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Nguyen Thi Bich HangCountry Director, MSI Reproductive Choices - Vietnam
"The Australian government’s support shows that the country is a pioneer in protecting sexual and reproductive health rights. Their approach is long-term, strategic and visionary and this has helped MSI to work on a phased-approach to create changes. This is critical for our programmes’ success because short-term funding is difficult to generate and makes it hard to sustain positive change." |
With more than 25 years at MSI in Vietnam, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Bich Hang has tirelessly pursued the fulfilment of MSI Reproductive Choices’ mission to “ensure the fundamental right for individuals to have children by choice, not chance”. She is confident that the sexual and reproductive (SRH) education and essential services that MSI brings to women contribute to saving and changing lives. Of these programs she is particularly proud of the long collaboration between MSI and the Australian government.
Since the early 2000s, MSI has conducted collaboration programmes with the health and population sectors in the northern mountainous and delta regions of Vietnam, as well as the central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. In these regions, poverty and birth rates were high, yet birth control means and medical staff capacity were very limited. With funding from the Australian government, for years MSI has provided training to public health officers and midwives at the commune and district levels on family planning methods and services; supported them in organising, coordinating and monitoring family planning services within the community; and helped improve the capacity of the end-line health system. “We are pretty proud because at that time AUSAID came here for an evaluation and gave official recognition to MSI,” Hang recalls.
Another landmark programme that would have been challenging for MSI to conduct with sustainable results without the seven-year-long funding from the Australian government was the first and largest ever model on social franchise in reproductive health care and birth control for the private health sector. MSI created a standardised training programme for 300 obstetrics and gynaecology clinics in seven provinces that touches on issues such as infection control, emergency obstetrics, family planning services and medical equipment support. The training was then extended to business management and marketing for these clinics.
After two to three years of training, customer’s satisfaction has increased up to 90%. The social franchise model for the private health sector has increased the number of service providers and safety for community-based clinics, as well as accessibility and service availability. Hang says: “The model is incredibly successful, and after 10 years it has served tens of millions of women.”
The third programme funded by the Australian government also targets another group of vulnerable women: female workers in industrial parks. Investement from the Australian government has enabled MSI to enhance the capacity of a clinic at a footwear manufacturing company that employs 90,000 workers, 80% of them women. After around three years of the programme, the number of workers visiting the factory’s clinic increased by 70% and the rate of unwanted pregnancies among women workers also decreased sharply. Despite initial hesitation, the company is very appreciative of the programme’s results.
In the two years between 2021 and 2023, MSI Reproductive Choices ran the Australia-funded project RESPOND, providing rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic through supporting industrial park workers and women in the Mekong Delta and Central Highlands with comprehensive health check-up and family planning services. The project also built a social media channel that offers health information for industrial park workers and women in rural areas, contributing to raising awareness on reproductive health and gender equality.
Hang said that she is proud that everywhere she goes, people know about collaboration between MSI and the Australian government, which has helped change the lives of numerous women among vulnerable groups in Vietnam, while also developing and strengthening the health system in the country.