During the meeting with the UNICEF Representative in Vietnam Ms. Rana Flowers, Minister Le Minh Hoan shared: “UNICEF has long been giving me an impression of a UN organization that reaches out to developing countries in order to support and advise on social policies, especially policies for children.”

The Vietnam MARD Minister also highly appreciated UNICEF’s cooperation in the past time in rural development, child health and nutrition care as well as community capacity improvement for rural children.

“We sincerely need the support of international organizations in communication to raise the awareness of society and particularly children in the fields of nutrition, education, health, anti-violence and child abuse. This becomes more urgent than ever for rural children who are more disadvantaged than urban children when it comes to gaining access to a better living environment,” Minister Le Minh Hoan said. He also emphasized that the MARD has included this issue in the future new rural construction program.

In addition to funding and financial provision, Vietnam MARD requested UNICEF to provide technical advice on how to ensure equitable access to clean water for rural people especially schools in remote and difficult areas.

Minister Le Minh Hoan also shared that rural people in many areas currently lack approaches to standard toilets and sanitation services.

Responding to Minister Le Minh Hoan, Ms. Rana Flowers said that in recent years UNICEF and the MARD have developed a very close partnership based on trust and respect.

Regarding a number of priority areas in the coming time, UNICEF will continue to make efforts to end indiscriminate defecation and build sanitation works adaptive to climate change and personal hygiene for rural people.

To achieve this goal the UNICEF Representative in Vietnam agreed with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development that both sides should join hands to raise awareness and change people's behavior, particularly by communication campaigns using ethnic minority languages.

The next matter of concern is nutrition and food security.

Whether in the past or the near future, UNICEF has coordinated with many units in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam including the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control to implement projects regarding disaster risk mitigation, prevention and response.

In the next five years, one of UNICEF’s focuses is to create a clean living environment for children and reduce the impact of climate change on environmental pollution.

“No matter what activities we deploy, I hope children will be the center of every initiative, every program, every policy that we propose, thereby reflecting, integrating and thoroughly solving issues that bring harm to Vietnamese children,” said Ms. Rana Flowers.

Translated by Samuel Pham