Vietnam rose from a victim state to shining model; Kenya can do it too

 Countries across the developing world are struggling to meet their commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These are 17 goals developed by the United Nations in its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which sets targets in areas such as poverty, education, health and agriculture. Few countries — if any — will achieve them.

Not so Vietnam, which has made remarkable strides in meeting its development goals and targets over the past 25 years despite the bitter civil war that devastated it.

In 1986, the Southeast Asian low middle-income country launched a programme of sweeping economic and institutional reform known as doi moi. Stimulated by the poor state of the economy and reduced support from the Soviet Union, Hanoi decided to slash spending, attract foreign investment and liberalise trade and agriculture — hence, a mixed economy.

Adopting a pragmatic approach, the government instituted relatively liberal foreign investment laws, decollectivised agriculture, ended fixed prices and subsidies and reduced the number of parastatals. The results have been remarkable. By 1989, Vietnam had become a significant exporter of rice and is now a major exporter of garments to the United States and other markets.

Poverty

The country cut its poverty rate from over 90 per cent of the total population in 1990 to 47 per cent by the beginning of 2010 and below 23 per cent at the moment.

An IMF study last year ranked Vietnam in the top quarter of SDG performance for the majority of indicators. With 73 per cent of the population having access to essential health services and health insurance coverage close to 90 per cent, the country has been able to contain the outbreak of Covid-19.

By April this year, positive cases had plummeted to 3,400 with no death. Even with the advent of the highly infectious Delta variant, by the end of June, there were 17,000 positive cases and 81 deaths. With a population of over 95 million people, this is remarkable.

A 2018 World Bank report shows rural household electrification increased from below 50 per cent in 1990 to almost 99 per cent by 2018. Besides, at least 93.4 per cent of the population had access to safe water by 2016.

Primary school enrolment is at 99 per cent with the education sector shifting focus from quantity to quality. The government has earmarked 20 per cent of its expenditure to education and training; many developing countries have not reached 15 per cent. There is also a lot of progress in women representation in the national assembly since 2017.

Vietnam has demonstrated a very high political commitment to SDGs and their precursors, MDGs. For collective ownership of the goals, SDG activities have been decentralised from the central government to the provinces, districts and communes. All governance structures are part of the implementation.

Allocate resources

Using a national mapping exercise, the government targets the regions, provinces, districts, and communes lagging behind in terms of SDGs. This has helped it properly allocate resources to these areas and give everyone the opportunity to appreciate the implementation of the SDGs nationally.

The SDGs have been mainstreamed in the development and economic plans. The government has built a strong statistical system that it uses to assess progress in each goal.

Vietnam’s SDG success demonstrates that, to achieve the goals, countries such as Kenya must involve their entire political system — ministries, agencies, provinces, business communities, social communities (both rural and urban) and development partners. SDGs must be integrated into their annual and five-year sector development projections.

A great deal of effort and resources went into the negotiations and finalisation of the SDGs and their implementation should be taken seriously.

Vietnam’s localisation policies demonstrate how, with genuine commitment, the SDGs can be achieved. The Vietnam story should serve as a benchmark and provide encouragement for policymakers in low-income countries and emerging markets.

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