3:26:33 PM | 7/8/2005
Under activities to mark Vietnam's 50th Anniversary of Doctor's Day (February 27), the Vietnam-Sweden Health Cooperation (VSHC) program arranged an exhibition on products and achievements gained from a ur-year implementation of the program at Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square. These are mostly initiated under the VSHC program with a focus on facilitating Health Policy and System Development 2002-2006.
Sweden began providing assistance to the health sector of Vietnam in the early 1970s. Swedish assistance for Vietnam was mirrored by eight agreements including many important changes in support methods, from giving aid through small projects involved into health base maintenance, drug and medical equipment supplies, and doctor competence improvement, to financing for some key health fields. Swedish assistance has made a strong impact on the health sector, advising the sector to build up effective and impartial institutions and policies in providing health care services, which aim to raise health conditions of residents nationwide, especially those in remote and poor areas.
Swedish support has mainly been provided for Vietnam through Sweden International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), a traditional donor in facilitating activeness and sovereignty of receivers, including Vietnam. Sweden has given its top priorities to the implementation of national policies, especially all-inclusive strategies on growth and poverty reduction worked out by the Vietnamese government.
To this end, a new cooperation agenda, the November 2002-October 2006 period, was opened and earmarked by the signature of the 9th agreement on Vietnam-Sweden health cooperation with total funding of 90 million SEK (krona). This program was established with the following criteria launched by health sector: “All people will benefit from initial health care services and have access to high-quality medical care services. All people will enjoy a safe living community with proper mental and physical growth.
Vietnam-Sweden Health Cooperation for Health Policy and System Development 2002-2006 is aimed at making and facilitating health policies; expanding the community-based health system in poverty-stricken areas; carrying out administrative reform in health sector; tightening pharmaceutical management; using safe drugs properly; opening community-based medical training courses; preventing and fighting harmful effects of cigarettes; limiting accidents and injuries; building up a safe community; and managing and coordinating projects.
According to a particular agreement on Vietnam-Sweden Health Cooperation for Health Policy and System Development 2002-2006, the Swedish assistance to the health sector will last until late October 2006.
As scheduled, a delegation from SIDA/Sweden will come to Vietnam in June 2005 to conduct a mid-term evaluation on the main achievements of the program and its impacts on the Ministry of Health in particular and the health sector in general. Apart from this, the delegation will also outline a method of support for the Vietnamese health sector in the years after 2006. After that, several meetings with emphasis on supporting methods will be held before the build-up of a framework of programs to support the Vietnamese health sector is officially accomplished.
In the short term, the Hanoi-based Embassy of Sweden/SIDA will join hands with the Vietnam-Sweden Health Cooperation program to draw experienced lessons, further complete medical care models, give guidance to the provision of health care activities, and, on this basis, submit health fields requiring further support to the ministry and SIDA/Sweden for consideration. At the moment, no field has been chosen as the most important, but it is certain that all these activities will be under the program’s priorities given by the two governments and under the Vietnamese all-inclusive strategies on growth and poverty reduction.
Benefiting from the Swedish support, the Vietnamese health sector has witnessed much improvement in medical equipment and infrastructure, gaining many significant achievements in raising the community’s health conditions. According to Tran Thi Trung Chien, Minister of Health of Vietnam, 2005 is a landmark year for the health sector to make an all-out effort to obtain its targets set in the five-year program 2001-2005. In particularl, the sector should formulate a proper health care policy for the poor and children under six years old. Thus, improving Vietnamese health staff’s medical competence and administrative standards at all levels in parallel with propagandizing primary knowledge of disease prevention, environmental protection, foodstuff safety and hygiene, and initial health care among people are considered as crucial duties for the health sector to raise the community’s health conditions.
Vietnam and Sweden share many similarities in the health sector, especially the effective and impartial objectives in providing medical health care for the people. The two sides expect further strengthening and achievements in health cooperation in the coming time,
Vietnamese
