Japan’s Development Cooperation for Health in Vietnam: a First Holistic Assessment on Japan’s ODA and Non-ODA Public Resources Cooperation

Abstract BackgroundTo achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which is the core driver of health Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by 2030, Japan strives to strengthen its development cooperation by mobilizing various resources. However, the involvement and roles of various actors from Japan in development cooperation for health have not been revealed across various entities of the Japanese government or to the public. This study is the first to systematically assess the overall picture of Japan’s publicly funded cooperation mobilizing Official Development Assistance (ODA) and non-ODA public resources to improve people’s health in Vietnam. MethodsA cross-sectional analysis of Japanese publicly funded projects implemented for health cooperation in Vietnam during December 2016 was conducted. A framework based on the six building blocks of health system defined by the World Health Organization was adopted in order to assess the target projects. ResultsOverall, 68 projects implemented through Japanese public funding were included in the final analysis. These 68 projects under 15 types of schemes were managed by seven different scheme-operating organizations and funded by five ministries. Forty-four of these (64.7 %) were ODA and 24 (35.3 %) were non-ODA projects. Among the recategorized six building blocks of the health system, the focus area of 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. Only 10 % projects were conducted at the local level. This study was unable to capture the synergetic effects of potential collaboration or harmonization among Japanese funded projects.ConclusionsSeveral 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 Japanese projects that are diversifying. Furthermore, establishing a target-country-specific mechanism for strategic coordination across Japanese ministries’ schemes can yield efficient and effective development cooperation for health. Our analytic approach using the recategorized six building blocks contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of efforts on strengthening the health system.