Green One UN House in Hanoi was inaugurated in May 2015 during UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s visit to Vietnam. (Photo: dantri.com.vn)
In the 1977 - 1986 period when Vietnam had to address the serious consequences of the wars and resume production, the UN helped Vietnam tackle difficulties by assisting the country with over USD500 million, which was used in social development, especially in education, healthcare, care for and protection of mothers and children, population and domestic planning.
The cooperation with the UN made favorable conditions for increasing technology and promoting scientific advancement in Vietnam. Meanwhile, in the context of being under embargo, the cooperation with the UN helped Vietnam access assistance funds from many Western countries.
In the 1986-1996 period when Vietnam carried out the renewal process, the assistance from the UN accounted for nearly 60% of total assistance for Vietnam, apart from the assistance of socialist countries, as of late 1980s. Vietnam received non-refundable assistance fund worth over USD630 million from the UN. In early 1990, many countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and regional and international financial organizations resumed assistance for Vietnam, the assistance from the UN remained at 30% of the total technical assistance for Vietnam.
In this period, some UN organizations increased their assistance for Vietnam, while others started direct assistance for Vietnam.
In 1997-2000, the UN gave priority to poverty reduction and social policies, development reform and management, environment and natural resource management, aid coordination, State management and mobilization of resources in Vietnam.
In the 2001-2005 period, the UN set 3 priorities for Vietnam, including promoting reform, boosting poverty reduction and sustainable development. UN’s non-refundable aid played the role of a remarkable source assisting the Vietnamese Government in building up development policies. As suggested by the Vietnamese Government, the UN supported Vietnam’s measures on reform of economic policies and State-owned enterprises, public administration, legal system, public investment planning, the development of the banking system, the prevention of HIV/AIDS and dangerous diseases, and gender equality.
In the 2006-2011 period, UN assistance for Vietnam reached over USD400 million.
In the 2007-2011 period, in realization of its foreign policies of multilateralization and diversification of international relations, Vietnam strengthened relations with all UN organizations. The most outstanding activity of Vietnam in this period was to excellently complete its tasks as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Vietnam became an official member of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1998, was one of first countries signing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in 1996, and joined the preparations for large conferences.
Vietnam fully participated in policy making mechanisms of the UN, and in building up cooperative mechanisms of UN organizations. The 3-party cooperative model between Vietnam, FAO and Senegal in rice production was expanded and widely applied, being considering an exemplary model of south-south cooperation. Vietnam actively worked with UN organizations to carry out pilot “One UN” Initiative, which was appreciated by sponsors.
In the 2012-2016 period, Vietnam and UN worked together to support quality growth, social sponsorship and access to social services; and increase the quality of public administration under the “Delivering as One" (DaO) Initiative.
Since 2014, Vietnam officially become a member of the UN Human Rights Council term 2014-2016. In June 2014, for the first time, Vietnam sent peacekeeping forces to support the UN. At present, Vietnam is a member of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) term 2016-2018 and is running for the UN Security Council term 2020 - 2021.
The cooperation between Vietnam and the UN is a typical example of the development cooperation between UN members as well as the role of the UN in promoting international cooperation in addressing economic, social, cultural and humanitarian issues. Although the assistance the UN earmarked for Vietnam over the past 30 years is only over USD2 billion, it is of great importance as the UN focuses its efforts to supporting essential issues for Vietnam’s economic development, the building of institution and laws, as well as urgent social issues.
The cooperative program between Vietnam and the UN term 2017-2021, under the framework of DaO Initiative, has been built and submitted to the Vietnamese Government for adoption, which will support Vietnam’s socio-economic development term 2016-2020 and sustainable development goals./.