VIETNAM: UNFPA COUNTRY PROGRAM DOCUMENT

UNCLAS HANOI 001327 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF SOCI VM UNFPA SUBJECT: VIETNAM: UNFPA COUNTRY PROGRAM DOCUMENT REF: STATE 101092 ¶1. (SBU) Post, including USAID Mission, has reviewed the draft country report of the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) for Vietnam. We are concerned that the report does not address the issue of sexual health education in schools. The draft report underscores UNFPA's and the GVN's concerns that Vietnamese youth in particular are increasingly at risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs),including HIV; Nevertheless, UNFPA is not partnering with Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training to implement school-based programs on life skills and adolescent/reproductive health. ¶2. (SBU) Vietnam has a high number of unwanted pregnancies and one of the highest abortion rates in the world. This indicate a need for better sexual health education in schools, and not just at service delivery points in the focus provinces described in paragraph 18 of the draft report. We recommend a push for the inclusion of secondary schools in the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign to be launched in these provinces, based on existing life-skills and sexual health education models that were developed by UNICEF/UNFPA for the Vietnamese context. It is our understanding that Vietnamese communities historically rejected these school-based education programs because of the belief that they would lead to increased sexual activity, although the evidence would seem to indicate otherwise. Given a burgeoning HIV/AIDS epidemic, now is the right time to try again. MARINE NNNN