Blog 10

                                

Vietnam 

    Vietnam used to be one of the poorest countries back in the 1980s, but as years have passed the government has prioritized the improvement of the country. By creating and adapting different programs that focus on the development process, Vietnam was able to become a lower-middle-income country in 2010. To continue the ongoing development, Vietnam started the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals to show its commitment to using all resources and the participation of government ministries, organizations, communities, and the people (Noi, 2018.)

Implementation and Monitoring of SDG 3     

    Vietnam is part of the 2030 Agenda with hopes of addressing 17 SDGs and 115 specific targets that focus on improving the development of the country. The 2030 Agenda has adopted Vietnam’s other program implementation, the Socio-Economic Development Strategy, a ten-year strategy that focuses on the development policy system, and socio-economic development strategies. Vietnam has started the implementation of SDG 3 by establishing laws that address different health issues in different target groups. For example, some laws include Law on Health Insurance, the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, the Law on Children, the Law on HIV/AIDS, the Law on Tobacco Control, and the Law on the Elderly (Noi, 2018.) Aside from the already developed strategies, the 2030 Agenda has planned other strategies for the upcoming years.

Agenda Cost 

    For Vietnam to be able to achieve the development of SDG 3 and other goals, the government must mobilize all resources. Enterprises and the private sector will have to cooperate to effectively finance the development goals by improving tax systems and policies, public finance, and debt management. The participation and cooperation of all national agencies are essential to set up the framework of the sustainable goals alongside the SEDP (Noi, 2018.) Results from previous years regarding the implementation of SDG 3 and other programs show an estimate of how much the budget was used to finance the implementation of the programs. For example, in 2016 Vietnam spent about 2.8 million Vietnamese Đồng (US$129) per capita for all health-related spendings (Teo et al., 2019.)

Issue 

    Vietnam is one of the most affected countries by climate change, which makes the country and its people more vulnerable. This can overall affect the development of the SDGs because natural disasters could get in the way of the process of implementation of certain SDGs. Climate change directly affects the health of the people, environmental pollution increases out-of-scope health risks (Noi, 2018.) Aside from being affected by climate change, the country suffers from different health issues, such as the spread of communicable diseases, inequalities between groups of people in terms of health status, the burden of disease, and limited access to health care services. Another major issue that Vietnam hopes to improve is reducing the rates of child mortality. High rates of child mortality are caused by the lack of nutritious and reliable food sources that are mainly due to the inequality and inaccessibility of healthcare (Long, 2020.) To able to successfully achieve all the SDGs, technical and human resources, financial support, and is required (Noi, 2018.)

Health Resources

    One of the major reasons why the health status of the public in Vietnam is low is because of the inadequate amount of healthcare workers. The healthcare needs of the people are not being met because of the lack of workers, supplies, and practical needs. For instance, in 2015 the number of physicians was about 8 per 10,000, which is low compared to other countries in Southeast Asia. Certain health fields such as mental health, cancer, and palliative health have an even lower amount of healthcare workers specialized in those fields. The few available health workers don’t have the proper training or equipment to effectively service every individual. There are limitations to a variety of opportunities for advanced diagnosis and treatment methods ( Takashima et al. 2017.)

Addressed and Prioritized 

    As mentioned before, Vietnam has taken the initiative to address the different issues the country faces. The government has prioritized the improvement of the health status of the people, to do these steps have been taken to achieve SDG 3. Different key policies have been created, policies that focus on improving the coverage of health insurance for different groups, improve the different sources of treatment a patient can receive, improvement of maternal health, controlling the spread of tuberculosis, increasing the access to essential health services and overall the improvement of public health (Noi, 2018.)

References

Nam. (2019.) [patients being treated for dengue fever at a public hospital in Hanoi] [Photograph.] https://theaseanpost.com/article/vietnams-impressive-health-care-strategy

Noi, H. (2018). VIET NAM’S VOLUNTARY NATIONAL REVIEW ON THE IMPLEMENTATION. Retrieved December 5, 2020, from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/19967VNR_of_Viet_Nam.pdf

Long, J. (2020, September 16). Updates on SDG Goal 3 in Vietnam: Good Health & Well-Being. Retrieved December 05, 2020, from https://borgenproject.org/sdg-goal-3-in-vietnam/

Takashima, K., Wada, K., Tra, T., & Smith, D. (2017, October 30). A review of Vietnam's healthcare reform through the Direction of Healthcare Activities (DOHA). Retrieved December 05, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664805/

Teo, H., Bales, S., Bredenkamp, C., & Cain, J. (2019, June). The future of health financing in Vietnam. Retrieved December 5, 2020, from http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/222831563548465796/pdf/The-Future-of-Health-Financing-in-Vietnam-Ensuring-Sufficiency-Efficiency-and-Sustainability.pdf

Wikipedia. (n.d.) [Flag map of Vietnam.] [Photograph.] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_map_of_Greater_Vietnam.png