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Germany Helps Vietnam Reduce Birth Rate

16/07/09July 16, 2009

In 1989, the average fertility-rate in Vietnam was four children per woman -- it had one of the highest birth-rates in the world. At the beginning of the 1990s, the government introduced a new family planning policy. It included concrete goals for reducing the birth-rate by using more modern methods of contraception. Hanoi also called on help from Germany.

https://p.dw.com/p/Ls94
20 years ago the average fertility rate in Vietnam was four children per woman -- it has fallen dramatically
20 years ago the average fertility rate in Vietnam was four children per woman -- it has fallen dramaticallyImage: DW/ Esther Broders

The German Organisation for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the KfW, a German government-owned development bank and INWENT, a German capacity-building non-profit organisation, have been supporting the Vietnamese Ministry of Health since 1994.

"The different institutes work practically hand-in-hand,” explains Günther Riethmacher, GTZ country director in Hanoi. “The GTZ does consulting and helps build up consulting points by training personnel. The KfW invests in the infrastructure, and for example provides money to supply contraception.”

“The German Development Service has individual experts that offer advice at a provincial level and INWENT gives courses about how health policy can become part of national strategy. Each institute brings its own expertise to such programmes.”

Significant results in 15 years

The results are significant. The average birth-rate has gone down to 1.9 children per family over the past 15 years. “Advice on contraception, on condoms as well as the pill, is well accepted. Three out of four married women now admit they use contraception. That’s similar to the figure in Germany.“

Promoting the use of condoms can kill two birds with one stone -- this cheap and easy form of contraception helps reduce pregnancies and also prevent sexually-transmitted diseases, including HIV-AIDS.

General awareness campaigns about HIV-AIDS have been very successful: “90 percent of the population now admits they know the main ways of getting infected. We measure our achievements according to these concrete things and then we can really say that something has happened and we have made a positive contribution.”

Family planning needs to be key priority

The high abortion rate has also been halved. This is another indication that the efforts to provide advice have paid off. Such successes can only happen if family planning is a key priority of the partner country.

Riethmacher says this is certainly the case in Vietnam: "What can be said over and over is that we have been well received and what is also important for the success of other projects is that the Vietnamese government follows its own development policies and then seeks individual countries, such as Germany, to help it promote its development work.”

Germany also offers advice on family planning policy in other Asian countries, such as Pakistan and the Philippines.

Author: Manfred Böhm
Editor: Thomas Bärthlein