In this Project, the project team, which is composed of 9 experts and policy makers who represent a diverse range of backgrounds and fields of activity working on the issues of aging and older people, aims to provide evidence of and advocate policies and programs for caring for older people. Along with its main products, including a report, policy briefs, and policy-advocacy presentations, the Project will hold a number of policy dialogues, forums, round table thematic discussions, and press conferences to deliver key messages on caring for older people to key stakeholders such as National Assembly, Central Committee for Popularization and Education, Vietnam National Committee on Ageing, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, mass media, NGOs and private sector, research institutions, and local representatives.

In the contexts of the rapid aging population, living arrangements of older people in Vietnam (defined as those aged 60 and over) have changed from extended families to nuclear families, in which older couple living together has become more popular. Such changes have led to various challenges in ensuring income and health for older people, and it is a great demand for learning and selecting an appropriate model for caring older people. Such a demand is also emerging as Vietnam is still a low-middle income country.

This Project, funded by the Toyota Foundation, aims to review, analyze, and synthesize information about the current models for caring Vietnamese older people up to 2014. These models are provided by state organizations, non-governmental organizations, and socio-political associations. The study focused on identifying strengths, appropriateness, difficulties, challenges and gaps of these models in the current conditions of Vietnam. It then provided lessons learned so as to design more comprehensive and sustainable development and implementation of programs for caring older people in Vietnam.

In this Project, the project team ― which is composed of 9 experts and policy makers who represent a diverse range of backgrounds and fields of activity working on the issues and older people ― aims to provide analyses of policies and programs for caring older people and advocate the most appropriate one. Along with its main products, including a report, policy advocacy presentations, the Project held a number of policy dialogues, forums, roundtable thematic discussions, and press conferences to deliver key messages on caring older people to key stakeholders such as the Vietnam's National Assembly, Central Committee for Popularization and Education (CCPE), Vietnam National Committee on Ageing (VNCA), Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Labour, War Invalids Affairs (MoLISA), mass media, NGO's and private sector, research institutions, and local representatives.

There are some key findings of the Project:

First, with impressive socio-economic transformation, health and family life since Doi moi (renovation), the Vietnamese population has entered an 'aging' phase. At the same time, Vietnam is only a middle-income country, so there is a great need to develop appropriate programs and policies to care older people in their families, communities, and the society as a whole. 

Second, there have been many policies, programs and models for caring and promoting the role of older people, but their activities and performance are very different. 

Third, in all models, regardless state, private or community-based models, the commitment of local authorities with other agencies and organizations is the 'key' to success. 

Fourth, local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also play important roles in the implementation of models for caring older people in financial support and technical advice for the community-based models.

From these findings, the Project summarizes some lessons learned to successfully develop a model for caring older people, including: (i) raise awareness of researchers, local and national leaders, and policymakers about the elderly issues and media cooperation; (ii) committees and governments from central to grassroot levels should facilitate implementation of care models, in which enthusiastic, dynamic, and responsible staff are key; (iii) capacity of care staff and local partners should be improved; and (iv) communication needs to be invested effectively to improve the quality of policy advocacy activities at all levels. 

From these lessons, the Project provides detailed recommendations for the Government on guidelines, policies; for authorities at all level on the implementation; for socio-political and professional associations on development, mobilization and monitoring of the implementation of policies for older people; and for older people themselves, their family and communities to prepare for the old age; and for agencies and international development organizations as supporting units to Vietnam on the implementation of policies and programs for older people.