[Vietnam] Country successful in reducing poverty says UN official

From The Thanh Nien Daily

Vietnam is a role model for many developing countries with its “strong ownership, clear vision and a commitment to reducing poverty,” UN Resident Coordinator Jordan D. Ryan has said.

Ryan, who is also United Nations Development Program Resident Representative, recently had an an interview with Vietnam New Agency on Vietnam's efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He expressed his belief that good implementation of the MDGs can help Vietnam raise the standards of living for its entire population.

Excerpts from the interview:

What is the importance of the Millennium Development Goals for Vietnam?

In September 2000, world leaders came together to sign the Millennium Declaration, which promised a better life for the people of the world. A life that will be more free, a life that will be more equal, a life in which people respect each other and have tolerance for different views, a life with respect for nature.

It's the vision of how the world should be. Part of the vision is that countries need to have some explicit time-bound goals: reducing poverty, promoting equality, making sure that young people are educated, that all people are healthy, that AIDS does not spread, and that the environment is safe for children to live in.

So the MDGs became the central element of the Millennium Declaration. These are worldwide standards, or benchmarks. Each country is to be measured against the MDGs: Have you reduced poverty? Are you promoting equality? Are you reducing diseases? They are international standards that each country is marked against.

The United Nations in Vietnam believes that in a country like Vietnam, where economic growth is high, one needs to see both sides of the coin. Yes, Vietnam needs economic growth, but at the same time, it needs to find ways to have that growth for all -- for the poorest of Vietnam. The MDGs tell you that yes, you can grow your economy and at the same time bring development for the poor, so that living standards can be raised for everyone.

What is your assessment of the speed of the implementation of the MDGs in Vietnam? What achievements are you most impressed with?

Goal number 1, and in a sense, all the goals lead to the idea that we need to reduce poverty. All of the goals are part of the poverty reduction agenda. Probably with the exception of one or two other countries, Vietnam has been the most successful country in the world in making sure that poverty continues to be reduced. Over the past 20 years, since the introduction of “Doi Moi,” (reform) and especially the last 10 years, Vietnam has done very well at reducing poverty. It used to be 70% of the population who lived on less than a dollar a day. Now, it is well under 24-25 %. The speed of poverty reduction has been fast in Vietnam. But now, we are going to get to the tough areas, those remaining “pockets of poverty” where ethnic minorities live in the most disadvantaged areas in Vietnam. While poverty continues to be reduced, we have to find ways to ensure that this poverty reduction is sustainable. Those are the big questions for the Government for the next five years.

What has the United Nations’ support been to Vietnam so far, and what will it be in the future?

We have always worked very closely with the Vietnamese Government on the poverty reduction agenda. In the early 1990s, we were among the first development agencies to focus on poverty reduction. We had a number of poverty projects in the north, center and south of the country. We helped Vietnam’s Government form a poverty reduction partnership with a number of other bilateral and multilateral donors. And most recently, we are very actively working with the Government to look at the poverty strategy, especially at its nationally targeted programs, the hunger eradication and poverty programs, and evaluating their effectiveness. In addition, the UN, including UNDP, has worked very hard on a number of MDGs reports. The Vietnamese Government is preparing its own report for the upcoming 2005 World Summit. We have produced an MDGs map of Vietnam, which allows us to see how the MDGs have been achieved and where more attention is needed.

So we are helping the Vietnamese Government to start visualizing where work needs to be done, not only monitoring and analysis but also progresses. Working closely with the General Statistics Office (GSO) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), we have done a lot of analysis on the problem, trying to provide Vietnamese and internationals with the opportunity to work together to answer questions like, why poverty is growing in some areas; what the effective ways are to reduce poverty; and, how to make sure that economic development is beneficial to the poor. In addition to monitoring and analysis, the UN and UNDP have been supporting work with the media, trying to get the media to understand the MDGs. Last year, we organized a music campaign about the MDGs so that young people who like listening to music could see the link between artistic expression and the fight against poverty. Now, we are working on a new movie focusing on a young woman who travels from the north to the south of Vietnam meeting firsthand with the people to tell them about the MDGs. Vietnam is the first country in the world that has done a movie like this.

The UN has been involved in different MDGs campaigns, which is important because society needs to be mobilized together to fight poverty. Finally, we have been involved in specific projects that put the MDGs into action. These projects work at national and community levels with MDGs as the objectives and bring in more people to fight poverty.

From now to 2015, what should Vietnam do to reach the MDGs?

Poverty reduction should stay at the center of Vietnam’s efforts to reach the MDGs. Vietnam has done a good job of reducing poverty but what would happen if a natural disaster occurred? Or if bird flu, or another epidemic broke out? There are a lot of people who are just above the poverty line and a shock like that will send them below the line. Vietnam must find a way of lifting all those people up so that no shock will bring them down poverty again. This is especially true in ethnic minority areas and in some of the most remote areas. More attention needs to be paid to ensure that poverty rates stay low and that economic growth is inclusive.

As you can see in the paper today, the Vietnamese Government is committed to spend more money on the social side. That’s exactly what needs to be done. Quality education will prepare the young people of Vietnam for a bright future. It’s a good investment and shouldn’t be made on the backs of the poor. The poor shouldn’t pay for everything in education. Society needs to invest in education.

Likewise in health, Vietnam actually doesn’t invest much of its public resources in health. The Vietnamese people invest a lot of their private resources in health and that needs to be changed by increasing public investment in health care. Of course, Vietnam has challenges like HIV and it needs to find an effective way of bringing everyone into the fight. It will not just be the Ministry of Public Health, but also the Ministry of Culture and Information, Ministry of Trade, the Vietnam Tourism Administration, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance… We think it would be useful to have a strong national organization to fight HIV, headed by the Prime Minister, that calls on all people to be part of the fight against HIV. Right now, HIV is, and will be exploding in the country, unless we have a true fight that involves everyone.

Another aspect where Vietnam has a real challenge is environment. Vietnam has a rich environment that needs to be developed but at the same time it should be a balanced development that protects the environment, and ensures that all people have access to clean water and sanitation.

The final point is a sensitive issue. Vietnam has done very well on the issue of gender. There are more women in the National Assembly but it is true that there is still gender inequality. Women are paid less than men and work longer than men. Sometimes there are cultural issues that prevent women from participating equally. There are a lot of men in the top leadership. Are women really playing a leadership role, especially in the provincial and commune levels?

We think Vietnam is a role model for many developing countries: strong ownership, clear vision and a commitment to reducing poverty, all of which show that the world can be a better place.