Compare to 20 years ago, Vietnamese kids nowadays had a better childhood thanks to the significant efforts of the country in taking care of and protecting children. Especially, the percentage of the child labor fell to 67%, according to the third annual Global Childhood Report 2019, released on July 30th.

Dragana Strinic, Country Director of Save the Children in Vietnam speaks at the event

As defined by Save the Children, “childhood” is not only “the time between birth and adulthood”, but also “the state and condition of a child’s life, ensuring children can develop to their full potential. According to Save the Children, key ‘guarantees’ of childhood are: life, education and protection from harm, healthy growth and development with the love and encouragement of a child’s family.

The Global Childhood Report has been annually launched since 2017 by Save the Children. In this report, countries was ranked, basing on the End of Childhood Index with a scale of 1 to 1000. The Index measured the experience of ‘childhood enders’ or life – changing events such as child marriage, early pregnancy, exclusion from education, sickness, malnutrition and deaths…

According to Global Childhood Report, in 2019, the childhood of children from 173/176 ranked countries witnesses more profound change compare to the year 2000.

More specifically, a comparison of the End of Childhood Index scores between 2000 and 2019 finds that Vietnam’s score is up 67 points, from 764 to 831, which is a significant accomplishment. This year Vietnam is rank 95th out of 176 countries, one rank higher than last year.

Score and ranking of 9 Southeast Asian countries in The Global Childhood Report 2019

Vietnam’s efforts in improving childhood quality was highly appreciated by Save the Children, especially the decrease in child labor and reduction in stunting. Typically, the percentage of child labor was cut to 67% in this period. In 2000, the proportion of child labor aged 5 – 14 was 28%, and in 2019, the figure sharply dropped to 9.6% in 2019. Moreover, the percentage of poor nutrition and illness falls from 36.5 % to 24%.

Talking about the impressive progress made by Vietnam in the last 20 years, Dragana Strinic, Country Director of Save the Children in Vietnam affirmed: “Save the Children is working with the Government to reduce that even further, particularly for ethnic minority children living in remote and hard to reach areas.”

She also highly appreciated Vietnam’s efforts in child care and protection “Vietnam is one of the very first countries to ratify the United Nations Convention in the Rights of the Child and the ILO Convention on Child Labor. Vietnam has made great progress on poverty reduction which reduces the need for families to send children to work…”

Percentage of under - 5 mortality, child marriage, malnutrition, teen pregnancy, children out of school and child labor, according to The Global Childhood Report 2019

Talking about the impressive progress made by Vietnam in the last 20 years, Dragana Strinic, Country Director of Save the Children in Vietnam affirmed: “Save the Children is working with the Government to reduce that even further, particularly for ethnic minority children living in remote and hard to reach areas.”

She also highly appreciated Vietnam’s efforts in child care and protection “Vietnam is one of the very first countries to ratify the United Nations Convention in the Rights of the Child and the ILO Convention on Child Labor. Vietnam has made great progress on poverty reduction which reduces the need for families to send children to work…”

Besides, Vietnam has made great progress on poverty reduction, which reduces the need for families to send children to work, as well as heavy investment in education to ensure high enrollment rates with particular emphasis on ethnic minority children and children in remote mountainous areas. Vietnam has also effectively leveraged its economic growth and development assistance to create effective programs benefiting children.

On the occasion of releasing the Global Childhood Report, Save the Children called on policymakers to recommit to ensure every last child enjoys an intact childhood. It also encourages Vietnam to maintain its commitment to take targeted action to ensure reaching children who live in the most difficult circumstances, and improve the lives of children by increasing investments in areas that affect them.

In addition, they also need to guarantee all children are equally treated via eliminating policies, rules and behaviors of discrimination, for instance hindering girls from accessing to health care system or refusing to provide education for children because of gender or nationality discrimination.

Governments need to ensure every children, especially, children who live in the most difficult situations to be included in the research as well as to use this data to assess the progress of striving toward the Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs)

Dragana Strinic said “To continue the progress and ensure that we adhere to Leave No One Behind, Save the Children encourages Vietnam to maintain its commitment to improve the lives of children by increasing investments in areas that affect them and taking targeted action to ensure reaching children who live in the most difficult circumstances”.

In the 2019 ranking, the most dramatic progress was made by some of the world’s poorest countries such as Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Niger.

However, more children are living in conflict zones. In 2000, the percentage of children leaving in the conflict area rises by 80%.

For that reason, Save the Children calls on leaders of all countries, sponsors and other stakeholders to recommit to achieving the SDG’s and ensure that every last child enjoys an intact childhood.

( Van Nguyen )