UNDP Administrator visits Vietnam

According to a press release issued by the UNDP in Vietnam on the same day, Clark will meet with senior government and UN officials on the evolving role of the UN in the country, acceleration of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, support to the Vietnam Green Growth Strategy, and challenges and aspirations of the country’s women and ethnic minorities. 

She will participate in two high-level UN meetings that will take stock of UN priorities in the region. 

In her role as Chair of the UN Development Group (UNDG), she will take part in the UNDG Asia-Pacific Meeting with Regional Directors of UN offices in Asia. 

They will discuss progress of UN coherence and the Delivering as One efforts in which UN agencies work in a fully integrated manner. The UNDG will also be discussing the post-2015 development agenda and how progress on the Millennium Development Goals can be accelerated across the region by 2015. 

Her trip will include participation at the annual UNDP Regional Cluster Meeting of UNDP Representatives across the region. They will focus on advancing UNDP’s strategic plan 2014-2017 in Asia and the Pacific. The aim is to find ways to make UNDP even more responsive to the needs of the countries in which it serves. It will look at emerging challenges and opportunities for the region. 

Meetings with leading government officials will cover discussions on the UN Vietnam One Plan and UN reform in Vietnam, and the country’s active engagement in shaping post-2015 development goals. UNDP is helping Vietnam design and implement national poverty reduction and social assistance programmes targeting the poorest members of society, especially ethnic minority communities. 

Clark will spend time with ethnic minority women to share views on development challenges in Vietnam. She will also meet with Civil Society Organizations involved with advancing development in the country. 

Vietnam has shown robust progress towards the Millennium Development Goals having achieved or exceeded most of the 2015 targets, in particular on poverty reduction and primary education. 

The country has halved the poverty rate in the nine years from 1993, and then halved it again between 2002 and 2008. By 2010, the country was ranked 6th globally in terms of progress, both in absolute and relative terms. 

However, pockets of poverty remain with half of ethnic minority people in 2012 still living below the poverty line and lagging behind MDG national averages. Challenges remain but the country is working toward improving progress on MDG 6 on HIV targets and MDG 7 on environmental sustainability.