Education for All (EFA) is a global movement launched in 1990 and led by UNESCO that aims to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults. At the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, measurable EFA goals were identified, and Viet Nam was among the 164 governments that committed to their achievement by 2015. In the same year, Viet Nam joined the 189 nations who pledged to half extreme poverty by 2015 through achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Following its commitments, Viet Nam developed an EFA action plan for 2003-2015, a framework that sets targets and guides cooperation among Government, international organizations, bilateral donors and NGOs toward achieving EFA. As a low-income country, Viet Nam was eligible for assistance from the Education for All Fast-track Initiative (EFA FTI), which matches national education strategies such as Viet Nam's EFA action plan with donor’s efforts to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015.

As the coordinating agency for the EFA-FTI process in Viet Nam, in 2010 UNESCO led a review and update of the country’s EFA action plan. In addition, the UNESCO Bangkok Office provided technical support to undertake financial analysis and costing of the EFA Action Plan, based on recommendations for FTI resource allocation to different sub-sectors.

The EFA Action Plan update resulted in the following recommendations: i) ensure that the most disadvantaged have access to at least one year of quality pre-school education, ii) strengthen Vietnamese through Mother Tongue and Inclusive Education and iii) improve the EFA Quality Assurance mechanisms through enhanced capacities of local education managers. UNESCO continues to assist international education development partners and MOET institutions to implement all EFA-FTI supported activities that aim to achieve EFA by 2015.