Implementing Resolution 21: Effectiveness after 5 years

In the past 5 years, with the participation of the whole political system, the implementation of Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW dated October 25, 2017 of the Executive Committee at the 6th Plenum of the 12th Central Party Committee on population affairs in the new situation (Resolution 21) in Lang Son has achieved high efficiency, contributing to improving the efficiency of population in the province.

In order to implement Resolution No. 21, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee issued Plan No. 51-KH/TU on January 26, 2018 with the overall goal of shifting the focus of population policy from family planning to population and development; comprehensively and synchronously solving the issues of population scale, population structure, population distribution and quality, and those in a reciprocal relationship with socio-economic development in the province.

Population officer at Luong Nang Commune Health Station, Van Quan District introduces reproductive health care products to the people

Plan 51 sets out the goals by 2025 and 2030 of soon achieving and maintaining a steady replacement fertility rate of 2.1 children/woman; sex ratio at birth to the natural balance of 112 boys/100 girls by 2025 and 109 boys/100 girls by 2030; making effective use of the golden population structure, adapting to the aging of population; reasonable distribution and improvement of the quality of population in terms of physical, intellectual and spiritual, contributing to building a comprehensively and sustainably developing Lang Son province.

As soon as Plan 51 was issued, 100% of Party committees and authorities at all levels have studied, popularized, introduced, disseminated and implemented; The Provincial People’s Committee also issued Plan No. 94 – KH/UBND dated May 25, 2018 on the implementation of Resolution 21 in the province. Along with that, in the period 2017 – 2022, the Provincial People’s Committee has also issued many documents to implement programs and projects on the scale, structure and quality of population to gradually open reproductive health care/family planning services to improve population quality.

At the same time, all levels and sectors promote propaganda and encouragement to strengthen the coordination, support and participation of Party committees and authorities at all levels in the implementation of population and family planning activities in the current situation, to raise awareness of all classes of people. Thereby, in the past 5 years, relevant levels and sectors have introduced about population and family planning to the people in various forms such as conferences, health check-ups at commune, ward and town health stations; opening and maintaining reproductive health care clubs; the mass media, t social networks;  leaflets, posters, slogans… Specifically, all levels and sectors have posted 30,000 articles about population on the mass media; directly introduced Resolution 21 and population policies in over 20,000 sessions to hundreds of thousands of listeners; organized communication campaigns with reproductive health care/family planning services in 200 communes, wards and towns with more than 33,900 participants; implemented socialization of newborn screening for 15 sessions with 1,050 participants…

An officer of Loc Binh Health Center takes blood from the heel of an infant under the Prenatal and Newborn Screening Program

After 5 years, the implementation of Resolution 21 has achieved a number of important results, the awareness of the whole political system, a large number of officers, party members and people in the province on population work – family planning has positively changed. Thereby, solutions to improve population quality have been gradually and effectively implemented, the sex ratio at birth in the province has decreased year by year (average down 0.6 percentage points/year). In 2017, this ratio was 116.7 boys/100 girls, reducing to 114.6 boys/100 girls (in 2021), in the first 11 months of 2022, it dropped to 114.1 boys/100 girls. .

Van Quan district is a unit that achieves the target of reducing the sex ratio at birth. Mr. Hoang Van Ta, Head of Population Division ofVan Quan District Health Center said: “To minimize the sex ratio imbalance at birth, we focus on propaganda through models and clubs. As a result, the sex ratio at birth in the district has decreased from 112.1 boys/100 girls (2017) to 110 boys/100 girls in 2021; in the first 11 months of 2022, the sex ratio at birth has decreased to 102.2 boys/100 girls, nearly 12 percentage points lower than the province’s average.”

Population officer of Van Quan Town Health Station of Van Quan district introduces reproductive health care/family planning to youth union members and young people in the area

The work of improving the quality of the elderly population has also been effectively implemented. The province now has more than 91,000 elderly people, accounting for 10.92% of the province’s population. In the province, 55 clubs and 35 volunteer groups for elderly care have been created and maintained in Chi Lang, Cao Loc, Van Lang, Trang Dinh, Van Quan, Binh Gia, Bac Son and Huu Lung districts… attracting ver 2,200 participants. Thereby, this contributes to elderly health care, increasing average life expectancy from 72.2 years (in 2016) to 72.45 years (2021); increasing number of elders getting periodic health check from 36,600 in 2017 to nearly 67,000 people in 2021; the number of lonely and seriously ill elderly people who receive medical examination and treatment at home by medical staff increases from 582 in 2017 to over 800 in 2021; the percentage of older people with health insurance cards is over 96% (reaching the set target)…

Mr. Phan Lac Hoai Thanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Health said: “Through the monitoring and evaluation of the Department of Health – the standing unit of the Provincial Steering Committee for Population and Family Planning, after 5 years of implementing Resolution 21, the unit has closely followed the main solutions proposed by the Plan 51 of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee on the implementation of Resolution 21, such as strengthening the leadership and direction of the Party committees and authorities at all levels in population affairs in the new situation; effectively carrying out propaganda on population policies; implementing legal policies on population associated with building a happy family; consolidating the organizational apparatus, ensuring resources and improving the capacity of the population staff… Thereby, the important targets in Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW have been achieved as planned.”

To accomplish the goals of Resolution 21, in the coming time, the Party committees and authorities at all levels will continue to popularize the proposed views, goals, tasks and solutions; focus on promoting and improving the effectiveness of communication and education activities, creating a considerable change in awareness and actions of both the political system and the people about population work in the new situation.