“More accountability and transparency, less corruption” Vietnam … · 2016. 7. 16. · Vietnam...

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“More accountability and transparency, less corruption”

Vietnam Innovation Day 2009 Projects

Final Evaluation Report

September 2010

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................. 3

Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................... 4

1. Background ...................................................................................................................................... 5

2. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 6

3. Overview ............................................................................................................................................ 7

4. The VID09 Awarded Projects .................................................................................................... 8

5. Overall evaluation ........................................................................................................................ 22

Projects’ relevance and effectiveness ....................................................................................................... 22

Projects’ implementation and reporting ................................................................................................. 23

Projects’ Results and Impact ........................................................................................................................ 24

Projects’ Sustainability and Replication .................................................................................................. 25

6. Findings and Lessons Learnt ................................................................................................. 26

7. Implications to VID 09 donors and recommendations ................................................ 27

Appendix The contact list of VID 2009 projects ....................................................................... 29

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Acknowledgement The evaluator would like to thank all those who supported and co-operated with the conduct of this assignment: The Vietnam Innovation Day (VID) Program Team at the World Bank and all the project teams of VID 2009 awards. Specifically, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to:

- Mr. Nguyen Hong Ngan, Communications Officer, the World Bank for his supportive supervision and coordination

- Ms. Bo Thi Hong Mai, Partnership Officer, the World Bank for her sharing and helpful comments to the draft report

- Ms. Doan Thi Thu Hang, VID Assistant, the World Bank for her close support and comments for the completion of tasks

- Project teams of P09, P20, P48, P56, P57, P104 and P128 for their support to the field visits

Without the generous help of these individuals and teams, this evaluation would not have been completed.

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Abbreviations AusAID Australian Overseas Aid Program CBO community based organisation CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CISDOMA Socio-Economic Development of Rural and Mountainous Areas CSI customer satisfaction index CSO Civil Society Organisation DFID the United Kingdom Department For International Development M&E monitoring and evaluation MoET Ministry of Education and Training MoH Ministry of Health NGO non-governmental organisation NZAid New Zealand International Aid and Development Agency PEDC Primary Education for Disadvantaged Children RC Report Card SDC Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SEDP socio-economic development plan SME small and medium enterprise VAE Vietnam Association of the Elderly VID Vietnam Innovation Day

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1. Background Since the start of the Vietnam Innovation Day (VID) program in Vietnam in 2003, there have been more than 1400 entries submitted, among which over 200 projects have been provided support with total funding of up to 2 million USD. Candidates are encouraged to send project proposals with total budget up to USD 15,000. Some previous VID projects were implemented with total budget of USD 1,100 (VID 05), USD 6,000, USD 8,000 (VID 07), etc.

The VID 2009, co-organized by the Government Inspectorate and the World Bank, is an opportunity to support innovative ideas that address local development challenges. Its co-sponsors are Australian Overseas Aid Program (AusAID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Royal Embassy of Denmark, Department for International Development (UK - DFID), the Embassy of Finland, New Zealand International Aid and Development Agency (NZAid), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the World Bank. The selection of the VID 2009 theme of “More Accountability and Transparency, Less Corruption” has been the result of increased public awareness and attention for more transparency and accountability, and reducing corruption. Under this, there are four sub-themes recommended: accountability, transparency, access to information and improvement of public service. Within the framework of the program, the accountability concept includes both the responsibility in fighting corruption of the state apparatus, which is reflected through effective provision of public services to people as well as the responsibility of the citizens, which can be epitomised by the principles of ‘people know, people discuss, people do, and people supervise’1. Transparency, which can be an active measure to fight corruption and closely links to the rights to information, requires that people should be provided with all information not prohibited by laws in an adequate, accurate and timely manner. The improvement of public service requires a stronger participation of citizens in decision-making, effective policy implementation, and monitoring of service provision quality. Within the framework of this program, people’s participation reflects in people’s making comments to a policy or a legal document, a decision or an administrative act that affect their legitimate benefit and rights. The VID 2009 identify 25 small projects from 152 entries submitted around the country to support with the total amount of USD 330,000 for awards. The projects are implemented within one year from June 2009 to June 2010 with a maximum budget of USD 15,000 each to implement their creative ideas. In fact, 21/25 projects have proposed a total budget that utilizes the maximum VID grant. There are 11/25 projects have budget combined with other smaller contribution (both in-kind and cash) from the project implementer. The smallest grant is given to P135 at the sum of 75.6 mil VND (equivalent to USD 4,500 at the applicable exchange rate by VID). Two Boards of Jurors for preliminary round and final round assess the selected projects, which compose of representatives from various government agencies, NGOs, civil and mass organizations, the donors community and the media. The criteria for selection include: i) Innovation (creativity); ii) Results contributions to improving transparency and accountability as well as reducing corruption; iii) Feasibility/Organizational Capacity; and iv) Sustainability and growth potential reflected by the community’s ownership and participation. Not being limited to the recommended sub-themes, which are Accountability, Transparency, Right to information and Improving Public Services, the winning projects introduce various

1 The Ordinance on Grassroots Democracy, which was promulgated on February 20th, 2007 and came into effect

from July 1st, 2007; the Law on Complaints and Petitions of Citizens promulgated on December 12th, 1998, the Revised Law on Complaints and Petitions of Citizens promulgated on June 15th, 2004, the Revised Law on Complaints and Petitions of Citizens promulgated on November 11th, 2005, the Five year Socio-economic development plan (SEDP) 2006-2010, the Law on Prevention and Fight against Corruption, the Revised Law on Prevention and Fight again Corruption promulgated on August 4th, 2007

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creative and feasible solutions, from making radio programs in ethnic languages on legal information, to making artistic performances, organizing writing, drawing contests and communications activities to increase the youth’s awareness, as well as improving public services in hospitals.

VID has become an annual event with increasing numbers of applications, partners and donors; however, there has been no independent and comprehensive assessment on how these small innovative bottom-up development ideas deliver results, and how they have been expanded or replicated, excepts for an assessment carried out in 2007 for 4 VIDs from 2003-2006. In order to meet accountability obligations, and to draw lessons that can be applied to future activities as well as to improve the program’s impact, an evaluation mission to assess the VID 2009 projects has been initiated at two stages: i) a mid term evaluation was conducted in January 2010, six month after the commencement; and ii) an end-term evaluation is conducted in August 2010, after a series of field visits to some selected project sites and review of projects’ final reports by the evaluator. The evaluation assesses performance, management, relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the VID09 projects, as well as provides recommendations on future circles of VID. In addition to the desk review of projects’ related documents (proposals, mid-term and final progress reports), the evaluations also provide 3 case studies on 3 projects in 3 regions of Vietnam (northern, central and southern regions) based on the information collected from projects site visits and direct interviews with projects’ stakeholders.

Being commenced from 4 January to early February 2010, the mid-term evaluation shows that the majority of VID 09 projects have kept up with planned schedule at that point of time. Although it was still quite early to verify or conclude, a number of projects have demonstrated their effective implementation, where their innovative ideas have been developed into a good project proposal with political feasibility and clear possibility of achieving objectives. Contrary to the previous concerns from the VID organisers on the possible challenges that would be emerged by the theme on “anti-corruption”, the total submissions to VID 09 are not only impressive in quantitative terms, but also on the quality and feasibility of relevant innovative ideas. To illustrate for this fact, one of the most interesting findings from the mid-term report is that the bottom-up approach works well with such “sensitive” topic of anti-corruption, even there exists the challenge of political sensibility in some specific projects. This is because the awarded projects have applied a multi-dimension approach, to mainstream the anti-corruption theme into specific exercise, to link with specific issue of community. The grassroots democracy ordinance is the most important framework for the approach.

2. Introduction The final evaluation has been conducted on 21 out of 25 projects of VID 2009 (identified by the code VID 09 - Pxx). Among the 25 projects in the VID09 awarding list, one project has not been carried out due to the staff turnover of the implementing organisation (P129). The other three projects (P04, P100, and P135) have been monitored directly by the funding agencies (NZAid and Finland), thus will not be covered by this evaluation. The full list of the projects under this evaluation can be found at Appendix. The final evaluation combines findings from the field visits during May and June 2010 and the final review in August 2010. The evaluation schedule was adjusted with flexibility in comparison to the initial plan to conduct in June 2010. The adjustment was made based on the proposed justification to VID mandate that has been approved, to give more time to a number of projects to wrap up their activities. The findings and conclusions are mainly based on desk review of project documents, mid-term reports, mid-term evaluations, field visits to a selected number project sites (representatives of the North, Central and the South) and final project reports. In case the project reports do not supply details on what have been done, direct contacts have been made to the project persons-in-charge to verify. An adjusted template for final report with clear guidance has been provided in prior to projects; therefore in general, the projects’ reports are substantial in content and information.

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Being implemented by different actors, who are government agencies, Vietnamese non-governmental organisations (local NGOs), mass organisations, private companies or schools/universities, the 21 projects cover the whole country while a half of them are located in the North (9 projects), 6 projects in the Central, 5 in the South and 1 at national level2 respectively. Among the four recommended sub-themes under the theme of “More Accountability and Transparency, Less Corruption” (which are accountability, transparency, access to information and improvement of public service), the 21 awarded projects can be either identified under only one or several sub-themes, for example one project can either aim at improving accountability and/or transparency and/or access to information. From reviewing project documents and looking at nature of project activities that have been carrying out, one more sub-theme is added: improving people awareness on anti-corruption. In addition, the projects focus on a number of key aspects in addressing corruption related problems: rural community development, land use, grassroots democracy, feedback system to public service and awareness raising. Levels of intervention are village, commune, district, province or city and policy implementation national wide. This final evaluation is only for the 21 out of the total 25 VID09 projects, without much reference to previous VID and history of award winners, although taking into consideration the fact that some of VID2009 winners have won previous VID awards. Findings and concerns from the mid-term evaluation in January 2010 have been analysed and compared to the final results of the projects. Findings from this final evaluation should be supplemented by an review report on financial management. The report is structured in seven sections including these introductory remarks.

3. Overview The major content of this session has been included with more detail in the previous mid-term evaluation report. The session provides an overview on all 21 projects under the final evaluation in order to help readers capture the overall picture on the VID09 from the first sight. The majority of projects are located in the North. This may be resulted from the fact that VID candidates in the North have matched to the selection criteria of VID modality in a better manner, in terms of capacity on project design and delivery as well as the challenge of the 2009 theme. On the other hand, along the history of VID, VID candidates such as government agencies, Vietnamese non-governmental organisations (local NGOs), mass organisations, private companies or schools/universities in the North have had better access to the information of the event. This matter has been dealt with in later VID events, especially VID 2010 by conducting several regional launching events, supported by mass media broadcasting. To match with the scale and scope of the VID 2009 theme and more significantly, to implement the innovative ideas easier as well as to surmount the political sensitiveness of the “anti-corruption” theme, several projects have been designed for rural settings, targeting specific groups of beneficiary (a village, a commune or a district) and attached to specific local development projects/programmes, and/or to pilot a modality for beneficiaries to participate in. The VID 2009 has engaged various types of implementers, who developed, submitted proposals and directly implementing the projects’ activities, include government agencies, civil society organizations (CSOs, includes mass organisations, local NGOs and community based 2 The P54 (Increase effectiveness and transparency in implementation of Decree 67 on ensuring the right of the

elder at locality” implemented by the Vietnam Association of Elder

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organisations - CBOs), private sectors and educational agencies (schools and universities). The initiative has also created platforms for these actors to develop partnership within framework of a specific project as well as to meet, exchange ideas and information, establish network with others who share the same concerns and interests. Among the 25 proposals awarded, 11 implementers are from local NGOs or CBOs, while the rest have been chosen equally from government agencies, mass organisations, schools/universities and private sectors respectively. Within the small scale of the VID award (15,000 USD as maximum for each project) to support small innovative bottom-up development ideas that deliver results within one year, it is understandable that level of operation of awarded projects is often limited. The majority of them operate at lower level (commune and district), while some projects approaching policy implementation or mass media (radio and newspaper) can be seen with larger target groups and coverage. The four main initial sub-themes of VID 2009 represent different dimensions of anti-corruption. When the applicants for VID 2009 have been requested to classify their own proposals under four main sub-themes, it is difficult to make clear which project is under what sub-theme. Therefore, some project proposals can be put either under different sub-themes, especially the cross-cutting one on “transparency”. One more sub-theme has been added, “awareness raising on anti-corruption”, since the projects under it have clear objectives on anti-corruption education and propaganda, targeting different groups, from junior high school students to mass audience, without attaching to any specific action and/or activities with measurable outputs. There have been a number of highlighted issues that have been touched upon by the VID09 projects, in order to i) enhance the effective implementation of the grassroots democracy ordinance; ii) improve the process of socio-economic development plan (SEDP) formulation and implementation at community level; iii) resolve problems related to land use and resettlement; and iv) develop feedback mechanisms to public service delivery. Although a number of projects may approach the same issue, the project designs have been made specific to the local context, with appropriate and effective interventions.

4. The VID09 Awarded Projects3 This session describes briefly the specific evaluation on each of the 21 projects, with analysis on activities design towards tentative objectives, project delivery against work plan, constraints and challenges during project implementation, project adjustment towards better achievement of objectives as well as lessons learnt and implications for replication. Any shortcomings in project management, coordination mechanism and technical support to the project have also been identified and analysed. A comparative analysis has been made between the progress of projects at the mid-term review in January 2010 and at completion of project activities. No. Project Objective Assessment on Project Delivery Evaluator’s

Remarks

1 P01. “Enhancing community's participation in anti- corruption and developing the anti-corruption culture in Thuan Chau district, Son La province” implemented by Agriculture and Forestry Faculty – Tay Bac University 100% of people in the district thoroughly understand their roles, rights and responsibilities in community development

In contrast to the very broad project title, the project focuses on grassroots democracy, Gender Equality Law and gender issues instead of approaching anti-corruption directly. The activities have been designed in a quite simple way: i) distribution of legislative documents (02 copies of

However, the project approach would be a good entry point to other follow-up projects, since it has possibility to

3 It should be noted that the full name of all projects have been supplemented by the evaluator with information on

project location in order to capture the project scope easier at the first sight.

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No. Project Objective Assessment on Project Delivery Evaluator’s Remarks

activities based on the principle “people know, people discuss, people do and people supervise”.

Grassroots Democracy Ordinance and Law on Gender Equality) to each of the 28 hamlets in Thuan Chau district, Son La province; ii) trainings to hamlets’ heads on Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) and Achieving Better Community Development (ABCD); and iii) organization of a competition among hamlets on awareness of gender equality. However, both mid-term report and final report have been prepared poorly and lack of information on the implementation as well as result achievement. The project coordinator has been contacted for further information, but there is still missing information on why the activity iii) has not been implemented. In general, the careless reports do not provide information on how the activities are carried out and what results have been achieved.

integrate and mainstream the thematic contents into regular activities on agro-forestry with local community, which are the strong points of the Faculty.

2 P09. “Increasing accountability and transparency in Court hearing in Chau Thanh district” implemented by People’s Court of Chau Thanh District, Tien Giang Province. The Project aims to raise awareness for public servants during procedural process of people’s courts, through which people can understand better about their rights and duties when attending legal proceedings, improving legal knowledge for everyone.

The project has been facilitated by the same person who also facilitates the P20 (Judge Nguyen Quoc Dat). The initial project proposal was to be implemented in Cai Lay district, but in fact when the Mr. Dat moved to work in Chau Thanh district right after he received the VID Awards, he brought the project along to Chau Thanh district. This fact was not mentioned in the mid-term project report, although the interviews with the Chief Judge of Chau Thanh district People Court and project members show that Chau Thanh has more favourable condition for implementation of the project because the district is less remote, with higher educational level. Key activities include: i) the review and collection of the templates for court procedures available to the district people with clear instruction; ii) the adoption of computer (laptop) at the court hearing by the district jurors in order to reduce time to announce the case statement; and a series of 3 workshops have been organised to identify the coordination mechanism between the court, the execution and people concerned. The field evaluation has not recognised the availability of templates for court procedures, both electronically and hard copy as planned, except for some common forms in hard copy demonstrated at a signboard (this is not an innovative action brought about by the project). There are 4 among the 7 district jurors reporting to use

Interviews have been conducted with the Project facilitator, the Director of the District Court, the project assistant and two concerned people who came to a trial. The project interventions and duration are not sufficient for the behaviour change taken place. The project has been implemented solely by the individual effort, without much institutionalization into existing system.Therefore, there is no clear signal for replication and sustainability.

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laptops to process the cases at court hearing, but the statement printed out at the end of the court is just for reference only, while the official statement has to be polished and released after that. The workshops have created a good place for dialogues among participants, but no concrete conclusion or action has been taken as the followed outcomes. Therefore, there was no clear evidence to prove that the practice has been contributed to the better performance of the agency.

3 P20. “Anti-corruption propaganda through literature, arts and activities of religious organisations, mass organisations and the media in Tien Giang province” implemented by the Literature and Arts Association of Tien Giang Province The project aims to cooperate with relevant agencies, organisations and individuals to organise seminars and launch literature/art competitions on “anti-corruption” topic.

The project is facilitated also by Judge Nguyen Quoc Dat, with different partner (Literature and Arts Association of Tien Giang Province). As an active member of the Tien Giang Art Association, he wrote this project for the Art Association to implement. The initial project proposal was very ambitious, and the VID09 Jurors asked the Project Coordinator to revise the activities after it was announced winning: to narrow down the target groups of the project for more efficient implementation; to take out the religious groups and schools. Similarly, one of the key activities of the project that is to organise an open competition for professional and amateur artists of different subjects has been decided to be down-scaled: the competition is to apply for professional artists only. There have been two activities carried out: a kick-off workshop with participation of provincial artists and authorities, and the competition with 243 submissions from more than 100 authors. The top awarded (a script for traditional folk performance “cai luong”) has been performed and broadcasted on local media. A collection of awarded writings has been published and distributed to community. However, the filings at the VID09 management in WB office includes only the revised budget, not the revised project proposal, thus creating confusion to the evaluator at the first place. The two field evaluations (mid-term and final) have not found concreted evidence of ownership by the project implementation agency.

Although the project implementation was fully supported by the managing board of the Art Association, the project has been developed and implemented solely depending on the individual effort (Mr. Dat). There is no clear signal on how this initiative can be replicated and sustained in future. However, due to the nature of awareness raising, the initiative has raised the issue of “anti-corruption” among the group of professional artists, which is in return would be assumingly reflected into their future works.

4 P25. “Capacities building to implement the principle of people know – people discuss – people do and people supervise in Dong Nam commune, Dong Son district, Thanh Hoa province” implemented by Thanh Hoa Forestry Club. The project aims at The project has adopted a “traditional” and There is

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increasing responsibility and transparency of local authorities as well as public agencies at the commune by enhancing the civil society organisations and encouraging people to participate in the local administration.

expertise approach to transfer legislative knowledge and information to beneficiary via representatives from mass organisations. The initial design consists of as series of trainings on relevant legal documents to the communes, with focus on the Law on Land Use, the Law on Inspection and the Law on Complaints and Petitions of Citizens. The trainings include an exercise on anonymous voting and feedback on corruptions and performance of commune leaders, which has revealed suspected corruption cases at the commune. The project, by creating space for people to raise voice and to practice grassroots democracy, has brought about a significant change in awareness of commune people on anti-corruption and created a stronger demand for an accountable and capable authority. It also contributes to the prevention of newly emerged cases of corruption. The biggest challenge for the coming time is to keep the momentum and to produce specific outputs to recognise the effort made by people.

possibility for replication, with the assumption that the modality receives political support and action to be taken on the expectation of people addressing corruption problem. In addition, the report containing anti-corruption information at the commune should be forwarded to the Government functioning agency.

5 P40. “Pilot model of community participation in the planning of public facilities at the local level in Trang Xa commune, Vo Nhai district, Thai Nguyen province” implemented by the Consultative Institute for Socio-Economic Development of Rural and Mountainous Areas (CISDOMA). The Project aims to raise awareness on grassroots democracy regulations and build capacity for cadres at the commune, hamlet and community levels via training and practicing the principle of Grass-root Democracy “People know, people discuss, people do and supervise”.

Starting with a logical and well-structured proposal, taking into account the organisational strengths (personnel, approach, expertise), the project has been implemented smoothly and successfully by CISDOMA, who was also the winner of VID 07. CISDOMA has applied a combination of local socio-economic development participatory planning, which includes relevant exercises to the local partner and community to practice, as well as right-based approaches in order to response to the local context. The project provides trainings to raise awareness on grassroots democracy regulations and to build capacity for the commune cadres. A series of meetings/trainings to the community are to raise people awareness and to fulfil their rights to participate in the decision-making of the commune facility: The Commune Cultural House. All the activities have been completed successfully with good feedback from stakeholders and beneficiaries. Reflected in the very informative mid-term and final reports, the project appears to be very relevant to the local context, with good approach to community. The experience

The project itself at the completion has been proved to be a good and clear model for replication. Some lessons learnt on the approach to local authority can be shared by CISDOMA to improve similar projects in the future.

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from previous model has been taken into account with clear vision and achievement to be gained, in accordance with the project objective.

6 P48. “Improving quality of the delivery of the socio-economic development programme in Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province” implemented by Healthcare Communication and Education Center of Khanh Hoa Province The project aims at encouraging the ethnic minority communities to participate in the local socio-economic development process

The project’s implementing organisation was also the winner of VID 04 and 07. The project interventions include activities to enhance the right to access to information, to establish the supervision and monitoring network to the public development projects and programmes at localities. It includes also the establishment of local social forums hosted by people to collect opinions for the people’s council meetings. The project was selected for a field visit during the mid-term evaluation in January 2010. The evaluator met the project team, interviewed the Project Manager, one of the local partner at commune level, one commune facilitator and two beneficiary households in Khanh Nam commune, Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province. The project activities reflect a high commitment to the theme of VID09, with close linkage and alignment to local authorities at district and commune level. The clear reports have provided information on the implementation of project activities. The network of village collaborators is established and is now operating smoothly, which has created a framework for enhancing transparency at grassroots level, not only for project activities but also for other development programmes.

The project shows a possibility to be replicated to other districts of the province or to the areas where exist similar community-based civil society organisations. The advantage of the implementer in terms of communications and education can be utilised for advocacy of the modality.

7 P51. Radio program "Central Highlands and Community Responsibilities" implemented by Radio Voice of Vietnam Bureau in Central Highland The Project aims to provide knowledge for the local ethnic minority people about the legal knowledge directly associated with their daily life.

The project implementer was also the winner of VID 08. The project has produced and broadcasted the Programme “Understanding the Laws” in 6 ethnic minority languages to cover the Central Highland in order to provide legal knowledge that directly associates with the life of ethnic minorities. The project also distributes 500 radios to listeners at different ethnic communities and organises meetings to receive their feedbacks on the programme. Enhanced by experience from the previous radio program of 2008, which has been maintained after the VID 08 finished, the project nature is very relevant to the theme of VID 09 and to the mission of the organisation, with stakeholder approach from different expertise: media,

The project reports present a clear vision on how the modality would be expanded and replicated.

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lawyers, government, ethnic minority communities. The approach has taken advantages of ethnic languages to collect feedbacks from target groups (the young authority officials, 500 people who receive radios). The final report does not present any evidence on the possible impact or feedback from audiences, but on the demand for radios by the beneficiaries.

8 P54. “Increase effectiveness and transparency in implementation of Decree 67 on ensuring the right of the elder at locality” implemented by the Vietnam Association of the Elderly (VAE). The project aims at improving the implementation of Decree 67 on ensuring the right of the elder at locality at locality, by pointing out shortcomings and suggesting solutions for improvement as well as enhancing the participation and supervision of local civil society organisations (the Elderly Association, Women Union, Fatherland Front, Red Cross, etc).

The project can be considered to be implemented at national-wide scale, since the project activities have been carried out in 4 provinces (Hanoi, Thai Binh, Dak Nong, and Tra Vinh) at different regions of the country at design, and in fact, it expanded the survey to 1 more province (Quang Binh) in October 2009 with support from the International Organisation to Support the Elderly. Although there was a bit delay in implementation of activities at the point of the mid-term evaluation, due to expansion of activities (1 more province surveyed), the project has caught up with the planned schedule at the end. However, the project proposal was not well written in terms of logical approach, while the steps of capacity assessment and baseline study are separated into many activities.

The project’s objectives are in line with the mission and function of the VAE; therefore, it is very relevant to the work of VAE with high possibility of replication into other province within the system of VAE, if good project results can be assured. In addition, the modality requires further funding on capacity building for monitoring groups of the elderly to improve the implementation of the Decree4.

9 P56. “Enhance the participation of community in development, implementation and monitoring of plan for reduction of poor households in Tan Loc commune, Loc Ha dist, Ha Tinh province” is implemented by the Farmer Support Center of Ha Tinh Province (HCFS) The project aims to enhance the participation of community in development, implementation and monitoring of plan for reduction of poor households in Tan Loc commune, Loc Ha dist, Ha Tinh

The project was designed to match with the agenda of local authority, as well as to address problems and to response to the need of the community. Under the project’s target, more than 90% of local officials at commune and hamlet levels and more than 80% of head households of the commune understand thoroughly the framework (Decision 170/2005 by Prime Minister; Circular 04/2007 by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs; Directive No

The project results have created a foundation of transparency and community solidarity that has contributed to the success of land consolidation process in the

4 Now become the Decree 13/2010/ND-CP dated 27/2/2010

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province 03/2009 by the Ha Tinh Provincial People Committee) on the identification of poor households. The project has successfully completed the planned activities and achieved the expected results. More than that, the evaluation has picked the project as a case for in-depth assessment. The field evaluation has been conducted to the project sites with series of meetings and interviews with local stakeholders, poor households and site observations. Activities of the projects have created immediate impact on local community, where the grassroots democracy principles have been practiced and applied not only into addressing existing problems in ranking poor households but also on planning of concrete activities to reduce the ratio of them. The project also supports to enhance the modality of “household alliance” to 49 groups of households in the commune to the cause of poverty reduction. The alliance is a means of uniting the community on the basis of residential area, to share opinion, to support each other to generate income and to implement public projects.

commune. This has been taken as a successful case study for the Loc Ha district to be replicated at other communes in implementing land consolidation policy as well as other poverty reduction and social welfare programmes. The HCFS has prepared a report on this modality for sharing and for advocacy purposes. Local media have been used to share the modality at broader level.

A group of farmers in a same “Household alliance” at harvesting break in Tan Loc commune, Ha Tinh Province. Today these women contribute their labour to help a member to harvest her rice in the field that has been consolidated from different smaller pieces. Household Alliance No. 49, Hamlet 7, Tan Loc commune, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh Province, May 2010 Nguyen Duy Doan, member of Household Alliance No. 1, Hamlet 2, Tan Loc commune, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh Province: “It was unfortunate of my family that my wife passed away due to illness, my health is not good either. Thanks to the help from other members in the same household alliance, my 4-sao (app.1.4 ha) rice field has been cultivated on-time. My children and I feel warm at heart by this support!”

10 P57. “Increase access of blinds to existing legal documents” is implemented by the Thien An Home in Hochiminh City The project is to transfer existing relevant legal documents into

Thien An Home was also the winner of VID 07. In total, 100 sets of copies (6 types of Laws: The 1992 Constitution, the 1998 Ordinance on People with Disability, the

Thien An Home was established as charity for the young blinds,

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Braille’s, audio and big-size letter formats to serve different groups of blinds conveniently

2005 Education Law, the 2000 Law on Marriage and Family, and the 2007 Labor Code) have been transferred into Braille’s, audio and big-size letter formats and distributed to all 64 provinces and most relevant organisations (schools, public facilities, the blinds’ associations, etc) so that the vision-impaired people all-over the country can have better access. The project objectives are very relevant to the organisation's mission. The experience and commitment of the Home’s members as well as availability of facilities have been the decisive factors to this successful project. At the time of mid-term evaluation, the project was found delayed due to the waiting time for the updated legal documents to be issued in January 2010. However, at the field visit in June 2010, all the work was completed on schedule by the great efforts made by the project team. Although not reflected in the final project report, the Home has contributed not only man-day of the House’s member in the production of the documents, but also facilities to this work (Braille printers and other necessary facilities). After the copies of legal documents were distributed, the Home received lots of good comments from stakeholders. Moreover, they received requests for more similar products to meet the need of people with impaired vision, which are at present exceeds the Home’s capacity.

especially to the most disadvantaged ones who lost the sight due to sickness or accident. The Home, which was designed specifically for the living of people with impaired vision, has offered them not only accommodation and meals but also education and entertainment, creating great chance to the Home’s members to live a normal life. The project reflects as a good example for the enhancement of the right-to-know, especially of people with impaired vision.

Mr. Phong from Thien An Home showing the copies of legislative documents in Braille. The need for such kind of documents is still very high but the Home is not able to meet.

Hochiminh City, June 2010

11 P62. “Modality of a friendly authority in Xuan Dam commune, Cat Hai, Hai Phong province” implemented by the Vietnam Fatherland Front of Cat Hai district.

The project’s objective is to

Working towards the development of a clean and strong administrative with high

The project has shown a high

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contribute to the development of a clean and strong administrative with high responsibility and transparency.

responsibility and transparency, the project also raises awareness on “anti-corruption” legal framework, responsibilities, rights and duties of people in setting up and consolidating a community-friendly government. The Project document reflects high commitment of the implementer to the VID theme, which is to improve of public service delivery and accountability. The project’s nature is also very relevant to the mission of the implementer, the district Fatherland Front, in monitoring grassroots democracy. It was developed with an integrated and multi-player approach to involve different stakeholders: media, local authority, and provincial government agencies. The target commune has specific conditions for this modality, which are basic ingredients for achieving expected outcomes of the project: the strong presence of the local civil society; the commitment of commune leaders; local culture and custom of solidarity. Moreover, the modality has received political support from local district government. At both the mid-term and the final evaluations, the achievements of the project are considered quite impressive.

possibility of replication to other communes of the district, as well as to other localities under the same condition. The evaluator has encouraged the project team to share the experience and to document this modality for advocacy.

12 P76. ‘Provision of information on land clearance and resettlement policies to people at the target areas of Quang Nam province (7 districts)’ implemented by the Quang Nam Inspectorate

The project aims at providing information on land clearance and resettlement for the people at the target areas in 7 districts of Quang Nam province, who are directly affected by the Project on Quang Nam – Quang Ngai Highway.

The project is highly relevant to the objective of ensuring the rights of affected target groups to access to information and the project is a must to reduce potential reactions from target people. The project activities include organising workshops and meetings (2 propaganda meetings per districts, plus the set up of a focal point per district to receive feedbacks) to provide information on land clearance and resettlement for the people at the target areas in 7 districts of Quang Nam province, who are directly affected by the Project on Quang Nam – Quang Ngai Highway. The project has helped to improve awareness of people on the programme implementation in order to help them understand and protect their rights. The project reports also reflect the benefit to local authority from the reduction of petitions that may cause due to lack of legal knowledge abided by the land clearance process.

The idea, despite being not really innovative, has reflected an effort made by a government agency who is the focal point to receive complaints and feedbacks from people on land related problems. However, due to the limited scope of the project, the designed activities are not sufficient to effectively address the potential problems. Many more

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comprehensive activities could be designed and implemented in this regard.

13 P84. “Increase awareness and the role of students in anti-corruption in Agro-Forestry and Fishery Faculty, Vinh University” implemented by Youth Unions of Agriculture - Forestry - Fishery Faculty, Vinh University.

The project aims to provide students with knowledge on the nature, manifestations and harms of corruption to help them understand their responsibilities and roles in anti-corruption, thus leads to their acts in unity to participate in the cause, especially in their home communities.

In comparison to the original design, the project has been down scaled to implement within only one Faculty of Forestry. This is because when the project started, the Faculty has been moved out of the university campus to another place 15km far away from the University. Therefore, the coverage of activity could not be as expected at the whole university scale. Managed by a student board, the project has taken advantage of the youth movement, to convey the theme directly to target group. It organises student workshops on the Party and State’s guidelines and policies on corruption prevention and also hold competitions among student groups on the topic “Youth and Corruption”. The participation of students is far from expectation with thousands of submissions in various formats (writing, studies, paintings, etc). The project has drawn attention of media at provincial and national level. The project’s activities are relevant to the VID09 theme, although no specific outcome can be measured due to the propaganda nature of activities.

There is possibility of replication to other faculties of Vinh University or other universities.

The active momentum of students’ participation in awareness raising initiatives should be considered a great advantage.

Examples of few among thousands of students’ submissions in writing to the competition on Anti-corruption. The studies carried out by groups of students, to reflect the legal framework, the understanding and recommendations of students on the issues regarding “anti-corruption”.

Agriculture - Forestry - Fishery Faculty, Vinh University, June 2010.

14 P87. “Development of monitoring tool and draw feedback from parents, children care-takers at Outpatient Department, Central Paediatrics Hospital in 2009 – 2010’ implemented by the Youth Union Executive Committee - The Central Paediatrics Hospital with fund supported from DFID

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The Project aims to develop 6 tools for monitoring and recognizing the parents’ and caretakers’ feedbacks in the Central Pediatrics Hospital while using services at the Diagnostics Department.

The implementer was the winner of VID 07. The project has demonstrated a team, comprised of both hospital staff and volunteers with high commitment and enthusiastic, to make the project the most outstanding one in terms of progress because almost activities were completed within the first six months of one year implementation period. The key expected output, which is the development of a set of M&E tools to receive feedbacks from parents/caretakers, has been achieved. The tools have been used to collect feedbacks from 6,000 parents and caretakers on the quality of the services at the Outpatient Department. The survey results have been used by the hospital management for the improvement of services at the department and as the background to propose further activities. The project has a close direct contact with the donor, DFID, in addition to the framework of VID09 (4 visits to the projects and direct monitoring, plus participation to other advocacy events as a successful modality). Moreover, the project case has been shared at a national conference on anti-corruption and broadcasted many times on national media.The implementer has come up with further idea on a larger scale project to propose to DFID for funding.

This model has a high possibility of replication at other hospitals in Hanoi and other places.

15 P91. “Awareness raising on accountability and transparency for ethnic minority students in Vo Nhai Boarding school, Thai Nguyen province” is implemented by the Consultation and Technology Transfer Center - Duchuonganh.Co.Ltd

The Project aims to enhance the students’ role and participation in the school’s educational activities; and build a school environment with high responsibility and transparency, anti- corruption.

The project is relevant to the VID theme, targeting junior high school ethnic minority students to improve their awareness on accountability and transparency. The activities include the integration of information on responsibilities, transparency and anti-corruption into the curriculum of social science subjects. In order to attract the active participation of students on the theme, the extracurricular activities have been designed. The approach is to attach to the Government national education programme on "Friendly schools, active students", thus contributes to increase the project’s cost effectiveness. The project team has developed a very clear project proposal, followed by informative reports to describe in detail the implementation process as well as the finance management. The implementer has a close connection with the project area

With a signification and effective engagement of beneficiary, as well as gaining good feedbacks from the students and teachers participating in the project, the modality demonstrates a high possibility of advocacy and replication to other similar boarding schools for ethnic

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and beneficiaries. minorities.

16 P97. “Community theatre contributes to improve awareness of the youth on anti-corruption” implemented by Lac Viet Center for Support and Development Community

The Project aims to improve awareness of students on anti-corruption topic.

The implementer was also the winner of VID 08. The project organises a script-writing contest on anti-corruption for students from 4 universities in Hanoi. The best scripts were selected to be developed for stage performance with support from professional scriptwriter and stage director. Although it was requested to provide further information, the supplemented report is not much improved. The project coordinator insists in the report that with the project under the “art and culture for development” approach, the process of implementation is more important than the results of activities, although she did not provide any evidence on how important the process is or what changes/impact brought by the process. The lack of information on the implementation of the project not only puts the question on the achievement of project’s objectives but also the capability of the project implementer.

The mid-term and end-term reports do not provide sufficient information and evidence on how the activities have been carried out and what results has been achieved.

17 P99. “Community based modality to prevent, control and reduce land related corruption in Phu Luong ward, Ha Dong city, Hanoi” implemented by Assistance Center for Hanoi Farmers - Hanoi Farmers' Union

The Project aims to improve capacity for local people to fight corruption in general and corruption in land management in particular. As the results, they would be able to realize and also document behaviours and signs of land corruption.

The project is relevant to the mission of Farmer Union, especially on related land issues. It provides capacity building by training on legislative framework and tools for the people to fight against corruption in land management in the commune and also in other three expanded communes. Behaviours and signals of corruption as well as the new modality of administration regarding land issues at local level have been documented. In early implementation stage, the mid-term project report mentions a number of “corrupted” cases revealed, as well as the challenge that the local authority has influenced the selection of participants to the project trainings. The project implementers have realised the fact and have made some adjustments in implementation process to surmount the challenges. The network of Farmer Union has been mobilised for the project implementation. Moreover, the project has made direct requested to the VID host government agency, the Government Inspectorate, to

Good lessons learnt have been shared among the network of the Farmer Union with high possibility for replication. This project is where the Government Inspectorate as the key Government co-organiser of VID 09 has exercised its role to support the effective project implementation.

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support the implementation by its Official Letter to the local district authority on the request for coordination of relevant local agencies.

After completion of a number of activities, the process has revealed the land corruption situation at village level. The cases revealed have been forwarded to executive agency to be processed. The results then have been announced publicly to community. The project’s outcomes are highly appreciated by local residents and higher-level line agencies.

A farmer said after attending the training for 300 farmers on Laws related to Land management: “if we have chance to attend this training 3 or 4 years ago, our commune would have not been that “problematic” in land management …”

18 P104. “Customer survey via automatic system” is implemented by Hung Gia Investment, Trading and Service Company Ltd. in Hochiminh City

The Project aims to adopt a mean (an automatic feedback system) to enhance the quality of public services provided by state administrative agencies, in order to change the behavior culture between cadres and people, as well as to improve the positive image of state officers’ serving the people.

The implementer is the only VID 09 winner who comes from private sector. The project idea is to develop a product (an automatic survey system) to be adopted by administrative and public service delivery agencies to gain feedbacks from public service clients. The design and production of the product itself is the strength of the implementer so it is completed without difficulty. However, it has been a remarkable challenge for the company to find an entry point for this product, how to convince clients as government bodies to use this. The project team has faced with great difficulties to approach one of the target groups at project design, which are government administrative bodies. The positive result is that 4 public service providers, who are mainly in health sector, have adopted the product. The project has exchange experience with the Project P87, “Development of monitoring tool and draw feedback from parents, children care-takers at Outpatient Department, Central Paediatrics Hospital”, in designing the survey questionnaires for the automatic system. The feedbacks from the clients (the 4 hospitals) are positive, and the system has been recommended by clients to be designed in mobility format so that it can be rotated at different departments to collect periodically

The product has been considered a good means for monitoring of public services.

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feedbacks, but not to stay still at a place all the time.

19 P121. “Future citizens practice simulations on different social settings in Nguyen Trai Junior High School, Ha Dong city, Hanoi” is implemented by the school itself

The project’s objective is to improve awareness of students on how to become a citizen of a country, with appropriate behaviours and thinking.

The project’s activities include the development of simulations and case studies to help students understand their responsibilities and duties to discover and acquire useful knowledge in their life by taking references and learning how to find solutions for practical problems. The project results include the development of 16 case studies and other 28 case studies have been put in class practice. Findings from the case studies have been evaluated and reported to students' parents. The activities have enriched the curriculum with real case studies, especially regarding the subject of citizen education.

The project has high possibility to be replicated in next year and to other schools, or advocate to national curriculum, as well as to mobilise private sector to participate in.

20 P122. “Journalism Awards on "Improve accountability and transparency, reduce corruption" in Ben Tre province” implemented by Ben Tre Journalist Association.

The Project aims to enhance transparency and the community’s response to the competition, especially the participation of people, plays a decisive factor in the competition’s success; and accordingly, there will be activities to establish habits with mission to fight against corruption, make all social relationships untarnished and healthy.

The project idea and design were developed by Mr. Pham Van Luan, a Lecturer at Ben Tre College, who was also the winner of VID 07 and VID 08. He is called as VID Coordinator for this reason. Although the project has been implemented by the Association, under the management of the Association Chairman, Mr. Luan is an influencing person to the project implementation. The final report and interview show that the coordination between the Association and Mr. Luan was not going smoothly, even at some point causing delay to the process. This relationship has overwhelmed the final report, while other progress information on the project implementation is missing. However, although it is admitted that the Association has no experience in project management, it has proven the great effort in implementing a project towards expected outputs, including some flexibility in re-designing of activities (eg. The development of the website www.hoinhabaobentre.org.vn for the purpose of hosting the journalist competition online). The interview with the Chairman as well as information from the mid-term report and the website has supplemented detailed information on the project’s outputs and implementation process. The selected submissions to the Journalist Awards have been documented and broadcasted on local

The project has high possibility of replication to become annual or periodical awards, or integrated into the existing Suong Nguyet Anh Awards. However, it is recommended that external expertise should be drawn to refresh and improve the concept and approach for the modality.

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media. 21 P128. “A survey on "Degree of satisfaction of farmers to agricultural public service"

in 6 communes of 3 districts, Nghe An” is implemented by the Center for Environment and Development (CED)

The Project aims to evaluate the farmers’ satisfaction on agricultural extension services. The opinions, wishes and recommendation with evidence and data collected from farmers will be then feed-backed to relevant agencies for improvement of agricultural services.

The survey is designed to evaluate farmer’s satisfaction on public extension services regarding agricultural production in Nghe An province, in terms of irrigation, agriculture, fishery and forestry, include provisions of seedlings and breeding, fertilizers and pesticides. It also collects opinions and wishes as well as recommendations from stakeholders on the service delivery. The results then are provided to competent agencies with evidence and data. The project has applied the approach: CSI (customer satisfaction index) and RC (Report Card), with expertise consultation with the Institute of Development and Strategy in Hochiminh City. The project has been implemented in consistence with the initial proposal in terms of approach and implementation schedule. It is relevant to the theme of improving public services, especially in the rural area and agricultural public service delivery.

The survey result, as the key project’s result, has been documented and shared in a provincial level workshop, would be the background for designing activities to improve public service in rural area.

5. Overall evaluation This session provides an overall evaluation of the 21 VID09 projects, on the relevance, effectiveness, results and impacts as well as the sustainability and replication possibility to the mission of the implementers as well as to the local context where the projects have been implemented.

Projects’ relevance and effectiveness

The ideas of the 25 projects in total and the 21 projects under this evaluation are of high relevance to the theme of VID 2009 on “More accountability and transparency, less corruption”. The VID 2009 awards have been given to proposals under all the four sub-themes, which has been interpreted into the interventions in the highlighted issues that have been on top concerns of government and society. The highlights, as mentioned in the previous session of this report, include:

i) enhance the effective implementation of the grassroots democracy ordinance; ii) improve the process of SEDP planning and implementation at community level; iii) resolve problems related to land use and resettlement; and iv) develop feedback mechanisms to public service delivery.

Although a number of projects may approach the same issue, the project designs have been made specific to the local context, with appropriate and effective interventions. In all the issues touched upon by the projects, the overall objective is to improve accountability and the right to access to information for various actors. Some projects target government in delivering effective support programmes/public services in accountable and transparent manner, for example the

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implementation of SEDP at community level. Some others have been trying to mobilise participation from stakeholders in the society, such as volunteer groups, mass organisations, art groups and media, etc. Other projects target wider audience, especially the vulnerable groups like the youth, the elder, ethnic minorities and the disadvantaged to raise their awareness on anti-corruption, to improve their accountability so that they can be empowered to exercise the principles of grassroots democracy. From the perspective of anti-corruption efforts, a number of projects have selected the topic on land management and resettlement, which have recorded remarkable cases of corruption all over the country. The approach is to attach directly to the local agenda, from commune to provincial level, to support beneficiaries and local authorities in implementation of land management policies. The activities and interventions include a two-way dimension in providing transparent information on the policy and implementation process to affected people, as well as to convey their feedbacks to the agencies in charge. The mechanism that has been created is also to ensure a space for affected people to participate in and to monitor results. On the other hand, all the projects are very relevant to the organisation missions of the implementers as well as to the current programmes and activities that have been carried out by the organisations. With P57, Thien An Home is trying to help the blind access to current legal documents. In other case, P48 that has been implemented by the Healthcare Communication and Education Center of Khanh Hoa Province is not directly linked to the organisation’s mission, but it is relevant to the community of Khanh Vinh district, where they have been working with in other programmes.

Projects’ implementation and reporting

Generally speaking, for most projects, the activities that have been carried out are in lines with project objectives and planned activities without significant changes. The projects have been keeping up with implementation schedule and have achieved significant results in comparison with the initial proposals. However, it is the fact that the objectives of several projects are broader and too general in comparison with the scopes of activities and project scales. This is mainly due to the weakness in project proposals writing skills. The common features of those effectively implementing projects include:

- Innovative ideas with political feasibility;

- Well-developed project proposal (specific activity design, concrete timeline, clear and measurable expected outputs): this is of vital importance to the performance of the project, since the project would not have time to re-design and adjust activities after launching;

- Being implemented by the organisation as a whole rather than just one or few individuals who wrote the project proposal;

- Attached with suitable partners (government agencies, local authorities, mass organisations, technical expertise): they are key actors of change regarding the theme on “anti-corruption”;

- Suitable project scale (geographical area, budget volume, timeline) with organisational capacity of the implementer.

Requirements have been made clear to the VID09 projects that the mid-term and final project reports have to include comprehensive information as follows:

- Clear explanations on ideas of the project in a logical manner, justified by facts and background information;

- Specific activity design, concrete timeline, geographical area, budget volume, clear and measurable expected outputs;

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- Identification of project stakeholders (number and relevant information on implementers, partners, consultants, beneficiaries, etc.);

- Description and progress of activities carried out, clear explanations on highlighted achievements, constraints, and adjustments if any.

However it is noted that not all the projects have told their stories in this proper way. There is always lack of information, evidence and even description on how activities have been carried out, when they were completed, what results have been achieved and what the lessons learnt are, etc. It is coincident that when the reporting work is done badly, the respective project documents / initial proposals also do not provide specific information for evaluation. In such cases, the inadequate project proposals/reports can be considered indications for either the lack of experience in project writing and reporting skills or indications of ineffective implementation, under the assumption that there is nothing to do with the capacity of the project implementers. There are few project implementers who have done reporting work in a very responsible manner, such as the HCFS (P56); CISDOMA (P40); and Hung Gia Company (P104). The evaluation shows that the advocacy activities for the projects’ results can only be done properly by those who have captured their projects in good reports. This feedback has been delivered during the time of this evaluation so that the training events for VID2010 has included in the program a session for reporting guidelines. Many projects have made necessary adjustments in implementation of activities, towards ensuring the achievement of outputs and results. Adjustments have been made due to different reasons: dependency on local public and policy agenda (P57, P104, P09), changes of projects’ areas (P84, P09); downscale or upscale for project activities (P54, P20). However these adjustments have not always been informed and reported in prior to the VID09 management agencies.

Projects’ Results and Impact Not being bounded by the challenging theme on “anti-corruption”, the 21 projects of VID 2009 under this evaluation tell different stories in various aspects, among which a number of interesting ones have been encouraged to do documentation for further advocacy purposes (see examples at the previous sessions). It is challenging to evaluate the results and impacts of all the projects, especially those who have not done reporting properly as required (can be listed: P20, P122 and especially P97). The evaluation for in-depth impacts has been done only to a selected projects represented for the three geographical regions. However, this is the most interesting part of the evaluation. The in-depth evaluation provides much more vivid details in comparison to the project reports, in order to analyse and capture the results and possible impacts of such projects. In general, it is very impressive in terms of results and impacts, that the VID 2009 with a limited budget and scale, but has created a good “spreading-over” effect not only at the project site but broader levels (See good examples of P87 and P56). Several projects have created a platform to enable local communities to practice grassroots democracy much more than before, to provide them with knowledge on rights and responsibilities of citizen, as well as to encourage them to participate in local agenda. However, unlike projects with tangible outputs, the group of projects applying awareness-raising approach have no concrete outcomes to be measured, due to the propaganda nature of activities. In deed, it is of significant importance to have a number of projects of this type, although the results and impacts of the activities under this sub-theme can only be seen in longer term, with repetition of intensive propaganda contents. For example, it is difficult to measure the change in anti-corruption awareness and behaviour of ethnic minority radio audience (P51) or students from a junior high school (P91 or P121) or a university (P84 or P97) after they participated in some single activity/campaign within scope of the projects. But in broader terms, no matter visible change can be seen or not, such kind of projects would be assumingly supplemented and strengthened impacts created by other larger scale relevant programmes run

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by the government. Another challenge for awareness raising projects is time. The short project cycle of VID modality would be a constraint for the sustainability and enhancement of results and impacts possibly created by these projects. The projects’ outcomes can only be strengthened and sustained by the integration and continuation of the initiatives into the organisations’ longer-term programmes and activities. To sum up, the awareness raising projects aim at creating big change by small actions, thus require innovative ideas and well-designed activities/outputs with clear indicators for achievement. There are few projects that have demonstrated the results that come from the project implementation and the enhanced social supervising capability. Corruption cases have been recorded and revealed in few projects: regarding land management (P99) and embezzlement (P25). However, within the scope of VID09, it is hard to provide feedbacks on how to deal with such results. It depends on the project implementers to choose an existing executive mechanism to report the cases. The P99 has gone further steps in bringing the cases to processed by executive agencies, under the legislative support provided by the Government Inspectorate. The Government Inspectorate may consider the effectiveness of this initiative, to incorporate into improvement of its functioning practices.

Projects’ Sustainability and Replication This session is to assess the sustainability and possibility of replication of the VID 2009 projects to other localities of Vietnam in the future, when the project has ended, so that recommendations on workable solutions that can be applied in case of project’s duplication in the future can be made. The top concern regarding replication and sustainability is the one-year duration of the VID awarded projects, which is very short for recognition of possible impacts. But the fact is quite impressive that most of the 21 VID projects have indicated various concrete activities to work with the media and other stakeholders for advocacy purposes. The advocacy is mainly to advertise the project results, to provide evidence on the project implementation as well as to enhance the image of the implementing organisations. There are few good cases where the advocacy is strongly for the purposes of replication and expansion for the initiatives (See examples of P56, P87). A number of projects have high possibility of replication and extension to other places, and can be developed into modality, based on certain critical assumptions. First of all, it is the commitment of the implementing organisations. The majority of the VID09 project teams have shown their commitment and wishes to maintain and expand the project model, in seek of more concrete and visual evidence of impacts, as well as to nurse other broader ideas for development. Secondly, the assumption is that the modality has been captured in a good final report or review, to be the foundation for development of good proposals for fund raising purposes as well as for experience sharing and lessons learnt. Encouragement and support have been given to the successful modalities so that they can document and share with stakeholders/donors on the project initiatives. Thirdly, the modality documented has to show the greater ownership of the implementing agency, with less dependency on the external support, and lessons learnt from the VID project implementation have been applied to reduce implementation cost and increase effectiveness. From the previous session to evaluate each individual VID09 projects, we can see that those projects with clear ideas, cost-effective activities and high participation of beneficiaries (like students), and more importantly those can be attached to an existing mechanism (ex. Vietnam Fatherland Front, or schools at the same level) are easier to be replicated. Regarding the VID modality, the effectiveness can be seen from its replication by other sectors, with a similar VID hosted annually by Ministry of Health (MoH), and Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) with PEDC fund for disadvantaged children.

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6. Findings and Lessons Learnt This session presents the key findings from the evaluation of the 21 projects. Some findings can be considered as lessons learnt for not only the projects, for the 2009 theme, but also for the effective implementation of VID modality. The findings below are listed without priority order.

Finding 1: Almost VID09 projects have completed their activities as planned and achieved expected targets. The achievements are various among the projects. There are some delays in the implementation of activities recorded in several projects during mid-term evaluation, but those projects have caught up with planned schedule and completed the tasks by the time of final evaluation in August 2010.

Finding 2: The challenge of political sensibility emerged from the theme is visible in several projects. Working on “anti-corruption” area is reported challenging, where the project interventions are always designed in “popular” format, such as training for capacity building, or supporting partners to carry out the local agenda. Only few projects have gone further in the process, to the point that they have targeted to record evidence of corruption. By exercising the social supervising function of civil society organizations, that more than half of VID09 project implementers are, and coming up with results and evidence, the VID09 modality would not provide further support on how to deal with such results. The project implementers themselves have to find their own way out to handle the political sensibility (example of the P25 project, where evidence and feedbacks on corruption cases at project area are recorded).

Finding 3: The bottom-up approach works well with such “sensitive” topic of anti-corruption by applying a multi-dimension approach (with participation from various stakeholders, such as state agencies, CSOs, groups, volunteers, media, beneficiaries, etc) to mainstream the anti-corruption theme into specific exercises, to link with specific issues of the communities. The grassroots democracy ordinance is the most important framework for the approach.

Finding 4: Working in the particular theme of “accountability, transparency and anti-corruption”, the projects with high possibility of replication and expansion are those who have attached the project activities and/or have coordinated closely with the existing government system and organizational / local agenda.

Finding 5: Although VID grants are only provided to organisations/entities with legal status, there is still a visible risk of dependency on an individual person in charge of project implementation but not the organization as a whole. Examples on the failure of implementation of the P129, the un-smooth coordination between the project coordinator and the implementing agency at P122 as well as the limited sustainability/impact at the results of P09/P20 can be taken into consideration. The project implementation towards sustainable impacts depends more on the institutional support and ownership of the implementing organisation, to ensure responsibility and accountability in obtaining project outputs.

Finding 6: The role and responsibility of the hosting partner (as Government Inspectorate together with the World Bank in VID 09) has not been seen clearly during the implementation process of the awarded projects, except for the case of P99. Ideally, not only support during project implementation process, the hosting partner can also provide assistance and guidance to the projects on how to handle the project results (eg. Corruption cases revealed), as well as to capture lessons learnt and experience from good initiatives. This is due to the absence of a specific mechanism for the partner to participate and facilitate, although the VID 09 theme is very relevant to the mission of the Government Inspectorate.

Finding 7: At some single cases, the evaluation recognized an “irresponsible attitude” towards project delivery, which assumingly stems from the lack of proper awareness on the commitment to the VID award since they consider the award as a “one-time” giving, without a strict monitoring mechanism. The characteristics of such projects include: the implementation of project activities has been done with little preparation and time monitoring, the reporting and monitoring has been carried out irresponsibly and poorly, no signal of project impact has been captured.

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Considering the 25 projects, with the fact that majority of them are in the North, where the applicants can have better access to information, and the density of CSOs is higher assumingly, it is rational to think of the way to balance the project coverage, to encourage more grassroots applicants, which is in line with the objectives of VID. More introduction workshops and exchange events would create greater opportunities for local innovators to meet, exchange ideas and information, establish network with others who share the same concerns and interests. On overall remark, the fact is that some projects under VID09 received fund directly from donors and thus have been monitored and evaluated by the donors. This created differences in the interaction between VID 09 donors and the accordance projects, where some projects received a lot of concerns, some absolutely no. There is no rule on this. The DFID has paid 4 visits to the P87, and the NZAid had participated in the activities of P04 while the other donors have not communicated or the possible communication has not been reflected into the project reports. There were some feedbacks from the projects that imply for a “one-time” giving of VID awards to them, without further care, which may lead to a “less responsible” attitude in delivering the project outputs. More regular and close monitoring/supervising should be provided to projects during implementation in order to overcome this potential problem. It would be pity that the interaction with donors, not only with the host World Bank, is not institutionalised for the more effective implementation of VID projects.

7. Implications to VID 09 donors and recommendations When the evaluator tried to anticipate the project’s best practices, lessons learned, successes and challenges, the results are not only to maximize the good impacts and results of VID 2009 projects in the future, but also to draw out possible implications for VID donors which are :

- The VID 09 projects have applied a bottom-up approach, which can be supplemented to the other donors’ larger scale programmes.

- The VID projects have been working in different dimensions of anti-corruption: participation, transparency, accountability, public service and administrative procedures, so they form an interesting picture at grassroots level. The achievements of the VID09 projects help to draw out a picture of the grassroots democracy ordinance practices at various settings.

- The small scale VID projects, which have been implemented at community level by CSOs (mass organisations, NGOs, CBOs), will help to understand the role, mission of CSOs and the efforts made by them in development work at grassroots level so that donors can allocate their support to CSOs directly.

- The small scale of VID projects does not mean that the impacts are limited. The successful model can be easily captured and shared for advocacy purposes to higher level and broader coverage (see example of P87).

- The VID 09 projects provide feedbacks on public services as well as reflect public concerns (land use for instance) in the fields that the projects operate.

- The projects also supply more information for programme development by the donors and the CSOs themselves. Or in the case of P99, can be a good initiative for the government agency to refer to in improvement of its practices.

- The projects’ results can be used as rational for development of evidence-based policy at grassroots level.

Right from the mid-term report, the following recommendations have been developed from the analysis on the VID 09 projects’ progress and results, with regards to the background context and sharing visions of stakeholders to the VID. The recommendations then have been verified by the end-term evaluations and the interactions with the VID2010 at the networking event late

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August 2010. They are more likely problem findings and solutions for the improvement of the VID modality in broader and longer terms:

1) In order to strengthen the effectiveness for VID modality, a pool fund for VID can be developed. A mapping study with 13 bilateral and multi-lateral donors in 2009, conducted by the Like-Minded Donors Group (LMDGs) – chaired by AusAID at the time, reflects several options for funding, in which the VID modality can be considered as a feasible option to support small-scale initiatives that are implemented by civil society organisations. If the VID modality can prove to be an effective mechanism for this common goal, it can be developed into a pool fund so that several donors can pool money on. This is to ensure a common rule for the implementation of the modality, in terms of fund, funding scale, procedures, administration of VID, selection of co-organisers, communication, M&E, interaction mechanism with donors, auditing, etc.

2) To ensure the accountability of project implementers on output delivery, instead of the current “almost one-time” instalment of 95% upon contract signing, a multi instalment of funding can be applied: firstly 70% funding + 25% at certain point and the last 5% at submission of completion document.

3) A certain amount of fund (for example 20% of the awards) can be secured for:

a. Providing technical support to VID winners: Capacity building (ex. Training on reporting skills, writing project proposals, etc)

b. Networking/exchange opportunities during the VID cycle. This is of significance important for exchanging innovative ideas, creating forums and dialogues among VID projects of different annual themes

c. Further demand-driven support to the successful projects: Up to 10% of total grant can be provided for extension / continuation /communication on good project/modality

4) A M&E mechanism should be developed, with semi-annual and annual evaluations, monitoring visits by both VID administration and co-organisers (hosting partners). A comprehensive evaluation should be conducted every 5 years to assess the possible impact over years as well as to verify the VID modality for greater effectiveness. This would not only provide evidence to the contributed funds to VID but also help to convince relevant donors to participate in future VIDs.

5) Responding to “confidential” information: Due to the nature of the VID 09 theme on anti-corruption, how the specific recommendations/outputs from the projects, especially the ones that have been put at the “confidential” box at the mid-term report, to be taken into consideration is critical to build trust for the projects’ beneficiaries and to ensure the sustainability of the projects’ impact. A number of recommendations mentioned in the mid-term reports should be forwarded to the appropriate authority for responding / addressing.

6) From the fact that several VID 09 implementers are also the winners of the previous VID awards, it should be the right time to look at the repetition of awards per one organisation: not to exceed 2 or 3 awards within 5 years for instance. This is to ensure the opportunities for new innovative comers and to control the risk of considering VID as a financial source for some organizations’ routine activities.

7) The measures to handle the fail and fraud projects should be developed and introduced as soon as possible. There is an absence in mechanism to address those projects, without progress reports and no commitment of output delivery within the project period.

8) Development of a specific mechanism to strengthen the role and responsibility of hosting partner (Government Inspectorate in VID 09), such as participation into M&E activities on VID 09 projects as well as facilitation along the system to ensure the project to receive appropriate political support if relevant.

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Appendix The contact list of VID 2009 projects

No Project ID Project title

Contact

1 P01

Enhancing community's participation in anti - corruption and developing the anti-corruption culture in Thuan Chau district, Son La province

Agriculture and Forestry Faculty – Tay Bac University Tel: 0223848474 Fax: 022847375 Email: [email protected]

2 P09

Increasing accountability and transparency in Court hearing in Chau Thanh district, Tien Giang province

People’s Court of Chau Thanh District, Tien Giang Province Tel: 0908614567 Email: [email protected] Contact person: Judge Nguyen Quoc Dat

3 P20

Anti-corruption propaganda through literature, arts and activities of religious organisations, mass organisations and the media in Tien Giang province

Literature and Arts Association of Tien Giang Province Tel: 0908614567 Email: [email protected] Contact person: Judge Nguyen Quoc Dat

4 P25

Capacity building to implement the principle of people know – people discuss – people do and people supervise in Dong Nam commune, Dong Son dist, Thanh Hoa province

Thanh Hoa Forestry Club, 6 Hac Thanh [email protected] , [email protected] 0373 851 112 - 0912 071 926 0373 851 273 - Fax: 0373 726 310

5 P40

Pilot model of community participation in the planning of public facilities at the local level in Trang Xa commune, Vo Nhai district, Thai Nguyen province

The Consultative Institute for Socio-Economic Development of Rural and Mountainous Areas (CISDOMA) 58 Nguyễn Khang, Yên Hoà, Cầu Giấy, Hà Nội Tel : 04. 37843 681 Fax: 04. 37843678 Contact person: Ms Trần Thị Minh Châu Tel: 0982 58 48 46 Fax: 04. 37843 678 Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

6 P48

Improving quality of the delivery of the socio-economic development programme in Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province

Healthcare communication and education center of Khanh Hoa Province 04 Quang Trung, Nha Trang Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Contact person: Dr. Ton That Toan

7 P51 Radio program "Central Highlands and Community Responsibilities"

Radio Voice of Vietnam Bureau in Central Highland HÒANG THỊ LỢI Tel: 0913995558 - 0822455055 05003815722 Email: hạ[email protected] ; [email protected]

8 P54

Increase efectiveness and transparency in implementation of Decree 67 on ensuring the right of the elder at locality

Vietnam Association of the Elderly No 12 Le Hong Phong, Ba Dinh, Hanoi Tel: +0437341854 Mobile: +0978987769 Email: [email protected] [email protected] Contact person: Ms. Phạm Tuyết Nhung

9 P56

Enhance the participation of community in development, implementation and monitoring of plan for reduction of poor households in Tan Loc commune, Loc Ha dist, Ha Tinh province

Farmer Support Center of Ha Tinh Province (HCFS) Tel: 0393852239/0982079626 ; Fax: 0393852160 ; Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Contact person: Trần Thị Thanh

10 P57 Access of blinds to existing legal documents

Mái ấm Thiên Ân Contact person: Nguyễn Quốc Phong Tel : 0908363040 – 08-38472406 E-mail: [email protected]

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No Project ID Project title

Contact

11 P62

Modality of a friendly authority in Xuan Dam commune, Cat Hai, Hai Phong province

Vietnam Fatherland Front of Cat Hai district Nguyen Thi Huong, 0313.888663 [email protected]

12 P76

Provision of information on land clearance and resetlement policies to people at the target areas of Quang Nam province (7 districts)

Quang Nam Inspectorate Phan Viet Cuong, Chief Inspector 015103 858156 [email protected] [email protected]

13 P84

Increase awareness and the role of students in anti-corruption in Agro-Forestry and Fishery Faculty, Vinh University

Youth Unions of Agriculture - Forestry - Fishery Faculties, Vinh University Tel: 0383.552492 Fax: 0383.855269 Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Contact person: ThS. Trần Xuân Minh

14 P87

Development of monitoring tool and draw feedback from parents, children care-takers at Outpatient Department, Central Paediatricts Hospital in 2009 – 2010

Youth Union Executive Committee - The Central Pediatrics Hospital Số 18 - Ngõ 879 Đuờng La Thành - Đống Đa – Hà nội. Tel: 04. 38343700 / Mobile: 0913 304075 / Fax: 04. 37754448 Website: http://www.benhviennhitu.org.vn Ths. YTCC Đỗ Mạnh Hùng

15 P91

Awareness raising on accountability and transparency for ethnic minority students in Vo Nhai Boarding school, Thai Nguyen province

Consultation and Technology Transfer Center - Duchuonganh.Co.Ltd 30, Ngo 17, Ta Quang Buu, Hai Ba Trung, HN PGS.Ts. Nguyen Tri 04.22183728 [email protected]

16 P97

Community theatre contributes to improve awareness of the youth on anti-corruption (4 universities in Hanoi)

Lac Viet Center for Support and Development Community 39/371 Kim Ma, Hanoi 38464091 Nguyen Phuong Anh 0903478338 [email protected]

17 P99

Community based modality to prevent, control and reduce land related corruption in Phu Luong ward, Ha Dong city, Hanoi

Assistance Center for Hanoi Farmers - Hanoi Farmers' Association 29 Hoang Dieu, Ha Dong, Hanoi 38318212 Mr. Nguyen Cong Dinh

18 P104 Customer survey via automatic system

Hung Gia Investment, Trading and Service Company Ltd., Tel: (08) 35127939 / 090.45.858.45 Fax: (08) 35127975 Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Contact person: TRẦN ĐÌNH HỢP

19 P121

Future citizens practice simulation on different social settings in Nguyen Trai Junior High School, Ha Dong city, Hanoi

Nguyen Trai Secondary School, Ha Dong, Hanoi Tel: 33501510 / 0912692788 Email: [email protected] Contact person: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Anh

20 P122

Journalism Awards on "Improve accountability and transparency, reduce corruption" in Ben Tre province

Ben Tre Journalist Association Email: [email protected] Tel: 075. 3825443 . 075. 3820080 Contact person:. Nguyễn Đông Âu. Trần Quốc Việt

21 P128

A survey on "Degree of satisfaction of farmers to agricultural public service" in 6 communes of 3 districts, Nghe An province

Center for Environment and Development (CED) 22 Lê Hồng Phong, TP. Vinh, Nghệ An Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

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