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Photo: CPV |
(CPV) - Some 43 million people exited from poverty in the 1993-2008 period, says the new report “15 Year Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Viet Nam” being launched September 2015 by the Government and the United Nations.
According to the report, primary school enrollment reached 99 percent of eligible children; school attendance ratios for boys and girls have largely been equalized; and the maternal mortality ratio has been reduced by three quarters.
However, the report notes the unfinished MDG agenda, including lack of progress on HIV/AIDS, stunting, environmental sustainability and unequal progress at sub-national level and across population groups, most notably ethnic minorities.
The report reflects on the challenges and lessons along the 15 years’ implementation and monitoring of the MDGs. It highlighted two crucial themes, the policy orientation, commitment to equitable development; and the basic economic model which emphasized participation in the economy and progressive global integration.
Addressing the launch, Vice Minister of Planning and Investment highlighted two key lessons from the 15 years of implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. These are the localization and integration of the Millennium Development Goals into the national planning, programming and policy making process; and the development of a comprehensive growth model, which combines economic development with social development and environment protection, pro-poor development.
At the launch, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam Pratibha Mehta said that “very few other nations” have the same results and attributed these outcomes to “national actions informed by the Millennium Development Goals”.
The report will be presented by the President of Viet Nam at the Sustainable Development Summit at the UN Headquarters in New York later this week. The Summit is also expected to formally adopt the newly agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will replace the UN Millennium Development Goals at the beginning 2016.
The SDGs are a global call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that human beings enjoy peace and prosperity. These 17 Global Goals comprise of 169 targets and will guide policy and funding for the next 15 years. Building on the successes of the MDGs, the Goals include new areas such as economic inequality, innovation, climate change, sustainable consumption, peace and justice.
“The SDGs herald a renewal of the bold commitments made in the Millennium Declaration, but represent a new level of ambition – and crucially – an absolute commitment to leave no one behind,” said Dr Mehta.
The UN Resident Coordinator highlighted a key lesson from global experience that resonates in Viet Nam: the State alone cannot succeed in securing national development. “In the coming years, donor aid and concessional finance will inevitably decline and public expectations will grow,” she noted. “It is vital that the Government ensures that domestic resources are mobilized, through both public and private channels”./.