Vietnam

Two decades of intense market-oriented develop-ment have transformed Vietnam into one of thefastest growing economies in the world with aremarkable poverty reduction record. However,rapid economic growth in a system built on central planning is exacerbating fundamentalinstitutional weaknesses and creating new challenges, from social inequality to inadequatepublic services and rising pollution.

Increasing industrialization is resulting in the lossof agricultural land and high rural unemployment.As the gap between urban and rural areas growsand environment degradation becomes much morevisible, public sentiment has shifted from growth atall costs to equitable and sustainable growth.

THE ASIA FOUNDATION IN VIETNAM

The Asia Foundation has been supportingVietnam’s ongoing transformation since 1993through a network of committed partners in gov-ernment, the private sector, and civil society andsince 2000 through a resident office in Hanoi.Vietnamese are well aware that the country needsnew institutions and practices to support its con-tinued growth and position in the region and theworld. That process will take time, and its successrequires not only greater openness from the state,but also a higher level of social consensus on whatconstitutes effective governance. To this end, theFoundation supports Vietnamese efforts to gener-ate constructive debates about governance optionsand practices, increase public participation in the

policy dialogue, support private sector develop-ment, and continue the country’s regional andinternational integration. Helping to build thecountry’s human resources and ensuring that thedisadvantaged can access economic and educa-tional opportunities are themes that cut across allAsia Foundation programs in Vietnam.

Our programs are built around four key themes:

1. Advancing effective governance. 2. Supporting economic policy dialogue andprivate sector development.

3. Addressing environment and climate changechallenges.

4. Empowering women and vulnerable populations.

ADVANCING EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE

Effective governance requires institutions andpractices that are responsive to citizen needs andthat leverage all the resources available withinsociety to address social concerns. The AsiaFoundation partners with the Institute ofLegislative Studies and the Office of the NationalAssembly to strengthen the capacity of Vietnam’slegislature, an increasingly important and activeinstitution. Our activities have helped to enhancethe skills of Vietnam’s lawmakers and create moreopportunities for citizens to participate in thelawmaking process.

The Foundation

supports Vietnamese

efforts to generate

constructive debates

about governance,

increase public

participation in policy

dialogues, raise

transparency, support

sustainable develop-

ment, improve gender

equality, and develop

regional cooperation.

The Asia Foundation

has been supporting

Vietnam’s

transformation since

1993 through a

network of partners in

government, the

private sector, and civil

society and through

our office in Hanoi

since 2000.

In Vietnam, The Asia Foundation supports programs to advance effective governance, facilitate economic dialogue and private sector development, address environment and climate change challenges, and empower women and vulnerable populations.

VIETNAM

Transparency and accountability are critical dimensionsof effective governance. The Foundation supports policyresearch and interventions responding to emerging issuesin Vietnam. We identify and conduct research on keyissues, using the results to design targeted, evidence-based programs. One example is our sponsorship ofresearch into the rising number of citizen petitions onland issues, followed up with support for work with theVietnam Lawyers’ Association, and the GovernmentInspectorate to improve management of citizens’ com-plaints. The Foundation also assisted government agen-cies and CSOs to conduct public consultations toinform the drafting of laws, from the Law onEnvironmental Protection to the Labor Code and theLaw on Access to Information.

The Foundation works to improve understanding anddevelop policy responses to urban development and pub-lic service improvement. This includes partnering withthe University of Economics and Law in Ho Chi MinhCity to assess models of municipal governance forVietnam. The Foundation has conducted a series of pro-jects to assess and support improvement of public ser-vices, including developing a systematic tool, the RuralPublic Services Index, to assess the quality of public ser-vices for rural inhabitants based on citizens’ feedbackand satisfaction.

The Foundation is also at the forefront of strengtheningcivil society organizations in Vietnam. Since 2009 ourpioneering civil society organization (CSO) capacitybuilding program has provided training for hundreds ofVietnamese CSOs in organizational development, non-profit sector governance, public participation mobiliza-tion, communication, and policy advocacy skills.Wherever possible, the Foundation assists efforts tobring civil society voices into policy debates on issuesfrom gender equality to the environment and publicaccess to information. The Foundation builds CSOcapacity to carry out rigorous research, conduct publicconsultations on key policies and laws and engage in

policy dialogue with the National Assembly and govern-ment agencies at national and local levels.

SUPPORTING ECONOMIC POLICY DIALOGUE

AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

Policy reform pursued by the Vietnamese governmentover the past two decades has led to sustained high eco-nomic growth and remarkable success in poverty reduc-tion. However, explosive growth has been accompaniedby increasingly complex social and economic challenges.The growing gap between urban and rural areas is anincreasingly prominent debate in Vietnam. Harnessingthe resources and expertise within society to generateinnovations and informed responses to opportunitiesand risks in this new phase will be critical to achievingsustainable development and global competitiveness.

The Asia Foundation supports research into key eco-nomic issues, transparency initiatives, and policy dia-logues engaging the business community and policymak-ers. Our work has gathered business concerns about theregulatory environment and documented best practicesin transparency and access to information in provincialeconomic governance. The Foundation works tostrengthen Vietnamese business and cooperative associa-tions’ capacity to work effectively with their members tosupport improved policymaking and equitable growth.The Foundation’s sustained assistance to the VietnamChamber of Commerce and Industry, for example, hasestablished respected tools and databases supportive toeconomic growth and private sector development, fromthe well-known Provincial Competitiveness Index to theVietnam Business Insight Survey. Our work with the co-operative movement has assisted dynamic rural co-opera-tives to improve their management structures, businessdevelopment and connections to markets, leading toimproved income generation for their members.

ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE

CHANGE CHALLENGES

Rivers dying from industrial pollution, worsening airquality in cities and industrial zones, untreated solid waste and biodiversity loss, and the effects of natural dis-asters and climate change are all highly visible in Vietnam.They are increasing public anxiety, damaging publichealth, and impacting socio-economic development.

International and domestic efforts to address environ-mental degradation and climate change in Vietnam haveincreased markedly in recent years, but issues that under-mine effective governance in other sectors such as exces-sive reliance on centralized, top-down approaches, weak

enforcement, and inadequate civil society and commu-nity participation are also long-standing challenges inthe environment field. The Asia Foundation supportscapacity building for environment agencies and CSOs,and supporting CSOs to carry out policy research, pub-lic consultation, and communication initiatives on issuesrelated to the environment and climate change. Thisincludes working with the Vietnam Association for theConservation of Nature and Environment to consultover 80 environmental organizations and advocate forchanges to the Law on Environmental Protection. Wealso sponsor community-based environmental manage-ment initiatives, environmental education in schools,and youth environment initiatives.

Vietnam is highly vulnerable to natural disasters and theeffects of climate change. In the past, disaster risk man-agement (DRM) has tended to focus on governmentcapacity or vulnerable populations. However, local busi-nesses are critical players in community resilience and animportant part of the socio-economic life of communi-ties. The Foundation’s work in DRM creatively linksSMEs with government and community groups toimprove disaster preparedness and response. The pro-

gram has trainedover 700 individ-uals from 450small and medi-um-sized enter-prises in vulnera-ble provincesacross Vietnam aswell as support-ing public privatedialogue andinnovative corpo-rate social respon-sibility initiativeson disasterresilience.

EMPOWERING WOMEN AND VULNERABLE

POPULATIONS

Vietnam’s transitional political economy and changingsocial norms present new opportunities, but also gener-ate new risks and deepen existing vulnerabilities. TheAsia Foundation works to support vulnerable popula-tions across Vietnam, to ensure greater opportunities forwomen’s participation in the country’s social, political,and economic spheres, to improve provision of criticalservices to migrant workers and the urban poor. Wecooperate with Vietnamese CSOs and government insti-

tutions to develop critical services including legal andemployment counseling services for migrants and othervulnerable populations.

As the pace of export-led, market-oriented economicgrowth intensifies, women, in particular, are a signifi-cant source for low-wage labor in the cities, in factories,and for labor export, informally to nearby countriessuch as China and Cambodia or through official chan-nels to other parts of Asia and the world. Demand foremployment far outstrips legitimate opportunitiesputting many at risk of being exploited or trafficked.The Asia Foundation’s anti-human trafficking programworks with schools and educators in the Mekong Deltato increase awareness of safe migration and labor andsexual exploitation. We work with government andCSOs to improve the quality of support to victimsincluding through the development of NationalMinimum Standards for Trafficking Victims’ Support and Protection.

Ultimately, empowering vulnerable and at-risk womenmeans providing them with educational and employ-ment opportunities. The Foundation’s scholarship program for disadvantaged girls has provided over 1,000scholarships to deserving young women in Nam Dinh,Can Tho, An Giang, and Hau Giang to enable them tocomplete high school. Since 2011, the Foundation hassupported 100 deserving young women from difficultbackgrounds with full support to achieve their universitydegrees in technical fields, such as engineering and thehard sciences, where women are often underrepresented.

REGIONAL RELATIONS AND HUMAN

RESOURCE CAPACITY

The Asia Foundation has long supported efforts toimprove U.S.-Vietnam relations through educationalexchange activities, research fellowships and grants, and

HEADQUARTERS465 California Street, 9th FloorSan Francisco, CA 94104 USATel: (415) 982-4640Fax: (415) 392-8863info@asiafound.org

WASHINGTON, DC1779 Massachusetts Ave., NWSuite 815Washington, D.C. 20036 USATel: (202) 588-9420Fax: (202) 588-9409info@asiafound-dc.org

VIETNAM#10-03 Prime Center53 Quang Trung StreetHanoi, VietnamTel: + 84 (4) 3943-3263Fax: + 84 (4) 3943-3257tafvn@asiafound.org

www.asiafoundation.org

01/2014

bilateral confer-ences. A networkof AmericanStudies scholarshas been estab-lished throughthe Foundation’ssupport andmeets annuallyto share teachinginnovations andresearch results.We have a long-term part-nership with theDiplomatic Academy of Vietnam and supportforeign policy capacity building and regionalcooperation initiatives. In recent years we havedeveloped an increasingly close relationship withKorean academic and governmental institutionsconducting dialogues in Vietnam on issues fromeconomic development to climate change.

As one of the mostliterate developingcountries in theworld, there is agreat demand forpublications inVietnam. Througha long-term partnership withthe NationalLibrary of Vietnam(NLV), The AsiaFoundation’sBooks for Asiaprogram has

shipped approximately 320,000 volumes of high-quality educational materials to more than 100institutions throughout Vietnam since 2000.Since 2005, the Foundation has worked with theNLV to strengthen the capacity of public libraryinstitutions creating a more welcoming and accessible library environment and extendingpartnerships with school and university systems.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

• National Assembly: Assisting the National Assembly to train more than 200 deputies in public consultation techniques and strategies. Support for the development of duthaoonline, a website for public comment on draft laws. • Civil Society: Training on organizational development, public participation, and policy advo-cacy for more than 350 CSOs across 32 provinces and cities • Disaster Risk Management: Training in disaster risk management techniques for more than700 individuals from over 450 businesses in disaster prone provinces • Environment Education: Piloting integration of environmental themes into school curriculaand activities for 6,000 primary school children in Hanoi • Anti-trafficking: Conducting safe migration education for more than 55,000 vulnerable children and young people • Scholarships: Year-long scholarships for over 1,000 disadvantaged girls • Books: 320,000 books distributed to more than 100 institutions throughout Vietnam since 2000

The Asia Foundation

is a nonprofit international

development organization

committed to improving

lives across a dynamic

and developing Asia.

Headquartered in San

Francisco, The Asia

Foundation works through

a network of offices in

18 Asian countries and in

Washington, DC. Working

with public and private

partners, the Foundation

receives funding from

a diverse group of

bilateral and multilateral

development agencies,

foundations, corporations,

and individuals.

The Asia Foundation’s programs in Vietnam, benefit from the generous support of donors including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. StateDepartment, the Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the UK Embassy, Irish Aid, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Shirin Pandju Merali Foundation,Estée Lauder Company, and many other public and private sources.