Care International in Vietnam, through the Center for Supporting Community Development Initiative (SCDI), calls for the participation of community based organizations (CBOs) in researching the civil society effectiveness in activities related to HIV. The project aims to strengthen the ability of small and medium-sized CBOs to implement research and mobilize community participation in providing evidence on the effectiveness of social organizations in improving health and well-being of vulnerable groups. This funding can be used to explore the effectiveness of the CBOs in broader fields such as organizational capacity, operating environments, network connections and relationships, which can lead to a better the understanding of the factors contributing to a community organization and a strong community sector. The project will provide funding for 10 small research projects as required above. SCDI is the organization providing budget, management and support for this research. Total funding for the research is $ 25,000. Each research project will receive a grant of up to $ 5,000 depending on the size and content.



Activities:

• Call for research ideas from the CBOs. To the end of May 18th, the project has received 36 proposals focusing on following topics: Evaluating the effectiveness of a method or interventions currently used in the community; Testing a method or new activity in interventions; Evaluating the CBO's roles in providing health services in Vietnam, for example, involved in the implementation and resource mobilization; Case studies of the CBOs which have contributed specific and positive results on health and society in order to clarify the methods and approaches that the CBOs have used.
• On May 24th the approval team has selected 15 proposals in accordance with the objectives of the project and is highly feasibility.
• From May 31st to June 1st, the project organized training in Research Methodologies for the trainees whose proposal was selected. This training provided the knowledge and skills to the chosen CBOs to complete the outline and implementation plan of the research.
• The 2nd round of approval was implemented after the selected CBOs completed the outline and plan on September 6th.
• The selected CBOs implemented the procedures of cooperation and financial in the second half of June.
• The selected CBOs carried out the research in June and July with technical support from SCDI. The SCDI experts directly assisted the selected CBOs in the preparation and implementation of their researches.
• At the end of August, SCDI organized training in presentation to help the CBOs present the results of the research and write the report. The trainees were instructed to present the results of research methodologies under different forms, for example synthesis report, summary reports, brochures and presentations.
• All the research results will be published in September. SCDI will publish and share the research results with different forums.