The Health Partnership Group (HPG) met for the last time this Lunar Year, to discuss the National Action Plan to implement the SDGs including the health-related targets, in line with sectoral policies, strategies and plans. This was the first sectoral-focused discussion on the SDGs following the drafting of the SDG National Action Plan.
The meeting was co-chaired by the Minister of Health (MOH) Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Tien and UNRC a.i. Mr Youssouf Abdel-Jelil. Over 200 people participated in the meeting – including the MOH and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), other ministries, research institutes, provincial departments of health, development partners (the UN and bilateral development agencies), INGOs, CSOs, and the private sector.
The opening remarks of the co-chair, Mr Youssouf Abdel-Jelil, commended the Government for moving swiftly to develop its National Action Plan in the first year that the SDGs came into force. They highlighted the centrality of health to sustainable development, positioning health as a development agenda – a contributor to as well as a beneficiary of the other SDGs.
MPI's sustainable development office shared the content and process for developing the National Plan and the Government's intentions for coordinating efforts and assigning responsibility to the relevant ministries. The MOH's Department of Planning and Financing shared the Ministry's plan for implementing the health-related SDG targets in alignment with the 5-year health sector plan, highlighting the unfinished agenda of the MDGs and the new agenda including efforts to strengthen the health system and deliver UHC.
Development partners (DP) responded to these presentations with a commitment to supporting SDG implementation. A consolidated DP presentation emphasized that the need for intensified efforts to tackle health inequities if the country is to achieve sustainable improvements in the health of the population. They called for the MOH to initiate a multisectoral, multistakeholder consultation on the implementation of the health-related SDGs, and to formally request that DPs/INGOs articulate their support to the implementation of the SDG National Action Plan and participate in the monitoring and evaluation of their contributions.