TY - JOUR
T1 - Japan’s development cooperation for health in Vietnam
T2 - a first holistic assessment on Japan’s ODA and non-ODA public resources cooperation
AU - Lee, Sangnim
AU - Ishizuka, Aya
AU - Tachimori, Hisateru
AU - Uechi, Manami
AU - Akashi, Hidechika
AU - Hinoshita, Eiji
AU - Miyata, Hiroaki
AU - Shibuya, Kenji
N1 - Funding Information:
Universal health coverage (UHC) of quality and affordable essential health services for all is the core driver of health sustainable development goals (SDGs) []. For the world to achieve UHC by 2030, various resources need to be mobilized at the national and global levels [, ]. Japan was the fourth largest donor of disbursements in Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2019 []. Projects operated under the ODA funds are strategized and systematically managed under its funding ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and the implementation agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Funding Information:
We would like to thank the staff of the Japanese government, ministries, and agencies who collaborated to provide information on the projects and provided their opinions on the preliminary results. We would also like to thank Yoko Iwaki for assisting in the collection of project data, and the personnel who assisted in collecting health system information of Vietnam. Eiji Hinoshita is the director of the Ministry of Defense of Japan, but his views do not represent the views of his organization.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Background: Japan strives to strengthen its development cooperation by mobilizing various resources to assist partner countries advance on Universal Health Coverage by 2030. However, the involvement and roles of various actors for health are not clear. This study is the first to map Japan’s publicly funded projects by both Official Development Assistance (ODA) and other non-ODA public funds, and to describe the intervention areas. Further, the policy implications for country-specific cooperation strategies are discussed. The development cooperation for health in Vietnam is used as a case in this study. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of the Japanese publicly funded health projects that were being implemented in Vietnam during December 2016 was conducted. A framework of analysis based on the World Health Organization six health systems building blocks was adopted. The projects’ qualitative information was also assessed. Results: Overall, 68 projects implemented through Japanese public funding were analyzed. These 68 projects under 15 types of schemes were managed by seven different scheme-operating organizations and funded by five ministries. Of these 44 (64.7%) were ODA and 24 (35.3%) were non-ODA projects. Among the recategorized six building blocks of the health system, the largest proportion of projects was health service delivery (44%), followed by health workforces (25%), and health information systems (15%). Almost half the projects were implemented together with the central hospitals as Vietnamese counterparts, which suggests that this is one area in which the specificities of Japanese cooperation are demonstrated. No synergetic effects of potential collaboration or harmonization among Japanese funded projects were captured. Conclusions: Several Japanese-funded projects addressed a wide range of health issues across all six building blocks of the health system in Vietnam. However, there is room for improvement in developing coordination and harmonization among the diversified Japanese projects. Establishing a country-specific mechanism for strategic coordination across Japanese ministries’ schemes can yield efficient and effective development cooperation for health. While Vietnam’s dependence on external funding is low, the importance of coordination across domestic actors of the donor countries can serve as an important lesson, especially in beneficiary countries with high external funding dependency.
AB - Background: Japan strives to strengthen its development cooperation by mobilizing various resources to assist partner countries advance on Universal Health Coverage by 2030. However, the involvement and roles of various actors for health are not clear. This study is the first to map Japan’s publicly funded projects by both Official Development Assistance (ODA) and other non-ODA public funds, and to describe the intervention areas. Further, the policy implications for country-specific cooperation strategies are discussed. The development cooperation for health in Vietnam is used as a case in this study. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of the Japanese publicly funded health projects that were being implemented in Vietnam during December 2016 was conducted. A framework of analysis based on the World Health Organization six health systems building blocks was adopted. The projects’ qualitative information was also assessed. Results: Overall, 68 projects implemented through Japanese public funding were analyzed. These 68 projects under 15 types of schemes were managed by seven different scheme-operating organizations and funded by five ministries. Of these 44 (64.7%) were ODA and 24 (35.3%) were non-ODA projects. Among the recategorized six building blocks of the health system, the largest proportion of projects was health service delivery (44%), followed by health workforces (25%), and health information systems (15%). Almost half the projects were implemented together with the central hospitals as Vietnamese counterparts, which suggests that this is one area in which the specificities of Japanese cooperation are demonstrated. No synergetic effects of potential collaboration or harmonization among Japanese funded projects were captured. Conclusions: Several Japanese-funded projects addressed a wide range of health issues across all six building blocks of the health system in Vietnam. However, there is room for improvement in developing coordination and harmonization among the diversified Japanese projects. Establishing a country-specific mechanism for strategic coordination across Japanese ministries’ schemes can yield efficient and effective development cooperation for health. While Vietnam’s dependence on external funding is low, the importance of coordination across domestic actors of the donor countries can serve as an important lesson, especially in beneficiary countries with high external funding dependency.
KW - Development assistance for health
KW - Development cooperation
KW - Health policy
KW - Health system strengthening
KW - Health systems
KW - Japan
KW - ODA
KW - Project monitoring and evaluation
KW - UHC
KW - Vietnam
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U2 - 10.1186/s12889-021-12170-0
DO - 10.1186/s12889-021-12170-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 34837970
AN - SCOPUS:85119987340
VL - 21
JO - BMC Public Health
JF - BMC Public Health
SN - 1471-2458
IS - 1
M1 - 2175
ER -