EU pledges continuing support for Vietnam’s health sector

Nhan Dan Online – The European Union (EU) has pledged additional aid worth over EUR100 million to Vietnam’s health sector within the next three years, aiming to improve healthcare quality in disadvantaged localities. 

The HSCSP works to facilitate reforms in the health sector. (file photo).
The HSCSP works to facilitate reforms in the health sector. (file photo).

Deputy Minister of Health, Pham Le Tuan announced the information at a conference opening in Hanoi on September 16 to review five years (2009-2014) of the Health Sector Capacity Support Project (HSCSP).

The EU’s continuing support came as a result of Vietnam’s successful implementation of the EU-financed HSCSP, the master target of which was to improve Vietnamese people’s health, especially poor and near-poor ones, moving towards alleviating poverty and realising health-related millennium development goals.

The HSCSP began operation in April 2009 and was completed in September 2014 in three pilot provinces (Bac Ninh, Bac Giang and Ha Nam) and 15 partnering provinces (Dien Bien, Son La, Lai Chau, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Hue, Da Nang, Vinh Long and Kien Giang).

The EUR16.1 million project – with EUR14.7 million in ODA loans from the EU and EUR1.4 million in counterpart capital – aimed to support the capacity of the health sector in four areas of policy formulation, planning and budgeting; management and regulation; coordination; and quality service delivery.

The project yielded encouraging results in the four focused areas, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said, adding that it worked to facilitate the health sector reform efforts and paved the way for a programme-based approach for co-operation projects between the EU, Ministry of Health and relevant development partners.

Regarding the EU’s new aid package for Vietnam’s health sector from 2015-2017, the funding for health activity implementation will be sent to the Vietnamese government so that it will be allocated to each beneficiary locality.

Accordingly, the supported localities will have to show improvements in some criteria, such as increasing participation in health insurance among assisted residents, increasing the rate of pregnancy healthcare and reducing the percentage of child mortality and malnutrition.