Over the past decade, multiple poverty reduction and economic support programs funded by the Vietnamese Government and development partners, notably the National Target Program for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation 2006 – 2010, have delivered substantial improvements in living standards and increases in rural households’ access to basic infrastructure. Rural areas experienced remarkable increases in household access to flush toilets with septic tanks or sewage pipes; the increase was 29.2 percent over the period 2002 – 2010. Despite this improvement, sanitation and hygiene still presents one of the big development challenges in Vietnam. Research by the General Statistics Office indicates that only 39.6 percent of rural households in Vietnam have access to flush toilets with septic tanks or sewage pipes and a substantial share (54.9) percent still used unclean toilets in 2010. This situation emphasizes the importance of continuous efforts and effective approaches in sanitation and hygiene promotion projects in rural areas.
Community Hygiene Output-Based Aid (CHOBA) is an international project carried out in poor rural areas of Vietnam and Cambodia by East Meets West (EMW) in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Vietnam (MOH), Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, and Vietnam Women’s Union. The project aims to improve the conditions of water supply and sanitation for poor rural households using the output-based aid approach. MDRI was appointed the research consultant for CHOBA for about two years, developing research methodology and carrying out impact evaluations of the project.
The mid-term survey is expected to document changes in the performance indicators for the control and treatment groups over time. Two main objectives are:
To determine the efficacy of CHOBA incentives in encouraging sanitation uptake by targeted household, and
To assess the effectiveness of the Vietnam Women’s Union in project implementation.
