Hanoi (VNA) - The fourth ASEAN-China-United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) Symposium took place in Hanoi on September 4 with discussion focusing oninnovation in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and eradicatingpoverty.

Thesymposium offered the opportunity for govenrment officials, policy makers andexperts from ASEAN countries, China and UNDP to exchange knowledge, researchand ideas to accelerate actions to achieve SDGs, particularly in povertyeradication.

VietnameseDeputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Tan Dung said ASEANcountries have made sustainable development achievements including reducingpoverty and eliminating hunger.

Thepercentage of people in the bloc living under 1.25 USD per day reduced fromhalf of the population in 1990 to one eighth of the population in 2015.

ASEANVision 2025 highlights the combination of Sustainable Development 2030 Agendainto the blueprint aiming to improve quality of life.

Dung saidthe Vietnamese Government is of the opinion that if hunger and poverty are notsolved, development goals, such as economic stabilisation, human rightsdevelopment, will not be achieved. Poverty reduction and hunger eliminationhave become a major policy of the Vietnamese Government.

Vietnamaims to increase average income per capita by the end of 2020 by 1.5 timescompared to that of 2015. Income of poor households in remote areas is set todouble by 2020, he said.

ValerieCliff, UNDP deputy regional director for Asia- Pacific, offered threeconsiderations to create a conducive environment for inclusive innovation toaccelerate and achieve the SDGs. The first is to embrace the role of the Statein setting a direction for innovation at all levels of government.

“Innovationhas a direction and it can help or hinder the speed and scale of leveling theplaying field upon which poverty sits,” she said.

“Thesecond is to remember that innovation is contextual. It may go without saying,but we can’t remind ourselves enough that we cannot copy and paste successfactors or failures. If we are to significantly deliver on our promise to meetpeople where they are, then we will need to be ever more agile in ourmethodology of creating solutions to challenges that are nuanced in nature."

“Thethird is to engage citizens throughout the policy process. Many governments arealready starting to shift their approach in regards to how they listen, respondand in some cases, even anticipate, what citizens need and want,” the official added.-VNA