National workshop on sustaining HEMA strategies and institutionalisation

December 20, 2012 | 13:20

(0) user say

The two-day national workshop on sustaining strategies and institutionalisation of the “Healthcare Support to the Poor of the Northern Uplands and Central Highlands” (HEMA) project with communication support from the Health Sector Capacity Support Project (HSCSP) opened today in Hanoi.

The workshop aims at four specific objectives including reporting and assessing the achievements of HEMA, disseminating lessons learnt, discussing ways forward on cooperation and the vision of the European Union’s (EU) cooperation in Vietnam’s healthcare sector.

Health is one of the two main sectors which the EU continues to provide assistance to Vietnam. For the 2007-2013 period, the EU allocates more than 40 per cent of its overall official development assistance (ODA) funds to this sector, equivalent to 110 million EUR. This makes the EU the largest provider of ODA grant in the health sector in Vietnam. The majority of EU financial support to this sector is allocated to improving institutional capacity and supporting health sector reforms and policies.

HEMA is funded by the EU and implementted in Vietnam to help improve the health conditions of the poor living in the mountainous and other remote areas in particular members of the ethnic gorups in the five project provinces of Lai Chau, Dien Bien and Son La in the north, and Kontum and Gia Lai in the Central Highlands.

The implementation period was initially from 2006 and 2010 and later extended to 2012. The project’s specific objectives are to assure the provision of good quality preventive and curative services and improvement of people’s healthcare in the project provinces.