Using JANS tool to assess plans of Health care sector and its application in sectoral planning reform in Vietnam

Abstract

   Joint Assessment of National Health Strategies (JANS) is a tool to assess quality of medium and longterm national health plans. It has been developed by International Health Partnership (IHP+) and applied in many countries, including Vietnam. The JANS tool then is simplified and adjusted to become ModifiedJANS, which is used to assess annual provincial health plans in Vietnam. The modified tool has been piloted in three provinces, including Bac Ninh, Thanh Hoa and Yen Bai. The assessment has prevailed key weaknesses of the current sectoral planning system: insufficiency of information, in comprehensiveness, lack of intention on monitoring and evaluation, and lack of an enabling institutional environment for resultbased planning and budgeting. The JANS is proved as an useful tool and should be scaled up to be used in other sectors. Improving the tool, preparing the manual, creating political support and strengthening systematic inter-agency and inter-level coordination are needed.