2025 and 2030 for Sanitation. The output will provide a platform for expanding partnerships

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for WASH and to further strengthen multi-sectoral and inter-ministerial coordination including a continued active role in the Rural Water and Sanitation Partnership, and the Operation and Maintenance Working Group.

Data and evidence will be generated largely based on desk reviews and triangulation of existing data and documents as well as through rigorous assessments and documentations of models in close collaboration with national and development partners. This will include support to the implementation of quality improvement framework and mechanisms for MNCH, WASH and nutrition; as seen in the peer review assessment of criteria for quality of services for nutrition in hospitals. The output will explore innovation and ICT in data collection, reporting, and equity monitoring for MNCH and nutrition and to generate evidence about new services such as ECD in primary healthcare. The continued monitoring of progress towards implementation of key child focused MNCH, WASH and nutrition indicators in the health sector plan and SEDP at national and provincial levels will be key to effectively address the unfinished MDG agenda and the realisation of child rights.

Child Protection

Output 1.5: Strengthened capacity of key State actors to establish an operational child protection system that prevents and responds to neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation of children

This output will focus on the establishment of the legal framework for a comprehensive child protection system and the development of social work profession. Technical support will emphasis on a legal and policy reform in line with the Convention on the Right of the Child and the provision of functioning mechanisms at local level to prevent, identify and protect children from neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation. The output will support the operationalization of a comprehensive child protection system with the development of professional human resources in the area of child protection and social care with a focus on the professionalization of social work.

Output 1.6: Enhanced national capacity to improve access to justice and protection of children in contact with the law

This output focuses on developing the capacity of the State and civil society to increase access to justice and protection of all children in contact with the law. Recent legal and judicial reforms have yet to reach a level of maturity and coherence needed to create a comprehensive juvenile justice system in Viet Nam. There is a lack of coordination and strategic planning, with various agencies playing different, often overlapping roles. This has resulted in fragmentation, a lack of collaboration, and reduced effectiveness for implementing measures for children which leads to an overreliance on detention of children who come into conflict with the criminal and administrative law. Specialized child and gender sensitive services are lacking for effective youth crime prevention, diversion away from the formal justice system, rehabilitation and reintegration of child offenders; as well as for specialized child and gender sensitive services for children who come into contact with justice systems as victims, witnesses, or for other reasons such as their care, custody or protection.


Outcome 2: By 2021, social protection system is child and gender-sensitive responding effectively to economic, social and emergency-related vulnerabilities

This outcome will address the fragmented social protection system in Viet Nam and help to remove barriers and bottlenecks preventing it from effectively reaching vulnerable children in need of social protection. UNICEF will support the establishment of an equity-oriented effective social protection system that responds to overlapping economic and social vulnerabilities. The system will comprise of an adequate legal framework and an efficient service delivery system at local level. It will aim to establish a comprehensive safety net for all vulnerable children and address major gaps in the social welfare system to adequately respond to multi-dimensional child poverty as well as prevent and protect children from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. This will represent a critical contribution of UNICEF in response

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to existing and emerging disparities and deprivations for children. Outcome 2 will bring dividend from Programme Component 2 on Integrated Early Childhood Development through joint advocacy and technical assistance for improving social protection programmes, especially social assistance covering young children, as well as generating data and evidence related to disparities in children’s well-being at the sub-national level.

Within Outcome 2 of Programme Component 1, there are two outputs with management responsibilities in two programme sections; Social Policy and Governance, and Child Protection. Output 2.1 and 2.2 are designed to improve government capacity, reduce fragmentation, improve effectiveness and monitor overlapping vulnerabilities sensitive to child vulnerability with an equity focus leading to a comprehensive and inclusive social protection system including aspects of strengthening social welfare system. Output 2.1 will particularly focus on providing technical assistance for the institutionalization of the multi-dimensional child poverty methodology and generate lessons learnt from social assistance reform efforts in collaboration with the other development partners to enhance national dialogue for an improved social protection (assistance) system. Output 2.2 focuses on strengthening national capacity in social welfare and related sectors, civil society and communities to provide recovery, reintegration and social care services in response to children in need of special protection.

Social Policy and Governance

Output 2.1: By 2021, inclusive and equitable child focused social protection policies and programmes are established and coordinated to respond to multi-dimensional child poverty and vulnerabilities

In contribution to Outcome 2, this output will enhance the availability of reliable evidence and analyses for use by decision-makers in Viet Nam exploring potential directions for social protection reform. Analysis of the potential impacts of emerging risks and vulnerabilities for children associated with the accelerated socio-economic reform processes as well as ex-ante and ex-post policy impact analysis is needed to build an inclusive and dynamic system that takes into account multiple disadvantages, for example climate change, urbanization, migration and disabilities. UNICEF will focus its technical support in two specific areas of such institutional development: a) institutionalization and harmonization of the multi-dimensional child poverty (MDCP) with broader national multi-dimensional poverty monitoring system by 2018; b) development of evidence-informed action plans and a road map for implementation of rights-based social protection reform agenda focusing on children, including for example on child grants. This output is strongly linked with Outcome 3 (integrated early childhood development) to support children in fulfilling their right to survival, development, education and protection with a life cycle approach.

Child Protection

Output 2.2: By 2021, strengthened national capacity to provide recovery, reintegration and social care services for children in need of special protection

In contribution to Outcome 2, this output will respond to the absence of a comprehensive child protection legal framework in Viet Nam. Significant gaps remain in terms of the availability and quality of services for early identification, intervention, referral to rehabilitative and specialized tertiary services and follow-up (i.e. a continuum of services) for children victims of neglect, abuse, exploitation and violence. This output will contribute to the establishment of a strengthened and inclusive social protection system that addresses, through one system, the multiple disadvantages, harms, risks of harms, and vulnerabilities affecting child well-being, as well as the distinctive needs of children in need of special protection. Efforts will focus on the development of policies and capacity for specialized child protection services, including alternative care for children without adequate parental care, improving adoption system, development of respite care and other support services for children with disabilities, psycho-social support, and rehabilitation and recovery services for child victims of violence and exploitation delivered by the government, communities, civil society organizations, mass organizations and other stakeholders. This

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output is strongly linked with Outcome 3 (integrated early childhood development) to support children in fulfilling their rights to survival, development, education and protection with a life cycle approach.

Strategic interventions

Key implementation strategies for this programme component are: (1) evidence generation and support for the utilization of data; (2) evidence-based and rights-based policy and public advocacy, including bringing the voice of children into this process; (3) capacity development to improve accountability, transparency and service delivery; and (4) multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Evidence generation and support for policy decisions: The generation of reliable, timely, and disaggregated data, analysis and evidence is a major area of UNICEF technical support. This will enhance stakeholders’ capacity to respond to the evolving situation of children and to build an enabling policy environment in the rapidly changing social and economic context. It will also support stakeholders to recognize gaps in the national legal frameworks in line with international standards. Through appropriate mechanisms, UNICEF will also lead and / or provide specific contribution to the inter-agency and multi-stakeholder analysis, as a strategic avenue for generating evidence within the national context.

Evidence-based and rights-based policy dialogue and advocacy: The use of data and evidence is essential for multi-level advocacy tailored to key target audiences and channels. UNICEF will facilitate high-level multi-stakeholder dialogues (different ministries, departments, elected bodies, and civil society organisations) to support stronger coordination to achieve results. For example, the new Child Law, when enacted, will offer a comprehensive framework for the implementation of children’s rights. In the framework of the Master Plan on Social Assistance Reform, UNICEF will facilitate strategic and coherent policy dialogue across the pillars of social assistance, social care and emergency assistance. Ratified human rights treaties provide a normative framework to guide all aspects of this advocacy, including key concepts such as the best-interests of the child, a life-cycle approach, as well as pressing issues regarding implementation such as efficiency, effectiveness and coverage of social assistance.

Capacity development and strengthening service delivery: All planned outputs relate to new or improved institutional structures, skills, abilities, products or services that, combined, are essential for the achievement of the outcomes. In particular, each of the programme components has a focus on new capacities and strengthening the overall institutional capacity for the generation and use of evidence in decision-making and policy formulation, as well as planning and public finance management. Accountability is one of the most fundamental capacity required from State actors as it relates to overall government performance against planned targets. The UNICEF country programme will support capacity building of stakeholders in a systematic and sustainable way, especially for child professionals specialized in welfare and justice sectors where such capacity is severely lacking. This will necessarily involve strengthening the service delivery system through the introduction of international guidelines and standards as well as select demonstration models of highly specialised child protection services.

Partnership: Success for each outcome will require an expanded strategic partnership with the government, CSOs, the corporate sector, and media. Building on the current work around child rights monitoring and taking into account the emergence of civil society, UNICEF is strategically positioned to build and facilitate essential partnerships across matters relevant to child rights. Moreover, the request from the government of Viet Nam regarding cross-country experience sharing, and its aspiration to pursue a prominent role in the ASEAN context, positions UNICEF to mobilize global and regional knowledge, experience and expertise in contributing substantively to the upstream work.

Partners

The National Assembly is the highest-level legislative body, whose functions include the approval of laws, socio-economic development plans and the budget. The National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children (CEYC) plays a critical role in issues related to culture, education, youth and children which are all relevant to UNICEF. In addition, given the cross-cutting nature of children’s issues, the roles of other National Assembly committees (for legal, social, economic, financial and

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budgetary affairs) are also important to UNICEF across all areas. At the sub-national level, Provincial People’s Councils perform a similar function to the National Assembly, including making important local development decisions (including resource allocation to address local priorities) and providing oversight over the performance of local government units.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) will continue to be an important and influential partner. UNICEF will also strengthen the partnership with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to improve government capacity and commitment to equity and rights-focused planning and public finance management (with DOFs and DPIs at sub-national levels). UNICEF also seeks to work closely with the General Statistics Office and academic institutions in strengthening evidence and analysis generation.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA/DOLISA) is the lead Ministry on children and social protection, and as such will remain the critical partner especially for outcome 2. MOLISA is responsible for coordinating social protection, poverty issues, social welfare and child protection. Its capacity development across all of these areas and especially for coordination is seen essential for the outcome. In addition, MOLISA will play significant role in drafting and presenting the CRC report as well as following up the recommendations.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET/DOET) is in charge of promoting inclusive education for children, sectoral planning and budgeting of the education sector, and matters related to social protection, particularly cash assistance and social assistance to poor students, students in poor and ethnic minority (EM) areas. This ministry is one of the key partners for IECD, particularly with respect to the child benefit component as well as improving education services for children with feedback from service users (children and caregivers) as well as public finance management related to education. MOET has recently recognized that social work in school is important to prevent and respond to problems amongst students in schools including violence, bullying, dropping out of school, mental health, discrimination against children with disabilities, children affected with HIV/AIDS and others. In addition, social work also contributes to prevent violent discipline practices by teachers and parents and the relationship between children, teachers and parents. The development of social work in the sector of education and training will contribute to strengthening the comprehensive system of child protection services in the key sectors of welfare, health, education and justice.

The Ministry of Health (MOH/DOH) is an important partner as well, because it is in charge of budget allocations in the health sector at the national and sub-national level, as well as for certain elements related to social protection, particular health insurance, social assistance/cash support to pregnant women from ethnic minorities, the provision of free health care for children, and free health insurance for ethnic minorities and the poor. The health sector is a key entry point for identifying and treating victims of violence, as well as for providing information on violence prevention in such activities as prosecuting those who perpetrate crimes against children, raising awareness, strengthening children’s rights, increasing children’s access to the legal system, increasing the number and types of interventions to protect victims and etc. The health sector also plays an important role in birth registration, responding to children’s and parental/caregiver’s mental health, and children with disabilities. These issues require a coordinated and cross-sectoral response.

The Committee for Ethnic Minorities (CEM) plays a legislative and advisory role to the government for various political, social and economic development issues related to ethnic minorities. This committee is in charge of the development and implementation of special policies for ethnic minorities and areas as well as the appraisal of policies and programs implemented in areas with larger ethnic minority populations. It also coordinates the national targeted program on poverty reduction and sustainable development for ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ): has the state management function on development and implementation of laws and regulations, review of legal normative documents, control of administrative procedures and legal dissemination and education. This makes the MOJ a critical partner generally and particularly in terms of the legal and regulatory framework relevant to child protection, and specifically in relation to child adoption, juvenile justice and legal aid for which the MOJ carries responsibility.

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The Ministry of Public Security (MPS): The MPS is directly responsible for crime and law enforcement and is the focal ministry in the area of human trafficking, making MPS a major partner in terms of justice for children and child protection.

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) is an institution independent from the government. With the creation of the new specialised children’s court in Viet Nam, the court plays a central role in access to justice for children and to redress rights violations. The partnership will be an important one through the next country programme.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Mass Organizations: CSOs are increasingly more organized and dynamic, especially in undertaking social dialogues, policy advocacy and independent child rights monitoring. For the success of this component, it is required to strengthen the partnership with CSOs and to ensure that they will gain capacity in line with their increasing role. Globally, civil organizations play an important role in providing child protection services alongside with the state. They are increasingly used by governments to provide services for vulnerable children and families on behalf of the State. Given the weak child protection service delivery system in Viet Nam, mass and civil organizations will play an important role in supporting children and families at risk and providing child protection services especially at grassroots level. UNICEF will continue to cooperate with selected mass organizations and civil organizations to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by such partnerships to achieve results for children.

Local research institutions including MOLISA’s ILISSA, VASS’s CAF, NEU’s research center, NAPA, University of Labour and Social Affairs; Ha Noi Teaching Training University; Ha Noi Law University; Law Research Institute; Academy of Judiciary; Police Academy; Procuracy Science Institute; Judicial Science Institute. These are all potential partners in providing prompt evidence and analyses about the implication of macro-level decisions on children. At the regional and international level, UNICEF will partner with academic institutions on particular areas where the capacity domestically is more limited or could be well served by international expertise and experience, including children’s mental health, substance use and abuse, child protection systems and emerging child protection concerns.

Corporate sector: UNICEF will continue to partner with the corporate sector on addressing, within the framework of the Child Rights and Business Principles, child labour, commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and online exploitation – collectively grouped as ‘child exploitation’, and directly relevant to children’s right to protection.

Other UN agencies, the World Bank, regional IFIs and development partners such as the EU are also strategic partners for advocacy, including in leveraging domestic resources that are critical for investment in improving governance and building social protection and protection systems for children.

UN Agencies in Viet Nam: UNICEF will continue strong engagement with UNDP particularly on rule of law (justice for children) and strengthening Viet Nam’s social protection framework, especially the social welfare/social care service delivery system (through development of social work, reforming of social welfare service delivery system, child protection system strengthening, harmonization of MDCP with MDP, and expanding social assistance for particularly vulnerable groups of children). ILO: The ILO represents an important UN partner for UNICEF due to its work on child labour and also in social protection. UNFPA: UNICEF has several areas of synergy with UNFPA in Viet Nam, namely civil registration and vital statistics (birth registration) and gender-based violence (violence against children). To date the relationship has been well progressing with joint support to components of violence against children (Drivers Study, engagement on the proposed VAC Survey), and engagement on civil registration and vital statistics (UNFPA partners with GSO and UNICEF partners with MOJ) and possibly in positive parenting. This engagement be strengthened to ensure coherence across these thematic areas. UNICEF intends to play an active role in the inter-agency coordination mechanism, through the ‘People’s group, and with focus on social protection.

The WB and ADB continue to be important partners in poverty reduction and social assistance, including targeting mechanisms, social pension and reform planning. Based on the existing collaboration experience in the area of social assistance and the Public Expenditure Review with the World Bank, UNICEF will further collaborate with the WB in the implementation of this component. The ADB produces a social protection index at the regional level including Viet Nam. It has supported the planning reforms

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with a focus on results-based management in the SEDP context. The OECD recently showed an interest in social protection system strengthening.

The delegation of the European Union focuses on poverty reduction in ethnic minority areas. This latter organization could be a potential partner with UNICEF to promote a lifecycle approach child benefit model.

Bilateral donors and agencies (DFAT, GIZ, BTC, KOICA, JICA, Norwegian Embassy and Irish Embassy) have capacity development activities for social assistance and planning reforms and governance respectively.

Assumptions and Risks

Major assumptions for the success of this Programme Component are that:

1. Government of Viet Nam duly accounts for the SDG agenda in national priorities including SEDP with some impact on policy adoption and resource allocation.

2. UN strives to maintain its special and privileged partnership role with Viet Nam and leverage the GOUNH platform for delivering as a One Stop Shop for top notch technical assistance in the vast areas of mandates of the UN.

3. The restructuring of macro-economic policies, accompanied by measures to redistribute the economic gains across the country, will support inclusive growth for children, including particularly disadvantaged ones.

4. Stakeholders’ continue to be interested in influencing the overall improvement of government’s performances for children’s rights, including an enhanced social protection framework to respond to present and emerging risks that may affect children and their families.

5. There is a continuity of regional and global alliances that promote human rights principles and standards, as well as address social impacts in advancing the regional and global integration.

6. With regards to planning and PFM, it is assumed that the government will maintain its commitments to enforcing pro-poor fiscal and planning legislative frameworks (medium-term planning and budgeting, state-budget law and public investment law, etc.).

7. In terms of the changing balance of power subsequent to the Communist Party Congress, the National Assembly will see increasing decision-making power, which will translate into its active involvement in overseeing the implementation of laws and policies and making important decisions in the best interest of children.

8. CSOs and media are assumed to gain more power and freedom to influence policy decisions and representing citizen’s voices to give feedback.

Major risks include:

1. There is uncertainty over dynamics and patterns of economic growth due to the political tension in the region.

2. Middle income country trap 3. The primacy of trade and physical infrastructural development at the expense of human development

as well as equity and social inclusion 4. There could be limited political will as well as potential delays in key decision-making and

implementation / genuine revision of policies due to uncertain and fluid policy processes as well as limited incentives.

5. For the evidence generation elements of this component, there could be still difficulties in accessing certain information and data such as financial allocations and spending for children.

6. Although CSOs are expected to emerge as important actors, this process may take longer, due to the political and practical constraints.

7. There could be further shift in the focus and in-country presence of key development partners that uphold principles of human rights and equity as well as an overall risk of diminishing support to UN organization, including UNICEF.

8. Further expansion of ‘socialization policy’ that calls for privatization of public services (including in social protection and social care), where resources are expected to be mobilized widely from private sector, communities and families, with the State ‘subsidizing’ the expenditure.

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9. Changing of the inter-agency coordination mechanisms of the new ONE UN Plan and reduced effectiveness of the coordination efforts.

Results Structure

The Programme Component 1 has two outcomes with 8 outputs (6 outputs contribute to Outcome 1 while 2 outputs contribute to Outcome 2).

Outcome 1: By 2021, inclusive and protective legal and policy environment and State's accountability are strengthened for the realization of children’s rights

Social Policy & Governance

Output 1.1 Improved national capacity to monitor and oversee child rights related legislations, policies and programmes in line with the CRC and other international treaties related to child rights

Output 1.2: Enhanced national capacity for child rights focused, inclusive and equitable cross-sectoral planning and public finance management

Education

Output 1.3: Education sector policies, plans and programmes from pre-primary to lower-secondary levels are strengthened to promote quality, equity and inclusiveness


Output 1.4: Health, nutrition and WASH sector reforms are strengthened to promote quality, equity and inclusiveness for child survival and development

Child Protection

Output 1.5: Strengthened capacity of key State actors to establish an operational child protection system that prevents and responds to neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation of children

Output 1.6: Enhanced national capacity to improve access to justice and protection of children in contact with the law

Outcome 2: By 2021, social protection system is child and gender-sensitive and responds effectively to economic, social and emergency-related vulnerabilities


Output 2.1: By 2021, inclusive and equitable child focused social protection policies and programmes are established and coordinated to respond to multi-dimensional child poverty and vulnerabilities

Child Protection

Output 2.2: By 2021, strengthened national capacity to provide recovery, reintegration and social care services for children in need of special protection

Monitoring Outputs and Demonstrating UNICEF’s Contribution to Outcomes

The programme will support data generation at national and decentralised levels to assess progress in achieving identified results and in dismantling bottlenecks and barriers. Capacity development on monitoring approaches will support implementing partners in setting up systems that will facilitate the monitoring of programme performance and resulting changes to the identified areas.

Programme reviews (mid-year and annual, or as required) will be jointly organized with relevant government ministries and non-governmental organisations. Progress will be captured in the Results Assessment Module in VISION.

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Resource Requirements

Key inputs for the functioning of the programme will include financial support and technical assistance (staff and consultants). The Programme Component will need a total of $38,516,941 for the programme period 2017-2021 to be fully implemented. 26% of the total budgeted amount ($10,069,136) will be funded from Regular Resources. The remaining 74%, or $28,447,805 will be funded from Other Resources and will need to be mobilized.

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Programme Component 2: Integrated Early Childhood Development

Introduction

This section describes the Theory of Change, proposed outcome and outputs under Programme Component 2 on integrated early childhood development designed to remove system-wide bottlenecks with a focus on improving inter-sectoral coordination, demand creation and evidence generation. It also addresses the removal of prioritised sectoral bottlenecks, through strategic interventions within the country programme cycle 2017-2021. The detailed theories of change can be found in Annex A.


Outcome and outputs under Programme Component 2 are formulated based on an analysis of prioritised issues and areas that influence integrated early childhood development, including specific bottlenecks and barriers in enabling environment, supply, demand and quality of care.

Although there is a number of laws and policies in Viet Nam relating to Early Childhood Development (ECD), including the Law on Care, Education and Protection of Children, the Law on Education, Family Strategy, ECD is not addressed in a holistic and integrated manner. In addition, as a result of the dissolution of the Commission for Population, Family, and Children (CPFC) in 2007, a leading coordinating body for ECD programmes, and the transfer of its functional departments to different line ministries, there is at present no coherent, comprehensive Early Childhood Development policy, nor is there an effective coordination mechanism which can ensure effective multi-sectoral coordination of ECD programmes and interventions at central and local levels. If young children’s development is to thrive, this governance challenge needs to be addressed.

New policies protect pregnant women and mothers and promote opportunities for parents to provide care to newborns and infants in their first year of life. In the formulation of the new Labour Code, the Government of Viet Nam took critical steps in 2012 in maternity protection by extending paid maternity leave to 6 months, setting an example for many other countries in the East Asia and Pacific region. In addition, it is important to mention the extension of the ban on advertising breastmilk substitute products for children from 0-24 months (including feeding bottles and teats, as well as other nutrition products for children under six months of age). Both policies represent significant progress to protect the health of Viet Nam’s future generations. They highlight opportunities for inter-sectoral coordination to create conducive environments for optimal child survival and development.

Viet Nam is currently undertaking a dynamic social protection reform towards a rights-based, inclusive and transformative system. Deepening the ECD life-cycle approach is a key thrust to address vulnerabilities over lifetime and to consider effective investment in high-return interventions that will nurture and develop a competitive and productive young workforce that can take advantage of the global and regional integration. In 2014, under a government social assistance system strengthening project with the testing in 4 provinces, four existing cash transfer programmes were consolidated into a family package benefiting 500,000 poor households with cash support to move out of inter-generational poverty and as a result of UNICEF’s advocacy, pregnant women and families with children under three are now also eligible for support.

The absence of a comprehensive child protection legal framework to effectively address the issues of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect against children means that there is a lack of reliable data and evidence about the magnitude of child protection problems, a lack of specialised policies and programmes to support children in need of special protection and child protection services stay under-funded and without a separate budget line. Viet Nam’s social welfare system is nascent and weak. Despite significant progress in Viet Nam including the government plan for the development of social work for the period 2010-2015, to date there is a lack of employment opportunities for social workers due to the absence of policies on social worker positions in most social sectors such as health, education, and justice. This further exacerbates the low human capacity across the social welfare sector, particularly in terms of prevention, identification, reduction, and mitigation of child neglect, abuse, exploitation, violence and its consequences, particularly in the early years of life.

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Access to vital public services – especially health and education that are fundamental to early childhood development – is progressively becoming dependent on the ability to pay and therefore the take-up of services is becoming socially stratified. This reverses the principles of equitable and universal access to services, and jeopardizes the well-being of the most disadvantaged including children and women. Specifically, informal user fees, induced demands for unwarranted services, and increases in the out-of-pocket spending generate inequitable burdens. Socialization in Viet Nam is a form of burden-sharing policy in public services that entails elements of privatization. The policy has further prompted private contribution via means of private sector engagement and parental contribution to cover the financing gaps in early childhood development. For example, early childhood education, with the exception of pre-schooling for children aged five and above, is considered a family responsibility, rather than an obligation of the State, and largely financed through private means resulting in high out-of-pocket spending. Women often have to interrupt their careers to take care of their children in the absence of sufficient quality early childhood care services. The structure of public education expenditure indicates the underinvestment in early childhood with only 8.2% of total education expenditure.33

Despite Article 16 of the 2013 Constitution and government emphasis, the universalization of early childhood education is severely lagging. Enrolment reached just 34.6 percent in 2012, suggesting more than 65 percent of children miss crucial opportunities for capability development. Inequities also come into play, with the highest and second highest income quintiles having enrolment rates of 43-45 percent, and the lowest quintile only 28 percent in 2012. Enrolment rates for the middle quintiles, at 30 percent and 36 percent, are closer to those in the lowest quintile. There are also marked differences between rural and urban areas and regions, with attendance in the Red River Delta double that of the Mekong Delta. This highly skewed pattern of provision and a lack of an integrated early childhood development approach, among other consequences, contributes to high levels of intergenerational poverty34.

Only 23 % of children age 3-36 months are enrolled in age-appropriate nursery schools or kindergartens. When reaching the age of 3-6 years, the pre-primary school age, the education system is able to enrol 87%. This demonstrates a clear gap in the provision of early childhood development services appropriate for 3-36 month-old children. Families tend to keep their children at home until they start pre-primary school with negative impact on the school readiness of children. In many cases parents have to turn to unauthorised high cost and low quality pre-learning and day care services with untrained caregivers. Children with disabilities, from ethnic minorities and migrant families are particularly vulnerable and more likely to miss out on the opportunity of pre-learning experience and school preparation programmes. Major obstacles to the equality of access for vulnerable groups are: language barriers, limited relevance of the national pre-school curriculum for ethnic minorities, a shortage of qualified teachers and the quality of learning, especially in ethnic minority areas, the limited awareness of parents and communities about the value of ECD, poor support for the transitions from pre-primary to primary education.

Ethnic minorities and migrants face significant barriers to access child related social services, not only due to direct and indirect costs, but also due to cultural and linguistic barriers. For instance, mothers from rural areas, mountainous regions, those with lower education, from poorer households and ethnic minority groups are more than four times less likely to receive antenatal care. Data from the pre-school component of mother tongue based bilingual education action research conducted by UNICEF/MoET in September 2008 have indicated superior performance by the cohort of ethnic minority students who had received mother tongue based ECCE in key areas of cognitive development. This highlights the importance of removing language barriers for better learning outcomes for ethnic minority children

While there are vertical interventions in health, nutrition, reproductive health, and education, little has been done to horizontally integrate services for early childhood development. This is especially relevant for children from 0-3 years old in different settings such as health facilities, schools, communities, and particularly families. In terms of ECE, components of health - such as immunization and growth monitoring - are supposed to be co-ordinated by the Ministry of Health, but in reality integration is limited. Even within ministries there is fragmentation between departments with low incentives for

33 MOET plan on Education Financing Mechanism 2009-2014 34 UNDP and VASS (2016) Viet Nam Human Development Report

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integration. For instance, management of health care services is still centralized, at national level and vertically coordinated with little or no communication between departments, in spite of being under the overall management of the MOH. The tendency is for stand-alone sectoral programmes.

The level of education of parents has provided a significant differential in their engagement in activities. Children whose mothers had a tertiary education (95.9 %) outweigh those of mothers with no education (30.6 %). Such engagement in activities is lower in the poorest households (51.8%) and greater among Kinh/Hoa households than among ethnic minority ones. 75.9 per cent of children aged 36-59 months were engaged with an adult household member in four or more activities that promoted learning and school readiness during the three days preceding the survey. Fathers’ involvement in such activities was somewhat limited. In fact, a father’s involvement in four or more activities was restricted to 14.9 per cent while the percentage of mothers involved in such activities was 45 per cent. The early child development Index (ECDI) based on selected milestones that children are expected to achieve by the ages of 3 and 4 years indicates that in each individual domain the higher score was associated with children living in richest households, with children attending an early childhood education programme and older children.

In Viet Nam, parenting education is often delivered through early learning centres and child care centres (e.g. establishment of Parent Corner and small libraries for parents in crèches and kindergarten, etc.). Components of health and nutrition programmes are delivered through health officers at district, communes and hamlet levels who are demonstrating improved care for pregnant women through pre-natal, delivery and post-natal consultations. Parent groups also meet to discuss issues of their young children, including health, nutrition status and development (e.g. parenting education for mothers, fathers and other child caregivers at home) 35. However, there is little documentation on the curricula, delivery mechanisms and impact of interventions. Existing parenting materials, especially for children from 0-3 years, mostly focus on health and nutrition, disregarding key areas of child development relating to early stimulation and early learning. Overall, there are very limited quantities of parenting education materials.

A determining factor of service quality is the commitment, competence and monetary as well as societal recognition of health workers, early childhood educators and other social frontline workers. Generally, for health workers, child development is not included in their pre-service training. The training of early childhood educators and other “ECD workers” is often short, of poor quality and with limited opportunities for in-service training. In addition they need better guidance in their professional development, bilingual training and awareness of cultural sensitivities.

The Viet Nam’s Education For All 2015 report highlighted problems of inadequate quantity and quality of pre-school teachers which is a critical issue. The consistency between the content of Early Childhood Care and Education programmes and the initial primary levels and access by the most disadvantaged populations are also an issue.

One in three children with disabilities has never had the opportunity of early identification and interventions. Even when a disability is detected early it is not linked to the provision of appropriate support to families. Nor is it combined with an intervention plan for more complex disabilities and for developmental delays and there are no agreed national standards or tools to assess a child’s development. In terms of disabilities and developmental delays, health workers and local para-professionals in the community have limited capacities to address early detection and intervention and they are unprepared for the contingent identification and response to child maltreatment (especially deprivation, neglect and abuse). Guidelines and tools for screening, intervention and referral are not available to community health care providers.

Further analysis suggests that most mothers and children missing out from services are from ethnic minorities, poor and migrant populations. Apart from low access in remote rural areas and the poor quality of services in health care facilities in these areas, misconceptions and social norms related to key traditional MNCH practices continue to adversely affect the use of health services especially among ethnic

35 In Vietnam, the above-mentioned parental programmes have been implemented through the network of Ministries of Health, Education

and Training, Vietnam Women’s Union or Committee for Population, Family and Training. However, those programmes that are targeted specifically toward the vulnerable, poor and disadvantaged groups are mainly supported by international and non-governmental organizations

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minorities. Above average maternal deaths amongst the minorities will affect surviving infants and possibly child deaths. Neonatal deaths in ethnic minority groups continue to contribute to increased child deaths and increased childhood morbidity which is a burden on families and society. While national coverage of maternal and child health care services are high36 there are large regional disparities. The national safe delivery rate is high at 94%. Despite this high rate, 33,000 mothers gave birth without skilled birth assistance. It is also estimated that 52,000 infants are not fully immunized and 148,000 mothers do not receive postnatal care visits.

Progress has been slowest in reducing malnutrition (stunting), which partly reflects the fact that maternal nutrition remains a major challenge not addressed adequately in the National Nutrition Strategy although there is clear evidence of poor maternal nutrition, a low exclusive breastfeeding rate, lack of access to improved sanitation contributing to about 67% of stunting.

Stunting continues to affect around 2 million children under 5 years, mostly in central highlands at 36.4 per cent followed by 32 per cent in northern mountains and 30 per cent in south-central coastal regions. According to the 2014 Micronutrient Survey37, micronutrient deficiencies are also prevalent with 13 per cent children under 5 and 34.8 per cent breastfeeding women suffering from clinical vitamin A deficiency. The rate of exclusive breastfeeding has, after years of stagnation, increased from 17 per cent to 24 per cent. However, exclusive breastfeeding remains at alarming low levels in general and boys are more likely to be exclusively breastfed than girls. So far efforts to reduce stunting through low-cost yet high-impact interventions of continuum of care, breastfeeding, food intake, water safety, combined with hygiene and sanitation have overlooked the significance of integrating the promotion of nurturing and responsive care and the far reaching positive effects when combined with nutrition interventions. Recent evidence supports that the combination of adequate nutrition and consistent, supportive adult caregiving are the best ways to offset the effects of multiple adversities and support healthy development.

There is a proven linkage between poor hygiene and sanitation practices and stunting of children which calls for stronger and more effective mainstreaming of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in child survival efforts. About 7% of the population or 6.5 million people do not have access to improved sanitation38 and 8 % of the population or over 7 million people with about 800,000 children under 5 consume water from unimproved sources39. There is a clear pattern of relation between high incidences of diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and stunting with the prevalence of open defecation, use of unsanitary latrines, and unsafe drinking water consumption.

Healthy development can be threatened by the absence of sufficient quality early childhood development experiences and learning opportunities required for a child’s positive development. Evidence suggests that the quality of attachment to the primary caregiver is a critical protective factor against later violent behaviour. Children who experience neglect in their early years are more likely to have cognitive problems, academic delays, deficits in executive function skills, and difficulties regulating emotions. This can potentially translate in later years into a wide range of varying degrees of developmental delays and impairments in cognitive, physical and psychological development40. For example in Viet Nam, 68.4 % of children experience violent child discipline (psychological aggression or physical punishment) at home which must be removed in order to ensure healthy child development and to maximize the potential of all children. Thus, safety is also a pre-requisite for early childhood development, and violence against young children is preventable. It must be addressed as a matter of child health and development and requires interventions and expertise both in early childhood and family support. Health, education child protection and social protection services are well placed to empower and provide support to caregivers and parents to ensure the positive education and care of young children.

36 At national level, 96% for antenatal care and 97% for the fully immunized child status 37Data of micronutrient survey, 2014-2015 are available in October, 2015 38 Urban: 6%; Rural 22%. Overall, 6 per cent of households defecate in the open. 39 Urban: 2%; Rural: 11% 40 National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2015 ) The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing

Brain

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Theory of Change for Programme Component

The long-term vision of success for the IECD Programme Component is that the rights of every young child, especially the most disadvantaged, to be physically healthy, mentally alert, socially competent, emotionally sound and able to learn will be fully realized. Eight outputs and selected strategic interventions will contribute to the following outcome Outcome 3: By 2021, all children and their families, especially the most vulnerable, in targeted areas utilize inclusive and quality integrated early childhood development services to fulfil children's rights to survival, development, education, and protection.


The theory of change here is that, given the multiple interacting factors (environments, relationships and experiences) that influence early child development and shape long-term outcomes, UNICEF will need to extend beyond the child focus to include more consistently the family, as well as the proximal and distal environments that have an impact across the life cycle of children. Real and sustainable improvements in young children’s developmental outcomes will be attained when:

i) The primary caregiving environment is safe, nurturing and responsive to the needs of young children;

ii) The technical capacities of service delivery professionals and para-professionals, and the systems that recruit and train them are strengthened;

iii) All young children and their families access quality basic services; and iv) Comprehensive systems incorporate ECD principles and are comprised of equitable, multi-

sectoral and sectoral policies, plans, legislations and fully funded budgets. These proposed programme areas build on compelling and sound evidence and existing work that UNICEF has been engaged in in certain regions/contexts. They also represent emerging areas where, given the above-mentioned Vietnamese context, UNICEF is being called to accelerate action in the next years. The issues are those for which evidence and expertise from the field of ECD have an added value in identifying viable and innovative solutions. Eight outputs contributing to Outcome 3 will be achieved through the technical leadership of 4 programme sections (Child Survival and Development, Education, Child Protection and Social Policy and Governance) to ensure the above-mentioned programme areas are effectively implemented. While the focus of Programme Component 1 is to improve the enabling environment at the national level, Programme Component 2 brings more attention to capacity development and modelling integration of ECD services in three focus provinces (Dien Bien, Gia Lai and Kon Tum) combined with strategic areas of work in urban context of HCMC, in order to both address the equity for children agenda at the sub-national level and to generate evidence on integrated approach to ECD for national policy development and advocacy in Programme Component 1.


The outputs (3.1 and 3.2) focus on maternal child health and nutrition, critical to the survival and early start of life. The outputs intend to strengthen service delivery and promote demand for use of related services and behaviours especially among poor families and EMs. Improving quality of service and access along with demand creation are expected to improve antenatal, skilled-attendance at deliveries and post-natal cares. The interventions will also encourage early breastfeeding among newborns and exclusive breastfeeding among children under-6 months. Parents and caregivers will be oriented to assure minimum acceptable diet among infants of 6-23 months of age and combined with orientation and necessity for early stimulation. The output 3.1 will also contribute to the early detection of children with disabilities and support the development of a model to strengthen multi-sectoral stakeholder support to CWD. Critical links to output 3.3 intends to promote sustainable access to and use of improved sanitation and water supply in communes, ECD centres, schools and health centers including interventions to

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promote critical hygiene behaviours at household level with the aim to reduce the incidences of diarrhoea, pneumonia and stunting. Effective C4D will support the adoption of healthy practices including the use of multiple media channels.

Output 3.1: By 2021, health and nutrition service providers deliver equitable and inclusive high-impact maternal, newborn, child health, nutrition interventions at healthcare facility and community level in targeted areas

This output will support focus provinces to strengthen local capacity for effective management of rural healthcare service delivery and lay the evidence foundation for national health and nutrition policy development with strategic documentation of good practices in child survival and development part of an overall integrated ECD programme. The output will go beyond the traditional facility based clinical activities to include equity and community based approaches to improve access to care for families in communities, especially the most vulnerable. It will also focus on behavioural change that eliminates misconceptions and drive community initiatives for child survival and development. Capacity of health centre staff in selected localities will be strengthened to better plan and implement outreach sessions with a focus on early childhood development including routine immunization. The capacity development process will also sensitize staff to ensure non-discrimination and for the mobilisation of ethnic minority families and communities. The output will also assist local authorities with good practices and models to improve and sustain an effective health sector supply chain and logistics including strengthening essential commodity chain systems (including essential medicines, vaccines, iron-folic acids, therapeutic food and other complementary foods). The output will also offer capacity development for service providers at sub-national levels for evidence-based prioritization and community-based planning and monitoring for the delivery of health and nutrition services part of a holistic package of integrated ECD services.

Output 3.2: By 2021, equitable and inclusive community based nutrition initiatives and growth promotion for prevention of stunting are functional in targeted areas

Widening income disparities and inequity in access to nutrition services are more pronounced in disadvantaged mountainous regions and for ethnic minorities and the urban poor. This nutrition focused output will strengthen policy upstream activities in Programme Component 1 (Output 1.4) through modelling, evidence generation and documentation in focus provinces including the enforcement of legislations already enacted, and compliance to national criteria of assessment of nutrition services at provincial and district levels. This output will support the roll-out of a package of nutrition services – IYCF, micronutrients, maternal nutrition and SAM management – in focus provinces and the documentation of lessons learnt and good practices for institutionalisation of this package in public and private health care services. Poor integration of nutrition services with other basic health care services like immunization, maternal and newborn care, and integrated management of childhood illnesses as well as alignment with community approaches in improving water, sanitation and hygiene can be linked to persistent high levels of stunting among children under 5 years. This output will work to ensure improved capacity for integration of nutrition services documenting the experience from three focus provinces in building an integrated early childhood development system that offers essential high impact nutrition interventions such as: counselling and support for early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding, appropriate complementary feeding, integrated management of acute malnutrition, child deworming, multiple micro-nutrient supplementation for children and iron folic supplementation for pregnant women in the context of local health facilities. There will be a strong community based component including significant investment in communication for development (C4D) that will support hard to reach areas. The output will also domicile the use and modelling of modern innovative mobile technology for system and sector wide tracking of the first 1,000 days along the maternal and child continuum of care and specifically combating the chronic problem of stunting. The output will draw lessons learned from local levels in the use of the nutrition surveillance system to facilitate system adjustments resulting in more

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timely and useful information on intervention coverage. The quality such interventions and the overall nutrition situation will also inform the identification and testing of appropriate nutrition indicators to be included in the HMIS as part of health and nutrition system building under Programme Component 1. The output is expected to generate critical local evidence on institutionalization of services such as hospital quality criteria on early initiation of breastfeeding, SAM management, IYCF counselling in PHC. Output 3.3: By 2021, WASH service providers deliver quality, inclusive and sustainable hygiene, sanitation and water services in targeted schools and communities This output will develop skills, systems, and management arrangements and will document good practices in selected communities and schools in focus provinces to safely and sustainably manage school, household, and public WASH facilities and services. This output will domicile implementing strategies for engaging strategic stakeholders including members of Provincial People’s Committee, mass organizations, healthcare staff and school teachers. Community leaders and volunteers will be mobilised and trained in focus provinces to increase demand for hand-washing, improved latrines and water filtration systems. This process will support the preparation of commune and school action plans for effective management of WASH facilities and for the creation and management of services with well-defined responsibilities and timelines. This output will explore and model public private partnership approaches for WASH sector which is expected to assist in meeting new demands with the supply provided by the local private sector. This will improve the availability of affordable commodities for household water filtration, hand-washing equipment and latrine construction. The strengthening of community water systems will be done through an effective community dialogue that builds on the purposeful leadership and ownership of communities in focus provinces to ensure both affordability and effective management. Increased coordination with the Viet Nam Social Policy Bank will support the development of loan schemes for private latrine construction and water system improvements. Together and linked with Output 3.2, 3.4 and 3.5 as well as 1.4, efforts will be made to increase the extent of integration of Nutrition, Education and WASH initiatives through joint analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring of convergent services targeting areas with the highest overlapping deprivations and highest degree of vulnerabilities.

Education

The two education focused outputs (3.4 and 3.5) will develop new capacity, skills and services to improve the learning of young boys and girls from early years as well as to improve readiness of parents to support the learning process of children at home. The outputs will work to demonstrate models and good practices in strengthening institutional capacity to improve the readiness of pre-primary and primary schools to receive young students, to offer active learning and teaching method, and to respond effectively to children with disabilities and children from ethnic minorities and poor families. Both outputs will focus on early learning and pre-primary education for three distinct age groups: <3 yrs, 4-5 yrs and 6-8 yrs with critical linkages through evidence and documentation to upstream policy influencing in output 1.3 under Programme Component 1. The introduction of these new “holistic” models of early childhood development approaches in education will be built on the strong neuroscientific evidence on the impact of deprivation, neglect, parenting, WASH and nutrition. In the focus provinces (Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dien Bien), a holistic early childhood education and learning programme will support children in the transition from pre-primary to primary schools with the possibility to explore some strategic areas of work in urban context of HCMC, in order to both address the equity for children agenda at the sub-national level and to generate evidence on integrated approach to ECD for national policy development advocacy in Programme Component 1. School managers and communities in the selected localities will have support to develop effective and inclusive learning environments with new capacities to adapt teaching and learning for children with disabilities, migrant children and those from the ethnic minorities. Evidence generated with from these 2 outputs and Programme Component 3 will provide basis for an intensified public advocacy effort building public support and demand for integrated ECD. This will include

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the expansion of partnerships aiming at leveraging resources and increasing investment in the development of early learning and stimulation which is the most significant phase in the learning process that will ensure healthy brain development, acquisition of cognitive and behavioural skills starting in early years and that will continue throughout further stages of learning. Output 3.4: By 2021, education service providers in targeted areas deliver quality early learning and school readiness programmes for children under 4 years with a focus on vulnerable groups

There is a growing recognition of the importance of the first few years of life in the formation of intelligence, personality, and social behaviour. The initial phase of a young child’s brain development is fundamental as to what and how much the child will learn later in school, and this largely depends on the social, emotional and cognitive growth it develops during the first few years of its life. To that end, UNICEF will promote awareness raising and education for parents, community-based programs for ECE, and formal preschool programs that include language development and learning that meet national standards for school readiness in focus provinces. School Readiness means that children are ready for school, parents are ready to support their children’s learning, and schools are ready to accommodate and support all children to learn and grow. UNICEF will build new capacities to ensure that all children and especially vulnerable children, including children with disabilities, migrant children, ethnic minority children, can start school on time, ready to learn, and to acquire basic learning competencies by the age of 8 years old. Based on the existing Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) tool introduced country-wide, this output will support the introduction of the ECD Scales for the 3-4 year olds in pre-primary schools in focus provinces. For children under 3 years and for those older children with no access to pre-primary schools, UNICEF will support local authorities and civil society organizations to develop and implement models of both home-based and community based early learning adopting Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) that are gender-, linguistic- and cultural-sensitive. This will enable the assessment of early learning and development standards and quality of care. Families of children with disabilities will be supported to seek early identification and referral for learning support coordinated through a combination of health facilities and Inclusive Education Resource Centres. The local school system will be supported to strengthen capacity to better manage complex challenges such as developmental delays and autism. Early learning environments should also focus on enhancing opportunities that address gender stereotyping and enhance fathers and other caregivers’ involvement in children’s development. The introduction of multi-age pre-school education as an integral part of facilitating improved access to quality early childhood learning activities was successful for pre-primary school aged girls and boys in ethnic minority communities in focus provinces. This output will continue the support local implementation and documentation of good practices that will help reinforce mainstreaming of gender- and cultural-sensitive multi-age preschool education in the local education plan. In addition the output will support the development and implementation of standards and management protocols for equitable pre-primary schools, including gender-sensitive classrooms, development appropriate and holistic curriculum and quality assurance. Output 3.5: By 2021, pre-primary and primary school management in targeted schools provides culturally sensitive learning opportunities for vulnerable children including children with disabilities

This output aims at developing and modelling an inclusive education system that promotes and accelerates effective and inclusive education for all girls and boys in order to improve attendance and to facilitate transition from pre-primary to primary education level in three focus provinces. As a result of the evaluation on the MTBBE, UNICEF will support focus provinces to implement, document and advocate for the MTBBE replication and other related education issues. Building on the lessons learnt from the modelling of mother-tongue based bilingual early childhood education, this output will continue to support local education authorities to integrate language and culture as integral part of a model for inclusive education including modelling good practices for gender, linguistic and cultural sensitive curriculum and textbook development. This will be supported by the effective implementation of the Job

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Code for assistant teachers to also improve learning for children with disabilities in mainstream schools. The output will facilitate cross-sectoral interventions for primary schools including WASH, nutrition, health, child protection and quality learning environment. Work in focus provinces and the documentation of experiences generated from this output in pre-primary and primary management is expected to contribute with critical evidence to support the assessment and revision of ECE curriculum. Early Learning and Development Standards will be used through policy development and advocacy under Programme Component 1. Child Protection

While the output 3.6 contributes to promoting child protection structures to increase access to and the use of inclusive quality integrated ECD services, the output 3.7 focuses on positive parenting and creating demand among caregivers for IECD services. The government structure of coordinating the protection of child rights at sub-national level through the community based child protection system is in initial stage. Yet it is strategically intended to strengthen the role of the commune level child protection committee in facilitating ECD services and to ensure the outreach of ECD to disadvantaged groups of children in a holistic and integrated way. The outputs will support training/ skill development of managers and frontline workers on basic social work and child protection and support related coordination in communes/districts. The interventions in this area will also support behaviour change among caregivers/parents in favour of changing social norms and cultural practices that contribute to violence against children. These include promoting non-violent discipline and applying alternatives to eliminate violence against children including corporal punishment. It also includes developing a protective and nurturing environment, and generating demand for quality IECD services. It will also put a special focus on child marriages recognizing that child brides are at greater risk of experiencing dangerous complications in pregnancy and childbirth, becoming infected with HIV/AIDS and suffering domestic violence.

Output 3.6: By 2021, local child protection system with human resources and services is in place and contributes to enhance IECD coordination in targeted areas

Improved child protection human resources and service delivery structures, supported by the legal foundation strengthening in Programme Component 1 (Output 1.6) will enable the establishment and effective functioning of local child protection systems to prevent, identify and protect children from violence, neglect, abuse, and exploitation. The local child protection systems will coordinate and increase access of children to inclusive quality integrated ECD services beginning in early childhood and continuing through the life-cycle of children. Interventions in focus provinces will: (i) improve the human resources structure, management, and training for the social work profession and child protection workforce; (ii) build capacity for the Social Welfare and related sectors on child protection knowledge and skills related to prevention and response; (iii) develop guidelines and standards for the operation of social work service centres, a case management system, and child protection service delivery; (iv) improve inter-sectoral cooperation and coordination on child protection and ECD; and (v) establish and strengthen community-based child protection systems. Output 3.7: By 2021, communities, parents, caregivers, and children in targeted areas have improved capacity to promote positive parenting, non-violent discipline and demand for IECD services

This output will support behaviour and social change for improved protection of children, building and following through the child protection outputs under Outcome 1 and 2. Government, communities, parents, caregivers and children will be supported to address the interplay between social norms and child protection.

Positive parenting programmes aimed at preventing violence against children (VAC) will contribute to a stimulating, loving, protective environment for young children and increase demand for quality IECD services. Building on lessons learned from the previous country programme, as well as Viet Nam’s national campaign on violence against children in 2014, programming will address the drivers of violence against

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children, at the interpersonal, family and community levels, and promote understanding about the social norms surrounnding early marriage. This output will seek increased government ownership, capacity and leadership in C4D about ending violence against children and preventing early marriage.

Interventions supported by UNICEF in focus provinces will: (1) develop and pilot positive parenting programmes to promote non-violent discipline, problem-solving, and conflict resolution and prevent violence against children; (2) build on the national campaign to end VAC, to develop and implement multi-layered behavior and social change interventions, including using traditional and digital medias, to end violence against children, including corporal punishment; (3) build capacity for the Social Welfare, Education, related sectors, mass and civil organizations to promote non-violent discipline and alternatives; (4) develop guidelines, standards based on good practices to promote non-violent communication and relationships with children; and (5) generate evidence to understand the social norms operating in relation to early marriage.


Output 3.8: By 2021, an equity focused and inclusive social assistance mechanism to increase access for vulnerable children to IECD services in targeted areas

This output will address gaps in existing social assistance coverage with a particularly focus on young children and strengthen policy dialogue with local and global evidence that guide social assistance reform with a focus on young children and advocate the value-added of social assistance to the well-being of children with a life cycle approach. Interventions supported by UNICEF will a) generate action-oriented institutional and vulnerability analysis to inform social assistance strategies and response for young children to improve their access to IECD services including education, health, nutrition and social protection; b) explore and strengthen the capacity of local authorities to identify sustainable and financing mechanisms to facilitate central-local dialogue on improved financial allocations and utilization for social assistance programmes for young children; and c) develop concrete strategies with a concrete roadmap on social assistance for young children to be integrated in the ECD model initiatives to be approved and implemented by leadership of the sub-national governments.


Overall, with the MOH, MOET, MOLISA, and local authorities in targeted focus provinces as key agencies for programme partners, UNICEF will undertake the following strategic interventions:

Capacity development:

» Training and in-service support to province and district management to transform national policies into practice across all relevant sectors in favour of integrated ECD.

» Training support for social marketing of relevant ECD products and behaviours. » Training and in-service support to strengthen quality of supply chains, logistics and sustainable

management of services » Encourage study tours and attendance of international conference to share and learn from

experiences of other countries specifically those in the South East Asia region. » Development of strategic and participatory partnerships with new bilateral arrangements, public

private partnerships, multi-lateral development banks in the context of a lower middle income country.

» Explore partnerships with local entrepreneurs and other private sector enterprises to strengthen supply chains for commodities such as household water filters, hand-washing facilities, latrine construction products, supplementary feeds for infants and children.

Communication for Development: C4D interventions under this Programme Component focus on generating increased demand for IECD services through: i) improved family awareness, attitudes, practices; ii) challenged social norms; iii)

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mobilized community, and iv) enhanced capacity of service providers to promote improved service seeking behaviours. Raising the demand for efficient and quality services will be operated through 4 main vehicles: starting from families as primary bearers to raise the demand, community mobilization to support the demand from families, removing social barriers by challenging social norms, and enhancing capacity of service providers to promote services seeking behaviours. C4D interventions will focus on promoting integration and cross-sectoral linkages by an integrated C4D strategy for all sectors. Although the priorities are programme-based, C4D interventions will be packaged and strategized around a life-cycle approach, as most of these actions directly impact children’s well-being as a whole. Rolling out interventions as a package of behavioural actions related to child survival and development, child protection, education and social policy (uptakes for demand), cross-cutting areas is recommended as a way to systematize a strategic approach to C4D. This approach will be a way to move away from doing separate C4D strategies for a range of interventions. Evidence generation, policy dialogue and advocacy:

» Support cross-sectoral documentation of operational research, lessons learnt and best practices from the field interventions. Share experiences on IECD with countries in the region.

» Organise policy dialogues and consultation workshops to support policy and programming measures for improved integrated ECD.

» Develop advocacy plans across sectors to improve enabling environment in favour of promoting effective and quality programming and investments in ECD

Support integration and cross-sectoral linkages:

» Assist provincial departments to integrate potential ECD interventions into the national new rural development and poverty reduction programs.

» Strengthen sectoral and cross-sectoral coordination in districts and provinces. » Promote community and school based cross-sectoral problem identification, planning and

monitoring for integrated ECD. » Strengthen linkages to help communities to avail financial support from social insurance schemes

and social policy bank soft-loans for integrated ECD. Identification and promotion of innovations:

» Use information communication technology to develop real-time/ concurrent monitoring system to contribute to the sustainable management of services and to take timely measures in favour of integrated ECD.

» Support formative researches and develop effective C4D products/activities to promote high-impact health and nutrition seeking, hygiene and sanitation, early-learning and school-readiness behaviours.

» Introduce new products for effective management of drinking water quality, nutrition and health supplements and sanitation at home.

» Promote appropriate south-south and triangular learning and cooperation for transfer of technologies and programming approaches such as in the areas of: low-cost sanitation options, clay-pot filters, concurrent monitoring systems, etc.

Partnerships

Achieving the outcome will require strategic strengthened partnerships with the sector / line ministries. The key government partners will be the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA). In coordination with line ministries, the partnerships will be maximised to advance national goals of global commitments such as the SDGs, A Promise Renewed (for CSD) and those

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committed in the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) and Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) and Education 2030 which will require UNICEF to play effectively a role of co-convener in Viet Nam. Current collaboration will be reinforced with the National Assembly namely its Ethnic Council, Ministry/ Departments of Planning & Investments and mass organizations to enhance the enabling environment. Both strategic partnerships with bilateral and multilateral donors including the World Bank, DANIDA, Irish Aid, etc. for the promotion of integrated ECD will be fundamental to reach the outcome together with corporate sectors partnerships to leverage their support to strengthen supply chains of essential commodities, promote innovation and make use of social media to disseminate and raise awareness on IECD as well as support investment for more tailored private / home-based childcare and early learning systems in urban setting. In this new era for promoting the 21st century skills, the partnership will be strengthened with academic and research institutes to support knowledge generation and dissemination and more adapted curriculum for the secondary education.

Partners

Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA): is the lead Ministry on children and social protection. MOLISA is responsible for coordinating social protection, poverty issues, social welfare and child protection. Its capacity development across all of these areas and especially for coordination is seen as essential for the outcome. In addition, MOLISA will play significant role in drafting and presenting the CRC report as well as following up the recommendations.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is the lead ministry for the development of maternal and child health and nutrition systems and services. The ministry also supports its provincial counterparts in promoting health and nutrition seeking behaviours. The ministry is responsible for sanitation and hygiene programming in coordination with MARD, MOET and CEMA. The ministry and its departments take a primary role in birth registration, responding to children’s and their caregivers’ mental health and children with disabilities. The ministry will continue to play a pivotal role in strengthening health insurance system to maximize its benefit to pregnant women and under-6 years aged children. Being the lead ministry in the Health Partnership Group (HPG) that coordinates various aspects of health, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene and HIV/AIDS programming across the country, the ministry plays a key role in harmonizing donors’ contribution and participation. The ministry will take a lead role to promote IECD with MARD, MOET, MOLISA and CEMA and others. The ministry will continue to explore sector best practices documentation and dissemination for their replication and scaling up.

The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) is the leading institution under MOH responsible for policy development, capacity development and research in the field of nutrition, food sciences and clinical nutrition in Viet Nam. NIN plays a key role in: Food and nutrition surveillance, nutritional epidemiology studies and other nutrition-related health problems; development of measures for improving nutritional status, food hygiene and food safety condition; development of the food- based dietary guidelines for Vietnamese people; coordinating the nutrition network for the whole country and implementing the different nutrition action programs; assisting the government in developing the nutrition policy.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) is the lead ministry for overall rural development. The new national rural development programme 2016-20 is going to support provinces in their infrastructure development including: roads, schools, marketplaces, community health centres, electricity/internet connections. The program is set to contribute to appropriate utilization of water resources and to contribute to environmental protection. MARD is the lead for the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, and coordinates interventions from MOH to implement sanitation and hygiene components. The ministry takes lead role in eliminating hunger and contributes to the nutrition programming. The ministry is going to play an important role to disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation planning and implementation in coordination with other ministries and departments. The programme aims to develop the required skills among the labour force with appropriate vocational training in variety of areas to make rural areas self-sustainable. MARD promotes appropriate institutional structure to implement development programs and to strengthen existing political system across villages and communes.

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The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) will continue to be an important partner for UNICEF. The partnership will be strengthened for the MOET to play effectively its role as chair and coordinator of the ECCE. One of its main functions will be to enhance the early learning and pre-primary education for the 3-4 year-old children, scale up the institutionalization of the inclusive education curriculum for pre-service teachers training on for children with disabilities into the existing curriculum of Teachers Training Institution country-wide and implement the policies on Assistant Teacher Positions in inclusive education. UNICEF will increase its collaboration with the existing MOET’s task force groups on ECCE and ethnic minority education.

The Ethnic Council of the National Assembly will remain a strategic partner in advocacy, support and monitoring improved access for all children of Viet Nam to integrated ECD services as an integral part of early learning system and primary school.

Provincial People’s Committees and relevant line departments (DOLISA, DOH, DOET, DARD) in targeted provinces are also key partners as majority of the Programme Component 2’s interventions are at the sub-national level.

In addition, universities and academia together with teacher training colleges, Universities such as Ha Noi and HCMC National University of Education and the Viet Nam Institute of Education and Science will remain partners to help enhance the research programmes on IECD and uphold a quality inclusive education with greater leveraging of resources of the government partners. International academia especially from the South East Asia and Pacific will also be important partners to facilitate knowledge generation and share lessons learned.

Diversified partnership will be developed, supported and strengthened to ensure availability of capacities and IECD services for families, including families of CWDs and other children at risk especially with the Education Sector Group including UN agencies, World Bank and bilateral partners (Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and Finland). With the bilateral partners, new perspectives are emerged especially to support the secondary education through the development of skills that Vietnamese students require to face the fast moving communication world. UNICEF’s engagement with UNFPA will address gender-based violence and violence against children through positive parenting.

With private sector, Women Union, INGOs (such as Save the Children, Red Cross, World Vision, Plan International), CSOs, school committees, Teachers’ Association, private sector/enterprises) and in direct collaboration with Programme Component 3, the partnership will be explored, developed to leverage work in IECD and most particularly to foster investment in early learning systems for children under four years.


Major assumptions for the success of this Programme Component are that: Political commitment for the relevant sector programming and for the development and delivery

of integrated ECD is sustained in the SEDP and National Target Programs, 2016-20. Commitments to increase related health and education sectoral budgets, with greater investment

in ‘soft’ components, are maintained. Equity concerns for the delivery of services to vulnerable groups and disadvantages regions are

recognized and receive priority The GOV continues to support decentralized planning, implementation and monitoring of

development programs as envisaged in new national rural development program. Provinces are open to greater cooperation with mass organizations and private sector enterprises

across all sector programming Provinces and districts allocate adequate budgets for programme cooperation with UNICEF UNICEF is able to raise requisite program funding for the Programme Component.

Major risks include: Political and economic instability in the region may affect priorities and spending

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Results Structure

The Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) programme component responds to a set of complex and linked challenges in the lower middle-income Viet Nam. The programme component integrates major UNICEF cooperation efforts for child survival and development, as well as the application of best global practices for early childhood development, early childhood learning and protection. The Country Programme Results Structure is visually presented in Annex.

The IECD Programme Component includes Outcome 3 “By 2021, all children and their families, especially the most vulnerable, in targeted areas utilize inclusive and quality integrated early childhood development services to fulfil children's rights to survival, development, education, and protection”.

In this regard, the IECD Programme Component will contribute to the national priority (the SEDP priority for social development and Outcome 1.1, 1.2, 1.3) and the One Strategic Plan of UN (Outcome 2.1 and 2.2) as well as UNICEF Strategic Plan (Outcome 1 to 7). It will also contribute to the achievement of SDG targets to: Reduce the under-5 mortality rate (3.2) and the prevalence of stunting among children under-5 years (2.2), and Ensure all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education (4.2). Longer term, the programme component will help to increase and sustain the numbers of children completing primary and lower-secondary school education (4.1).

Eight outputs will contribute to the Programme Component’s envisaged Outcome:


Output 3.1: By 2021, health and nutrition service providers deliver equitable and inclusive high-impact maternal, new-born, child health, nutrition interventions at healthcare facility and community levels in targeted areas

Output 3.2: By 2021, equitable and inclusive community based nutrition initiatives and growth promotion for prevention of stunting are functional in targeted areas

Output 3.3: By 2021, WASH service providers deliver quality, inclusive and sustainable hygiene, sanitation and water services in targeted schools and communities

Education

Output 3.4: By 2021, education service providers in targeted areas deliver quality early learning and school readiness programme for children under 4 years with a focus on vulnerable groups

Output 3.5: By 2021, pre-primary and primary school management in targeted schools provides culturally sensitive learning opportunities for vulnerable children including children with disability

Child Protection

Output 3.6: By 2021, local child protection system with human resources and services is in place and contribute to enhanced IECD coordination in targeted areas

Output 3.7: By 2021, communities, parents, caregivers, and children in targeted areas have improved capacity to promote positive parenting, non-violent discipline and demand for IECD services


Output 3.8: By 2021, an equity focused and inclusive social assistance mechanism to increase access for vulnerable children to IECD services in targeted areas


The programme will support data generation at national and decentralised levels to assess progress in achieving identified results and in dismantling bottlenecks and barriers. Capacity development on

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monitoring approaches will support implementing partners in setting up systems that will facilitate the monitoring of programme performance and resulting changes to the identified areas.

Further, a real-time, SMS-based reporting system will enable community monitoring on IECD indicators.

An evaluation will be conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of IECD programme.

Programme reviews (mid-year and annual, or as required) will be jointly organized with relevant government ministries and non-governmental organisations. Progress will be captured in the Results Assessment Module in VISION.


Key inputs for the functioning of the programme will include financial support and technical assistance (staff and consultants). The integrated ECD Programme Component 2 will need a total of $ 26,654,250 for the programme period 2017-2021 to be fully implemented. 14% of the total budgeted amount ($ 3,839,060) will be funded from Regular Resources. The remaining 86%, or $ 22,815,190 will be funded from Other Resources and will need to be mobilized during the programme period 2017-2021.

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Programme Component 3: Programme Partnership, Public Advocacy, and Communication for Child Rights

Introduction

This section describes the Theory of Change, proposed outcome and outputs under Programme Component 3 on Programme Partnership, Public Advocacy and Communication for Child Rights. This component is designed to remove system-wide bottlenecks, as well as sector specific bottlenecks, with a focus on social change and demand creation through strategic interventions within the country programme cycle 2017-2021. The detailed theories of change can be found in Annex A.


In lower middle income Viet Nam, sustainable and equitable impact to improve the well-being of all children in Viet Nam will only be achieved by engaging all key stakeholders for child rights. This is done through effective public advocacy, expanded partnerships to leverage government and non-governmental support, capacity, resources and action, for the realisation of child rights. The State is the primary duty bearer for children’s rights and acts by enacting legislation in favour of children. It also works to provide equitable and affordable access to public services and it provides space for partners such as non-governmental actors and the corporate sector to contribute to the realisation of children’s rights. However, the space for non-governmental engagement for the implementation of child rights remains narrow, which is impacting negatively on the capacity of child rights actors, including UNICEF, to focus, leverage and maximise capacities and resources for children. A gala fundraising event in 2013, confirmed the potential for domestic resource mobilisation in Viet Nam, however the absence of a legal framework has preventing UNICEF from scaling up this initiative and mobilising potentially large financial contributions from private sector and individuals in support of UNICEF country programme. The current tendencies of stakeholders and partners to work in silos and compete for resources in an environment where less ODA is channelled through the UN, paired with weak representation of non-government players at decision making, policy and planning levels are key bottlenecks that need to be addressed.

While key non-government partners and stakeholders may be motivated to contribute more strategically to the child rights agenda, there is a lack of capacity to do so in partnerships, in terms of willingness, authority and human and organisational resources. A key reason is the Government’s limited recognition of the need for providing an enabling environment for non-governmental duty bearers to participate and fulfil their responsibilities towards children. The lack of awareness, knowledge and capacities among the corporate sector, civil society players and the public at large on children’s situation and child rights realisation constitutes an additional bottleneck. The transition to lower middle income status in Viet Nam has implied a growing middle class and social networks are emerging. A predominantly millennial population is increasingly aware of its potential and the human development challenges that lie ahead.

Although the legal and policy framework on child rights have been strengthened in Viet Nam, important factors to create an enabling environment, such as specific social norms, remain critical barriers to be removed through strengthened public advocacy and communication beyond a single programme area. The society’s perception on violence is one persisting social norm with 14.6 per cent of parents acknowledging the use of physical violence as disciplinary measures and up to 50 per cent of women feel that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife in a number of situations41. Violence against children is pervasive with 68.4 per cent of children aged 1-14 years in Viet Nam were subjected to at least one form of psychological or physical punishment by household members. These justifications are more common in poor households and among less educated women.

The prevailing attitudes towards children with disabilities do not strongly align with social inclusion. Data from a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice (KAP) survey conducted in three provinces42 in 2008-09 confirm

41 General Statistics Office (2015). Viet Nam: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2014. 42 Research Report on Children with Disabilities and their families in Da Nang (2009): UNICEF Viet Nam and TNS Media Viet Nam; Children with

disabilities in An Giang and Dong Nai: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice (2010): UNICEF Viet Nam & Market & Social Jt. Company

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the findings from previous studies that have revealed the prevalence of overall discriminatory attitudes and behaviours towards children with disabilities. While data show limited understanding of the rights of children with disabilities, current social practices tend to hide, pity or stigmatize children with disabilities.

While Viet Nam has a wide range of actors and institutions have the potential to promote the rights of children in the media, there are still capacity gaps of journalists and media networks in reporting and featuring issues related to child rights and the generation of evidence on media coverage needs to be improved. Challenges remain in terms of stigma, absence of visibility, under representation of children in the media as well as discrimination against them.

In Viet Nam, the common communication approach is still centrally controlled by the government, with a reliance on top down messaging. It limits the participation and engagement of community, especially children, adolescents and young people, in dialogue and decision-making processes and it offers few opportunities for these groups to demand changes related to the quality and affordability of services. A greater emphasis is needed on communication that promotes dialogue within communities and with decision-makers at local, provincial and national levels. This will contribute to promote, develop, and implement policies and programmes that drive positive and healthy behaviour and social changes for the improved well-being of children.

Despite of the context, the media environment in Viet Nam continues to be vibrant and expanding. Internet access and social media use in Viet Nam has been growing at high rates in recent years. The number of internet users has increased more than 3 times (from 12.9 to 39.8 million) and the number of mobile telephone subscriptions has increased 8 times (from 15.8 to 128.6 million) in 2014 when comparing with 2005. Viet Nam internet users are dominated by the young 15-35 year old generation43. In 2015, around 45% of the Vietnamese population were reportedly ‘online’, with 31% maintaining an active Facebook account, and these figures are expected to continue to grow exponentially. Furthermore, the average number of hours spent each day using social media applications was approximately 3.1 hours, while over 70% of social media users were aged 18-34 years old. These figures highlight a young Vietnamese population that is becoming increasingly active on the internet, especially with respect to social media.44 New channels for children and adolescent participation were promoted through 2015-2020 National Programme for Child Participation and the use of digital technology. The main challenges are to promote the exercise of citizenship, including 'digital citizenship' for adolescents, especially the most disadvantaged, and encourage social participation, taking advantage of technology and innovation. Digital platforms are a basis for communication for individual behaviour change and a driver for social change.

The newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals offer a strengthened platform for child rights agenda setting with an increasing role for multi-stakeholder partnerships with focus on mobilising capacity and resources to accelerate results for children. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has recognized that the impact of the corporate sector on children’s rights has grown in the past decades due to factors such the globalized nature of economies and business operations. The corporate sector around the world and in Viet Nam has been an essential driver for societies and economies to advance and thereby in some ways has contributed to strengthen the realization of children’s rights through, for example, technological innovations, investments and the creation of decent jobs. However, the realization of children’s rights is not an automatic consequence of economic growth and the corporate sector has become more aware of how their business can also have a negative impact on children’s rights.

UNICEF and partners globally have developed the Child Rights and Business Principles to call on businesses everywhere to uphold children’s rights in all aspects of their operations – from instituting child-friendly workplace practices, marketing and advertising practices to playing a role in aiding children affected by emergencies. Therefore, it is clear that the corporate sector can represent a critical and powerful voice and the right platform for their engagement on this issue is rolled out. The General Comment 16 on the

43 MOORE Corporation (2015) Vietnam Digital Landscape 2015 44 ChildFund Vietnam (2015) YOUTH ONLINE: INTERNET ACCESS AND SOCIAL MEDIA USE AMONG YOUTH IN VIETNAM

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State’s obligations calls on support from the corporate sector to fulfil its obligations towards children and will serve as a guidance.

Within the overall framework of the Child Friendly City Initiative launched in September 2015, Ho Chi Minh City, as the largest and most progressive urban environment in the country, offers a model and a strategic hub from which to expand partnerships with and for children, with the corporate sector, civil society, academia, and new emerging partners in the innovation community. The Metropolitan Area of Ho Chi Minh City has more than 9 million inhabitants, 44% being under 25, and with a significant influx of migrants from rural and remote areas. The city is rapidly reaching an official Mega City Status,45 with the projection to inhabit some 14 million people by 2025, while the Greater Metropolitan Area/Southern Economic Region, with HCMC as the leading city, is expected to reach 20 million by 2020. Together with neighboring provinces in the Southern Key Economic Region, the City currently accounts for nearly 40% of Viet Nam’s gross domestic product and is a key hub for economic growth for Viet Nam and the ASEAN and an important gateway and influencer in the Greater Mekong Delta Region. With its strategic presence in the City, UNICEF is uniquely positioned to influence the agenda for children through Mekong regional government and corporate sector initiatives.

Theory of Change for Programme Component

The programme component for Programme Partnership, Public Advocacy, and Communication aims to promote greater awareness about inequities affecting children in Viet Nam and the situation of vulnerable groups. It will contribute to positive changes for children in a fast-evolving economic and social context. With the transition to lower middle income status in Viet Nam, the middle class is growing, social networks are emerging, and a predominantly millennial population is increasingly aware of its potential and future challenges. The programme will promote partnerships and communication initiatives with the corporate sector and civil society organisations including those led by young people and children. Public advocacy, social dialogue, communication campaigns, and platforms (C4D) will help increase public awareness, contribute to behavioural change, mobilise resources, and increase demands for greater public accountability for child rights.

While Programme Component 1 will work closely with Central level Government as the key duty bearer, to address accountability and system building for child rights realisation, Programme Component 3 will work closely with the media, corporate sector partners and other non-governmental actors including children and young people, and the municipal government of Ho Chi Minh City, to demonstrate the value and the impact that expanded partnerships and participation can bring to child rights realisation in terms of resource mobilisation and leveraging impact.

Outcome 4: By 2021, enhanced public awareness and social change on child rights provide a new multi-stakeholder partnership platform to leverage and mobilise resources for equitable child rights realisation

The strategic intent of this programme component and the corresponding outcome is to demonstrate, that by mobilising and engaging a wide range of strategic partners as well as the public around critical result areas for children, the demand for child rights realisation will increase and accountability of key duty bearers will be strengthened to close equity gaps and advance children’s rights.


This programme component aims to promote greater societal awareness about inequities in society and about the situation of vulnerable groups and to contribute to positive changes for children in a fast-evolving economic and social context. It will build and promote inclusive partnerships at national and local levels, based on shared principles and values, for the realization of children’s rights in Viet Nam.

45 Mega City is commonly defined as a city or urban area with 10 million or more inhabitants

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Given the pace of urbanisation, the programme component will have a strengthened focus on urban programming and SDG 11 to make cities inclusive and safer.

The programme component will promote partnerships and communication initiatives with the corporate sector and civil society organisations including those led by young people and children. Public advocacy, social dialogue, communication campaigns, and platforms (C4D) will help to increase public awareness, to contribute to behavioural change, to mobilise resources, and to increase demands for greater public accountability for child rights.

The contribution of the programme component’s results to the realization of children’s rights will depend upon behaviour and social change. UNICEF and the Government of Viet Nam will spearhead the rollout of the Sustainable Development Goal Agenda with a special focus on children and young people, while also tackling the unfinished agenda of the Millenium Development Goals. To fulfill this ambitious agenda, communication and advocacy will play a critical role to bring about change to fulfil children’s rights in Viet Nam by promoting and influencing positive and measurable changes at the individual, family, community, and policy levels in Viet Nam. It will thereby reduce important barriers that prevent or slow down change. It will contribute to develop innovative partnerships with a focus on the digital environment and working with stakeholders, opinion leaders and child rights champions.

The outcome corresponds directly to the analysis and directions initiated during the 2014 Mid Term Review and further documented and elaborated at the Strategic Moment of Reflection in 2015 with increased importance on ‘how’ and with ‘whom’ to contribute to the identified key pillars of change that are: accountability and transparency, data and knowledge generation, understanding and leveraging domestic resources and social change and increasing demand. It relates specifically to developing and strengthening strategic partnerships for action and public advocacy with non-government stakeholders such as the corporate sector, civil society, academia, children, young people and the public at large.

Likewise, corporate sector partnerships developed during the 2012-2016 Country Programme such as the ‘Zeroworkplace Initiative’, industry specific pilots with the Footwear and Apparel and the Travel and Tourism sectors and partnerships initiated to promote innovation for social impact, will contribute to identified results areas within Programme Component 2 to help close existing gaps for children in the first decade of life, including children with disabilities and those impacted by the ongoing industrialisation. Through documentation of good practices and in close collaboration with city and national level partners, it is envisaged that the outcome and outputs of the programme component will help widen the space for meaningful and strategic non-governmental engagement, including children and young people’s participation in policy, decision making, programme implementation and monitoring processes at local, provincial and national levels. UNICEF’s work in communication and public advocacy will contribute to raise awareness in the society about child rights and fuel positive social change for children. The lack of public debate on child rights remains a key bottleneck in the society and this constitutes a major bottleneck for the realisation of child rights, regardless of which specific sector. Sector specific campaigns have a tendency to raise awareness on specific issues, but there is a lack of an overarching approach to child rights. Working with government counterparts and key advocacy groups such as youth based organisations, UNICEF will seek to provide the necessary knowledge and tools to raise awareness on child rights with a holistic approach. To achieve these goals, UNICEF will establish and contribute to platforms for communication in a digital environment and take advantage of the fast growing use of social media to engage the public on child rights. Advocacy with selected audiences of youth, influencers and stakeholders. Moreover, multimedia communication initiatives will aim at reaching out to a larger public about child rights highlighting the benefits for children themselves and for the society at large. The increased knowledge and participation of youth will contribute to the overall mobilization of society for positive change in favour of children.

The programme component will expand strategic partnerships with the media, corporate sector, civil society, academia, children and young people, and the public at large and it will increase public advocacy and communication for development (C4D). These strategies will seek to leverage government and non-government support and capacity, including financial and non-financial contributions for sustainable and

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equitable changes for children in Viet Nam. The outcome responds directly to two pillars of change to: (1) understand and leverage domestic resources and (2) address harmful social norms and behaviours.

Within Programme Component 3, three outputs are designed to offer strategic interventions across sectors with linkages to both upstream policy advocacy and public advocacy for the realisation of children rights in Viet Nam. UNICEF will deliver results through strategic inputs from across programmes led by the Representative and supported by critical resident capacity in Programme Partnership and Advocacy and Communication with the aim to enhance an office-wide results focus on critical public advocacy and necessary efforts in programme partnership to ensure sustainable impact and social change for children in Viet Nam.

UNICEF’s contribution, towards achieving an enabling environment that empowers key duty bearers and stakeholders to actively and meaningfully leverage and mobilise resources and collaborate for and with children to the realisation of their rights, is shaped around 3 outputs, planned with management responsibilities across UNICEF sections.

Programme Partnership

Output 4.1: By 2021, corporate sector partners have an increased understanding of its impact on children and has improved knowledge, capacity and commitment to respect the Child Rights and Business Principles, and to take action in support of child rights realisation This output contributes to the outcome by mobilizing and leveraging financial and non-financial resources

through expanded and strengthened corporate partnerships. A revised and updated Integrated Corporate Engagement Strategy (ICE)46, building on good practices and lessons learned from the 2012-2016 Country Programme as well as from neighbouring countries, particularly ASEAN member states, will provide an overall guide for implementation. Emphasis is put on the corporate sector as a duty bearer of children’s rights with the acknowledgement that the sector has a significant impact on children’s lives and wellbeing. It offers an important, yet untapped, potential for partnerships and engagement, beyond resource mobilization. UNICEF efforts will contribute to identifying gaps in normative frameworks for corporate social responsibility; addressing bottlenecks for effective implementation and monitoring of the Child Rights and Business Principles; influencing positive change within the corporate sector; and promoting and facilitating public-private partnerships and synergies for child rights realization.

The Child Rights and Business Principles framework, a key pillar of ICE, was launched in Viet Nam in 2014 followed by pilot initiatives implemented in 2015/2016, with the Travel & Tourism and Footwear & Apparel sectors on industry focused child rights impact assessments and capacity development initiatives. Moving forward, the business community and key industries will be engaged to support the fulfilment of their responsibilities towards children in the marketplace, at workplace and at community level. A CRBP capacity and systems building strategy will lead the work in addressing current knowledge, practice and capacity gaps, thereby aiming at changing and sustaining business behaviours, through the implementation of voluntary CRBP standards. In parallel, government counterparts as well as the Viet Nam Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce are key partners for creating an enabling environment in line with the UN CRC Committee General Comment 16 on State Obligations and Actions on Child Rights and Business.

With its focus on enhancing commitment from the corporate sector towards child rights realisation, the corporate sector will be a key partner for leveraging resources for the achievement of targeted programme results for children through non-financial contributions. Examples of non-financial corporate sector partnership contributions that we may build upon from the 2012- 2016 programme is ‘Zeroworkplan’ for access to knowledge for behaviour change for children in marginalised communities, such as migrant workers and their children through the work place. Other examples include access to

46 UNICEF’s ICE approach views the corporate sector as a duty bearer of children’s rights and recognizes that business partners offer an important, but underexploited potential for partnerships and collaborative relationships, beyond resource mobilization.

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corporate sector based marketing expertise and communication channels for public advocacy and behaviour change purposes. Likewise the UNICEF Innovation Lab will continue to enhance effectiveness across the country programme by helping to facilitate access to the innovation ecosystem and the use of technology and innovation for social impact and innovative solutions benefitting the most marginalised and vulnerable children. By achieving this output we will also contribute to specific outputs under programme component 2 (outcome 3), with its focus on fulfilling children’s rights to survival, development, education and protection through integrated ECD services.

Spearheading corporate sector programme based partnerships for children in HCMC and its industrial urban/semi urban zones will not only leverage results for children, but it will also generate good practice cases for public and high level policy advocacy on the importance of recognising and supporting multi-stakeholder partnerships and engagement, as a key positive force for child rights realisation in Viet Nam

Output 4.2: By 2021, civil society, children and adolescents participate in multi-stakeholder partnerships for child rights agenda setting and policy development in targeted areas This output will begin in HCMC with the Child Friendly City Initiative with the potential to expand to other cities such as Da Nang and Hanoi as well as provinces in the Greater Mekong Delta Region based on lessons learned and good practices. It seeks to generate recognition of a multi-stakeholder approach including the direct involvement of children and young people as important partners and agents of change in city level decision-making, policy and program development. It will expand and enhance opportunities for their meaningful participation. It responds strongly to the pillars of change for: accountability, transparent use of data, and social change and demand creation. Initiatives will focus on engagement with Ho Chi Minh City leadership to develop and document a multi-stakeholder supported and scalable, Child Friendly City Initiative (CFC) with meaningful participation of the corporate sector, civil society, academia, children and young people.

The Child Friendly City Initiative was launched in September 2015 and will be further shaped in 2016 with the aim of leveraging the importance of child rights realisation to the highest levels of City Government for public sector resource allocations towards the full implementation of the UN CRC. From 2017-2021, it is expected that the Child Friendly City Initiative will be fully adapted, integrated and sustained by the HCMC Government and that lessons learned and good practices will be documented for scale and replication. A Theory of Change for the Child Friendly City Initiative will be developed in 2016 to guide its implementation, based on the results of the HCMC Situation Analysis on Children and with participation of children, young people, civil society, private sector and Government partners.

By working with adolescents and young people within the HCMC Child Friendly City Initiative from a partnerships and public advocacy perspective, this output will add value and visibility to the adolescents agenda, through enabling children and adolescents to meaningfully represent their peers and participate in the development, implementation and monitoring of the Initiative. Likewise, by supporting the integration of child focused and adolescent/youth led innovation into the existing innovation ecosystem in HCMC, the value will be demonstrated of engaging adolescents and young people, including those that are marginalised and vulnerable, as key partners for identifying and implementing innovative approaches for child rights realisation. Mobilising and modelling initiatives with and for adolescents and young people as partners and agents of change in HCMC, will contribute to outcomes and outputs under Programme Component 1 in terms of enabling children and adolescents to participate in policy making and decisions affecting them at City level and Programme Component 2 with its focus on the second decade of life. It will also support and enable adolescents to participate and influence their families, communities and service providers on key health, development and protection related concerns in HCMC.

Public Advocacy and Communication

Output 4.3: By 2021, public awareness on child rights and social norms affecting the well-being of children is enhanced to contribute to public action and social change The output will not only contribute to the achievement of Outcome 4 but also to other programme components. It will be aligned with and complement technical and policy advice to advance expected

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outcomes, using a mix of strategic communication and social engagement approaches. The advocacy strategy will build on evidence and data generated throughout the country programme. This component will disseminate knowledge on the status of child rights and lessons learned from programme models in order to raise public awareness and to understand inequities for children.

The programme seeks to mobilize society and drive public action to accelerate the realization of the rights of children and adolescents, especially the most disadvantaged. UNICEF will continue its role as a leading voice for children and expand its reach and engagement. It will promote initiatives, partnerships, campaigns and platforms that contribute to increasing public awareness, improving social and behavioural change and increasing demand and generating public accountability for child rights through media alliances, multimedia content generation, social media strategies, brand building and working with opinion leaders and champions

Public advocacy and communication is a critical component for the realization child rights in Viet Nam. Initiatives will: (1) Put the rights and well-being of Viet Nam’s most disadvantaged children at the heart of the political and socio-economic agenda for Viet Nam, 2) help to support shifts in public policy and fuel social engagement and 3) increase private and public resources for children.

UNICEF Viet Nam will continue to pilot the Global Communication and Public Advocacy Strategy (GCPAS). It will develop and support strategic public advocacy on linked SEDP-SDG-Child rights priorities, engage decision makers, opinion leaders, Goodwill Ambassadors and the public with key messages about ways to increase public resources for children.

A special focus will be put on digital outreach as a mean to reach a large number of people in Viet Nam and abroad. The GCPAS was developed on the premise that all children have an equal right to survive, thrive and fulfil their potential to the benefit of their societies and a more equitable world. In order to translate this premise into action for children, UNICEF Viet Nam will develop a more coordinated, consistent and cutting edge approach to communication and public advocacy that embraces and leads change. The strategy will also engage adolescents and young people to advocate for their rights and call for greater accountability and transparency.

This output will seek increased government ownership, capacity and leadership in C4D about ending violence against children and preventing early marriage. It will support behaviour and social change for improved protection of children, and supports the child protection outputs under Outcome 1 and 2. Building on lessons learned from the previous country programme, as well as Viet Nam’s national campaign on violence against children in 2014, programming will address the drivers of violence against children, at the interpersonal, family and community levels, and promote understanding about the social norms surrounding early marriage. Specific interventions will: (1) Build on the national campaign to end VAC, to support the government to develop and implement multi-layered behaviour and social change interventions, including using traditional and digital medias, and (2) Generate evidence to understand the social norms operating in relation to early marriage


Capacity Development

For Corporate Sector Partnerships, the Viet Nam Country Office Integrated Corporate Engagement Strategy will be revised and updated, based on in-country lessons learned and good practice from 2012- 2016 as well as from the region, with specific focus on capacity development of the corporate sector, government and civil society for the implementation of the Child Rights and Business Principles.

Communication for development UNICEF will focus on strengthening capacity both within UNICEF and among partners and counterparts, investing in generating evidence of what is working and why, developing evidence-based strategic planning, developing partnerships for implementation and ensure monitoring and evaluation of strategic behaviour and social change interventions. Strategic interventions will focus on promoting integration and cross-sectoral linkages for all sectors, and maximizing complementarity and synergies with external communication, partnerships and innovation.

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C4D is considered as a crucial strategy to challenge social norms, and existing beliefs and practices that negatively affect the realisation of children’s rights. Within the context of Viet Nam as lower-middle income country, UNICEF Viet Nam needs to shift from being responsible for implementation of large scale C4D intervention to provide technical guidance, quality assurance and build capacity of the Government for the institutionalization of C4D in line structures.

Evidence Generation, Policy Dialogue and Advocacy

A specific Theory of Change and Strategy for Child Friendly City partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement, including participation of adolescents and young people, will be developed to help guide, shape and document the initiative with the aim to scale it up to other cities. It will also influence and help widen the space for expanded partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement at provincial and national levels.

Evidence on the impact on children in the workplace, marketplace and community will be generated through industry specific CRBP interventions in the footwear and apparel, travel and tourism industries, and possibly with the ICT industry around online protection. Lessons learned and good practices from pilot industries in terms of implementing the CRBP will likewise be documented and used for policy dialogue and advocacy not only in Viet Nam with wider corporate sector and government counterparts but also at regional and global levels.

Communication and Public Advocacy In line with UNICEF’s global communication and public advocacy strategy and UNICEF’s global brand strategy the strategic interventions will help guide the office wide efforts to influence the key audiences for positive action for children. Built upon the principle of equity and focused on the most vulnerable children, it will help promote the fundamentals of equal rights for all children to survive, thrive and fulfil their potential and contribute to translate awareness into resources and action for children. UNICEF will also design more coordinated, consistent and cutting-edge communication and public advocacy interventions that both embraces and leads change.

Support Integration and Cross Sectoral Linkages

The Child Friendly City Initiative will work closely with programme sections and key line departments to promote and support an integrated, cross sectoral and multi-stakeholder engagement approach for addressing key child rights concerns in urban and semi-urban settings with HCMC as a promising testing ground.

Identification and promotion of Innovations

The UNICEF Viet Nam Innovation Lab is focused on leveraging technology by engaging adolescents and young people, and providing leadership in the innovation ecosystem in Viet Nam. With the Child Friendly City (CFC) initiative in Ho Chi Minh City, UNICEF aims to integrate these strategic pillars into the Initiative. The purpose is to benefit the most vulnerable children by engaging adolescents and young people and leaders within the innovation field. This will also help the city to identify problems and create smart and cost effective solutions for closing critical equity gaps. The Innovation Lab will focus on two strategic approaches that are to provide real and long term opportunities for vulnerable and at risk adolescents and young people to participate and contribute to the agenda of the Innovation Ecosystem towards achieving results for children; and to convene key stakeholders and partners and provide technical support to accelerate growth of the social innovation community for equitable opportunities and improved access to basic and social services for marginalized adolescents and young people.

Partnerships

Expanding strategic partnerships for child rights implementation is key to achieve the outcome and outputs under Programme Component 3 as well as Programme Component 2 and Programme Component 1. The cooperation with the HCMC government around the Child Friendly City Initiative will

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generate lessons learned and good practices for multi-stakeholder engagement. It will also inform the participation for the implementation of child rights including the participation of adolescents and young people in the decision making process and as agents of positive change. The corporate sector will specifically be engaged as partner and stakeholder around CRBP initiatives as well as interventions contributing to programme results for children with non- financial capacity and contributions, which will help make the case to government decision makers on the importance of closing gaps and striving towards the full implementation of the UN CRC.

Partners

As an integral part of a sustainable agenda for the Vietnamese business sector, UNICEF will strengthen its corporate sector partnership platform with the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) as a key partner offering strategic linkages to the government, state owned enterprises and private sector companies and industries. UNICEF will work with VCCI and foreign Chambers of Commerce such as EuroCham, AusCham, USCham, Korcham to raise awareness and mobilise support for promoting Child Rights and Business Principles. A precondition for scaling up the CRBP is to institutionalise capacity development for industries with significant impact on children’s rights such as Travel and Tourism, Apparel and Footwear, the Information and Technology industry and the food and agricultural business sector. In 2016 UNICEF will go ahead in close cooperation with VCCI to identify an implementing partner for capacity development. UNICEF’s Corporate Advisory Board (CAB) is a group of influential business leaders advising and working with UNICEF to generate support from the corporate sector for child rights realization. The board is a key partner for mobilizing non-financial contributions as members represent various sectors with potential to contribute to results for children. One example is Mobivi with iCare Benefits – a key partner for scaling up Zeroworkplace initiatives to all migrant workers in the industrial zones of HCMC, another example is IDG Ventures encompassing media entities such as Forbes and YanTV. Ho Chi Minh City Child Friendly Initiative: A key partner for the overall realisation of a multi-stakeholder Child Friendly City Initiative is the PPC (Provincial Peoples Committee), the highest level of Government in the City. It is envisaged that a Detailed Project Outline with focus on HCMC Child friendly City Initiative will be developed as a basis for the partnership. This partnership will also involve the Youth Union for adolescent and youth engagement in decision making process, and for planning and implementing. It will also involve key stakeholders and leaders of the innovation ecosystem in HCMC such as the Department of Science and Technology and the Information Technology Park at Viet Nam National University.


Major assumptions:

- Public advocacy will help raise awareness in the large public on child rights issues and will contribute to fuel social engagement and call for action on policy shifts in favour of children.

- Further use of digital technology will maximize the reach of UNICEF’s voice and drive changes for children

- More public awareness on child rights issues and enhance feedback mechanisms for the population will improve transparency and accountability

- Government provides an enabling environment for non-governmental and multi-stakeholder engagement on child rights realization in HCMC and beyond,

- The business sector is recognized as a key duty bearer for children’s rights and General Comment no 16 provides an enabling environment for the sector to respect and support children’s rights

- The business sector lacks understanding, motivation and capacity to respect and support children’s rights

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-

Major risks:

- Resistance from authorities to improve freedom of expression - Limited reach of digital technologies in rural areas, and heavy reliance on traditional media. - Further UN integration could dilute the voice of UNICEF into the broader UN system. - Political and public mind-set will stay fixed and not responsive to needs and rights of children in

lower middle income Viet Nam - Legal framework will not emerge as supportive for non-government, including private sector to

contribute to and influence child rights agenda - Civil society, including youth led will become politicized and thereby increase fragmentation and

distance between non-Government and Government players - Business (local and lower supply chain level) not willing/motivated to respect children’s rights in

the market place, work place and community - Social norms take time, resources and large engagement and commitment of the community to

change - The government’s common communication approach is still very much one of propaganda, with

a heavy reliance on communication material development and top down messaging - The focus of the government and partners has very much been one of getting communication

activities implemented on the spot, with relative less attention being paid to being more strategic - Communication interventions are being implemented in an ad-hoc manner, with limited use of

evidence-based strategies and coordination - Government’s low budget allocation for behaviour and social change communication.

Results Structure

The Programme Component 3 “Partnership, Public Advocacy, and Communication for Child Rights” responds to a set of complex and interlinked challenges in lower middle-income Viet Nam. This programme component aims to promote greater awareness about inequities affecting children in Viet Nam and the situation of vulnerable groups. It will contribute to positive changes for children in a fast-evolving economic and social context.

The Programme Component 3 includes Outcome 4 “By 2021, enhanced public awareness and social change on child rights provide a new multi-stakeholder partnership platform to leverage and mobilise resources for equitable child rights realisation.”

In this regard, the Programme Component 3 will contribute to the national priorities (cross-cutting issues of SEDP priority on social development), the One Strategic Plan (Outcome 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, Outcome 2.1 and 2.2 and Outcome 4.1 and 4.2) as well as UNICEF Strategic Plan (Outcome 1 to 7). It will also contribute to the achievement of SDG targets to: (a) Empower and promote social, economic, and political inclusion (10.2), (b) Provide access to safe and inclusive green and public spaces (11.7), (c) End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against children (16.2), (d) Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making (16.7), and (e) Encourage and promote effective public, public-private, and civil society partnerships (17.17).

Three following outputs will contribute to the Programme Component’s envisaged Outcome:

Output 4.1: By 2021, the corporate sector has improved knowledge, capacity and commitment to respect CRBP and to take action in support of child rights realisation

Output 4.2: By 2021, civil society, children and adolescent participate in multi-stakeholder partnerships for child rights agenda setting and policy development in targeted areas

Output 4.3: By 2021, public awareness on child rights and social norms affecting the well-being of children is enhanced contributing to public action and social change

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The programme will support data generation at national and decentralised levels to assess progress in achieving identified results and in dismantling bottlenecks and barriers. Capacity development on monitoring approaches will support implementing partners in setting up systems that will facilitate the monitoring of programme performance and resulting changes to the identified areas.

Two major evaluations of Programme Partnership and Public Advocacy and Communication will be conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of these new strategic result areas of UNICEF.

Programme reviews (mid-year and annual, or as required) will be jointly organized with relevant counterparts. Progress will be captured in the Results Assessment Module in VISION.


Key inputs for the functioning of the programme will include financial support and technical assistance (staff and consultants). The Programme Component will need a total of $13,440,260 for the country programme period 2017-2021 to be fully implemented. 43% of the total budgeted amount ($ 5,827,290) will be funded from Regular Resources. The remaining 57%, or $ 7,612,960 will be funded from Other Resources and will need to be mobilized during the programme period 2017-2021.

2017-2021 Country Programme Resource Framework


This preliminary budget provides an overview of the required and available resources to support implementation of planned outputs and any funding gaps. It is a basis for joint resource mobilization and will contribute to better stronger planning and delivery by the GoV, UNICEF and other UN system agencies and partners. Sources of funding include regular, or core resources and other, or non-core resources that the GoV and UNICEF will mobilize on the strength of the expected results and strategies. Budgets are indicative and may be subject to changes by UNICEF Executive Board and by internal management decisions. Regular and other resources are exclusive of funding received in response to emergency appeals. Full implementation of the CP will require an estimated total of USD 82,000,000. This includes USD $22,000,000 from regular resources and USD 60,000,000 from other resources. The total estimated funding gap for the CP is USD $ gg,ggg,000.

The estimated resource requirements provided below by programme component:

Summary budget table

Programme Component

(In thousands of United States dollars)

Regular

resources

Other

resources Total

Accountability and System Building for Child Rights and

Protection

10,069,136 28,447,805 38,516,941

Integrated Early Childhood Development

3,839,062 22,815,189 26,654,251

Public Advocacy, Programme Partnership and Communication for

Child Rights

5,827,294 7,612,967 13,440,261

Programme Effectiveness

2,374,508 1,124,039 3,498,547

TOTAL 22,110,000 60,000,000 82,110,000

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Fundraising Strategy

The Country Office has developed an ambitious fundraising strategy and will continue to update it on a

regular basis to factor in the constantly changing environment. The strategy will set out to mobilize

financial resources in line with the country programme OR ceiling of USD 60,000,000 for 2017-2021.

The office wide fundraising efforts will look specifically at maximizing quality revenue for the

implementation of UNICEF’s country programme to achieve results for children in Viet Nam. The office

will also work to expand strategic engagement with partners to provide increased resources and

support for the realization of children’s rights in Viet Nam.

In order to coordinate the office wide effort, a Fundraising Taskforce will be maintained under the

overall leadership of the Representative and the Communication Manager will ensure the Secretariat

function. The taskforce will meet quarterly to review fundraising action plan, agree on fundraising gaps

and priorities and monitor progress against set objectives.

UNICEF in Viet Nam continues to operate within the UN Delivering as One (DaO) country context, which

was initiated in 2006. However, the resource mobilization environment has become more challenging.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows to Viet Nam have transformed in recent years partly due

Viet Nam’s recent transition to classification as a lower Middle Income Country (MIC). As a

consequence, the amount of ODA channeled through the UN, and specifically through the One Pool

Fund (OPF) has significantly decrease. Moreover a number of legal barriers are yet to be overcome to

allow UNICEF to fully engage in local private sector fundraising.

UNICEF has adapted its resource mobilization efforts to the changing context in Viet Nam by adopting a

multi-pronged approach for fundraising that is anchored in programmatic priorities. These programme

priorities have a specific focus on critical areas that require further support. The multi-pronged resource

mobilization approach looks at areas of existing and emerging Other Resource (OR) funding

opportunities, namely:

- Bilateral public sector fundraising

- Private sector fundraising through National Committees

- Local Private sector fundraising.

UNICEF will engage with government donors to Viet Nam and multilateral institutions to develop

partnerships and to build a shared agenda to leverage support for children and to mobilize resources for

the country programme. UNICEF will maintain strong links with National Committees to build on the

existing partnerships to expand further and to maximize quality and predictability of revues. In order to

fully engage on local private sector fundraising, the office will sustain advocacy efforts with the

Government of Viet Nam (GoV) to establish the legal framework that will allow UNICEF to engage with

the local dynamic private sector.

Many of Viet Nam’s traditional public sector donors have begun to phase-out development assistance programmes in favour of investment, trade and green growth initiatives. ODA will no longer be the primary focus of resource mobilisation efforts for UNICEF and other UN Agencies. These agencies must re-focus on technical assistance and policy advocacy to leverage GoV investment in areas of need, based on arguments that provide a solid return on investment and are aligned with country priorities.

The expected fundraising strategy will involve these major lines of action47:

» Develop a longer-term strategy to secure GoV investment in elements of the CP that are strongly aligned with the SEDP and SEDS. This requires stronger relationships with the Ministry of Finance and National Assembly, and evidence and advocacy based on a return on investment.

» Increase advocacy efforts with GoV for a legal framework that enables UNICEF to mobilize resources from the private sector. In tandem, work closely with PFP in Geneva and EAPRO to develop a meaningful private sector engagement strategy that builds on past experience (e.g. ZEROtalks; ZERO workplace), to address critical funding gaps.

47 UNICEF Viet Nam, Resource Mobilization Strategy - 2015-2016, 2015.

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» Despite the reduction of public sector donors and funding, strengthen relationships with public sector donors and UNICEF National Committees who have provided assistance to UNICEF outside the One Plan Fund, based on UNICEF’s long term engagement in Viet Nam and past programme results.

» In particular, forge stronger relationships with the Government of Australia, Japan, and Korea, as public sector donors with sustained interest in child rights in Viet Nam.

» Identify shared interests and opportunities with emerging donors in the region and beyond, including the ‘BRICs’ (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and a group of emerging economies, the so-called ‘MINTs’ (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) and Gulf States.

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IMPACT: Realisation of children’s rights, especially for the most vulnerable children SEDP targets: cross-cutting issues of SEDP priority on social development SDG targets: (10.2) Empower and promote social, economic, and political inclusion; (11.7) Provide access to safe and inclusive green and public spaces; 16.2 End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of VAC; 16.7 Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making; 17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships.

OUTCOME 4: By 2021, enhanced public awareness and social change on child rights provide a new multi-stakeholder partnership platform to leverage and mobilise resources for equitable child rights realisation

» Annual amount of public and private social spending per capita (or as %GDP) » No. Private sector and State-run companies in the travel, tourism, apparel, IT, and Agri-business

industries implementing voluntary Child Rights and Business Principles (CRBP) agreements » Viet Nam Corporate Sustainable Index includes respect and support to children’s rights

(http://en.vbcsd.vn/detail.asp?id=612) » Violent discipline (MICS8.3) »

Risks:

» Resistance from authorities to improve freedom of expression

» Limited reach of digital technologies in rural areas, and heavy reliance on traditional media

» Further UN integration could dilute the voice of UNICEF into the broader UN system

» Legal framework will not emerge as supportive for non-government, including private sector to contribute to and influence child rights agenda

Strategic Interventions Enabling environment - Develop, implement and monitor a capacity building strategy on CRBP based on global and local lessons and good practice from initiatives with travel/tourism and footwear/apparel industries in 2015 – 2016 - Support the development and documentation of a scalable and public/Gov funded Multi stakeholder CFC Initiative with HCMC PPC. - Advocacy to increase government ownership, capacity and leadership in C4D on ending violence against children and preventing early marriage.

Supply of services Roll out and documentation of a scalable ‘zero work place’ private sector led initiative benefiting migrant workers and their children Demand for services - Develop and implement a digital strategy to reach public at large, including adolescents and YP to raise awareness and support to social change for children (social media, digital outreach, U-report, citizen feedback) - Develop and implement strategic public advocacy on key priorities, to engage decision makers, opinion leaders, goodwill Ambassadors and the public for positive change and to increase public resources for children. - Support Government to generate evidence to understand the social norms, develop and implement multi-layered behavior and social change interventions, including using traditional and digital medias, to address social norms contributing to neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation against children, and eliminating early marriage.

Quality of services Support integration of child focused and youth led innovation into existing eco system in HCMC CFC through establishment of social impact innovation lab in partnership with ITP at VNU, VYE and other key actors. Partnerships Develop and pilot scalable platforms/initiatives with children/adolescents, civil society, private sector and academia to engage on child rights realization in urban settings through CFC Initiative.

Assumptions: » More public awareness on

child rights issues and enhanced feedback mechanisms will improve transparency and accountability and fuel calls for policy shifts in favour of children.

» Government provides an enabling environment for non-governmental and multi-stakeholder engagement on child rights realization in HCMC and beyond

OUTPUT 4.1 (PP) By 2021, the corporate sector have increased understanding on the impact of children and improved knowledge, capacity and commitment to respect CRBP and take actions in support of child rights realisation

» No., Value of corporate sector initiatives contributing to child rights realization. OUTPUT 4.2 (PP) By 2021, civil society, children and adolescents participate in multi-stakeholder partnerships for child rights agenda setting and policy development in targeted areas » No., Value of non-government initiatives contributing to child rights realization in HCMC and Mekong Delta Region » No. Functioning mechanisms for child and youth participation in HCMC and Mekong Delta Region OUTPUT 4.3: (COMS) By 2021, public awareness on child rights and social norms affecting the well-being of children is enhanced contributing to public action and social change

» % Targeted population with knowledge on protection risks and know how to report child protection violations [SP,P6A1]

http://en.vbcsd.vn/detail.asp?id=612

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