HPG Provincial Meeting 2015 in Yen Bai

02/03/2015 09:39 0 View

HPG Provincial Meeting 2015 in Yen Bai: Overview of health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) attainment in Viet Nam

On November 3rd, 2015 at Yen Bai Convention Center, the Provincial HPG Meeting of 2015 was convened with Dr. Tran Thi Giang Huong, ICD Director General as the chair, Ms. Ritsu Nacken, Acting Representative, UNFPA Vietnam Country Office and Ms. Ngo Thi Chinh, Vice Chairman of Yen Bai People’s Committee as the co-chairs. The meeting witnessed the participation of Departments, Administrations, General Administrations and other agencies under MOH, international cooperation organizations, INGOs as well as representatives of Department of Health from more than 20 provinces – cities nationwide, especially northern mountainous provinces.

This is the activity within the framework of the working plan of the Health Partnership Group (HPG) in order to improve the linkage and discussion between central and local level on the development and implementation of health policies aiming to enhance aid effectiveness at provinces.

During the past 15 years, Vietnam has actively implemented activities in order to reach Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and was evaluated as one of ten countries worldwide to successfully achieve a number of health-related MDGs such as reduce fatality rate in mother and children under 5 years old, improve sanitation and clean water in rural areas for higher living standards. However, regional disparities remain to be the significant problem when disadvantaged and remote mountainous areas face a lot of difficulties during the implementation of the goals.

Participants mentioned human resource issue and lack of multi-sector coordination as the main challenges and barriers of the process. Also, the meeting proposed initiatives and solutions in order to maintain current achievements as well as continue to finish the MDGs in the coming years, in the mean time preparing for the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs) for the next phase which was approved by the United Nations.

In the afternoon, the delegation visited Yen Hung commune health station, Mau Dong commune health station and Van Yen district health center. Those are two disadvantaged communes of the area with limited health facilities. However, commune health workers were recognized to be passionate and active in propagating to raise awareness of the people on health care. Van Yen district health center is the multi-functional health center covering both preventive medicine and medical services. The health center is evaluated to be one of the most active and busy health centers in the area which receives a lot of patients per day.

At the end of the meeting, chair and co-chairs confirmed about the importance of overcoming the disparities between regions, enhancing human resources for health as well as boosting the cooperation between sectors in performing MDGs and SDGs. Dr. Tran Thi Giang Huong also highlighted that the Ministry of Health would pay more attention to facilitate health departments, especially in remote and disadvantaged areas.

Meeting materials:

HPG Yen Bai Meeting Minutes (EN)

HPG Yen Bai Meeting Minutes (VN)

DPF’s Presentation on MDGs & SDGs (EN)

DPF’s Presentation on MDGs & SDGs (VN)

WHO’s Presentation on SDGs (EN)

Report from Văn Yên district hospital (VN)

Report from Mậu Đông commune health station (VN)

Report from Yên Hưng commune health station (VN)

Inputs from provinces (VN)