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Millennium Development Goals

Rice fields, Sapa, Vietnam © Piet van der Poel

Vietnam has the remarkable record for a developing country of achieving the first of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – halving poverty over the period 1990-2015 - more than a decade in advance. Although the collection of accurate data is often constrained by local conditions, there is no question that key social indicators show spectacular improvement over recent years. The percentage of poor households has fallen from 58% in 1993 to less than 24% in 2004, whilst extreme poverty has dropped from 18.5% to below 7%. Over this same period child and infant mortality rates have halved and access to safe water has trebled. School enrolment at primary level is almost universal.

This success is widely attributed to the doi moi (open door) policy introduced by the Vietnamese government in 1986 and which signalled a move away from central planning and collectivist agriculture towards the beginnings of a market economy and farm ownership. However, the characteristic weaknesses of a more modern economy inevitably lurk beneath these aggregate statistics, in particular the widening divisions between the Western-oriented, infrastructure-rich south and the more

Studying in Vietnam © unicef

populated but impoverished northern regions. Gaps in wealth are also emerging between the urban and rural areas. These divisions manifest themselves especially in the quality of education which tends to be linked to the ability to pay suitable fees and in the provision of safe water and sanitation. Despite major government spending to support people living under the poverty line, illiteracy in remote areas or among ethnic minority groups remains a thorny issue and many international organizations focus their activities in this field.

The Vietnamese government accepts the implications for the MDGs and seeks to address them in the Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy and a new Socio-Economic Development Plan (2006-2010). Under new and tougher criteria for poverty assessment, the government recognises that over 25% of households continue to suffer hardship, and more demanding goals for reducing poverty have been set for the period to 2010. These are known as the Vietnam Development Goals. As well as working closely with the international donor community, the government has taken steps to raise local awareness of poverty issues, with the MDGs as a motivating objective. This participation will also address awareness of HIV/AIDS which has now spread to every province in Vietnam - the government’s MDG progress report acknowledges that the HIV/AIDS Goal will be “very hard to reach”.

Economy

Floating fishing village in Halong Bay, Vietnam © Piet van der Poel

The most dramatic measure of Vietnam’s economic success centres on the 20 million people that have been lifted out of poverty in less than 10 years. Growth rates have been consistently spectacular since the 1980’s, even in periods when neighbouring “tiger” economies have suffered setbacks. Such startling results press all the right buttons for the international donor community and aid pledges for Vietnam continue to soar, unaffected by possible concerns about governance and human rights. Conditionality instead focuses on overcoming inconsistency and inadequacy in the legal infrastructure for business and property, and on compliance with the rules of global trade.

Vietnam’s successful application to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) compelled a frenzy of new laws and regulations as the government demonstrated its commitment to meet the tough entry requirements. After many years of preparation, WTO membership was finally granted in January 2007, Vietnam having first overcome the hurdle of a US bilateral agreement in May 2006.

Nike factory, Vietnam. © Corporate Watch

WTO membership conditions are bound to create difficulties for stable employment as the country learns to live with the right of foreign companies to own local entities outright and as over 4,000 uneconomic state-owned enterprises face inevitable reconstruction. Despite maintaining relatively high GDP growth throughout 2006, there are already signs of these potential long-term instabilities in the Vietnam economy. Key exports such as fisheries and agricultural products, textiles and crude oil, which earned most of the hard currency to finance Vietnam’s mushrooming domestic development, have very limited added value and face continual threats from non-commercial barriers.
Politics

Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh © Piet van der Poel

Subsequent to the collapse of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European bloc, Vietnam provides one of the last surviving examples of the socialist system, retaining a national development model guided by a sole political party – the Vietnam Communist Party, headed by the Secretary-General Nong Duc Manh who was re-elected for a further term at the National Party Congress in April 2006. The National Assembly is the supreme representative organization of the Vietnamese people, comprising members who are elected by popular vote every five years. Its authority to enact laws and to appoint government ministers and the judiciary is nevertheless strongly influenced by the political bureau of the Communist Party. In recent years however policy-making has become more open, with increasing assertiveness shown by the National Assembly and some decentralisation of budget decision-making. Furthermore, 27% of deputies in the National Assembly are women, a proportion thought to be the highest amongst comparable legislative bodies in Asia.

A serious weakness of the current political structure is the endemic corruption in many state-run bodies which has undermined the prestige of both the supreme organizations (Communist Party and National Assembly). Estimates suggest that as much as 20% of public funds are wasted in fraudulent activity. The government is embarrassed by the problem and has introduced new laws with severe punishment for offenders, but their effectiveness is already in doubt judging by recent surveys of attitudes of ministry officials. It is hoped, however, that a new younger generation of Politburo members will bring change to the old ways. This trend was made explicit in June 2006 with the appointment of Nguyen Tan Dung as Prime Minister and Nguyen Minh Triet as President, both men being over 10 years younger than their predecessors.

The concept of civil society is not well understood in Vietnam. There is certainly an established culture of assisting poor and disadvantaged people but this is dominated by vast multi-million membership organizations such as the Women’s Union and Farmers’ Association which have their origins in the Party structure. An interesting survey led by Civicus concluded that, whilst a non-governmental sector is emerging in Vietnam, it lacks the organizational and legal infrastructure to enable impact on public policy or accountability of business and government.
Information and Media

ICT for Vietnamese children © United Nations Development Programme

There is no independent media in Vietnam; all newspapers are effectively owned by the government. But journalists are striving to improve the basic skills of their profession so as to maximise what scope there is for effective communication.

The advent of the internet poses a dilemma for the authorities. Anxious to demonstrate commitment to new technologies, the government has committed to extensive development of the telecommunications infrastructure including the provision of information centers in poor rural communities. But restrictions have been adopted for activity which, according to Vietnam authority, violates the current law.
Human Rights

In common with several countries in Southeast Asia, the role of individual rights in Vietnam’s political culture has not evolved in exact parallel with traditions in Europe and North America. The centralized and over-arching Vietnamese state apparatus that extends its influence into civil society has frequently drawn criticism on the status of ethnic minority rights, women’s rights, capital punishment, and religious and political freedoms. In spite of this, recent initiatives by the national government, such as the historic visit of the Prime Minister to the Vatican in January 2007, indicate that positive developments are taking place, though their outcome and impact on the affected groups may be determined less by actions of central government than by the vestiges of feudal ideology and other local cultural influence.
Health

Traditional medicine at market, Vietnam © Piet van der Poel

Despite remarkable achievement in a dramatic fall in cases of malaria since 1995 and in controlling the risk of epidemics in polio and tuberculosis, healthcare at local level - especially in remote areas - is still very poor in terms of quantity and quality. Health insurance for the poor was adopted several years ago but access to healthcare for those groups has remained modest. UNDP is recommending that the government increases the relatively small share of national income devoted to health.

To fulfil its commitment to child protection, the government introduced a new regulation in January 2005 under which children up to six years old should receive primary healthcare, medical check-ups and treatment free of charge. However, there are signs that the necessary funding has not yet materialized at the level of individual health centres and a more concerted effort will be needed to address child health problems and malnutrition, particularly in the impoverished remote communities and amongst children in urban areas.

A problem which insistently causes concern for Vietnam's leaders is HIV/AIDS. Prevalence is officially relatively low at 0.4% but has been increasing sharply in recent years. Although the government has made it a priority to address the issue at both national and community levels, there remains no clear policy for treatment so that access to antiretroviral drugs remains far beyond the means of most sufferers. Many victims’ families are driven into poverty by the costs of healthcare and community support is often limited to self help groups.
War and Peace

For middle-aged and older generations in the West, Vietnam is synonymous with the terrible war which ended exactly 30 years ago, having caused the deaths of more than 1.5 million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans. The Clinton administration restored trade and diplomatic relations in 2000 and many parallels have been drawn with more recent US military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the Vietnamese themselves, the legacy of war remains distressingly more tangible than history books. Unexploded ordnance and the continuing revelations of the use and impact of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange cause human suffering for generations unborn at the time of the war. Any prospect of a clean-up operation is beyond the means of the Vietnamese government and probably beyond the realms of practical science.

Agent Orange was a herbicide sprayed by the Americans during the Vietnam war with the intention of destroying the jungle cover of the Vietnamese army. It is now known that the chemical contained dioxin fatal to humans and that its presence in the environment is not dispersed. US veterans waited a generation for their claims to be fully recognised by their government and for legal action against the manufacturers to be concluded. Now Vietnamese claimants are embarking on a similar process in the US courts. After much delay, the case was dismissed in the Federal court in early 2005, to the dismay of humanitarian organisations in both countries. An appeal is expected to be heard in 2007.
Environment

Mount Fansipan, Vietnam © Piet van der Poel

Rapid industrialization and low environmental standards are major threats to the environment in Vietnam. With the support of UN and international agencies, projects to promote sustainable development and socially responsible practices are being introduced. However, air pollution is extremely serious in most urban areas and the MDG for environment in Vietnam presents a tough task, despite encouraging progress in restoring forest coverage from 27% in 1990 to 37% in 2004. An exceptionally severe year for typhoons in 2006 has alerted Vietnam to the potential impact of climate change, already viewed as a risk to the low-lying Mekong Delta region.



Hanh Vu is Information Editor for American Technologies Inc (Hanoi), a company which creates direct links between U.S. businesses and new markets in Vietnam, particularly through its website. Hanh Vu has been an active online volunteer for UNV since 2002, with especial interest in child labour and corruption.

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