Vietnam, UNICEF bolster cooperation in child care and protection
VOV.VN - Vice State President Vo Thi Anh Xuan held a meeting with Catherine Mary Russell, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), on the occasion of her attendance at the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on March 12 (local time) in New York.
At the meeting, VP Xuan hailed UNICEF's co-operation and support for the nation over the past 50 years in developing and implementing guidelines and policies on childcare, education, and protection.
VP Xuan briefed the UNICEF official on Vietnamese achievements in socio- economic development, including ensuring child rights through a series of synchronous policies and measures, including the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVA).
She also pointed out the upcoming challenges in striving to achieve the goals of national development, as well as comprehensive development, thereby enabling children to become owners of the country and global citizens.
VP Xuan asked UNICEF to increase technical support and mobilise resources to help the country to fine-tune its legal system and effectively carry out the National Action Program for Children for the 2021 to 2030 period, the UNICEF Viet Nam Country Programme 2022 to 2026, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is along with projects on clean water and sanitation, medicine, health care, education, especially Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), combating violence against children.
She suggested helping the nation to build a set of indicators to evaluate child protection and care that are close to international standards, whilst also paying attention to supporting 6.7% of children under 16 years old who are living in difficult circumstances and need frequent subsidies, especially those in remote and ethnic minority areas.
In response, Russell highly appreciated and thanked the Vietnamese side for actively implementing a broad array of collaboration activities in recent times with positive results for Vietnamese children, including those with specially difficult circumstances, as well as its strong international commitments on child rights.
She affirmed that UNICEF will fully co-operate and support the country in actively implementing the UNICEF Viet Nam Country Programme 2022 to 2026, and better ensuring child rights, especially in education, health, nutrition, access to clean water, and sanitation.
Russell applauded Vietnamese initiative to propose to the UN observe June 11 every year as "Play Day", saying that this will contribute to promoting the comprehensive development of children around the world, even in conflict areas.
The two sides agreed to actively step up the co-operative partnership between Vietnam and UNICEF with a view to supporting the nation in recording more achievements in the cause of child care and protection, as well as to contributing to global efforts in this field, consistent with the nation’s increasingly rising position.
