Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation to ensure the comprehensive growth of Vietnamese children, with a particular focus on child care and protection, online safety, and equal opportunities for vulnerable groups.
The commitment was highlighted at a meeting in Hanoi on June 24 between Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra and Silvia Danailov, UNICEF Representative in Vietnam.
Tra praised UNICEF's long-standing support for Vietnam, noting that 2025 marked the 50th anniversary of cooperation between the Vietnamese Government and UNICEF in promoting children's rights and well-being.
She said that cooperation during the 2017–2025 period had produced practical results in healthcare, nutrition, education and policy development related to child protection and care.
Reaffirming the Vietnamese Party and State's consistent policy of placing children at the centre of national development, Tra stressed that children are a top priority and a vital resource for the country's future.
According to the Deputy PM, Vietnam will focus on four key priorities in the coming time. The first is to continue reviewing and improving legal and policy frameworks to better protect and support children in the new development era.
The second is to strengthen coordination among authorities at central, provincial and commune levels, while mobilising the entire political system and social organisations to participate in child protection and development efforts.
The third priority is to allocate resources and develop mechanisms to improve children's safety both online and in daily life, with the goal of preventing violence against children.
The fourth is to promote the holistic growth of children from the prenatal stage to the age of 18, covering moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic development, with special attention given to ethnic minority children, those living in disadvantaged, border and island areas, and children with disabilities.
The Deputy PM called on UNICEF to continue sharing international experience and providing technical support to help Vietnam improve policies and strengthen child protection, particularly in cyberspace amid rapid technological advances.
For her part, Danailov congratulated Vietnam on its achievements in advancing children's rights. She noted that Vietnam was the first country in Asia and the second in the world to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and has continued to demonstrate its strong commitment through various initiatives and policies.
She revealed that UNICEF is working with Vietnamese authorities to develop a new five-year cooperation programme for 2027–2031, aligned with the country's evolving socio-economic conditions.
Danailov also proposed several recommendations, including harmonising Vietnam’s legal definition of a child as anyone under the age of 18 in line with the international convention, increasing investment in social work services and child protection systems, strengthening legal safeguards against emerging online threats, and expanding support for vulnerable groups.
Tra affirmed that UNICEF's recommendations fundamentally align with the directions and priorities that Vietnam is currently pursuing.
Both sides agreed to continue to cooperate closely and establish an equal and effective partnership for the ultimate goal of the comprehensive development of Vietnamese children./.
