enhancing stability (2014), which states that Australia will support partner governments to deliver better health for all, including to the poor, with a focus on cost-effective interventions to prevent diseases such as HIV and TB, and quality maternal and child health. CHAI Phase III is relevant to need and closely aligned with GoV’s agenda. Over 250,000 people are living with HIV and approximately 40% of eligible patients are not accessing treatment. CHAI’s activities strongly align with the GoV’s 2012 National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The Strategy’s vision to 2030 is to strive for universal access and the United Nations' goals of zero new infections, zero AIDS-related deaths, and zero discrimination. CHAI’s activities support achievement of the following targets under the National Strategy: ARVs: Increase the percentage of eligible people living with HIV receiving treatment to 70% by 2015. Increase the percentage of people living with HIV who continue ARV treatment after 12 months to at least 80% by 2015 and maintain this until 2020. PMTCT: Reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission rate to less than 5% by 2015 and 2% by 2020. Increase the percentage of pregnant women with HIV and their infants who receive early ARV treatment to 90% by 2015 and 95% by 2020. In 2011 the Viet Nam National Assembly approved HIV as a standalone National Target Program. GoV funding for HIV interventions overall remains low, with minimal investment on women and children’s needs. GoV planned to allocate USD$168 million over four years, but this was revised drastically downwards due to the financial crisis with only $4.2 million allocated in 2014. TA to support GoV to sustain the HIV treatment and care response has become more urgent as international funding is withdrawn. Vietnam’s achievement of middle-income status has resulted in decreasing international for HIV. World Bank, the UK and the Dutch Government have exited HIV support, while USG’s PEPFAR has reduced support from USD$97.8 million in 2010 reducing to under USD$55 million in 2013-2014 and is anticipated to be around USD$50 million per annum for 2014-2015, with a phased
Objective 5: Policies and guidelines. CHAI is generally more efficient than larger development partners in supporting government to develop policies and guidelines. CHAI has secured close engagement with GoV partners built on mutual cooperation, and long-term working relationships. MoH views CHAI as a trusted partner in policy-related work as well as clinical matters. Activities in this area are relatively low cost (accounting for less than 10% of the project budget) and directly strengthen national systems. Monitoring and Evaluation The current M&E framework is sufficient for performance reporting including providing the required information for QAI criteria. CHAI and VAAC conduct six-monthly review meetings to jointly review progress and adjust work External independent evaluations have been conducted for each Phase. There is also regular engagement of CHAI management with the DFAT activity manager. The framework inherited the previous phases M&E work, with substantial improvement in integrating the indicators to the national M&E system. The current M&E framework is therefore highly regarded by VAAC and the MoH. The M&E framework is robust and captures a range of data required for project assessment and for policy making purposes such as survival rate, rate of retention on treatment, per cent of HIV-positve infants born to HIV-positive mothers, number of children on ART, average turnaround time for CD4 laboratory to return test results. These M&E arrangements ensure accountability, enhance decision-making and promote learning. M&E indicators require adjustment relating to Objective 1 (to monitor and report service linkages, referral systems etc), the Objective 2 target (1,300-1,500 new children by Dec. 2015), and Objective 5 (to report planning activities as well as policy). 5 An activity completion report and QAI-Final should be conducted in 2015. Adjust M&E indicators relating to Objective 1 (to monitor and report service linkages, referral systems etc), the Objective 2 target (1,300-1,500 new children by Dec. 2015), and Objective 5 (to report planning activities as well as policy). Sustainability Delayed commencement of provincial activities, & domestic financial and resource constraints impede sustainability. CHAI has worked towards building sustainability by providing training and mentoring to health care workers to assume leadership roles, and initiating 4 DFAT to work with CHAI in confirming a Sustainability Plan and Exit Strategy for the final year. A Sustainability Plan is required for the final 12 to 18 months that addresses: