vietnam and the mdg

MDGVIETNAM

POPULATION: 88.78 million in 2012

INTRO PRELIMINARY KNOWLEDGE

• Geographic situation: Its neighbouring are Cambodia, Laos and China. The country is also surrounded by the South Chinese sea and has some costs boarding the golf of Thailand.

Positive knowing that the country’s main trading partners are China, US, Thailand and Japan.

• North: Manufactures (mineral resources) & South: Agriculture. Division due to French colonisation and natural resources. Maincurrent sectors: Agriculture: 48%, industry: 21%, services: 31%.

• Industries: Rice, coffee, rubber, cotton, tea, pepper, soybeans, …

• Currency: The Vietnamese dong (inflation: 18.7 % in 2011)

• Member of the following trade organisations: WTO, AFTA, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) , ASEAN

(Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation)

INTRO PRELIMINARY KNOWLEDGE

• GDP - 170 020 billion $ (2013)- Growth : 5.42% (2013)- 1.896 $ Per Capita (2013)

• GDP by sector: Agriculture 21.6 %Industry 40.8 %Services 37.6 %

• Population below poverty line: 11.3% (2012)

• Gini coefficient: 37

• Unemployment: 2.22 % in 2013

• External debt of 33.45 billion $ + 50% of the GDP is public debt + more or less 5 billion of difference between expenses and revenues even if there is an international aid of 2.8 billion given in 2000.

CHANGESERADICATE POVERTY AND HUNGER

• While overall poverty levels have dropped remarkably, wide disparities still exist. For instance, more than half of ethnic minority groups still live below the poverty line. New forms of poverty are also starting to emerge. This includes chronic poverty, urban poverty, child poverty and poor migrants. Tackling these new forms of poverty will require tailored and multi-sectoralapproaches that recognize that poverty is about more than just a household’s income level in relation to a monetary-defined poverty line.


• CHILD POVERTY - Viet Nam recently developed its own country- and child-specific multi-dimensional approach to child poverty. This approach is based upon several poverty domains, including education, health, nutrition, shelter, water and sanitation, child work, leisure, social inclusion and protection.

• Applying this new approach to the Survey on Household Living Standards data set from 2008, shows that about one -third of all children under 16 years can be identified as poor. This amounts to roughly seven million children or a child poverty rate of about 28.9 per cent. High rates of multi-dimensional child poverty were found among children living in rural areas, among children from ethnic minority groups, and among children living in the Northwest and Mekong Delta regions. The Mekong Delta now has the highest child poverty rate (52.8 per cent).


• URBAN POVERTY - Rapid urbanization and migration from rural areas to big cities over the past couple of years has increased the pressure for urban poverty reduction. Urban poverty is qualitatively different from rural poverty. It affects different population groups (such as migrants, the homeless and street children) and manifests itself in different ways (such as improper housing, poor water and sanitation facilities and exposure to pollution). As a result, different strategies are needed to address urban poverty.

SO ….• Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day• Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people• Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger


• Poverty Reduction in Remote Areas: Under the Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project (2002-2007), about 280 predominantly ethnic minority communes in rural areas benefited from improved irrigation systems, 75,000 households benefited from construction of commune health stations, and 47,000 households benefited from improved village primary school classrooms.

• Water Supply and Sanitation: From 2001 to 2012, theHCMC Environmental Sanitation Project reduced floofinds for 88 000 households and connected 265 800 households to centralized wastewater collection system.

• Poverty Rate:

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES

1993 2002 2006 2008 2010

58.1 % 28.9 % 16.0 % 14.5 % 14.23 %

ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION

CHANGES• Viet Nam has made significant progress in achieving

universal primary education. In 2009, net enrollment in primary school was 97 per cent and 88.5 per cent of children who enter primary school complete five years of primary education. Of these, over 90 per cent continue to lower secondary education, with no significant differences between regions or between urban and rural areas. Viet Nam also shows good gender parity, with almost half the number of students being female in both primary and secondary education.

To build on these achievements in the next five years, and ensure that the progress will be maintained, several areas need attention, particularly the qualityand the cost of education.


CHANGES• Viet Nam has made significant progress in achieving

universal primary education. In 2009, net enrollment in primary school was 97 per cent and 88.5 per cent of children who enter primary school complete five years of primary education. Of these, over 90 per cent continue to lower secondary education, with no significant differences between regions or between urban and rural areas. Viet Nam also shows good gender parity, with almost half the number of students being female in both primary and secondary education.

• The quality of education remains uneven in Viet Nam, and is acknowledged to be generally poor with a lack of well- trained teachers and appropriate curriculum. In order for all children, girls and boys, to exercise their right to quality education, more diversified, relevant and flexible learning opportunities are necessary to respond to all learners with varying needs.


BUT …(…) Every child must be placed at the heart of learning. As Viet Nam is becoming a middle-income country, it is important for the education system to offer a type of education that not only teaches children basic knowledge and skills, but also equips them with competencies that prepare them for the changing world.

• Cost of education - According to the law, pupils at primary education level in public schools are not required to pay tuition fees. However, there are other costs such as transport, uniforms and learning materials, and parents are also charged informal fees set by schools or communes at local level. Many children among the poor households simply cannot go to school or complete their primary education due to economic constraints or their need to work to help support their families.


CHANGES

Vietnam has achieved

universal primary

education. Literacy and

schooling proportions

continue to increase.

2006-7 2007-8 2008-9

96.8 % 96.1 % 97.0%

The most explicit data might be the following, showing the net enrolment in primary education:

Repartition of the main primary school density in the country


CHANGESPROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN

Viet Nam has been very successful in increasing girls’ participation in education at primary and secondary levels. Girls now represent 48.2% of students enrolled at primary level. A very high rate of women is involved in economic activities, expected to reach 83% in 2010, compared to 85% for men. And, at present, Viet Nam has one of the highest rates of representation of women in decision making in national parliament in the region: 25.8% of National Assembly deputies are women Women play an important role in the Vietnamese economy accounting for 46.6% of the active workforce. However women are concentrated in informal, vulnerable types of employment. According to VHLSS data, 24.2% of women were in non-farm wage employment in 2008, compared to 35.5% of men. Many of these women work as own account or unpaid family labourers. According to data on employment trends in Vietnam, 53 percent of all employed women are unpaid workers in the family business, compared with 32 percent of men. Women in the informal sector have lower wages, lower skills levels and more limited access to skill development and training than do men.


BUT…PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN

Gender inequality is deep-rooted in all societies, and Viet Nam is no exception, and left unattended could impact negatively on the achievements so far. Families continue to give preferential treatment to, and invest greater resources in, boys and men.

Persistent son preference and devaluing of girls is demonstrated in the rising sex-ratio at birth, which is currently at 112:100 nationally. Sex-selection is particularly evident in better off-families, with higher sex-ratio at birth values for the top two quintiles, and lower levels among the poor and ethnic minorities (UNFPA 2010 forthcoming). Gender-based violence is acknowledged to be serious problem in Viet Nam, occurring in rural and urban areas and among all social groups. While reliable national prevalence rates for all forms of domestic violence are not yet available, the 2006 Family Study found that 21.2% of couples had experienced at least one form of domestic violence (verbal abuse, emotional abuse, physical or sexual violence). Changing social norms, together with incentives to encourage households to invest in girls and women, and supportive social services are required to reverse these trends.



PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN

Life expectancy at birth, total (years)




Mortality rate, Infant (per 1000 births)




• Viet Nam has already achieved the targets for both under-five mortality and infant mortality, with both these rates being halved between 1990 and 2006. The infant mortality rate was reduced from 44.4 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 16 in 2009. The under-five mortality rate has also been reduced considerably, from 58 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 24.4 in 2009. Furthermore, the ratio of children under five who are underweight fell from 25.2 per cent in 2005 to 18.9 per cent in 2009.

• To build on these achievements in the next five years, and ensure that child mortality rates continue to improve further, several areas need attention, particularly neonatal mortality and stunting.


BUT …PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWER WOMEN


• Despite the remarkable progress achieved to date, the largest proportion of under-one mortality is neonatal mortality, which accounts for close to 60 per cent of all deaths in children under one and 40 per cent of all deaths in children under five. These deaths could be prevented if medical staff were well-trained to monitor the pregnancy, assist at childbirth and provide post-natal care. An underlying cause of neonatal mortality is the fact that many women in rural mountainous areas do not have access to basic health services, including pregnancy checkups, delivery support, post-natal care, vaccinations and access to routine care and treatment.

• While Viet Nam has made significant progress in reducing the numbers of underweight children, stunting (low height for age) still affects more than one-third of Vietnamese children MALNUTRITION


IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH

year 1990 2009

Maternal mortality rate per 100 000

live births

233 69

Maternal mortality has declined considerably over the last two decades, from 233 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 69 per 100,000 live births in 2009, with approximately two thirds of this decrease related to safer pregnancy. Good progress has also been made in expanding access to quality reproductive health, including maternal and neonatal health; family planning; increased use of modern contraception; and establishment of stronger programs, policies and laws for reproductive health and rights, as well as measures to provide quality services to the poor and other vulnerable groups.



Although maternal health has improved substantially, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) has remained unchanged between 2006 and 2009. In order to reach the MDG target of reducing maternal mortality by three quarters (to 58.3 per 100,000 live births) even greater efforts are needed.

There are also remaining disparity gaps which are important to address, with the MMR higher in remote and ethnic minority areas. Geographical factors, the educational level of mothers and traditional practices in remote areas often prevent mothers from accessing maternal health services. To address this, it is essential Viet Nam strengthens and improves the knowledge, skills and attitudes among service providers of maternal health and newborn care. The priority should be on skilled attendance at delivery with a strengthened referral system to a centre which can provide comprehensive care, including emergency obstetric and newborn care. With universal access to these critical reproductive health services, maternal death and disability could be reduced dramatically.



Ethnic minorities, young people and migrants continue to have limited access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, including family planning services. The reproductive health care service network is insufficient in mountainous areas, where there is a lack of infrastructure, inadequate number of medical staff and unfavorable working conditions.

Of particular concern is the rapidly increasing abortion rate, particularly among adolescents, and this poses challenges to fully reaching MDG 5. Twenty per cent of abortions occur among teenagers and this figure could be higher as abortions at private clinics are not included in the estimation. The Survey Assessment of Vietnamese Youth 2 (SAVY 2) in 2010 showed that 7.5 percent of teenagers had premarital sex and lacked knowledge about sex, leading to the high rate of abortion.

• The HIV prevalence rate is estimated at 0.28 per cent for all age groups in 2010. The scope of anti-retroviral treatment has expanded from an estimated 30 per cent in 2007 to 53.7 per cent in 2009.

• Impressive progress on prevention and control of malaria shows that Vietnam has already achieved the MDG target on malaria control. Viet Nam is also acknowledged to have done a good job in controlling other epidemics such as SARS, H5N1 and H1N1.

CHANGESCOMBAT HIV, MALARIA & OTHER DISEASES

To prevent and control HIV in the long term, it is important to:

Focuseffortsonmobilizinggreaterandmorediverseresourcesandusingthoseresourceseffectively. Make the national response to HIV a priority in the political agenda and budget planning processes. Strengthen systems by integrating or improving linkages between the HIV programme and programmes on health, education and legal services. Strengthen partnerships: stronger community and civil society engagement helps build programmesthat are more realistic, acceptable, suitable and sustainable. Ensure multi-sectoral collaboration and coordination and the creation of an enabling legal environment.

CHANGESCOMBAT HIV, MALARIA & OTHER DISEASES

CHANGESENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Viet Nam has shown strong commitment to environmental concerns at the international and policy level, and significant achievements have been made in relation to MDG 7. For example, forest coverage has increased from 27.8 percent in 1990 to about 40 percent in 2010. Today, about 83 per cent of the rural population has access to safe water, up from 30 per cent in 1990.

To build on what has already been achieved, there are several areas which need further attention if Viet Nam is to make even greater progress towards MDG 7, particularly around water and sanitation, and climate change.

ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

• Viet Nam is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Already more than one million people in Viet Nam are affected each year by natural disasters, and climatic disasters are set to become worse. Viet Nam is also rapidly increasing its greenhouse gas emissions which add to the global challenge.

• C02 emissions, metric tons per capita:

Still increasing …

BUT…


GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPPMENT

• As of January 2013, Vietnam has borrowed a cumulative total of US$14 billion from the International Development Association (IDA), with striking results in many sectors.

• The Bank and government work with many partners in Vietnam. The apex partnership forum has been the Consultative Group’s semi-annual meeting with participation by multilateral and bilateral donors as well as international nongovernmental organizations. Now that Vietnam is a lower MIC, its partnership modality is changing to an annual high-level development policy forum and away from a focus on resource mobilization.


GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPPMENT

• Progress has been made in achieving the goal of global partnership for development, but the global economic slowdown continues to hinder progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to a UN report.

The international community must live up to the commitments it made in support of achieving universally accepted anti-poverty targets, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on September 19 during the launch of the Millennium Development Goals Gap Task Force Report 2013.

"Today I am pleased to report progress on MDG 8, the global partnership for development. As the report shows, tariffs on exports from developing countries are down. Exports from developing to developed countries are up. A larger proportion of exports from least developed countries are being admitted tax free. Access to mobile phone technology and the internet continue to rapidly expand," he said.

"New countries and other partners are stepping up. But all must deliver on commitments - on official development assistance, climate finance and domestic resource mobilization."

vietnam and the mdg

Education