The commitment was made byMandeep K.O’Brien, Acting Chief Representative of the UN Population Fund(UNFDA) at a press conference held in Hanoi on July 10 marking WorldPopulation Day (July 11).
The official acknowledgedthe achievements Vietnam recorded in the process of implementing theMillennium Development Goals (MDG) related to healthcare, includingreproductive healthcare services.
Addressing theevent, Nguyen Viet Tien, Deputy Minister of Health, affirmed that theParty and State have issued many guidelines and policies to speed up thework on population and reproductive health. After 10 years ofimplementing the Vietnam Population Strategy and National Strategy onReproductive Health for 2001-2010, significant achievements have beenmade, measurably contributing to socio-economic development.
The country has made important steps in providing family planningservices, safe motherhood and healthcare for newborns. The rate ofmaternity death has been reduced three times from 233 per 100,000 livebirths in 1990 to 69 per 100,000 live births in 2009.
According to Duong Quoc Trong, General Director of the General Officefor Population and Family Planning, Vietnam used to be known asone of the countries having one of the highest abortion rates. However,in recent years, thanks to family planning and contraceptive methods,the rate has been brought down considerably. The abortion rate in womenin age group 15-49 in 2000 was 1.3 percent, down to 0.6 percent in 2010.
However, it is still difficult for some populationgroups like juveniles, unmarried women, migrants, ethnic minorities andthe elderly to access information and services on sexual andreproductive health. Unwanted pregnancies and abortion rates are stillvery high amongst young and unmarried individuals.
In Vietnam’s Population and Reproductive Health Strategy for2011-2020 term approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in November2011, safe motherhood continues to be a priority, with the aim to reducematernity and newborn deaths, especially in ethnic minority and remoteareas.
With the theme “Universal Access toReproductive Health Services”, this year’s World Population Day aims tostrengthen commitments towards reproductive health for women. The dayalso acknowledges contributions of organisations and individuals inproviding information and services for women to satisfy the MDG ofachieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015.-VNA