Children in Viet Nam

Hard-earned gains have been achieved for Viet Nam’s children in a dramatically short time. As a trailblazer for children’s rights, the first in Asia and the second globally to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, the country has strived to ensure every child is healthy, safe, educated and empowered to reach their full potential. 

Despite rapid socio-economic development that has driven these gains in just over two decades and created a quality of life never imagined by previous generations, many of Viet Nam’s 28 million children have been left behind and continue to live in conditions of deprivation and exclusion. 

This means multi-dimensional child poverty is still a daily reality for one-in-10 children in Viet Nam, with disparities primarily driven by ethnicity, gender, place of origin and disability. As a result, children in rural areas are twice as likely to suffer deprivations in education, health, nutrition, shelter, water and sanitation than urban peers. This grinding reality is particularly acute for ethnic children, with nearly four-in-10 impacted. 

With Viet Nam on the frontlines of the climate crisis, three-in-four Vietnamese are acutely vulnerable to intensifying climate impacts, especially the poor and remote mountainous communities that lack the resources and knowledge to build resilience to shocks. 

With climate a compounding factor, rapid economic advances that have driven national development have taken a dramatic toll on the environment. 

Turning to health, more children today live to celebrate their fifth birthday and fewer women lose their lives during pregnancy and childbirth.  

But, thousands are still dying from causes that can be prevented with quality healthcare. And even more are not getting the physical and mental nourishment they need to grow up healthy and happy to reach their full potential. 

This means infant and under-5 mortality rates in rural households are nearly double those of urban areas and even higher in ethnic community-dominated northern and central provinces, while the maternal mortality rate in such mountainous areas is five-fold the national average.  The struggle to access sufficient health support and nutrition leaves nearly one-in-five children under the age of five stunted, exposing them to irreversible physical and cognitive damage.  

Stresses to children’s mental health are also becoming evident amid rapid changes in societal norms amplified by technology – amongst other pressures, leaving 20 per cent of Vietnamese aged 10-17 years identifying as living with a mental health problem and more than one-in-20 using a mental health support service. 

While dramatic strides forward have been taken in water and sanitation, many ethnic household-dominated mountainous provinces remain left behind and 20 per cent below national averages for access to clean water and sanitation services. Meanwhile, open defecation is still the norm for nearly one-fifth of residents in some provinces despite being virtually eradicated nationwide. 

Every child has the right to live free from violence, exploitation and abuse. Yet, in Viet Nam, a striking nearly three-quarters of children face violent punishment at home, while one-in-20 girls suffer sexual abuse before their 15th birthday. Child labour remains common, especially for the poorest (13 per cent) and a quarter of all Mong ethnic children.  

This trend deprives children of vital education and contributes to a low national upper-secondary completion rate exceeding 40 per cent, with only one-in-six Khmer ethnic children and just over half of Mong lower-secondary students finish their studies. 

Addressing these multi-spectrum and dynamically evolving challenges in critical to ensuring all children in Viet Nam – no matter their gender, ethnicity or location – grow up happy and healthy to reach their full potential and become productive members of society.