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On October 6th, 2024 Vietnam’s Ministry of Health (MOH) approved a revision of the national guideline for providing reproductive health services. HealthBridge is proud to have collaborated with the MOH in this important process.

The national guideline on provision of reproductive health services was first approved in Vietnam in 2001 and updated in 2009 and again in 2016. It serves as the national standard for all reproductive health services, and provides a practical manual for health workers. In August 2023, the MOH invited HealthBridge to support the review and updating process of the guideline’s adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) chapter. Throughout this process, HealthBridge participated in multiple technical meetings, offering insights and recommendations for improvement.

Earlier in the year HealthBridge supported the MOH in organizing a two-day consultation workshop in Son La, which is a remote and mountainous province home to many ethnic minority groups. Twenty-four health care providers from the CDC office, district health centers, and commune health stations who were either from ethnic minorities themselves or who worked in ethnic minority communities joined the workshop. During the workshop they reviewed the content of the ASRH chapter and shared practical feedback on the topics covered in the guideline such as the physical and psychological features of adolescents; puberty; important soft skills for adolescents; sexuality, gender and gender identity; providing reproductive health services for adolescents; birth control methods for adolescents; and youth friendly services, to ensure that the content was culturally and context appropriate.
Dr. Vu Thi Tuyet Mai, senior officer from the MOH’s Mother and Child Health Department attended the workshop and shared the following,

"It is important that we have a chance to meet a variety of health staff here, since they are persons who will use the guideline in their daily work. Therefore, their feedback is valuable. Today, we also received inputs from health staff who are ethnic minority people, or who are providing services for ethnic minority communities. That perspective is important too."
The updated guideline on provision of reproductive health services, including ASRH services, has been shared across all 63 provinces of Vietnam through the MOH’s network. Further trainings on this guideline will be carried out by the MOH in the coming months.
