Leaving no one behind in a growing Vietnam: The story from Young Lives

The Young Lives Vietnam Country Report presents results from a fifteen-year longitudinal study, which followed two cohorts of children in various situations from remote rural and mountainous sites to urban sites, as a component of a larger multi-country project. The study relates conditions early in the lives of children to later outcomes, and so improves understanding of the effects of poverty on children’s life trajectories. It also provides information on changes taking place in the lives of children, and offers evidence-based guidance for policies to improve children’s chances of developing into integrated and productive members of society. The report first outlines the Young Lives project and the global and national contexts in which the study took place. It presents key findings on the main areas of study: improvements in wealth and nutrition, but with stunting remaining a problem for ethnic minority children; progress in education with challenges still to meet; and long-term impacts of poverty. The report considers challenges relating to the revolution in technology, and concludes with implications of the findings for policy