CALL FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICE

Developing a web-based tracking tool to monitor annual external and domestic financial resources for the HIV program

1.     Background

To sustain achievements gained in care and treatment for PLHIV, it is critical to fully finance the HIV program with domestic resources for years to come. Given that international funding from donors such as PEPFAR and the Global Fund is sharply declining, this objective will only be achieved by leveraging the Social Health Insurance (SHI) fund of Vietnam to finance the procurement and distribution of ARVs, as well as by increasing other domestic funding sources, including provincial funding resources.

The Prime Minister of Vietnam approved the National HIV Strategy for the 2021–2030 period with the goal of ending AIDS in 2030 by enacting Decision 1246/Q?-TTG dated August 14, 2020. To operationalize this strategy, it is imperative that all provinces are able to develop a provincial sustainable financing plan for their HIV/AIDS response and demonstrate an appropriate allocation of local budget to cover various program areas, including financing for social health insurance (SHI) premiums and the ARV copayment subsidy for people living with HIV. To accelerate the development of the provincial plans, VAAC issued the Dispatch 7743/BYT-AIDS on September 17, 2021, requiring all remaining provinces to develop and approve provincial sustainable financing plans by the end of 2021.

With LHSS support, 52 of the 63 provinces have approved local sustainable financing plans for the HIV program to date, and 11 provinces are developing a plan. LHSS will continue to regularly follow up through direct contact with the remaining provinces. For the provinces with approved plans, the activity will continue to follow up on plan implementation, update VAAC on the status of the annual planning and allocation of local budgets for the HIV response, and encourage new and innovative community-led HIV service provision models such as social contracting at the provincial level.

LHSS will work with VAAC to develop a web-based tracking tool to monitor annual external and domestic financial resources for the HIV program, as detailed and timely HIV resource tracking is not included in other systems such as the National Health Accounts. LHSS will support VAAC to track annual allocations and expenditures at national and provincial levels and by program areas (prevention, care and treatment, testing and M&E, and health system strengthening), and to analyze and track quarterly SHI ARV copayment by funding sources (local budget, donor, others). Provinces and VAAC will use the data from the tool for budget planning and advocating for local budget increases.

2.     Objectives

This assignment aims to develop a web-based tool for 63 provincial CDCs and VAAC to enter the annual budget and allocation for the HIV program. Specifically, VAAC and provincial CDCs will use the platform as a resource monitoring tool to monitor annual budget allocation and actual expenditure for the HIV program at the national and provincial levels, including for SHI premium and ARV copayment subsidies from the local budget

3.     Tasks

A qualified software service vendor will work closely with the VAAC’s Finance Department and LHSS’s MEL team to provide technical solutions to collect data from 63 provincial CDCs and VAAC through a web-based platform, including:

• Work with LHSS and VAAC’s Finance Department to finalize the data requirements and data collection tool to collect the approved annual budget allocation and the actual expenditure for HIV response at the national and provincials level and by program areas including subsidies for ARV co-payments and SHI premiums.
• Develop a web-based platform with user-friendly data entry fields, in which 63 provincial CDCs and VAAC could enter their data on the approved annual budget allocation and the actual expenditure for HIV response at the national and provincial levels, meeting criteria for information needs (see “Data Collection Template” in section 7).
• Develop the function for provincial CDCs to submit the approved documents on annual budget allocation and actual expenditures for HIV response as required by the VAAC’s data request.
• Work closely with the LHSS technical team to set up logical data validation during the data entry process and for the aggregated reported data.
• Generate statistic tables and dashboards that can be exported to excel with the selected data filter.
• Ensure data privacy of the system.
• Ensure the maintenance plan of the system: server, domain…

4.     DELIVERABLES & SUBMIssion Schedule

The software service vendor is expected to provide the following deliverables:

5.     Timing

This assignment is planned for the period from Feb 2023 to Apr 2023.

6.     Requirements

• Strong experience in the development of web-based platforms, software, and applications;
• Experience working on the HIV program in Vietnam;
• Experienced in working with VAAC, CDCs, and relevant government agencies;
• Experience working on a USAID project is strongly preferred;
• Basic skill of writing in English.

7.     Submission timeline and contact point

The LHSS Vietnam project, funded by USAID and implemented by Abt Associates, will assist VAAC in developing a web-based tracking tool to monitor annual external and domestic financial resources for the HIV program. Thus, we are looking for a professional software service vendor to do this job. Any professional software service vendor is interested in providing this service, please contact us at [email protected] [1] to receive detailed TOR and send a proposal. Deadline for submitting the vendor’s credentials, and technical and financial proposals: 20 Feb 2023.