UNESCO – Vietnam: Productive and Fruitful Relationship

Vietnam has become a wonderful home for me. It is a home I enjoy with my family. I have learned to respect and to understand the culture as well as the nature of the Vietnamese people. I value very much the love that the Vietnamese have for their heritage and their desire to continue to be peaceful people who are hardworking and family oriented, and who possess the vision to become a learning society and a modern developed country.

 

I like the food, the Ao Dai (Vietnamese Traditional Dress), the wonderful locations throughout the country, and especially the people who have welcomed me and made me feel very much at home. I am very committed to supporting this country in achieving its vision, and I especially appreciate the enduring pursuit of happiness that characterizes the Vietnamese.

 

 

It has been a very productive and fruitful relationship. We continue to strengthen our long-term partnership with agencies such as the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports, Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Communication and Information, and Ministry of Natural Resources, among others.

 

The Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been extremely supportive of our work and contributions to the country. We have a Memorandum of Understanding that sets out the priorities that the government of Vietnam requires of UNESCO.

 

We also coordinate activities with the Vietnam Federation of UNESCO Associations which comprehends over 7,500 clubs and congratulate them for their effort in convening the 8th World Congress of the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers, and Associations this year in Ha Noi.

 

As part of the United Nations Team in Vietnam, I feel we have been able to cooperate in relevant areas in each of UNESCO’s sectors. Many people know about our work in the field of Culture, especially in relation to World Heritage Sites and intangible culture. We have worked to encourage the preservation of the Dak Nong gong performance tradition, assisted the restoration of My Son monuments as excellent models of sacred Cham decoration, supported the management board of Ha Long Bay to deal with the increasing challenges to the site’s conservation, assisted the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage Complex of Thang Long – Ha Noi (even doing research on proper techniques for conserving, monitoring, and exhibiting archeological artifacts), among various other activities.

 

We are also very active in several other areas, such as flood forecasting and warning systems, trans-boundary water conflict management and international water governance, hydro-geological research along the coast of the Ninh Thuan Province in areas where groundwater salinity is on the rise. We also promote customary rights and traditional knowledge in site management, and livelihood improvement in the eight biosphere reserves in Vietnam, including implementation of our program on Biospheres Reserves for Environmental and Economic Security and support for the development of Geoparks and geo-tourism.

 

We have made significant contributions to the Education Sector, supporting the implementation of Education for All goals, contributing to improved teaching and learning quality,supporting Higher Education Reform through International Accreditation and Quality Assurance (QAA), developing the MOET Climate Change Action Plan, strengthening educational responses to emergencies, natural disasters, and sustainable development challenges, supporting the creation of a Lifelong Learning Strategy in Vietnam, promoting literacy assessment and monitoring, championing HIV/AIDS education, and advocating community learning centers.

 

We also assist capacity building of journalists and information professionals for meeting digital challenges more effectively and for designing curricula for electronics and telecommunications, broadcast engineering, information technology and multimedia communications, as well as gender mainstreaming.

 

Overall, I believe our cooperation has been very positive, and our partners are very satisfied with the results. My staff and I are kept busy all year round!!

 

 

The UN in Vietnam is definitely interested in supporting youth to be actively participating in society. Traditionally, Vietnamese young people have been very committed to their national values, and I am also aware that progress has been made to involve them in preserving their traditional cultural values and heritage. One example is our primary and secondary school program on Heritage Education using Museums and Cultural Sites in which curriculum areas are reinforced through visits to museums, pagodas, heritage sites, historical landmarks, temples, exhibits, or other cultural institutions. We need to ensure that Vietnam’s future continues to prioritize the protection of its rich culture.

 

Another example is the festival held in April, 2011 under the theme of “Vietnamese Youth for the Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Cultural Values” in which 300 delegates from all over the country attended and discussed practical plans through which young people could preserve and promote cultural values in the context of national renovation and international integration. They agreed to advocate ethnic groups’ scripts, outfits, and heritage and to participate in community cultural activities and tourism business development in heritage sites.

 

Vietnamese young people are very talented and eager to learn and to participate. All sectors should work to involve them to a greater extent and to help them succeed in their role as responsible citizens. We should also strengthen their knowledge on gender mainstreaming since Vietnam is already seeing the rising role of women in society.

 

 

The UN International Year of Youth was launched a year ago in August 2010, and it provides the framework to bring youth to the forefront of global debates and is an opportunity to take the youth development agenda a step further and to advocate for increased investments in, and strengthened commitments to, youth. What I most like about it is that it is centered on the theme of dialogue and mutual understanding, areas in which Vietnam has a lot to teach the world.

The importance of this Year lies in the fact that it aims to raise awareness about young people’s contribution to society, to help them address the challenges they face, and to encourage them to participate in development initiatives, from the community to the global level. We have to open more spaces and opportunities to nurture civic engagement and to enable youth to participate in shaping their future.

By recognizing the manifold contributions that youth can make in promoting mutual understanding, the International Year of Youth embraces UNESCO’s vision of “building peace in the minds of people” and lines up with the objective of the International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures, which UNESCO is leading.

 

From February 2010 to February 2011, UNESCO was the co-chair of the UN Interagency Network on Youth Development alongside the UN Programme on Youth, permanent co-chair of the Network. As such, UNESCO contributed to the coordination of the UN System celebration of the Year and of the UN input to key global events during the Year, particularly the World Youth Conference (Mexico, August 2010).

 

 

UNESCO promotes culture as a great resource for poverty reduction and sustainable development. The inscription of heritage sites and intangible culture provides added value and helps not only to protect them, but also to raise interest in international and domestic tourism. Cultural heritage is one of the best engines for sustainable local economic growth and increases employment opportunities.

 

Last December, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that specifically emphasizes culture as an important contributor to sustainable development and the achievement of national and international development objectives like the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s).

 

We also encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, the use of local knowledge, and robust local community participation to foster social cohesion and to solve emerging social issues, the likes of environmental degradation and natural resource depletion. We also place significant value on cultural assets as a means of economic development through creating cultural industries and tourism. We have provided methodologies for tourism management planning and will continue to support product and service branding as a new source of income in biosphere reserves. We also provide technical assistance to craft villages in developing new product ranges, lines, and collections with themes inspired in their local culture.

 

Since biosphere reserves offer solutions for reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use, UNESCO promotes these sites as models for sustainable development in protected areas around the country, thus contributing to poverty alleviation among the most disadvantaged populations in Vietnam. We also work to promote biosphere reserves as living laboratories on climate change.

 

Most importantly, we provide support at the policy level, promote ownership, and build capacities so as to ensure sustainability of the programs we support.

 

In the Culture Sector, we will continue contributing to the protection of cultural heritage, while making sure that its values are sustainably used for socio-economic development through tourism and cultural industries. We will be focusing on promoting culturally appropriate programming in all development interventions in order to ensure programs take into account the local context, traditions, beliefs, language, and other values of the Vietnamese people. This will help minimize negative impacts that socio-economic development creates among target groups, especially ethnic minorities, and ensure program success.

 

We will also work to raise awareness in the public on the role of culture in development and on protecting and preserving it for posterity, to motivate historic city center preservation and development, and to mainstream the principles of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue into national development policies and programs.

 

In the Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO and Vietnam will focus on harnessing new technology to enhance public access to knowledge and information, particularly in rural, mountainous regions that are home to ethnic minorities. We will look to digitize heritage, culture, and content in both national and ethnic script. Capacity building for media practitioners is also an area of priority. They need sufficient and accurate knowledge in specialized fields plus training on professional standards to ensure accountable reporting. We will also continue to support the expansion of the Memory of the World Programme in Vietnam

 

In the Science Sector, our programs will primarily address the themes of biodiversity, sustainable development, and community preparedness for natural disasters. We will promote green economies at biosphere reserves, where products and services that have met internationally recognized sustainable business practice standards will be certified and form the essential building blocks of a new model for integrated conservation and development in protected areas. We will seek to strengthen national research capacity on marine science, particularly on the role of oceans and sea level rise in climate change, as well as to ensure the security and sustainable use of freshwater supplies nationwide.