According to the author, Vietnam has achieved impressive achievements on hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, with the poverty rate falling to 16 percent in 2006 from 58 percent in 1993. The implementation of MDGs has had great influence on ethnic minority groups.

However, he warns that climate change will have a negative impact on about 10 percent of the country’s population and 10 percent of its GDP. There is much work for the country to do to improve environmental sanitation, its business rankings and increase assistance for ethnic minority groups.

The Global Monitoring Report: MDGs and the Environment – Agenda for Inclusive and Sustainable Development stresses the link between the environment and development, and calls for urgent action on climate change. The report warns that developing countries will suffer the most from climate change and the degradation of natural resources. To build on hard-won gains, they need support to address the links between growth, development and environmental sustainability.

“I am particularly concerned about the risks of failing to meet the goal of reducing hunger and malnutrition, the ‘forgotten MDG’”, said Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group. “As the report shows, reducing malnutrition has a multiplier effect, contributing to success in other MDGs including maternal health, infant mortality and education.”

The report says progress towards MDGs differs dramatically across countries, regions and income groups. Sub-Saharan Africa lags on all counts, including the goal for poverty reduction, though many countries in the region are now experiencing improved growth performance. At the country level, most countries are off track to meet most MDGs, with those in fragile situations falling behind most seriously.

According to the report, most MDGs remain achievable for most countries thanks to stronger efforts by the countries themselves and their development partners. The report lays out an integrated six-point agenda, with strong and inclusive growth at the top. It calls for more effective aid, a successful outcome of the Doha round of trade talks, more emphasis on strengthening programmes on health, education and nutrition, and financing and technology transfer s to support climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Coping with challenges

Ho Quang Minh, an official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, says Vietnam is coping with three global challenges: climate change, commodity price rises and energy shortages. It is one of the countries which will be the most affected by rising sea levels as a result of climate change.  

Mr Minh says the Vietnamese Government has made first steps towards minimising the impact of global warming. For the first time it has integrated socio-economic development into environmental protection in its five-year development plan.

According to Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Cong Thanh, his ministry is drafting a national target programme on climate change, focusing on mitigation and adaptation to global warming. The programme will be completed in August and then submitted to the National Assembly in October for consideration.

Another challenge is that donors are to cut official development assistance (ODA) for developing countries, including Vietnam. At the mid-year Consultative Group Meeting for Vietnam to be held in June, the Government and donors will look at the effectiveness of ODA use in the country.