Case Study: Benefit Incidence of Safe Motherhood Services in Vietnam

As one of the countries that has agreed to participate as a pilot country for the World Bank’s Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) approach, the Government of Vietnam has designated health as one of the key sectors for CDF emphasis and has set up an overall CDF coordination team including the Ministers of Finance and Planning/Investment, the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam as well as a Health Working Group to coordinate preparation of the government's longer term plan for the sector over the coming eighteen months. This group is led by the Ministry of Public Health and includes representatives from the Ministries of Population Activities/Family Planning and Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. On this occasion, the Finance Secretary has convened a meeting of the Work Group to address concerns about the health component of the program – whether the investments that have been made under earlier projects to improve maternity services are really benefiting poor women, and if not, what can be done under the new framework to improve the situation. Representatives of development partners, including multilateral agencies (UNDP, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank) as well as bilateral donors and several NGOs have also been invited.