At the seminar (Source: hanoimoi.com.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - Almost 106,000 poor households in ten provinces and cities nationwide improved sanitation and built new latrines with aid from a project by East Meets West organisation over the last three years.
The Community Hygiene Output-Based Aids (CHOBA) project was run from June 2012 in rural areas including Ninh Binh, Hai Duong, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Tra Vinh and Soc Trang. It was designed in line with the goals of the National target Programme for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Phase III to support disadvantaged areas to achieve the plan.
CHOBA project director Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai said at a preliminary summing-up conference on December 11 that the project mobilised nearly 300 billion VND (13.3 million USD) to offer loans for households to build latrines.
The households then were rewarded for completing the latrines and the communes whose sanitation coverage rates reach 30 percent.
The project used the output-based aid approach – a type of results-based financing well known for improving the delivery of basic services when users are not able to pay the full cost of service access and where performance-based rebates to complement or replace user fees are justified.
Tran Thi Huong, Vice President of the Vietnam Women's Union said the project helped the poor improve sanitation, skills in project management and communication and change family hygiene habits for better health.
Director of the Vietnam Health Environment management Agency, Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, said the output-based payment method strengthened the responsibilities of local authorities, promoted intersectoral co-ordination in implementation of hygiene and sanitation issues.-VNA
