Khuat Thi Hai Oanh is a medical doctor graduated from Hanoi Medical University, with a Master Degree on Sexual and Reproductive Health Research from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She co-founded the Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS) in 2002, and the Center for Support Community Development Initiatives (SCDI) in 2010 – both are Vietnamese non-governmental organizations. Oanh is currently the Executive Director of SCDI. Aiming at contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, SCDI focuses on community empowerment and creating enabling environments for the most marginalized and vulnerable populations, such as sex workers, drug users, people living with HIV, their spouses and children, poor migrants, ethnic minorities as well as LGBTIQA people.

In her other capacities, Oanh is the Chair of Vulnerable Community Support Platform of Vietnam (VCSPA), as well as Chair of Council of Representatives of APCASO – an Asia Pacific network of civil society organisations working on health and human rights. She is a member of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee on HIV and Viral Hepatitis for the WHO.
Oanh was selected to the World Fellow Program at Yale University in 2005. In 2009, the World Economic Forum honoured her as a Young Global Leader. In 2014, she was given Dedoner Clayton Award by the French Pasteur Institute and Nobel Laureate Françoise Barré-Sinoussi. In 2017, she was listed among the 50 Most Influential Vietnamese Women by Forbes Vietnam.