Viet Nam high-level conference: Translating child poverty research into concrete policy options - November 26-27, 2009
Viet Nam has made tremendous progress in reducing its poverty rate in a remarkably short time. With the Government now preparing its next Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2011-2020) and Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011-2015), it is now very timely for the Government to revise its poverty reduction approach in order to ensure it is relevant and appropriate to reducing/eliminating all forms of poverty, including multi-dimensional child poverty.
The Government of Viet Nam, under the leadership of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Planning and Investment, together with UNICEF will organize a high level conference entitled “Rethinking child poverty: what policy options for Viet Nam?” in Hanoi on November 26-27, 2009. This conference seeks to reach high-level consensus and support to integrate a multi-dimensional child poverty approach into the national policy response in Viet Nam, with a particular focus on socio-economic development plans, national poverty reduction policies and strategies in the country. It will bring together new evidence and analysis from Viet Nam and other countries and encourage focused discussion around key policy issues and options on how policies can most effectively eliminate child poverty and reduce disparities in an integrated and comprehensive manner, especially in the public policy process of planning, targeting, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation and analysis.
The conference expects to contribute to a common understanding among policy makers of the new multidimensional approach to and measurements of child poverty; better knowledge of opportunities and constraints/gaps for reducing child poverty and disparities within Viet Nam's existing policy initiatives relevant to poverty reduction; concrete ideas and recommendations to strengthen Viet Nam's efforts on reduction of child poverty. The conference program will first address the current State of the Art on conceptualising and measuring child poverty, globally and in Viet Nam. It will then examine the gaps in existing policies with a focus on socio-economic and poverty reduction policies in Viet Nam. The conference will also discuss relevant international experiences and good examples, which can assist Viet Nam in addressing remaining challenges in order to achieve the necessary policy changes to reduce child poverty. It will feature presentations and discussion by both international and national experts in various areas.
Focal Points: For more information on the conference, or to express your interest in participating, please contact Geeta Narayan at gnarayan@unicef.org or Paul Quarles van Ufford at pqvanufford@unicef.org
