On 14th July, a seminar for Experience Sharing of RH Promotion in Nghe An Province for Future Action was held in Hanoi. Around 100 people associated with and interested in the project, including representatives from government, international agencies, bilateral and multilateral agencies, national and international NGOs, JICA and project management attended.

Participants at the seminar

In an opening speech, H.E. Norio Hattori, Ambassador of Japan, reminisced how years ago he had spearheaded a JOICFP reproductive health (RH) project being included in a JICA project, paving the way for future GO-NGO collaboration, and he commended all those involved with the Nghe An project for their perseverance and dedication to RH.

Hattori said that the Nghe An project was particularly important as it related to the dignity of women, and in improving the status of women in society, society can become human and equitable.

H.E. Norio Hattori, who spearheaded the inclusion of RH
in JICA projects

Hattori was followed by Fumio Kikuchi, Resident Representative, JICA Vietnam, who mentioned how the project now covered all 469 communes of Nghe An, despite its topographical diversity.

He emphasized that JICA promoted human security by supporting people in developing countries, and through this the MDGs as well. JICA, he said, had given great attention to community ownership and participation to help ensure sustainability, and strong partnership between the people of Nghe An and JICA experts had contributed to the project's success.

Kikuchi finished by speaking of his desire for the project's experience to be disseminated to other provinces in Vietnam.

Human security and MDGs

In a seminar session, Mayumi Katsube, Team Leader, gave an overview of the project and its experiences, as well as lessons learned. Click here for a PowerPoint presentation of her lecture.

Katsube was followed by Dr. Nguyen Ba Tan, who spoke about activities to sustain and improve the quality of RH care in Nghe An from 2006 to 2010.

Dr. Tan showed the efforts of the project steering committee, and how safe and hygienic delivery, monitoring, abortion reduction, detection of RTIs, IEC and improvement of the health management information system were all being strengthened and promoted. In this way, he said, the Nghe An MCH/FP Center would become a model center for the promotion of RH care.

Population Council representatives gave an outline of the results of the final assessment it carried out in 2005, and were followed by Sumie Ishii, Executive Director, JOICFP, who showed how RH can contribute to achieving the MDGs. (Click here for a copy of the Population Council's presentation)

Ishii explained that, according to the UN Millennium Project Report 2004, progress on MDG 5, reducing maternal mortality by 75%, was the least progressed in South-East Asia. Although progress had been made, she said, much more investment was still needed, and that a well-functioning health system was at the heart of the health-related MDGs.

She then explained how JICA projects were different from other donors' by illustrating the seven points that focus on human security, and she finished by highlighting the major achievements of the project.

Click here for a PowerPoint presentation of Ishii's speech

Jane Hughes, Population Council, gave a comment on the sessions and the final assessment. Hughes highlighted three points for long-term capacity building by donors: flexibility, commitment and patience, and placed high value on, for example, JICA's strategy of keeping long-term experts in the field. Click here for a copy of the council's executive summary of the project.

Future action

The strong commitment by the Vietnamese government to improve the project has supported the people of Nghe An to be confident in sharing their experiences with all interested parties. Both sustainability, and the recording and reporting results, both in English and Vietnamese, were expected to be continuous and successful as a result of the government's and people's determination to improve the RH situation, especially that of women.