Strengthening management capacity for HIV/AIDS personnel in Vietnam: Midterm evaluation of a national training program

The Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH) in collaboration with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Vietnam Administration for AIDS Control (VAAC) has established a decentralized HIV/AIDS management training program (HMTP) in Vietnam under the support from PEPFAR. A midterm evaluation of this program in 2008 used mix methods including a review of documented improvements, a qualitative study with stakeholders and a survey with the central and regional trainers and trained HIV/AIDS personnel to determine the impact and sustainability of this training program.
Since 2005, 287 provincial and district HIV/AIDS personnel have participated in the program from 52 provinces. Participants attend in 3-person teams and are required to complete applied management improvement projects over a 6-month period with faculty support and supervision. The improvement projects have documented measurable improvements in the performance of HIV/AIDS services in specific work processes, including increasing performance on indicators such as rates of adherence to opportunistic prophylactic treatment, percentage of clients returning for confirmatory HIV test results, and the effectiveness of outreach services. The program has also created a knowledge-sharing network among HIV/AIDS staff who share a common understanding of management, and who share their project results and learning with their peers. When asked to identify challenges of the HMTP, participants specified that time constraints, high turn over of staff, and lack of a supportive environment were the main impediments to using the HMTP skills in the workplace and sustaining the impact of the training program. New program activities to improve leadership involvement, sustainability and systems support are recommended to address these issues.
This program demonstrates the value of building sustainable management training capacity among in-country institutions to address management training needs, with the result of improving the overall performance of HIV/AIDS organizations at the province and district level.