Promoting the role of population officials

(Baonghean) - Currently, 480 communes and wards in the province have recruited population and family planning officers and civil servants who have become officers and civil servants. They are confident in their work, committed to their profession and have made positive contributions to the changes in the industry, helping population work at the grassroots level to have remarkable changes.

Canh Trap is the village with the largest number of households and population in Tam Thai commune (Tuong Duong). Currently, the proportion of women of childbearing age in the village accounts for more than 70%, so for many years, Ms. Vang Thi Trang, a population officer of the commune, has had to stay close to the area. Ms. Trang and population collaborators have had to go to each house, especially those with only one child, to guide, propagate, and encourage families to implement population policies well. As a person in the commune, understanding the cultural customs and traditions of the people, in the process of propaganda and mobilization, she clearly understands each situation, each feeling of the women to talk to. For difficult issues, she coordinates with departments, branches, and organizations to implement together.

Among the 18 population officials of Tuong Duong district recruited in 2013, Vang Thi Trang is the only one who was assessed to have completed her tasks excellently. During her work, she always wondered how to advise many specific plans for the Party Committee and the commune on population activities. She advised the local government to include regulations on implementing population policies in the village conventions and covenants. Through that, not only did she call on mass organizations to participate, but she also mobilized village elders, village chiefs, and people with responsibilities in the clan to support the population sector in implementing family planning. At the same time, she promoted the model of increasing the provision of information and reproductive health care services - family planning for adolescents and young people to 8/8 villages in the commune through the "Reproductive Health Care" Club. Coordinate with the radio station to broadcast news, articles, information, and knowledge about reproductive health care/family planning so that people can better understand population work... With that effort, up to now, Tam Thai is the only commune in the whole province that has not had a third child for 3 consecutive years. Talking about her work, Ms. Trang confided: Since being recruited as an official civil servant, I have been given the opportunity to develop my professional skills and improve my expertise to complete my tasks well.

Propaganda on population policy for people of Hoa Binh Town (Tuong Duong).

Mr. Vi Van Cam, Director of the Center for Population and Family Planning of Tuong Duong district, said: Previously, all communes had officials doing population work, but they were all "part-time", many people had to do many jobs at the same time, so the efficiency was not high. Moreover, when not yet recruited, the qualifications of officials were uneven, but now all officials and civil servants meet the standards, are well-trained, have skills and expertise, so in the process of consulting and coordinating with departments and branches, they are more effective and positive. Their voices towards the government also have much more weight...

In the past two years, many indicators on Population - Family Planning in the province have had positive changes: The natural population growth rate decreased from 1.16% to 1.08%; The number of hamlets, blocks, and villages without people giving birth to a third child or more increased from 1,855 to 2,375 hamlets, the rate of couples of childbearing age signing a commitment to implement the Population - Family Planning policy increased from 79% to 88%... These results were partly achieved thanks to the recent completion and stabilization of the organizational apparatus and staff working on Population - Family Planning. Most population officers and officials in localities have promptly advised to have specific regulations on reward policies for units that do well in population policy work.

Many localities have proactively developed and included population targets in their annual socio-economic development plans. And importantly, since being recruited, the mindset of population officials and civil servants has been more stable, and localities have created more favorable conditions for them in their operations and program implementation. Sharing more about this, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao, a population official of Hanh Lam commune, Thanh Chuong district, confided: Being recruited into civil service is a motivation that helps us feel secure in our work, stick with our profession, and always try our best to complete the tasks assigned by our superiors. At the same time, we constantly learn and improve our professional qualifications to meet the requirements of the tasks in new conditions.

Among the 480 recruited population officers, there are 2 people with master's degrees, 89 people with university degrees, 50 people with college degrees and 339 people with intermediate degrees. Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Head of the General Organization and Administration Department - Provincial Population/Family Planning Department commented: After nearly 2 years of rearranging population and family planning officers and officers in communes, wards and towns, the quality of population officers has been improved, especially after the province basically organized for 100% of population officers to attend the course on "Professional training in population and family planning" to meet the standards of officers. However, to meet the requirements of the new tasks, the population staff also needs to try harder, because currently, although they have met the standards, most of them are at the intermediate level, the number of people trained in medicine and social sciences is only over 50%, the rate of specialists who have completed their tasks excellently is still low...

My Ha