DECISION No. 147/2000/QD-TTg OF DECEMBER 22, 2000 ON RATIFYING THE VIETNAM POPULATION STRATEGY FOR THE PERIOD 2001-2010

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated September 30, 1992;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 17/2000/NQ-CP dated November 6, 2000 of the Government at its Regular Meeting in October 2000; and

Upon the proposal of the Minister-Chairman of the National Population and Family Planning Committee, in Report No. 752/UB/VP of November 30, 2000,

DECIDES:

Article 1:To ratify the Vietnam Population Strategy for the period 2001-2010 with the following principal contents:

1. Viewpoint
   
   
   1. Population activities constitute an important part of the national development strategy, one of the basic goals of which is to raise the quality of life of each person, each family and the entire society, making decisive contributions to the industrialization and modernization of the country.
      
      
   2. To regulate synchronously, step by step and with periodic emphasis the relationship between the size and the quality of the population, between the development of the population and the development of the source of manpower, and between the distribution and the movement of the population and socio-economic development is the central task of population work, with priority being given to the areas of the country with high birth rates, poor regions and remote areas in order to solve population problems and raise the living standard of the population.
      
      
   3. To invest in population work is to invest in sustainable development that brings about direct, indirect and tangible socio-economic effects. The State shall ensure enough funding for population work and at the same time shall mobilize contributions from the community and strive to obtain international aid.
      
      
   4. To promote the dissemination of information and education on population and development combined with the comprehensive and effective implementation of the Reproductive Health and Family Planning Program, strengthening the role of the family and achieving gender equality in the domain of reproductive health and family planning are basic measures for ensuring the sustainability of the population and development program.
      
      
   5. To strengthen the leadership and guidance of the Party and the administration at all levels for the implementation of population work and to accelerate socialization are determining factors for the success of the population and development program.
      
      
2. Objectives of the Strategy
   
   
   1. Overall objective:
      
      To build families with fewer and healthier children, with the aim of eventually stabilizing the size of the population at a reasonable level in order to achieve a prosperous and happy life. To raise the quality of the population, to develop high quality human resources in order to meet the needs of industrialization, and modernization and contribute to the rapid and sustainable development of the country.
      
      
   2. Concrete objectives:
      
      
      • Objective 1: To maintain steadfastly the trend of lowering the birth rate in order to achieve the replacement level of fertility for the entire country at the latest by 2005, and by 2010 in the remote and poor areas so that, by that time, the size, composition and distribution of the population will be in conformity with the country's level of socio-economic development.
      • Objective 2: To raise the quality of the population physically, intellectually and spiritually. To strive to attain a more advanced Human Development Index (HDI) score by the year 2010.
      
      
      
3. Main solutions
   
   
   1. Leadership, organization and management.
      
      To strengthen, consolidate and stabilize the organization of population work at all levels, especially at the grassroots, in order to ensure the effective implementation of the population and development program. To enhance the leadership and guidance by the Party and administration at all levels over population work. To carry out effectively State management of population work, to develop to the highest level active cooperation among those concerned with the State management of population work, to develop to the highest level active cooperation among the State agencies and the organizations taking part in population work.
      
      
   2. Communication and education on change of habits.
      
      To create a sustainable change of habits in terms of population, reproductive health and family planning on the basis of supplying, adequately and accurately, information appropriate in content and form to each sector, area and group. To attach importance to such forms of communication as consultancy, dialogue, direct persuasion of the couples of reproductive age, men, youth and minors. To focus advocacy and education activities on those regions of the country with difficult socio-economic conditions and groups where knowledge is still limited. To broaden the forms of education and to raise the quality of population education in schools and outside the formal school system.
      
      
   3. Reproductive health care and family planning.
      
      To raise the quality of reproductive health care and family planning services, appropriate in content and form, within the framework of primary health care and eventually to satisfy the needs of the population with regard to reproductive health care and family planning, to limit unwanted pregnancies to the lowest level, to strongly reduce the abortion rate, especially abortion among adolescents, and contribute to raising the quality of the population.
      
      
   4. To raise the quality of population information and data.
      
      To raise the capacity for collecting, processing and supplying information and data on population, to continue strengthening the system for managing and registering population data at the related ministries and branches, to meet the need for appraising the results in implementing the population Strategy and programs; to ensure effective integration of population factors into the process of formulating development policies and plans in order to regulate socio-economic development, and population distribution in conformity with the changes in the population.
      
      
   5. To raise the people's intellectual standard and strengthen the role of the family, and gender equality.
      
      To raise the people's intellectual standard and strengthen the role of the family and foster gender equality in order to contribute to raising the quality of the population physically, intellectually and spiritually.
      
      
   6. To promote socialization, to build and improve the system of policies on population and development.
      
      To mobilize the integrated strength of the entire society to take part in population work, to create favorable conditions for each individual, each family and the entire community to take part voluntarily and actively in population work. To build and complete the system of population policies associated with development, to create the legal basis and motivation for the process of organization and implementation. To promulgate as soon as possible the Population Ordinance aimed at increasing the effectiveness of State management through law in population work.
      
      
   7. Funding
      
      To effectively allocate and use the different sources of funding. In the immediate future, the State shall assure funding from the budget for population activities, at the same time encourage the mobilization of other sources in the country and from abroad for these activities. In the long term, to strive to achieve an investment level of US$0.6/year per capita for population purposes, of which the State budget shall assure 60%-80%, the rest to be mobilized from sources in the country and from abroad.
      
      
   8. Training and research.
      
      To raise the quality of training for persons working in the population field in order to meet the requirements of the Strategy. To promote practical and high quality scientific research aimed at ensuring the scientific and practical basis for the implementation of the Strategy.
      
      
4. Programs of action involved in the Strategy
   
   
   1. The Program for Raising the Managerial Capacity of Population Workers in the period 2001-2010: Responsible agency: National Population and Family Planning Committee. Main coordinating agency: the Ministry of Education and Training.
      
      
   2. The Program of Advocacy and Education on Changing Habits in the period 2001-2005. Responsible agencies: the National Population and Family Planning Committee. Main coordinating agency: the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Culture and Information, the mass media, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations.
      
      
   3. The Program of Reproductive Health Care and Family Planning in the period 2001-2010. Responsible agency: the Ministry of Health. Main coordinating agencies: the National Population and Family Planning Committee, the Vietnam Family Planning Society.
      
      
   4. The Program for Raising the Quality of Population Information and Data in the period 2001-2010. Responsible agency: the National Population and Family Planning Committee. Main coordinating agencies: the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and the General Statistics Office.
      
      
   5. Program of Research on Questions Related to the Quality of the Population in the period 2001-2010. Responsible agencies: the National Population and Family Planning Committee and the Ministry of Health. Main coordinating agencies: the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and the Ministry of Defence.
      
      
   6. Program of Integration of Population with the Sustainable Development of the Family through Credit and Savings Activities and the Development of the Family Economy in the period 2001-2010. Responsible agency: the National Population and Family Planning Committee. Main coordinating agencies: the State Bank of Vietnam and the Vietnam Women's Union.
      
      
   7. Program of Strengthening the Service of Reproductive Health Care and Family Planning for Poor Regions Facing Difficulties and Remote Areas in the period 2001-2005. Responsible agencies: the National Population and Family Planning Committee and the Ministry of Health. Main coordinating agencies: the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Regions Commission, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations.
      
      
5. The Strategy shall be implemented in two stages
   
   
   1. Stage I (2001-2005):
      
      To concentrate all efforts on achieving a steadfast reduction of the birth rate, with special emphasis on the areas with high birth rates, aimed at achieving the replacement level of fertility in the entire country by the year 2005 at the latest. To begin deploying pilot models and solutions for raising the quality of the population. To concentrate advocacy activities in order to change the reproductive habits of couples and provide reproductive health care and family planning services in remote and poor areas and mountainous regions where the birth rate is high, through the organization of integrated campaigns. To build a system of national databases on population on the basis of expanding the pilot models which have been successfully implemented.
      
      
   2. Stage II (2006-2010):
      
      To carry out synchronously the contents of the reproductive health care and family planning program aimed at maintaining the average rate for the entire country at the replacement level. To continue improving and broadening the models of intervention and measures aimed at raising the quality of the population. To further improve the national databases on population on a national scale.
      
      
   
   

Article 2: Organization of implementation

1. To assign to the National Population and Family Planning Committee the task of assuming the primary responsibility for coordinating with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, and related ministries and branches and People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities in organizing the implementation of the Population Strategy of Vietnam in the period 2001-2010.
   
   
2. On the basis of this Strategy, the National Population and Family Planning Committee shall assume the principal responsibility and coordinate with the related ministries and branches and People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities in building and organizing the implementation of the programs of action every five years and annually in conformity with the socio-economic plans for the development of the country in the same period; to guide, inspect, supervise and sum up the situation of the implementation of the Strategy annually in order to report to the Prime Minister; to organize a review of the situation in implementing the Strategy in 2005 and to make a general review of the implementation of the Strategy by the year 2010.
   
   
3. Based on this Strategy, the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall work out and direct the implementation of their five-year and annual plans of action in line with the implementation of the socio-economic development plans of their respective localities in the same period and make periodic integrated reports to the Minister-Chairman of the National Population and Family Planning Committee and the Minister of Health.
   
   
4. The agencies responsible for the programs of action of this Strategy stipulated in Clause 4, Article 1 of this Decision shall have to work out and organize the implementation of their programs of action according to current prescriptions.
   
   
5. The Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations and social organizations are asked to take part in the implementation of the Strategy within their scope of operations.
   
   

Article 3: This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

Article 4: The ministers, the head of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to implement this Decision.