Training on Operations and Maintenance of Local Infrastructure

The ‘Chia Se’ programme consisted of four components – three provincial projects in Ha Giang, Yen Bai, and Quang Tri provinces and a national one, which together supported poverty alleviation and poverty-focused national policy making. In each province, two districts participated. Besides its focus on poverty alleviation, Chia Se also supported decentralisation under the Vietnamese Government's ‘Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy’ and the 5-Year Development Plan, ensuring that vulnerable and disadvantaged groups can participate fully in Vietnams rapidly reforming and developing society.

A key feature of the programme was the Local Development Fund that allowed village communities to handle funds at their own discretion, based on their own participatory planning. This included contracting of suppliers/ builders, supervising work and deciding on operation and maintenance procudures. Investments in rural infrastructure were one of the dominant project activities, including rural access roada, culverts, rehabilitation or construction of water supply and irrigation systems, food processing, storage and marketing facilities, and schools, health centres and community houses. During the lifespan of Chia Se, thousands of small-scale infrastructure projects have been completed. Unfortunately, O&M was often not initially prioritised, compromising the long-term sustainability of these investments.

The purpose of this assignment was, therefore, to develop a suitable training strategy and inputs into the design and devlopment of appropriate training courses in close conjunction with the three Chia Se provinces. The consultancy concentrated on capacity building in different systems (models) for O&M of infrastructure.