On November 11th, 2022, at the Ministry Head quarter, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha had a cordial meeting with the Delegation of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) led by Ms. Catherine Russell, Executive Director. Attending the meeting were Mrs. Rana Flower, Head Representatives of UNICEF Vietnam; Leaders from the Department of Legal Affairs, Department of Gender Equalities, Department of Child Affairs, Department of Social Assistances.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha thanked Ms. Catherine Russell for her visit to Ministry of Labour – Invalids and Social Affairs on the occasion of her business trip to Vietnam. At the meeting, the Deputy Minister briefly shared information on the policies and programs on child care and protection in Vietnam and the results achieved in the cooperation between MOLISA and UNICEF Vietnam recently.
At the meeting, the Deputy Minister emphasized that UNICEF was a close friend of Vietnam, the symbol of UNICEF with images of mothers and children has become a symbol of support, sharing resources for Vietnam for over 40 years.
Thanks to the warm welcome of Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha, Ms. Catherine Russell shared that UNICEF is one of the United Nations organizations present in Vietnam since 1975 and has had very effective cooperation in recent years. On this visit, the Executive Director of UNICEF also expressed her gratitude to the Ministry of Labour - Invalids and Social Affairs and relevant agencies of the Government of Vietnam for their effective cooperation with UNICEF in recent times. She added that in recent years, Vietnam is a country admired by countries around the world for its achievements in socioeconomic development and also has much progress. A very good example of Vietnam being welcomed by the international community is Vietnam's policies and strategies to deal with the Covid pandemic. In response to the Covid pandemic, Vietnamese Government agencies have shown very effective implementation.
However, she also found that Vietnam still has many difficulties and challenges. During her visit to Gia Lai province, she saw many difficulties in the lives of ethnic minority people and children, these are challenges in addition to economic success stories in Vietnamese society. She believes that when Vietnam and UNICEF work together, we will make a difference in the coming time. At the same time, she also believes that with the close direction of the Government and Government agencies, issues related to children and child protection will continue to be effectively implemented in the future. She hopes to return to Vietnam in the future, to be able to witness the advancements in this area. At the same time, she pledged that UNICEF is always ready to accompany and support the MOLISA in effort to bring out the best in children.
Thank for the very frank and practical sharing of Ms. Catherine Russell, Deputy Minister highly appreciated and thanked the companion of Ms. Catherine Russell and her colleagues at UNICEF for helping the Government of Vietnam in general and MOLISA in particular in the implementation of children's rights in recent times. In the coming time, the Deputy Minister hopes that the visit of Ms. Cathrine Russell will open a new cooperation in supporting Vietnamese children.
On this occasion, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha wished Ms. Catherine Russell a successful business trip to Vietnam.
Previously, on November 10, 2022, Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha had a meeting with Dr. Najat Maalla M'jid - a Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on the prevention and control of violence against children.
At the meeting, both sides discussed about reasonable investment in many social services to support children such as: education; health, reproductive and gender health care; improve the abilities of access to social security packages; increase access to child justice support services. The two sides also discussed more about the one-stop service to support children and the alternative care model in families for children with special circumstances, in the spirit of ensuring the best conditions for children.
During the meeting, the Deputy Minister highly appreciated the companionship of UNICEF as well as the United Nations (UN) agencies for the Government of Vietnam on issues related to children and social security.