HCMC – May, 11,2023
USAID Local Assistance to Develop and Deliver Excellence, Resilience, and Sustainability in Vietnam (LADDERS) assesses the performance and initial results of the DOME model on a six-month review meeting. DOME, a community one stop shop model developed under the LADDERS project, offers an optimized approach to bolster the capacity of community-based organizations to offer clients the best experience and services as well as ensure their sustainable development. Over the last 6 months, the model has been piloted in Ho Chi Minh City with 8 DOMEs as LADDERS has supported and committed to building and enhancing DOME capacities to deliver HIV services and beyond. Last week, an internal meeting was convened to review and assess the performance and key initial results of all DOMEs with 70 participants from USAID, LADDERS team, mentors, the original 8 DOMEs, 2 newly joined DOMEs and all LADDERS-supporting CBOs from Dong Nai, Ha Noi, Can Tho and Kien Giang. The 1-day agenda offered a deep dive into the model itself to facilitate and motivate comprehensive understanding among community leaders; a meticulous analysis of DOME 6-month performances and a practical discussion with DOME leaders on development strategies in the future.
The figures and trends might vary from DOMEs yet the 8 community-led health facilities all showed necessary capacities in generating revenues from additional services beyond core funding along with significant determination as they all see values and potential of the model. In the event, an open forum enabled questions and comments to share and pass around the room so that the non-DOME CBOs learnt a great deal by example in the hope of strengthening their governance, capacities and enhancing the quality and sustaining their service delivery. With extra assistance of the Business Development expert team, LADDERS commits to offering continuous mentorship, capacity building and a variety of technical and financial support to ensure each facility develops its strengths in compliance with given standards to maximize its impact and appeal to community, generate more revenues towards self-efficiency while being periodically monitored and evaluated.
In order to sustain themselves, DOMEs will need to make profit by expanding current services to include SOPs for various fee-for-services, harnessing utilization of technologies for management, M&E and client outreach with D.Health integration, continuing to work with business development experts to transition revenue to be more resilient and less donor dependent as mentorship is critical in the hope of guiding community-based organizations out of the dependency/grant funding mindset that is ever shrinking and limited to a self-sufficient model that supports alternative revenue streams. And the DOMEs will be a case study for self-sufficiency that can be helpful to inform future moves for independence.
Refer to event pictures here
Figure 1. In reviewing the key initial results of the DOME model, meeting attendants celebrated the achievements against adversities and challenges as well as getting excited about development prospects and upscale applicability of the model.
