• The HTPAP is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom.
  • It is a five year-programme, which started in April 1997 and is scheduled to end in 2002
  • The budget allocation for the five year programme was £5,754,000
  • As of February 2002 the expenditure to date was:
• DFID is working in partnership with Oxfam UK, Save the Children Fund UK, and ActionAid Vietnam. Each NGO is in turn working with commune , district and provincial level organisations. ActionAid Vietnam has focused its work in Can Loc, Oxfam in Ky Anh and SCF in Cam Xuyen and Thach Ha.
• The programme is funded by DFID by means of three accountable grants paid in advance to each NGO A separate fund for consultancies in support of reviews, monitoring, evaluation, and training is managed by DFID. The Programme Memorandum notes that additional funding to the value of £490,000 would be provided by the NGOs (being 8% of the programme cost as a whole)
• The programme was managed by DFID Bangkok (SEADD) until 1999 when management responsibility was transferred to DFID staff based in Hanoi. All three NGOs have offices in Hanoi.

• "The goal of the programme is for poor people in Ha Tinh province to benefit from economic growth and for the lessons learned to be applied elsewhere"
• "The purpose of the programme is to stimulate district, provincial and national authorities and other development organisations to apply the lessons learned by the programme. This will be achieved by supporting district-based poverty reduction activities and promoting lessons learning and dissemination. The lessons learned from the district-based activity will be disseminated to provincial and national fora"
• Four themes were initially identified as key areas for scaling up. They were (a) a province wide strategy for Hunger Eradication and Poverty Reduction (HEPR, a Govt. of Vietnam programme), (b) promoting labour intensive infrastructure development, (c) improving District and Provincial authorities understanding of environmental issues, (d) child-focused development. Since then the focus has changed, with the following now being the key areas: (a) Savings and credit provision that is accessible to the poor, and sustainable, (b) Participatory approaches to the development of public infrastructure that is beneficial to the poor, (c) The development of poverty focused policies and implementation capacity by province, district and commune level authorities
• Two assumptions were made about the advantages of creating one overall programme, rather than funding three separate projects: (a) "the synergy and lesson learning between the NGOs and their project partners within the Province will be increased", and (b) "there will be economies of scale within the programme, e.g. single learning events at provincial level and shared access to external consultancy resources."

• Oxfam (As of May 2002)
  • Overview: Oxfam GB is an international non-governmental organisation working with others to find lasting solutions to poverty and suffering. Oxfam GB has been working in Ha Tinh province, one of the poorest provinces in the North Central region in Vietnam, since 1987. In 1997, Oxfam GB formed a partnership with DFID to improve livelihoods of poor people in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province.
  • Broad Strategy: Oxfam GB's strategy in HTPAP is to achieve improved livelihoods of poor households in Ky Anh district in sustainable ways, through a coherent set of sectoral activities, including infrastructure, credit and savings, education and capacity building. It focuses on strengthening capacity of local authorities and communities to manage development programmes by themselves, and stimulating project lessons learnt in Ha Tinh province and nationwide .
  • Specific Activities in 2001-2002:
    • Infrastructure: Infrastructure work has been done based on principles of community based approach. Specific results include 4 irrigation and 1 bridge constructions completed; a sharing workshop on bidding experience was organised; 4 WUAs (Water Users Association) established in 4 communes and training on management was provided for WUAs members. Key achievement is increased partners capacity in managing commune infrastructure work.
    • Credit and savings: Credit and savings work has focused on ensuring sustainability in financial, organizational and technical aspects. Specific results include job description revision was done for 9 commune PMBs (Project Management Board) and district PMB to match with work requirements. Revision of accounting book system was carried out and training on the revised accounting book system was provided for 9 communes. Revision of interest rate (from 2% to 1.5%) and savings mobilization rate (from 1% to 0.6%) was carried out. A sharing workshop on project experience was organised with participation from Banks, other credit organisations and district authorities. Key achievement includes strengthened organizational sustainability of the district partner.
    • Education: Primary education objectives of eliminating disparity in education participation and improving education quality are to be achieved through a coherent set of activities including improving teaching methodology, increasing involvement of PTAs (Parents Teachers Association) in school business, improving school facilities and reducing costs recovery of poor households for education. Specific results include 6 resource teachers mastered and training by them was carried out for all teachers in 6 primary schools. 12 school constructions with PTAs involvement are under way. Key achievement is strengthened district partner capacity to manage the work.
    • Capacity building: Capacity building is aimed to tackle three essential components including individual capacity, organisational capacity and policy environment. District HEPR management board has been chosen as the focus. Specific results include district PMB (Project Management Board for capacity building) working mechanism and job descriptions agreed and review; participatory management approach introduced, applied and reviewed by district PMB; specific skills in participatory project management (including assessment, planning and evaluation) trained for key HEPR staff of district and 5 communes; new skills in participatory management applied by key HEPR staff of district and 5 communes in 2 evaluations of Ky Tho community development model and Ky Hoa grassroots democracy decree implementation; Ky Tho community development model reviewed and shared with 15 communes; 6 awareness raising workshops on community development approach and gender organised for key staff of district HEPR and 5 communes. Key achievement include changed attitude of district PMB toward a more participatory management approach.

• Save the Children Fund (as of May 2002)
  • Overview Save the Children UK has been working in Ha Tinh province since 1992. SC UK is an international non-governmental organisation working to make a reality of child rights. In 1997 SC UK formed a partnership with DFID to reduce child poverty in Ha Tinh province, one of the poorest provinces in lowland Vietnam.
  • Strategy SC UK's strategy is based on strengthening the household livelihoods of the poorest families in the district of Cam Xuyen through establishing credit and savings services, with accompanying measures to improve on-farm and off-farm production or commerce, to provide health and nutrition education, to establish creches and kindergartens and to involve children more in community life. The project is implemented by the Women's Union, and thanks to significant capacity building over the period of the project, it will continue to be managed by the Women's Union after SC UK's departure.
  • Achievements
    Credit and savings: The credit and savings scheme now reaches over 18,000 households in 22 out of 27 of the poorest communes in the district. The current value of the scheme is approximately USD1.4 million and it is financially and institutionally sustainable. The model has been successfully replicated by SC UK in Thanh Hoa province and in other provinces by other international organisations. The project has had a notable impact on poverty reduction, both in terms of income and assets, as well as health and education.
    Health and nutrition education: All borrower groups (approx 18,000 women) have improved knowledge on child care practices, nutrition, HIV/AIDS… A group of trainers has been established in order to carry out training of new borrower groups
    Creches and kindergartens: 18 communes have a child-friendly creche and kindergarten managed by trained staff and with recurrent costs supported by parental and local authority contributions.
    Involving children more: the project has piloted the active participation of children in the design, planning, management and evaluation of community activities in one commune, and this is now expanding
  • Plans In 2002/03 the project will focus on partner capacity building, improved credit and savings systems and procedures, and documenting lessons learned, with a view to disengagement by April 2003.

• ActionAid (As of May 2002)
  • New Ha Tinh Programme Strategy 2001-05 was developed in October 2001. The strategy reconfirms AAV's intention of continuing its work in Ha Tinh beyond 2005 using its own funding sources. The strategy also outlines a shift from old to new ways of working: from service delivery towards a rights-based approach as well as from direct implementation to a facilitatory role with stronger focus on poor and marginalised people, gender and advocacy.
  • Overall Objective: "To help poor people, especially the poorest women, men and children and marginalised groups of people in Ha Tinh province to improve their lives and exercise their constitutional rights and entitlements." Strategic
  • Approaches
    • 1. Focus on poor people and their rights. In next 5 years AAV will specifically focus on women - especially those from most vulnerable groups (single mothers etc.), and people living under difficult circumstances (emergency victims, HIV/AIDS victims and handicapped persons etc.)
    • 2. Strengthening partnership and collaboration with local government and local development organisations as well with other international organisations working for poverty reduction in Ha Tinh.
    • 3. Service delivery with rights orientation AAV will support its partners to run programmes at the field level. AAV will not stop service delivery programmes that it has been implementing over the years. It will rather change the mode of delivering services to incorporate rights orientation - giving poor people the rights to demand, plan and monitor development and empower them to hold AAV and others accountable. It will also work with local the governments to promote the rights and entitlements of the poor and powerless.
    • 4. Diversifying operation AAV is considering new components such as social forestry, HIV/AIDS prevention etc. in its programme.
  • Programme Coverage and Contents
    • 1. In Can Loc district AAV's work covers 7 communes in Tra Son zone and 2 very poor communes in Ha Can zone (An Loc and Thu Loc). The total number of beneficiaries reaches 12,000 households or 60,000 people. A greater focus is given to the District Social Development Fund (allocated budget of VND660M) to implement Joint Action HEPR Plan of Can Loc District 2001-05. Since late 2001 management of programme activities at commune level has been handed over to the so-called Commune Management Boards (CMB). At present there are CMBs established in all but Thu Loc commune. Activities are implemented based on on themes such as Good Governance (implementation of the Grassroots Democracy Decree and other activities) with allocated budget of VND166.3M; Food Security (strengthening Credit Funds for poor women, agricultural extension, small scale irrigation and strengthening Water Users' Associations -WUAs) with total allocated budget of VND2.09Bn; Health Education and Improved Water Supply (allocated budget of VND420.9M), Pre-school and Primary Education Support (allocated budget of VND164M); and Gender Mainstreaming (allocated budget of VND115.7M).
    • 2. Work at provincial level is focused on, apart from capacity building for local officials, advocacy - replication of good practices (WUAs, GRD) and increasing their accountability towards poor and vulnerable people. It is expected that 200-300 local officials from provincial down to village level will receive training on community development.
    • 3. AAV's support to the so-called Provincial HEPR Programme Fund this fiscal year is VND530M and activities (improved irrigation systems and WUAs, agricultural extension, family planning etc.) are carried out in Huong Son District through partnership with local government and organisations. Currently 5 communes (Son Thuy, Son Ham, Son Binh, Son Tay, Son Phuc) with 4,000 households (20,000 people) are benefiting from these activities.
    • 4. AAV is expanding its work into another very poor district of Vu Quang with allocated budget of VND305M. Since Vu Quang is a newly established district where there is an acute lack of capable local personnel as well as lack of infrastructure, AAV's work there will be carried out though a combination of AAV's direct involvement and partnership with local authorities and communities. At the first phase, AAV is planning to work in 2 very poor communes - Huong Dien and An Phu with 750 households and 3.500 people. Activities will be focused on capacity building for local officials at district and commune levels; improved primary education and health, agricultural extension.
    • 5. During the August - September period AAV is planning to conduct a comprehensive participatory review of its programme in Ha Tinh 1997-2002 following with a series of workshops.

• DFID (Yet to be provided)

See the British Embassy's web sites for more information on UK Development Assistance to Vietnam (as of 2000) and their UK-Vietnam Fact Sheet for more information about the UK - Vietnam relationship (as of late 2001)