Over the past years, UNICEF mobilised international humanity organsations and benefactors to support Vietnam with a total amount of 500 million dollars for ensuring the rights of all children. It helped Vietnam obtain great achievements, such as eliminating polio in 2000, eliminating measles and tetanus of newborn children in 2005; having a rate of vaccination that reached 99%; reducing the rate of child malnutrition to 1/3 and the rate of death of under-five children to 1/3 since 1960.

UNICEF also coordinated with the Vietnamese Government to give out progress policies in caring for the health of mothers and children, such as the Labour Law (Revised) in 2012 that extends maternity leave up to six months and the Law on Advertisement that encourages mothers to breastfeed their children.
 

 

During the five year period, from 2012 to 2016, UNICEF has and will continue to carry out many programmes in Vietnam to exercise children’s rights. In 2013, UNICEF launched a campaign entitled “Believe in Zero” in Vietnam with the aim of reducing child fatalities.  According to UNICEF, at present there are more than 100 children who die each day of preventable causes, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, drowning and traffic accidents.

Since 2010 when Vietnam became a middle-income nation with impressive economic achievements, the assistance from international organizations has considerably decreased. Therefore, to implement the “Believe in Zero” campaign most effectively, UNICEF in Vietnam called on all domestic resources, together with great efforts of UNICEF, to help reduce the death rate of children to zero.

In Vietnam, UNICEF has also helped vulnerable groups of children, including ethnic children in mountain areas and needy children in urban areas or children with disabilities. From 2012 to 2016, UNICEF has and will implement many special programmes in eight provinces of Lao Cai, Dien Bien, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Ninh Thuan, An Giang, Dong Thap and Ho Chi Minh City.

It may be said that all cooperation programmes of UNICEF in Vietnam have operated effectively and brought a better life to Vietnamese children.

Vietnam and UNICEF has a history of long-term cooperation and mutual understanding. After Vietnam was totally liberated in 1975, UNICEF implemented a cooperation programme nationwide to meet the basic demands of Vietnamese children. In 1990, Vietnam was the first country in Asia and the second one in the world to ratify the International Convention on Children. The rapid socio-economic development as well as achievements in implementing the UN Millennium Goals has had positive impacts on children and teenagers in Vietnam.