ASIA
Vietnam

The Population Council began work in Vietnam in 1989. In 1996, it opened an office in Hanoi.

Program Focus

In Vietnam, the Council collaborates with local partners to address national priorities by building new research capacity, expanding practical knowledge, and assisting evidence-driven implementation at the points where services meet people. In 2007, the focus sharpened. The Vietnam office’s country strategy aims to produce distinctive evidence and results that advance two complementary sets of priorities: (1) the Council’s own three program areas, and (2) the overarching priorities of the government and key donors—reducing poverty, in particular among ethnic minorities and poor residents of remote and mountainous areas; meeting other UN Millennium Development Goals; and increasing the supply of young professionals with advanced skills in research.

Highlights of Past and Present Work

• In 2007, the government of Vietnam used Council evidence and staff expertise from a decade of studies of domestic violence against women for direct input into national policy. Council staff participated in the National Assembly’s drafting group for the first law on domestic violence, and as leader of the group convened by the Ministry of Health helped to draft the addition of domestic violence to the national policy and guidelines on reproductive health.
• Completed a prospective evaluation of the first youth-friendly reproductive health services models to be introduced in public health sector settings in Vietnam. Evidence from this study is currently being used by the Ministry of Health to guide expansion to five more provinces, as well as to improve the three existing sites in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and the Mekong River delta.
• Completed a mixed-method study of ethnic minority young people aged 15–29 and their families in mountainous villages of Thai Nguyen province. The evidence sheds new light on economic and social change in remote areas, and on young people’s perceptions and behaviors concerning health (with a focus on sexual and reproductive health), education, marriage, and work. The Council is seeking funder(s) for intervention research to compare the situations of young people across ethnic minority groups and within the majority group, in the context of Vietnam’s pro-poor policies.
• The Council is most appreciated for the ten-year (1996–2005) fellowship program that supported 126 Vietnamese health professionals working to obtain master’s degrees abroad in public health or health-related social sciences. A strong indicator of the leverage and impact of this program is that 20 percent of the Council’s former fellows have progressed to doctoral-level study, all supported by other donors or by the Government of Vietnam. The Council stays in close contact with the fellows to help them sustain strong links to research and family in Vietnam. Those already returned are among the nation’s most productive young researchers, teaching faculty, and policy experts.

Selected Projects

Current Projects

• Primary Health-Care-Improvement Initiative: Dissemination of Findings and Micropilot Use of Evidence (7/07–6/09)

• Health Research for Development Initiative (HRDI) (7/04–12/08)

• Policy Implementation and Service Delivery of Medical Abortion (7/07–3/08)

• Findings from Recent and Ongoing Youth and Family Studies (ongoing)

Completed Projects

• Preintervention Assessments of Primary Health-Care and Prevention Services at Commune Level in Three Provinces in Vietnam (completed 12/07)
• Reducing HIV/AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination in the Health Care Setting in Vietnam (completed 7/07)
• Expanding Workplace HIV/STI Prevention Activities for Migrant Construction Workers (completed 1/03)

---

See Also

• Contact Information for Vietnam
• Publications/Resources on Vietnam
• Vietnam Fellowship Program

---

Print this page

@ E-mail this page

This page updated 18 August 2008

---