Health
Making sure every child in every community can survive and thrive
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- Tiếng Việt
Challenges
More infants today in Viet Nam live to celebrate their fifth birthday than ever before, while fewer women lose their lives during pregnancy and childbirth. But, this does not tell the full story.
No child or mother should suffer or die from preventable causes. Yet, this still happens every day in Viet Nam with an estimated 30,000 children under-five lost to avoidable and treatable diseases each year. Giving birth remains unsafe for women and their babies, especially those from ethnic groups and hard-to-reach areas, with 1,800 maternal and 12,000 neonatal deaths in each year.
Vaccines are the safest way to protect children from life-threatening diseases, but the pandemic has left hard-earned gains in vaccination coverage under threat with significant drops in routine immunization rates for children under-one, indicating the vulnerability of the current system.
Air pollution has emerged as one of the biggest health and environmental hazards in Viet Nam, with toxic air putting children’s health and brain development at risk and resulting in a significant number of deaths of all ages annually.
While the primary health care system should provide a safety net for children and mothers from every community, many remain vulnerable without access to quality and affordable services.
In Viet Nam, an estimated 30,000 children under-five were lost to avoidable and treatable diseases each year.
Solutions
Every child has a right to live and thrive. That is why UNICEF is committed to every child in every community of Viet Nam getting the health care they need to ensure preventable and treatable conditions do not claim young lives.
This means contributing to bring essential new-born, child and maternal care services to every new-born, child and mother, particularly those in remote areas with ethnic populations and the urban poor. With new-born deaths making up more than half of all under-five deaths in Viet Nam, we are working to boost the quality of antenatal, childbirth and essential new-born help. This includes delivery of Early Essential New-born Care and training village-based midwives to realize impacts where they are needed most.
So every child is reached with lifesaving vaccines, we are injecting fresh momentum into the national expanded programme on immunization through helping our partners tackle misinformation as well as optimize vaccine and cold chain management.
As part of a national priority from survival to development, UNICEF is boosting support for the early identification, referral and rehabilitation of children with disabilities and mental health problems, and protecting children from the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.
UNICEF promotes a holistic, rights-based approach to maternal and child health, with support focused on reducing inequities in care, strengthened local health systems, risk-informed planning and family caring practices.
Impacts
UNICEF action will see more children, adolescents and mothers in Viet Nam than ever before accessing equitable, timely and quality maternal, neonatal and child health care services and immunizations. This UNICEF system strengthening will result in impactful maternal, new-born and child health outcomes for pregnant women, mothers and their children. By 2026, we will contribute to reaching 90 per cent of new-borns with early essential care and 95 per cent of children with life-saving vaccines, while the primary health care system will be strengthened and resilient to environmental degradation and climate change.
