UNDP announces Vietnam Human Development Report

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s new human development report themed ‘Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience’ was announced in Hanoi on September 11.

All the event

The event was attended by UN Resident Co-ordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Pratibha Mehta, and Chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Dr Nguyen Xuan Thang, as well as domestic and foreign scholars.

This year’s report showed that overall global trends in human development are positive. However, people at all ages are still facing threats and challenges to their wellbeing, including by natural or human-induced disasters and crises.

While every individual and society is vulnerable to risk, some suffer far less harm, and recover more quickly than others, when adversity strikes. The Report questions this reality and considers vulnerability and resilience through a lens of human development.

Based on analysis of available evidence, the report makes a number of important recommendations for addressing vulnerabilities and building resilience to future shocks. It calls for universal access to basic social services−especially health and education; stronger social protection, including unemployment insurance and pensions; and a commitment to full employment, recognising that the value of employment extends far beyond the income it generates.

Addressing the event, UNDP Resident Representative, Pratibha Mehta, talked about various risks which can cause harm to the Vietnamese people. She said that Vietnam’s human development policies, in the period of global economic integration, must go hand in hand with poverty reduction.

In Vietnam, the indices of human development levels continue to rise but at a decreasing rate in recent years. Last year, the country ranked 121th out of 187 countries putting Vietnam in the medium category of human development.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)