International Day for the Eradication of Poverty  this year (October 17^th 2015) was celebrated on an important and meaningful occasion when the international community has officially adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. In a new development framework to replace the Millennium Development Goals, all the countries decided to terminate the poverty of all sizes and in all forms.

Building a sustainable future requires strengthening efforts to eliminate extreme poverty and discrimination, as well as to ensure that everyone can fully enjoy their fundamental rights. The full participation of the poor, especially in decisions that affect their lives and their communities. It should be the center of policies and strategies to build a sustainable future. In this way, we can ensure that our world and society can meet the needs and aspirations of all people - not just people who have a few perks – but for current and future generations.

In the given message at anniversary, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: This year's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is celebrated at the time when all the world commits to build a new way and expectations, the path of a future for the dignity of all people under the leadership of the sustainable development program for the period to 2030. The theme of this year “Building a Sustainable Future: Unite to end poverty and discrimination” is a testament to the need for more attention to the members being marginalized and vulnerable of the human.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed: To support the objectives of the Millennium Development, the world has made tremendous progress in reducing the extremely incredible poverty. Over the past 25 years, over a billion people have overcome the poverty threshold. However, these advances do not bring benefits to everyone. More than 800 million people continue to live in extreme poverty, many others even at risk. The phenomenon of climate change, violent conflicts and natural disasters threaten to dissipate much of our progress.

Therefore, through the program to 2030, world leaders came up with a term commitment to end poverty in all its forms and everywhere in the world. We can only respond to this call if we fight against discrimination in all its forms. In order to make this not be ignored, we should terminate the discrimination and obstacles that half of humanity, women and children, are facing. This means the need to fight publicly against discrimination in ethnic minorities, migrants and others, and against the reckless, cunning aimed at those who suffer disadvantaged, especially children, as well as ensuring access to the provisions of law and protection of human rights for all.

According to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the program to 2030 is the culmination of a comprehensive process in the history of the UN. The member countries, millions of young people and thousands of non-governmental organizations, the business community and many others are involved in the effort. While we intend to transfer 17 sustainable development goals into a concrete action on earth, we need to maintain this spirit.

Our generation may be the first generation who know a world without extreme poverty, where all individuals, not just those who have power and those who have privilege but all can enjoy a life of peace and sustainable development without poverty and violence on the basis of equality and free from discrimination. 

On October 8^th, 2015, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) published the latest report which said that despite the modest recovery in the period from 2012 to 2014, the unemployment rate among young people is much higher in comparison with the period before the crisis.

Under title “Trends of youth employment globally in 2015”, the report noted that the unemployment rate of young people worldwide has remained stable at 13% after an increase in the period from 2007 to 2010 but still higher than the 11.7% level before the crisis. The report also highlighted the decline number of unemployed young people at 73.3 million people in 2014, down by 3.3 million in comparison with 76.6 million people at the peak of the crisis in 2009.

To compare with 2012, the rate of youth unemployment fell by 1.4 percentage points in the developed economies and the European Union; and 0.5 percentage points or less in Central and South-Eastern Europe (non-EU) and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa. Other areas, such as East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa have recorded an increase in unemployment over the period 2012 - 2014 or no change in South Asia.

Despite the decline in the number of unemployed young people due to the narrowing of the young labor force, the youth unemployment rate is still high. According to the report, this rate will increase slightly to 13.1% in 2015.

“It is encouraging to see that the trend in employment of youth is improved in comparison with the 2013 report” - Sara Elder, lead author of the report said. "But we should not lack vigilance by the fact that the recovery is not common and almost 43% of young labor forces in the world is made up of the unemployed, people are living in poverty. It is not always easy for young people to start on the current labor market”.

In addition, the report also confirmed that the global proportion of youth in the total labor force, whether employed or unemployed, also decreased over time, partly due to the reason that many young people still enrolled.

However, in low-income countries, millions of young people continue to leave school and begin working when they are still too young. According to the report, 31% of youth in low-income countries do not have a degree, compared with 6% in the lower middle income countries and 2% in the high-income country average.

The report also highlighted a gap existing between the sexes, the participation rate of young women is lower than that of young men in most of the region.

Moreover, the rapid change of technology, forms of labor and employment relations... requires continuous adaptation to the new conditions of the labor market to solve the problem of skills.

According to reports, giving young people the best opportunity to access to a job also includes investment in education and training of the highest quality, equipment young people with the appropriate skills in labor market requirements, giving them access to social protection and basic services, as well as harmonize the rules for all the young people who have ambition can get productive jobs whether they belong gender, income level or economic - social backgrounds.

Vietnam has been listed 12th among the 20 best countries to visit in lifetime by Condé Nast Traveler’s readers.

The award is based on the ratings and feedback of more than 128,000 readers-the highest level of participation in the magazine's history.

According to the magazine, Wandering Chef Anthony Bourdain says going to Vietnam changed his life.

"It just seemed like another planet; a delicious one that sort of sucked me in and never let go," he told the magazine.

“We'd be happy just to sip Vietnamese coffee and eat pho all day, but the adventurous can descend into the world's largest cave - Son Doong, in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park,” he stressed.

This year, Condé Nast Traveler’s readers voted for Italy as the world's best country to travel for five straight years.

“Italy is all about leisure-sipping wine for hours in Venice's Piazza San Marco, make friends with a hammock on a villa in Tuscany, or sunbathing on the cliffs of Riomaggiore,” said the magazine.

Other rankings in the list include Italy, France, Spain, America, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Turkey, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Mexico, Portugal, Ireland, Japan, Canada and Morocco./.

Exactly 70 years ago, on 24 October 1945, the United Nations Charter entered into force. Just weeks after World War II ended, the United Nations became a reality. 2015 marks the global celebration of the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, which aims to honour the historic breadth of the Organization’s development, security and human rights work. The “UN70” celebration also aims to unite Member States, global civil society and the many individual women and men working in common cause to enable a strong UN to realize a better world.

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict.

The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council (for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) (for promoting international economic and social co-operation and development); the Secretariat (for providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN); the International Court of Justice (the primary judicial organ); and the United Nations Trusteeship Council (inactive since 1994). UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The UN's most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by South Korean Ban Ki-moon since 2007. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UN's work.

For all its flaws, the United Nations remains the only plausible forum for engaging broad global challenges like sustainable development. The most important environmental achievements of the past 40 years – the rise of environmental awareness, the birth of key ideas such as sustainability or the common heritage of humanity and the most important global treaties for environmental protection –all bear the UN stamp in one way or another.

The 70th anniversary of the United Nations is an opportunity to reflect – to look back on the UN’s history and take stock of its enduring achievements. It is also an opportunity to spotlight where the UN – and the international community as a whole – needs to redouble its efforts to meet current and future challenges across the three pillars of its work: peace and security, development, and human rights.

Human rights were defined as one of the purposes of the organization. 70 years later, as UN membership expanded from 53 to 193 states, how does the organization carry out its mandate to ensure universal, effective respect for human rights? What are the key stakes in this regard?

Seventy years ago, with the founding of the United Nations, all nations reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, and in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.

The commitment to fundamental human rights that was enshrined in the United Nations Charter and later in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights lives on today in many other treaties and agreements, including the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.

If we are lucky enough as individuals to make it to 70 years old, most of us would probably wish to be retired, sitting back in a comfy chair and enjoying the fruits of our labor.  However, when the United Nations turns 70 on Saturday, 24 October 2015, its 193 member states and all its staff know that our work is far from over.  There is no room for the leisure and comforts of retirement.

In addition to reaching the end of its seventh decade, this year marks two other important milestones for the UN.  This is the year when the world’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) end – the eight goals that aimed to reduce poverty and hunger as well as improve health, education, gender equality and environmental sustainability.  This year, an ambitious new set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will take their place -- our collective roadmap for equitable and sustainable development for the coming 15 years, 2016-2030.

On the UN’s 70th birthday, the Organisation and all its members and partners are more than doubling their ‘to do’ list, because now, more than ever, we need to ensure that no-one is left behind in the journey towards a far more equitable and just world. 

The new Post-2015 Global Sustainable Development Agenda is founded on principles of equality, rights and dignity. As we observe the 70th anniversary of the United Nations and look forward to the post-2015 development agenda, we must prioritise the promotion and protection of human rights and dignity for every person, for current and future generations, to create the future we want./.

Vietnam overwhelmingly won its election to the 54-member United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for the 2016-2018 tenure with 182 out of 187 valid votes.

A meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (Photo: VNA)

The UN General Assembly also elected 17 other new members of the ECOSOC on October 21 to serve the three-year term beginning on January 1, 2016.

This is the second time Vietnam has been elected to the ECOSOC. The country first served on the ECOSOC from 1998 through 2000.

The re-election marks a new step forward in the country’s efforts to implement its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance and proactive and active international integration in line with Resolutions of the 11th National Party Congress and the Political Bureau.

It also demonstrates the international community’s confidence in Vietnam and their acknowledgment of national construction and defence achievements as well as its contributions to the UN and common efforts for a better world.

Talking with a Vietnam News Agency correspondent immediately after the election results were announced, Head of the Vietnamese Mission to the UN Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga said Vietnam is well aware of its great responsibility as a new member of the ECOSOC, which takes on a pile of tasks in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development approved by world leaders at a UN summit last September.

Vietnam will take an active part in ECOSOC activities, mobilise social involvement, contribute to revamping the operation of the UN’s development system and effectively make progress on development cooperation to successfully implement the agenda and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially those related to poverty reduction, sustainable and comprehensive economic growth and environmental protection, she pledged.

As one of the six UN agencies, the ECOSOC considers issues related to international economic, social, cultural, educational, health and humanitarian affairs, and makes recommendations to promote respect for and exercise of human rights.

Vietnam’s election to the ECOSOC has received warm responses from international friends, who said they pin high hopes on the country and the other 53 members in realising the SDGs.

ECOSOC President, Ambassador Oh Joon of the Republic of Korea, congratulated Vietnam on its election, which, he said, took place after the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was approved last month. The agency is expected to play a crucial role in implementing the new agenda.

Expressing his pleasure to cooperate with a friendly country like Vietnam, Oh Joon said he hopes to partner closely with Vietnam in performing major tasks of the ECOSOC in his capacity as President.

ECOSOC Vice President, Argentinean Ambassador Maria Cristina Perceval, said Vietnam’s election manifests UN members’ confidence in the country.

According to him, implementing the SDGs and inspecting budget allocations for development projects are main tasks for this year and next year, and Vietnam is one of the key players of the UN Group of 77 developing nations.

As a member of the ECOSOC, Vietnam will contribute its opinions on building policies, documents and activities of ECOSOC covering global socio-economic aspects.

The country will also have more opportunities to exchange experiences with international friends in socio-economic development.

As human and economic development in Viet Nam has increased over the nearly three decades of Đổi mới (‘Renewal’), people’s expectations of governance are also changing. Viet Nam’s Constitution and political structure offer opportunities for citizens to participate in governance both directly (through in-person engagement at the local level) and indirectly (through voting for People’s Council and National Assembly delegates).

These forms of participation can be summarised in the two familiar slogans of ‘People know, people discuss, people do, and people monitor’, and ‘Government of the people, by the people, and for the people’. Yet the implementation of legal rights to participation often lags behind the letter of the law. How can citizens be more actively involved in public decision making?

This research report is the result of collaboration between the international non-governmental organisation, Oxfam and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to examine and analyse citizen participation in policy-making processes and political life.

It forms part of a series of UNDP-commissioned studies on Viet Nam’s governance and public administration performance conceived on the basis of the wealth of data and information provided by the Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI).

The report employs an innovative combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to compare citizen participation at the national level with indepth conditions in local communities.

Research into citizen participation in governance and public administration issues is of particular importance at this time considering that in 2016, the Communist Party of Viet Nam will hold its five-year Congress and elections will be held for a new National Assembly for the period 2016-2021.

With these upcoming events in mind, the report provides insights into people’s understanding and perceptions of local governance and suggests potential policy responses to address matters of concern surrounding direct and indirect participation.

Vietnamese citizens participate in a wide array of mass organisations and informal social groups at the grassroots level. PAPI survey data indicates that associational membership may be increasing nationwide over the last several years.

Qualitative research results offer a more nuanced picture, in which membership is strong in some locations and among some citizens whilst remaining weaker for others. Participation in associations, however, does not necessarily equate to active involvement in socio-economic development, such as land use, development planning, or budget monitoring.

Meanwhile, citizen monitoring of local government performance through vertical accountability structures forms the lowest performing area of direct participation, with People’s Inspection Boards (PIBs) and Community Investment Supervision Boards (CISBs) often not functioning as designed. Regardless, each of the research locations visited exemplified certain positive governance practices to be recognised and highlighted.

Regarding elections, the report notes discrepancies between the very high nationally reported turnout and PAPI data on election participation.

Constitutional guarantees of election quality are realised in National Assembly and People’s Council elections more than in village head elections, and more consistently in some locations than others.

Beyond analysing the current situation of participation in political life, the research team asked both individual and focus group respondents their views on a set of potential electoral reforms that are either already piloted or proposed in Viet Nam.

All ideas were supported by at least some respondents, though levels of acceptance varied widely among both citizens and local officials. The reforms with the highest overall support were a change in election procedures to guarantee ‘one person, one vote’ and a restriction on the number of dual appointments between government and elected bodies.

In conclusion, qualitative research on direct and indirect participation in local governance, combined with analysis of PAPI data, reveals a number of specific ways in which implementation of citizens’ constitutional rights, laws and policies on grassroots democracy and elections can be promoted within the present Vietnamese political system.

Efforts to promote substantive participation are already being made through pilot and experimental programmes of the Vietnamese government, donors, and international and domestic NGOs. These programmes should be expanded and promoted with cooperation of local authorities and mass organisations, particularly the Fatherland Front./.

Taking advantage of giving feedbacks to the draft political report for the 12^th National Congress of the Party, some people spread their opposition to the guideline of developing the socialist-oriented market economy (SOME). However, their views have been proved wrong both theoretically and practically.

The implementation of the guidelines of SOME development over the past 30 years has brought about significant and historic achievements. Institutions of SOME, particularly legal system, mechanism, policies, have been supplemented and gradually perfected, meeting the membership requirements of WTO, FTAs that Vietnam has been a signatory. The role, effectiveness, and competitiveness of the economic actors, of business types in the economy have been enhanced. Business and investment environment has been improved and made more equal and accessible. Market factors and types have been established more synchronously and operated smoothly and linked with regional and international markets. Almost all production prices are determined by market principles. State’s role has been adjusted to match market mechanism and promote democracy in socio-economic life. The mobilization and allocation of resources associated with strategies and plans for socio-economic development have been made more suitable with market mechanism, limiting and controlling monopoly. National economy is integrating more deeply and widely into the world economy at different scales and gradually adapts to principles and standards of the world market. Thereby, the country’s status and strength have improved significantly. The country has no longer been a low-developed one but a developing country with average income and an average growth rate of GDP at 6.6% since 1986. The economy’s size and potential have been increased from USD 6.3 billion in 1989 to USD 186 billion in 2014 and will reach USD 204 billion in 2015. Export turnover also increases 30fold from 1995 to 2014 and Vietnam has been listed among the top exporters in pepper, coffee, cashew, rice, seafood, textile, footwear, tea, etc., of the world. Infrastructure has been developed rapidly with new and modern projects being built. Economic structure has been changed positively towards modernization and industrialization. Industry and service account for 83% of GDP. Major achievements have been gained in the fields of social progress and equality. Vietnam is among the top countries to realize UN Millennium Development Goals. Social security and welfare are always paid attention to.  No program has been cut down even in the time of economic slowdown. The government has carried out 41 strategies and national programs on socio-economic development with priorities given to vulnerable groups. In the period between 2011 and 2015 alone, VND 364,000 billion have been spent on hunger eradication and poverty alleviation. Thereby, the percentage of poor households decreased sharply from 58% in 1993 to 6% in 2014 and below 5% is projected at under 5% in 2015. People’s spiritual and material lives have been improved greatly. Per capita GDP increases 21fold in comparison with that before the start of renewal and is estimated at USD 2,200 in 2015, narrowing the gap with other countries. Politics is stabilized; defense and security are strengthened; national sovereignty is safeguarded; external relations are widened and deepened; the country’s status and strength are increasingly improved in international arena. The country’s reality after 30 years of renewal is a persuasive evidence for the soundness of the guideline of developing SOE.

However, some people intentionally neglect those achievements to deny the Party’s guideline on SOME. They keep repeating their arguments that market economy is a product of capitalism and that market economy should not be socialist oriented and once choosing market economy we must choose capitalism. With this argument, they demand our Party openly declare its choice of capitalist market economy which in essence, demand the Party give up socialism to follow capitalism.

It should be noted that, the attribution of market economy to capitalism, considering it a unique feature of capitalism is unreasonable because market economy is just an economic model of human kind and able to exist in any social regimes. Therefore, the attribution of an economic model to a particular social regime is a mechanical and partial thinking. That thinking once leading us to socio-economic stagnation and crisis is now employed by hostile forces to destabilize our internal political ideology, hence we should be vigilant.

Market economy is the high development of commodity economy when both inputs and outputs of production are determined by market. Producing capacity when reaching a certain level will create objective conditions for the existence of commodity economy – the starting point of market economy. They are the division of labor and different ownership models of production supplies. These conditions still exist in socialism so the pursuit and development of market economy in Vietnam today is relevant to the objective reality and compliant with the rules of developing socialism from an economy with small productions.

The undeniable achievements after 30 years of renewal in light of SOE have proved that interests brought about by market economy are useful to the cause of building socialism in our country. This doesn’t contrast with socio-economic missions of the transiting period to socialism but fosters the accomplishment of those missions more effectively.

Progress in controlling the mortality rate in small children has brought Vietnam come close to achieving the related Millennium Development Goal 4 on reducing child mortality, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH).

According to the Department of Maternal Health and Children under the MoH, the mortality rate among children under one reduced from 44 per 1,000 in 1990 to 14.9 in 2014 and is currently only 0.1 percent higher than the MDG 4.

The rate, however, varies between regions and ethnic groups. The rate is 8.7 per 1,000 in urban areas and 17.9 per 1,000 in rural areas. Central Highlands, midland and mountainous north, the central north and the coastal central regions have the highest rates.

The rate among ethnic minority groups is 30 per 1,000 and stands at 12 per 1,000 for the majority Kinh group specifically.

Infant mortality rate is importantly associated with maternal health, but statistics for the rate have yet been collected in Vietnam.

The mortality rate among children under five halved from 1990-2004 at a rate of 2 per 1,000 each year, but the pace has slowed to 0.5 per 1,000 each year in recent years. The rate was 22.4 per 1000 in 2014, 3.1 deaths above the level required by the MDG 4.

The slowdown of the mortality rate reduction among children under-one and under-five in recent years is due partly to persistently high rates in mountainous and remote areas where health facilities and human resources desperately need improvements.

The overall success is the result of many factors that include the national immunisation programme, the national strategy for reproduction healthcare, the Vietnam population and reproduction health strategy for 2011-2020 and the family planning policy implemented since 1990.

The health sector continues to reinforce its caring systems from the grassroots level and focus on training and re-training staff.
A special support policy will be issued for ethnic minority midwives and health workers who are stationed at far-flung hamlets and villages.-VNA