Nguyen Thi Huong, Director General of General Statistics Office speaks at the event.

The project “Supporting Vietnam in the production and utilization of quality population data and evidence for the evaluation, formulation and implementation of the country's socio-economic development policies, strategies, plans and monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals”, with a total budget of USD 1.9 million for five years from 2022 to 2026, was launched in a ceremony on April 5.

The official ceremony was attended by representatives from the Parliamentary Committee for Social Affairs, Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), General Statistics Office (GSO) and other ministries; embassies, international and local NGOs, the United Nations agencies, in Vietnam.

Project VNM8P01 aims to improve the capacity of statistical agencies to collect, analyse, and disseminate data on population and sexual and reproductive health issues; equip policymakers with more knowledge of population issues and skills in applying new data sources to develop population policies; and manage and monitor effectively the project implementation and ensure investment efficiency.

It also serves for new data sets exploration (new surveys, Big Data, and administrative data) and data communication and management (e.g. data dashboards and data warehouse) to support evidence-based population policy development, which can also be used for natural disaster and climate change responses; and strengthen agencies’ capacity for data utilization to support evidence-based policy consultation and development.

The project is co-implemented by GSO, Ministry of Planning and Investment; with the Department of Civil Status, Nationality and Authentication of the Ministry of Justice and the Social Department of the Parliamentary Committee for Social Affairs as participating partners

GSO General Director Nguyen Thi Huong said during the almost 45 years of Vietnam - UNFPA cooperation, the GSO’s capacity of building and managing data and statistics has improved considerably.

The new project also matches the roadmap for implementing Vietnam’s statistical development strategy for 2021 - 2023 with a vision to 2045, she added.

Vietnam is in the midst of rapid transformation for its socio-economic growth. The country has been implementing the Socio-economic Development Strategy (SEDS) 2021-2030, the Socio-economic Development Plan (SEDP) 2021-2025, and the National Plan of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Covid-19 has taken a heavy toll in Vietnam on socio-economic development, as well as on population shifts with regard to mortality, fertility, and migration. In this context, reliable and quality statistics is fundamental to formulate, implement, monitor and assess the country’s progress to achieving socio-economic and SDGs targets.

"UNFPA is now entering into the new tenth country programme and GSO is one of the most important partners for UNFPA Vietnam. As we always say, countries with quality data are the ones which achieve impressive socio-economic growth. Better Data, Better Lives," said Naomi Kitahara, UNFPA representative in Vietnam.

The project support Vietnam agencies in applying new technologies and communication platforms to the collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of quality population data and evidence for the formulation and implementation of socio-economic development policies, strategies, and programmes and monitoring the achievement of SDGs in Vietnam for the 2021-2030 period.

The event also released the UNFPA’s flagship report for Vietnam, the State of the World Population 2022, entitled "Seeing the Unseen: The case for action in the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy”, which was launched globally on March 30.

The report highlights the seriousness of unintended pregnancies and their harmful consequences in sustainable development. Globally, nearly a quarter of women are unable to make decisions about their own health care, and nearly 10% are unable to make decisions about contraception.

The UNFPA representative in Vietnam also calls on policymakers and community leaders to prioritize women’s and girls’ rights, to expand their choices including universal access to safe and effective contraceptives and to make sure that every young person– girl and boys – is fully aware of the risks of and means of avoiding unintended pregnancies.

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