HPG Meeting Quarter II/2016: Harmonization of development partner and ingo support

The meeting was jointly chaired by Dr. Tran Thi Giang Huong, Director General of International Cooperation Department, Ministry of Health; Mr. Alejandro Montalban Carrasco, Minister Counsellor, Head of Development and Cooperation Section, EU Delegation to Vietnam; Dr. Socorro Escalante, Health System Development Team Coordinator, WHO; and Ms. Dorothy Leab, CEO, Senior Human Resources for Health Specialist, GaneshAid. The whole-day meeting comprises of 3 main sessions. Session 1 provided the background on the situation of DP/INGO support for the health sector with overview from MOH, PACCOM, representative of INGOs and DOHs. This serves for the discussion on ways to optimize the strength of DPs/INGOs in health support. Session 2 introduces the online DP/INGO mapping database to support Viet Nam’s health sector, which aims to provide the Government, DPs and INGOs with information on development cooperation in the health sector that will help to maximize the impact of this support, in line with national health policies, strategies and plans. Session 3 devotes for group discussion with the overall theme: Harmonizing support to the grassroots health care system for 2016-2020. 

With 400 INGO projects for health sector in 2003-2015, the total committed amount recorded was 938 million and total disbursement was 807 million USD. Their intervention focuses on HRH development, infrastructure upgrade, national health care programs such as HIV/AIDS, nutrition, reproductive health, water and sanitation and rehabilitation for the disables. However, since 2013, INGOs have been facing drastic reduction in financial support from donors. According to PACCOM, only 2 out of 20 foreign NGOs could expand their budget, 5 out of 20 organizations could remain their status while 13 others have to narrow the budget.
Besides discussions on how the grassroots health system better deliver services for unfinished MDG targets, maternal and child health and nutrition, as well as how water and sanitation can be established to support achieve better health outcomes at the community level, the meeting also raised more attention and interest on NCDs and aging population in the linkage with grassroots health system. It was stated in the meeting that, there is a need to change the perspective on those issues, to look at them as factors that affect the productivity of the whole society instead of merely health issues.
The meeting ended at 17:00 of the same day.