More efforts needed to realise MDGs
UN Resident Coordinator Pratibha Mehta has urged Vietnam to make greater efforts to fulfill the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as there are only 1,000 days to go before the MDGs expire.
Pratibha Mehta said after ten years of implementing the MDGs (2000-2010), Vietnam is one of several countries that has made significant progress towards achieving the goals.
The result was recognised internationally at the 2010 Global Summit on the MDGs, where Vietnam ranked sixth in terms of both absolute and relative progress, she added.
She praised Vietnam’s important achievements in reducing the level of poverty from 58.1 percent in 1993 to 14.5 percent in 2008. She also commented on the country’s performance in the areas of gender equality, education and children’s health.
Despite the impressive national progress, efforts are still needed to put these goals in place in every village, city and province, she said.
Thirteen years ago, President Tran Duc Luong joined 188 world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York to sign the UN Millennium Declaration.
The leaders committed to cutting the rate of poverty in half, fighting against climate change and diseases, and addressing issues regarding water shortages, environmental sanitation and education, as well as creating more opportunities for girls and wom