Health policy processes in Vietnam: Findings from the HEPVIC project

The HEPVIC project goal is  to enhance the health policy-making processes in developing countries through a comparative study of three Asian countries – Vietnam, India and China, using maternal health as a case study. Health policy processe in Vietnam is a new subject that not many studies focussed. The study was adopted the qualitative research method with interviewing the key respondents and mapping, reviewing documents on the related policy areas.  This study aimed to understand the health policy process and explored the complex interplay among different influences on the health policy process, and four determinants of these processes: civil society, human resources, service delivery and the wider health system. Study in Vietnam consists of 3 cases of health policies including law on domestic violence prevention and control (DV), national master plan of safe motherhood (SBA) and national master plan for youth and adolescent health (ARH). The result shows that there was quite open decision making with broad actor involvement in policy development process in DV case compared to other cases. In all three cases, the policy development is evidence based and the government plays a key role. Role of civil society organizations was strong in ARH and DV case, while it was relatively weak in SBA case. In all three case studies, lack of integration of determinants during development process contributes to lack of feasibility of implementation.The results can be used as useful lesson for improving health policy process in the context of Vietnam.
*HEPVIC: Health policy making in Vietnam, India and China: key determinants and relationships.