UNFPA commits to helping Vietnam fulfill the promise of “Leaving no one behind”(Photo: hoilhpn.org.vn)Kitahara made the affirmation during an interview granted tothe Vietnam News Agency (VNA) after the Executive Board of the UNFPA approvedthe 10th Country Programme for Vietnam in the amount of 26.5 million USD toachieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030.
The programme targets those at risk of being left behind,including women and girls, adolescents and youth, older persons, ethnicminorities, migrant workers, people with disabilities, and survivors ofgender-based violence.
The following is the full text of the interview.
Reporter: As theExecutive Board of UNFPA has approved the 10th Country Programme for Vietnam2022 – 2026, would you elaborate the new key contents of this CP?
Ms Naomi Kitahara: The 10th UNFPA Country Programme for Vietnam for the periodfrom 2022 to 2026 has been approved by the Executive Board of UNFPA in earlyFebruary with a total budget of 26.5 million USD. Following the success of theprevious Country Programme, in the coming five years, our interventions andinitiatives will aim at achieving the three Transformative Results of theUNFPA’s corporate Strategic Plan, that is, (1) zero preventable maternal death,(2) zero unmet need for family planning, and (3) zero gender-based violence andother harmful practices against women and girls.
We commit to supporting Vietnam to fulfil the promise of“Leaving no one behind” and our key target groups include women and girls,adolescents and youth, older persons, ethnic minorities, migrant workers,people with disabilities, and survivors of gender-based violence. Rights-based,gender-sensitive, and people-centred approaches will be used, and interventionsin relation to humanitarian preparedness and response in light of climatechange will be mainstreamed across all programmatic intervention areas. Asprioritised by the Vietnamese Government, much attention will be placed todigital transformation and data revolution to reach those furthest behind.
More specifically, UNFPA support will be prioritised on: (1)Provision of quality sexual and reproductive health services to vulnerablepopulations, especially ethnic minorities and migrant workers; (2) Addressingpopulation aging and promoting social protection of the elderly; (3) Promotingyouth development and participation; (4) Generating and analysing populationdata for policy and decision making and SDGs monitoring; and (5) Prevention andeffective response to gender-based violence, gender-biased sex selection andchild marriage.
UNFPA Representative in Vietnam Naomi Kitahara (Photo: UNFPA)Ms Naomi Kitahara: The UNFPA 9th Country Programme focused on three outcomeareas, namely (1) adolescents and youth development as the country has thelargest number of young people in history; (2) gender equality and women’sempowerment; and (3) population dynamics, which is directly linked to upstreamand policy work. The total financial resources for CP9 was 21 million USD.
I can highlight three areas as achievements of the 9th UNFPACountry Programme. The first one is on innovation.
For the first time, we piloted tele-health for pregnantwomen, through the new mobile app “MCH247,” which particularly helps pregnantwomen in ethnic minority, remote and mountainous locations to receive qualitysexual and reproductive health information.
Also, to deal with rapid population aging, Vietnam’s veryfirst mobile app “S-Health” was also launched, particularly to help the elderlypopulation to receive health information including COVID-19.
For young people, comprehensive sexuality education is nowprovided for the first time online, and also, online and text-based servicesare now available for the first time to survivors of gender-based violence. TheOne Stop Service Centre was established for the first time in Vietnam too toprovide integrated services to victims of violence. The 2019 Population andHousing Census as well as the 2019 National Study on Violence against Womenwere exceptionally successful in the application of the newest ICT technologyto speed up data collection and analysis and minimise human errors.
Secondly, looking at Vietnam’s vulnerability to climatechange, UNFPA’s humanitarian support has been provided in Vietnam for the firsttime. Recognising the fact that pregnancy does not stop in emergencies, UNFPAquickly provided mobile outreach services to protect the lives of pregnantwomen in 2020 floods.
Also, UNFPA made sure that vulnerable population groups werewell aware of risks of gender-based violence through digital technologies andthrough the delivery of dignity kits which were done for the very first time inVietnam.
Lastly, through the 9th Country Programme, UNFPA expanded itspartnerships and resource mobilisation base. We strengthened partnerships withour traditional development partners such as Australia, Japan, Norway, and theRepublic of Korea (RoK), as well as with non-traditional partners includingprivate sector entities such as Vital Strategies, Bloomberg, and MSD. By theend of the 9th Country Programme, UNFPA’s annual budget increased by threetimes.
Reporter: What will beUNFPA Vietnam’s plans to materialise the targets and commitments to supportunder this 10th CP?
Ms Naomi Kitahara: The new UNFPA Country Programme includes projects thatwill bring about changes in five social development areas.
(1) The first one is to create an enabling environment tosupport comprehensive development and participation for the Vietnameseadolescents and youth, including in disaster management policies andprogrammes. We will focus on expanding mechanisms/platforms for dialoguebetween policy/decision makers and young people, particularly vulnerable youthsincluding ethnic minorities, migrant workers, and young persons withdisabilities, and capacitating young people for their effective participationin dialogue sessions at both national and sub-national levels. UNFPA willpartner with youth-led organisations, especially those led by vulnerable youth,in the implementation and management of the Youth Law as well as its nationaland provincial implementation plans and for humanitarian action. We will alsopromote and advocate for young people to be promoted to decision-makingpositions.
(2) Under the theme of population aging and socialprotection, UNFPA will support Vietnam to enhance a coherent and inclusivesocial protection system by promoting the application of life-cycle andgender-transformative approach for ageing and meeting the individual needs ofthe most vulnerable groups. We will assist the Government in further developinglegal and policy frameworks for the protection of the rights of individualsinto old age and their empowerment and social inclusion in both development andhumanitarian settings, particularly with regard to access to high qualityhealth care, prevention and response to domestic violence, employmentopportunities and financial security.
(3) For sexual and reproductive health and rights, we willprovide information and services among the vulnerable groups, including in thehumanitarian-development settings. UNFPA will focus on generating data forpolicies; developing guidelines and tools which address the special needs ofvulnerable populations; elaborating innovative financing mechanisms includingprivate sector financing and sub-national public financing, particularly toaddress emerging SRHR issues such as cervical cancer screening and HPV; andfurther application of digital technologies such as “tele-health” to coverhard-to-reach remote and ethnic minority locations. Strengthened mechanisms forhumanitarian preparedness and response to ensure the protection of vulnerablepopulations, and multisectoral approach to SRHR for young people and anation-wide roll-out of comprehensive sexuality education and life-skilleducation are also parts of our targets.
(4) UNFPA will enhance evidence-based and rights-based policyand programme making, budgeting and monitoring based on data production,analysis and use. Our interventions will promote the application of datatechnologies and communication platforms to speed up the data generationprocess and minimise human errors. We will improve capacity of data producersto collect, analyse and disseminate disaggregated data on population and sexualand reproductive health issues to fully achieve the demographic dividendpotentials. We will also equip policy makers with knowledge and skills onapplication of new data sources. Our support will explore new data set (e.g.new surveys, Big Data and sectoral and inter-sectoral administrative data) anddata communication and management (e.g. data dashboards and data warehouse) tosupport evidence-based population policy development, which can also be usedfor disaster management and climate action.
(5) To support the Government’s efforts to reducegender-based violence and harmful practices that accept violence and perpetuategender inequality especially those of young people, UNFPA’s priorities includeevidence-based advocacy and technical advice for the revision of the Law onDomestic Violence Prevention and Control and other related laws and policies inline with international best practices where appropriate; and evidence-basedcommunity mobilisation initiatives in the context of digital transformation,targeting particularly young people and adolescents. We will promote theparticipation of men and boys to address toxic masculinity and develop healthyrelationships. In addition, we will strengthen the multisectoral response andcoordinationto address gender-based violence and other harmful practices atnational and sub-national levels by expanding and institutionalising the modelOne Stop Service Centre by state agencies and front-line social organisations./.
VNA
