The Secretariat of Health Partnership Group making plan for activities in 2017

18/12/2017 15:47

Quarterly HPG meetings and fieldtrips to provinces are the two routine activities of the HPG to implement milestones 1, 3, 6, 7 as set out in the Vietnam Health Partnership Document (VHPD). HPG meetings are organized on quarterly basis, with the first and last meetings co-chaired by the Minister of Health; and the other meetings by the Vice-Minister.

HPG meeting topics for policy dialogue respond to priority issues, or the most up to date issues of the health sector that are of interest and concern of the MOH, DPs including INGOs and stakeholders. At the HPG meetings, activities of Technical working group (TWGs) that involve specific technical work in different areas of health are shared. It is expected that discussion and follow-up actions that are agreed at the HPG meeting will be reported to MOH leaders and followed up by the MOH, DPs/INGOs and relevant partners under the coordination of the HPG Secretariat.

Health system financing is a priority of the Government and a number of DPs have been supporting this area.  In order to prepare for the efficient and timely allocation and mobilization of finance and resources both domestically and externally to implement the five-year health plan 2016-2020 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it was decided at the vice-ministerial level that the theme for the first HPG quarterly meeting of 2017 would be the health financing strategy. The topics of nutrition/stunting and air pollution have been proposed by the HPG Core Group as subsequent themes for the other two HPG meetings, considering the unfinished MDG agenda related to nutrition and stunting, and the increasingly pertinent agenda around  environment health and air pollution in the context of middle-income Viet Nam.  These are also priorities of the five-year health plan and targets under the SDG action plan. Departments and TWGs in charge of those topics (DPF, TWG on Nutrition and TWG on Environmental Health) will prepare specific proposals on this topic at the HPG meeting.

The HPG provincial meeting is also an annual activity of HPG which is sometimes conducted in the form of a HPG quarterly meeting depending on MOH and ICD leader workload. The HPG meeting at provincial level is a chance to enhance the linkage between central and local level as well as with development partners, thus major policies of the health sector could be discussed from different perspectives and be evidence-based. During HPG provincial meetings, practices and expectations from provinces were shared with stakeholders including issues of the health sector, policy issuance and implementation, procedures, coordination, process and sustainability of projects/programs.

The fieldtrips in 2017 are expected to bring more specific results which will effectively contribute to the implementation of the VHPD and strengthen the linkage between central and local levels. In addition, by working closely with ICD, development cooperation activities at provincial levels will be leveraged for local health development.

ICD will visit four provinces with the following tentative list and time (to be confirmed):

·         Thanh Hoa (June)

·         Da Nang (date TBC)

·         Binh Dinh (date TBC)

·         Tay Ninh (date TBC)

This DFC therefore comprises of the routine activities of the HPG including four quarterly HPG meetings (one of which will be organized at the provincial level) and four fieldtrips to selected provinces.​