Since the mid 1990s Viet Nam has made major progress in the field of health. Today, it ranks among the region’s leaders in terms of key health indicators. Average life expectancy among the Vietnamese population is now around 70, and child mortality rates have been brought down to 30 per 1,000 live births. The child immunisation rate is around 90%. The country’s efforts to manage population growth have also proven successful, with the fertility rate dropping from 3.8 births per woman in 1989 to 2.2  in 2004.

In recent years, the Government has responded to a range of public health threats, including malaria, SARS, bird flu and the recent A/H1N1 flu subtype, by implementing effective strategies and providing the required medication. International support, including from GTZ’s programmes, contributed greatly to these success stories.

While the country’s health situation is positive overall, rural regions – home to the majority of Viet Nam’s poor population groups and ethnic communities – still face considerable shortcomings in this area. The delivery of basic, quality-assured health care services in rural areas is still insufficient. Existing medical equipment and materials, particularly at the lower levels of the health system, are typically outdated and fail to meet modern standards, so health care take-up rates are generally low. Also, the health system needs to be adapted to the country’s rapid demographic change, which is leading to higher incidences of lifestyle diseases and associated symptoms.

In response to these specific challenges, in 1994 GTZ began to implement a number of bilateral health projects in Viet Nam on behalf of the German Government. Under the programme ‘Strengthening Provincial Health Systems’, five provinces are receiving advice on improving and strengthening high-quality, needs-based health care.

The Vietnamese Government attaches high priority to improving preventive and curative health services and giving poor and disadvantaged population groups better access to health care. It is currently drawing up a five-year development plan for the period 2011 to 2015 that aims to comprehensively reform and modernise the health system, raise the quality of preventive and curative health care at all levels, and better protect the population against inappropriate health care expenditure.