Vietnam expects more support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to fulfill its children-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in New York on May 16. Photo: VGP

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said at a meeting with UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell in New York on May 16.

In 2021, UNICEF developed the Country Programme of Cooperation 2022-2026, based on the UN Cooperation Framework, responding to the Government’s Socio-Economic Development Plan (2021-2025), positioning a rebound from COVID-19, accelerating human capital development, and responding to the growing threat of climate change and natural disasters

The new country program will introduce breakthrough solutions that can achieve impact at scale in addressing these challenges for the most vulnerable children.

Chinh said UNICEF’s Country Programme of Cooperation 2022-2026 is in line with the country’s priorities in education access to children, gender equality, ensuring physical and mental health for children, child abuse prevention, and making policies for children.

He emphasized that Vietnam attaches significance to the relations with UNICEF over the past four decades, especially its assistance in improving the national immunization capacity.

He said the UNICEF support during the Covid-19 pandemic has helped Vietnam contain the pandemic and maintain socio-economic development by coordinating vaccine supply through the COVAX Facility and the delivery of medical equipment. The assistance has enabled Vietnam to vaccinate more than 84% of its population, including two-dose injections for people aged over 12.

Catherine Russell highly appreciated Vietnam’s socio-economic and SDGs achievements in the challenging context of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially ensuring children’s protection, care, and education, saying these successful experiences are very valuable to the UN and the international community.

She hailed Vietnam’s cross-cutting guidelines and policies on the care and protection of children’s rights in national programs and action plans, including the allocation of considerable resources to solve urgent issues such as educational rights and welfare in mountainous and remote areas as well as the improvement of nutrition for children.

She reiterated UNICEF’s continued support for the Covid-19 vaccine supply for the country in the time to come. Vietnam has provided two doses of Covid-19 vaccines to almost all children aged 12-18 while continuing the inoculation campaign among children aged 5-12.

Vietnam is making efforts to fulfill the UN 2030 children-focused Sustainable Development Goal indicators. Photo: UNICEF

In UNICEF’s key highlight statistics updated as of April 2022, it stated “Vietnam has made tremendous progress for its 26 million children in a remarkably short time.” Rapid economic success and human development in just over two decades are also reflected in indicators of children’s well-being. Most children attend primary and secondary school, have access to adequate health care and can expect to live longer than their parents.

In Vietnam, UNICEF defends the rights of children, focusing on the poorest and most disadvantaged.

Vietnam has been pursuing a reform process aimed at strengthening its social protection system towards a more child-sensitive, gender transformative and shock-responsive system. UNICEF is a key partner in this reform and has brought valuable international evidence and expertise to assist the government.

The SDGs are universal in scope, and their call to leave no one behind puts the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized people – including children – at the top of the agenda. UNICEF is responsible for seven Sustainable Development Goal indicators and either supports or is a co-custodian for other goals.