Abstract
PATH’s Enhancing Equity and Sustainability of Public-Sector Family Planning (EE) project aims to support the government of Vietnam as it plans how to coordinate the country’s full range of family planning (FP) service providers—including the public and commercial private providers, social marketing groups, and nongovernmental organizations—to serve the diverse needs of their population.
Women in Vietnam have more access to contraceptives and reproductive health (RH) services than ever before. Thanks to the hard work of the government, a successful family planning program exists and free contraceptives are widely available, contributing to an impressive rate of social and economic development. It is because of this economic development that international donors of contraceptives are shifting their support to countries with greater need.
While external funding decreases, the demand for family planning services is increasing. The government must find a way to ensure access to these important services despite decreased external funding. PATH is helping the government of Vietnam to design a total market approach to family planning. A total market approach calls for a coordinated response by the full range of family planning service providers to meet a population’s diverse needs. In other words, the public sector, social marketing groups, nongovernmental organizations, and the commercial sector are all part of one market working together to serve everyone—including those who require free or low-cost supplies and those who are able to pay. By acting as the steward for the country’s family planning services and leading the coordination of a total market approach, the government is able to focus its limited resources on family planning service provision for the underserved. The remaining sectors can serve those who are able to pay, ensuring all segments of the family planning market have access to services and that there is a consistent supply of contraceptives available to those who need them. A key component of the project is to help the government draft an operational plan for public-sector contraceptive distribution to these targeted market segments.