UN urges renewed effort on MDGs

United Nations Resident Coordinator in Vietnam John Hendra provides VIR with his insights on the country’s progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

What is the status of progress towards the MDGs globally?

The MDGs have proved to be an unprecedented catalyst for global action and greater accountability for development and there has been impressive progress in many countries, including Vietnam.

A few months ago, in September 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and world leaders met at a summit in New York to discuss accelerating progress towards the MDGs.

Leaders attending the summit, including Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, noted that despite setbacks, in particular due to the economic and financial crises, significant progress has been made on fighting poverty, increasing school enrolment and improving health in many countries.

Triet shared Vietnam’s MDG experience and Vietnam was highlighted as a success story, along with countries like Ghana. However, participants also emphasised that gains have been uneven across the MDGs and across countries.

Overall, there has been insufficient progress on gender equality and the empowerment of women, almost half of the people in the developing world continue to live without access to basic sanitation, too many people remain jobless or under-employed and more attention needs to be given to sustainability and green growth.

The summit concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight goals by 2015 and the announcement of major new commitments for women’s and children’s health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease.

How successful has Vietnam been in its MDG efforts to date?

It is now well known that Vietnam has made very impressive progress towards achieving the MDGs and has been successful in meeting some of them significantly ahead of the 2015 deadline – such as MDG 1 on eradication of extreme hunger and poverty.

The Millennium Development Goals National Report 2010 published by the government last year provides a clear picture of how the MDGs have been implemented in Vietnam to date, including the achievements made, lessons learned and key challenges still ahead.

While Vietnam has either achieved – or is on track to attain – most of the MDGs by 2015, some key goals are lagging, such as MDG 6 on HIV, and MDG 7 on environmental sustainability. And some key targets, including those on nutrition and maternal mortality, have not yet been fully achieved.

It is also important that the great progress made in Vietnam over the past 10 years is sustained, and that the MDGs are achieved equitably across the country. There remain significant disparities in MDG achievement among localities, including on basic human development indicators such as health status and education attainment. For example, rates of maternal mortality are twice as high in rural as in urban areas, while stunting in children remains severe at an estimated 32 per cent nationally.

I also think it is time to revisit the MDG targets for Vietnam as many of them, such as those on poverty reduction, are arguably not sufficiently ambitious enough for a country with medium human development status.

What can Vietnam do to speed up progress towards achievement of all the MDGs by 2015, and ensure that the targets are reached in every corner of the country?

With only five years left, it is imperative that all stakeholders – the government, the UN, development partners, the private sector, and civil society – continue to work closely together to ensure success. If Vietnam is to achieve all the MDGs with equity, it is important that rising disparities are better targeted, that risks are better anticipated and that remaining gaps are addressed.

Addressing persistent forms of inequality, in particular gender inequality, are essential to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth. Sustained progress on MDG 3 on gender equality is critical to support attainment of all the MDGs, while it is clear that the MDG 6 targets will not be met unless access to HIV services is significantly scaled up, in particular for high-risk populations.

External support will at one point soon start to decrease, so government financial commitment to addressing HIV will need to increase substantially, with a renewed focus on moving towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. An effective national response can only be implemented with continued effort and investment, and strong multi-sectoral coordination involving all levels of government as well as local associations, organisations and other non-state actors.

In addition, despite steadily increasing forest cover, Vietnam is not yet on track to achieve MDG 7 on environmental sustainability by 2015, including the targets on water supply and sanitation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Focused efforts are required to improve water supply and to better protect Vietnam’s biodiversity. Greater involvement of local authorities and communities is important to ensure sustainable service delivery, while stronger partnerships are needed to provide low-cost sanitation options to rural households.

Also, as one of the countries most affected by climate change, there is a risk that its effects and impacts will slow down MDG progress in Vietnam. Actions needed include developing an overall climate change strategy with long term goals on adaptation as well as on greenhouse gas emissions; preparing now for a low-carbon economy; and improving energy efficiency.

There are other potential risks to the full achievement of the MDGs that need to be taken into account. External shocks, such as global economic turbulence or continued resurgent food or energy prices, could pose challenges.

Decreasing official development assistance and foreign direct investment flows, large deficits as well as continued inflationary risks all demand special attention from the government if MDG progress is to be maintained. These shocks have a disproportionate impact on the poor, with the result that people who have just escaped poverty can quickly find themselves being pushed right back into it.

Vietnam should also focus on ensuring that the MDG targets are achieved throughout the country. More than half of Vietnam’s ethnic minority groups still live below the poverty line, and other forms of poverty and vulnerability are becoming more prominent such as transitory poverty, urban poverty, and poverty among migrant populations.

The UN also believes that good governance, as recognised in the Millennium Declaration, is a necessary precondition to achievement of the MDGs. Vietnam still faces challenges in developing policies that are evidence-based, and it is imperative that Vietnam continues to modernise key institutions to ensure that they are capable not only of stronger oversight, accountability and transparency, but also cross-sectoral cooperation in response to many of multi-dimensional challenges that affect MDG performance.

What is the role of the UN in supporting Vietnam to achieve the MDGs?

The UN Country Team in Vietnam is fully committed to doing whatever we can over the next five years with the government and all partners to accelerate MDG achievement.

As Vietnam accedes to middle-income country status, requirements for UN support are changing. Middle-income countries typically require high-quality policy advice to deal with many of the challenges associated with medium human development, such as rising inequality.

Vietnam is no exception, it is also increasingly facing challenges, such as climate change, the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, corruption and gaps in social protection, which are also cross-sectoral and require government agencies to work “as one” to address.

Over the next five years the UN is committed to supporting Vietnam to achieve inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth, to ensure access to quality essential services and social protection and to enhance governance and participation by providing high-level policy advice, in particular on sensitive issues, through maximising the UN’s convening role in bringing together government, donor, civil society and UN partners and by helping facilitate coordination on cross-government, multi-sectoral issues and challenges.

Through its programming, the UN will pay particular attention to reducing inequalities and disparities and will focus on the most vulnerable, including those who are being left behind as Vietnam progresses towards MDG achievement.

In parallel, we are deepening our internal reforms through the “One UN Initiative” so that the UN can utilise the full capacities of all UN agencies in a much more coordinated manner to maximise our impact in Vietnam – particularly on cross-cutting issues that impact development and achievement of the MDGs such as human rights.

I am confident that with continued good national policies, focused international support and strong political commitment, this remarkable MDG story in Vietnam will continue until all the goals are achieved across the country. – VIR

Tags: Vietnam Millennium Development Goals