Location: Hai Phong
Primary field: Public Health & HIV-TB
Donors and Partners: Open Society Institute
Local Partners: Hanoi Medical University
Project Overview:
The aim of the project was to analyze the social and political processes that led to Vietnam’s shift toward a harm-reduction approach to HIV prevention among IDUs, with particular emphasis on the interactions between global and local external actors, central Government/State agencies, and local government organizations. Additionally, we aim to explore how the harm reduction approach plays out programmatically, by working ethnographically in one research setting to explore accessibility, challenges, and impacts of the methadone treatment program among local drug users and their families. Based on this case study, CCRD aimed to develop a deeper understanding of Public Health & HIV-TB policymaking in a country transitioning from a centrally-planned socialist to market-based economy, and to develop a set of recommendations for improving harm reduction policies and programs in the country