At the United Nations (UN) Millennium Summit held in New York in September 2000, all 189 UN member states committed to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and to an agreed series of time-bound targets with a deadline of 2015. These targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aim to: 1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; 2) achieve universal primary education; 3) promote gender equality and empower women; 4) reduce child mortality; 5) improve maternal health; 6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; 7) ensure environmental sustainability, and 8) develop a global partnership for development (1 United Nations. The Millennium Development Goals report 2015. 2015; New York: United Nations.
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The Government of Vietnam has demonstrated strong political will in support of the MDGs by aligning many of its policies with these global targets. Moreover, as a way of taking ‘ownership’ of the MDGs, Vietnam has translated the MDGs into ‘actionable’ Vietnam Development Goals to better suit the specific political and social circumstances of the country. The Vietnam Development Goals are intended to meet the most basic needs of the Vietnamese population in terms of employment and income, health and education, water and sanitation. Yet inter-dependence between these sectors means that it is not effective to tackle any one sector in isolation. Accordingly, Vietnam has adopted a multi-sectoral approach to achieving positive sustainable change in progressing toward the MDGs