Private sector’s engagement in child care, protection to be promoted

Children learn drawing at a kindergarten in Hoàn Kiếm District, Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Reforming mechanisms for mobilising private organisations, businesses, individuals, and the society’s engagement in child care and protection is among the key tasks recently set by the Politburo.

This is part of the Politburo’s Directive No 28-CT/TW, issued on December 25, 2023, on the enhancement of child care, education, and protection.

In November 2012, the Politburo also released a directive on promoting the Party’s leadership over child care, education, and protection which affirmed the need to boost the private sector’s engagement in the work.

Since then, much progress has been seen in the attraction of private sector to child care and protection, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) said, elaborating that families and the society’s awareness of the issue has been increasingly improved as seen in higher rates of birth registration and children covered by health insurance.

The mobilisation of private resources for education has also been stepped up while curricular and extracurricular activities reformed to include contents related to child care and protection such as life skills, HIV/AIDS prevention, and childhood accident prevention.

Authorities, the community, and children themselves have also become more aware of the importance of child care and protection and further involved in the work, which has seen active performance by the Việt Nam Fatherland Front, Youth Union, Women’s Union, and Farmers’ Union, and Việt Nam Association for the Protection of Child Rights, as well as domestic and international non-governmental organisations, according to MoLISA.

MA Phạm Thi Hải from MoLISA held that to promote the private sector’s engagement, the State should establish a legal framework on child protection, including the mobilisation of the private sector’s participation; regulate the rights and responsibilities of individuals, organisations, and the community when they supply child care and protection services; and stipulate people’s rights to benefit from those services.

In addition, the State needs to devise mechanisms and policies on training civil servants and volunteers in the field, create a favourable environment for child care and protection along with the supply of children-related products, and fulfill its role in supervision, inspection, and settlement of law violations, she noted.

Hải added that though engaging the private sector’s participation is meant to maximise resources for child care and protection, investment from the State still holds the main role, particularly in remote areas and at the grassroots level, where it is difficult for private investors to gain benefits or profit from.

The State budget’s spending on education and health care for children has been rising over the years, statistics show.

During 2013-23, education accounts for 17.8 per cent of the State budget’s total annual spending. Of the spending on education, 20 per cent is for pre-school education, 32 per cent for primary education, 25 per cent for junior high school education, and 12 per cent for senior high school education.

As a result, impressive achievements have been harvested, including the rates of literate school-age people and children enrolling in compulsory preschool education at 96.8 per cent and 98.3 per cent, respectively. Việt Nam also ranks 59th in the global education rankings.

Meanwhile, considerable funding has also been allocated for health care, the Ministry of Finance said, noting that the State budget’s total funding for the health sector tops VNĐ38.13 trillion (US$1.5 billion) for the 2021-25 period, excluding the spending integrated into the national target programmes.

A number of health programmes and projects for children have been carried out such as buying health insurance for under-six children, the expanded vaccination programme, and the ones on food safety, population, and HIV/AIDS control.

Deputy Minister of Health Trần Văn Thuấn said mother and child indexes in Việt Nam are relatively good compared to many other countries with equivalent per capita income.

During 2020-22, the under-five mortality rate was brought down to 18.9 per thousand from 39.6 per thousand while the under-one mortality rate also fell by over two times to 12.1 per thousand from 29.5 per thousand. The rate of fully vaccinated children under one year of age has also been maintained at over 90 per cent.

A recent nutrition census indicated that the rate of under-five children with stunting has also declined gradually, from 29.3 per cent in 2010 to under 18.9 per cent in 2022. — VNS