By Ha Thi Quynh Nga
Over
the last decades, the discourse on sustainable development has
significantly contributed to the formation as well as the strengthening
of the civil society in Vietnam. In the mid-1980s, the Government of
Vietnam (GoV) introduced
Doi Moi (reforms) which moved the
economy from centrally-planned to a more market-based approach. This
historical milestone has raised the country to a new level of
development and transformed its social and economic structures. Foreign
investments, bilateral and international trade have grown rapidly but at
the same time created multiple development challenges to the country.
Vietnam is witnessing serious forest degradation, environmental
pollution and loss of natural resources, and the growing threat of
climate change poses increasing challenges on Vietnam to sustain its
economic achievements. Climate change is undermining efforts in poverty
alleviation, making the fight against it even harder and more expensive.
According to
DARA International’s Climate Vulnerability Monitor 2012,
total economic losses due to climate change are estimated to have cost
Vietnam 5 per cent of its GDP in net terms in 2010 and are expected to
grow to 11 per cent of GDP by 2030 as the country’s vulnerability shifts
from
severe to
acute.
Faced with the adverse climate change impacts on its development, the
GoV has put climate change response on its economic and political
agendas.
[i]
But the pressing issue of energy and climate change has not only
attracted close attention of the government. It has also become a matter
of concern for civil society all across Vietnam. A growing number of
civic organizations engaged in climate change response and sustainable
energy have emerged. Also, an impressive number of climate networks,
volunteers groups and online forums have formed, creating a colourful
and vibrant civil society in the field of environment, energy and
climate change in Vietnam.
Civil society in Vietnam: positive changes in a challenging context
In order to better understand key drivers in civil society
development around climate and energy issues, it is important to look at
the larger picture of civil society in Vietnam first.
[ii]
Civil society organizations (CSOs) in Vietnam are dealing with a wide
range of development issues such as poverty reduction, education, gender
based violence or grass-root democracy. While over the last three
decades there have been many ups and downs, space for civil society is
obviously expanding. People have more opportunities to participate and
express their opinions. In addition to registered organizations, many
individual civil campaigns and activities are attracting strong public
attention, such as the ”no plastic”, the “stop nuclear power plant”, the
“green drink” campaigns and youth groups to protect mangrove forests.
Although these initiatives barely end up as formally registered
organizations, they have created new space for people to participate in
solving the problems of society without government’s permission. For
example, civil society recently contributed actively to Vietnam's
Constitution and the amendment of the Land Law and advocated for the
rights of ethnic minorities and marginalized groups. These developments
cause positive changes in the decision making process and give civil
society in Vietnam a face.
If we look at the political condition of Vietnam, these changes are
very critical. As a country led by a single party, the Communist Party
of Vietnam, decision-making is often top-down without much engagement
with non-state organizations. When NGOs began to advocate for more
voice, recognition and freedom of expression, a sense of suspicion used
to prevail among government officials that they would be part of the
“colour revolution” – a weapon used by opposition forces attempting to
overthrow the government like the Bulldozer Revolution in former
Yugoslavia's (2000) and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004). The
term “civil society” was thus considered “sensitive” and was often used
with caution in formal documents of the state. And also to the
Vietnamese public, civil society is still a new vocabulary. Even though
the term “NGO” (
to chuc phi chinh phu) is not new, for many people, it sounds very much like anarchy (
vo chinh phu)
[iii] when translated into Vietnamese.
Given such political and social barriers, what are the key drivers
for the positive developments of civil society in Vietnam? First,
domestic economic and social conditions have improved. Many people now
live and work independently. Their needs to exchange and share
information lead to the creation of a civil space outside the state to
serve their interests and communities. Second, the burgeoning of modern
technology, especially the development of the internet and social
networks, enable people to easily connect. Millions can now find
like-minded people via Facebook, Twitter or personal blogs. Third, there
are a growing number of people interested in social, economic and
political issues in Vietnam. The open access to information from
different perspectives helps them understand and encourage actions for
justice. They are aware of various ways to protect their rights, as well
as their responsibility to participate in the governance of the country
to solve common problems, including climate change response and
sustainable energy.
Regarding the role of the state in civil society development, legal
registration procedures for formal organizations are becoming easier.
CSOs are increasingly recognized by the government as independent actors
in civil society, along with Communist Party-led mass organizations
like the Vietnam Women Union and Youth Union. Also, the term “civil
society” has been accepted and is now used more commonly among
government officials and policy makers. Yet, despite these positive
developments, the absence of a Law on Associations remains one of the
major obstacles to the development of civil society in Vietnam. The law
has been discussed for many years but there is no clear sign yet of its
formalization. 75 per cent of organizations surveyed in a
study by the Asia Foundation (2008)
believe that enacting such a law would improve the position of CSOs in
Vietnam since it would create a clear legal framework for CSOs to work
independently, transparently and be recognized by the public. It would
also enable CSOs to operate better, with higher quality and on an equal
footing with the state and the market.
From outside, international donors, INGOs and partner countries have
been very supportive of the development of CSOs in the Vietnam, creating
channels for CSOs to participate in policy dialogues, consultation
workshops, and informal talks with state agencies. They also mobilize
funding and provide technical support to the GoV in implementing
international conventions and promoting international standards for the
development of civil society in Vietnam.
Mapping civil society: main actors and types of engagement
Unlike human rights or anti-corruption, climate change is not
perceived as a “sensitive” subject. Climate change policy therefore
offers more favourable conditions for interventions which civil society
has successfully used to establish itself as an important actor in this
field. As Andrew Wells-Dang shows in his synthesis report
“Civil Society and climate change in Vietnam: Actors, Roles and Responsibilities”,
CSOs have also managed to develop a variety of forms of engagement in
response to climate change, including mitigation, adaptation, capacity
building and awareness raising, monitoring, policy advocacy,
research/consultancy and representation.
One prominent civil society actor in climate change is Vietnamese
non-governmental organisations (VNGOs). The level of engagement varies
from organization to organization: For those which have a strong history
of working on development issues, climate change is for the main part
an integrated component of existing projects. Other CSOs consider
climate change response an organizational strategic priority. A quick
survey on NGOs’ engagement in climate change response carried out by the
Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) in late 2012 showed that
15 out of 45 participating organizations have their own climate change
strategies. However, a majority of VNGOs focus on adaptation, mitigation
and capacity building at community level; only a few of them are
directly involved in policy advocacy and representation to ensure that
the voices of local people reach decision makers. The most active
organizations are SRD, Centre for Sustainable Development in Mountainous
Areas (CSDM), GreenID, Centre for Rural Community Research and
Development (CCRD), and Centre for Water Resources Conservation and
Development (WARECOD), each of them dealing with specific issues related
to climate change and energy. For example, GreenID is an active
advocate for renewable energy by developing local energy plans with
communities at provincial level and replicating the model to a larger
scale. In terms of finance, VNGOs rarely receive any financial support
from the government. Their main funding sources remain INGOs and
international donors.
Mass organizations have a special position in Vietnam’s civil
society. Operationally, they are controlled and funded by the state.
However, their branches at local level belong to many civil society
networks. CSOs mainly work through mass organizations of women, farmers,
workers, and youth to introduce various adaptation, mitigation and
energy initiatives to local communities. Their role in policy advocacy
is significant as they represent the voices of people most impacted by
climate change on the ground.
Other civil society actors which have significantly contributed to
the creation of a vibrant civil society around climate change and energy
policy issues are climate networks. The VNGO Climate change Working
Group (CCWG) is the first and most important network so far. CCWG was
established in early 2008 with a core group and open membership to
INGOs, VNGOs, development agencies and other professionals. CCWG aims to
contribute to reducing the vulnerability of poor people in Vietnam to
the impacts of climate change through environmentally and economically
sustainable and socially just responses. It functions under the auspices
of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Associations
[iv]
and NGO Resource Centre (NGORC). Although NGORC serves as an umbrella
for INGOs only, their working group scheme also allows the participation
of VNGOs. Five out of 15 CCWG core members are VNGOs, including SRD,
MCD, CCRD, GreenID and Live&Learn, and SRD is holding a Co-chair
position of the working group. Policy advocacy is a strong focus of the
CCWG. It seeks to provide a platform for NGOs to develop common advocacy
agendas on climate change and build relationships with decision-makers.
Its scope of work ranges from coordination and dialogues related to
climate change responses to participation in policy processes at both
national and sub-national levels.
Although CCWG has tried to involve VNGOs in the network, its outreach
to civic organizations across the country is still limited. Because
projects and models implemented by VNGOs are often scattered and
small-scale, there is a need to connect them into networks. Soon after
the formation of CCWG, therefore, the network of Vietnamese NGOs and
Climate Change (VNGO&CC) was established. It unifies Vietnamese NGOs
and operates to build up their capacity and cooperate with the
government to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation
efforts in Vietnam. Currently, around 300 organizations and individuals
are registered as members of the network. VNGO&CC places a strong
emphasis on advocacy, giving feedback to the development and
implementation of climate change policies through capacity building,
communications and training activities at both institutional and
grassroots level.
Looking ahead: success stories, challenges, and open doors
While decisions relating to climate change are largely made by the
government, CCWG and VNGO&CC work closely together to ensure that
the poor and vulnerable are able to reach and influence decision-makers
and are not excluded from policy making processes.
The most significant achievement of civil society in policy
engagement is the signing of the MoU between the two NGO networks and
the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s (MONRE) Department
of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Climate Change. This agreement enables
the three parties to cooperatively coordinate and share information
about climate change policy, experiences and good practices at community
level. It also encourages the participation of CSOs in developing and
implementing climate change policies and programmes. The MoU is solid
evidence that the GoV has recognized the contribution of civil society
and is willing to cooperate. Under the framework of this MoU, five
multi-stakeholder dialogues have been organized to discuss various
issues related to climate change, i.e. climate finance, the development
and implementation of provincial action plans, and the role of community
in mangrove forest management. However, critical assessment of this
partnership shows that its quality is not really as expected. In most
cases, joint-activities depend largely on the pro-activeness and
financial contribution of NGO members. And follow-up actions after the
dialogues are often slow and unclear, contributing only modestly to the
advocacy objectives of the network.
While CCWG and VNGO&CC mainly influence policies via ministries,
the Vietnam River Network (VNR) – a well-known environment protection
group – has chosen a different way of policy engagement: working through
the media. For example, VRN members have appealed to remove the
controversial
Dong Nai 6 and
Dong Nai 6A hydropower projects which are located in the
Cat Tien National Park
and according to various scientific assessments will have negative
impacts on both society and environment. To generate attention, VRN
organized field trips for journalists; invited them to participate in
events, conferences, and seminars; circulated research publications;
started blogging and wrote articles. At some critical periods, they
achieved high density media coverage reflecting the views of the
scientist community on the two hydroelectric plants. Headlines such as
Biodiversity law not respected or
Environmental report “ignores” many problems
were found in the most popular newspapers. With all the pressure from
media, CSOs and scientists, the GoV decided to shut down the two
projects.
Obviously, the two examples above cannot fully represent civil
society engagement in the area of energy and climate policy. However,
they show a positive picture, with civil society on the right track to
increase its influence: They are better at representing the voices of
vulnerable people and seeking advocacy alliance and have become more
responsive to government actions. Their ideas also have more weight in
national and sub-national climate discourses now. Though many challenges
still exist, civil society realizes the door to participate is wide
open. As the National Climate Change Strategy stipulates,
“responding
to climate change is a system-wide responsibility, led by the
Government with the active engagement of the business sector, and the
maximum involvement of and monitoring by civil-social organisations,
trade unions and communities; it relies on internal resources, while
taking advantage of international cooperation mechanisms”. What
civil society needs to do though is work more strategically to formalize
and improve the quality of its involvement. By doing so, climate change
and energy CSOs will contribute a lot to the sustainability of Vietnam,
creating changes towards good governance in which civil society has an
essential role in decision-making processes.
[i]
In December 2008, the Prime Minister approved the National Target
Program to Respond to Climate Change (NTP-RCC), with priorities from
2012-2015 focusing on three key areas: Assessing climate change impact,
developing climate change and seas level rise scenarios; Developing and
implementing the action plans to respond to climate change;
Strengthening capacity, communication, monitoring and evaluation of the
program implementation. The Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environment (MoNRE) is the focal point in managing the NTPRCC. In
December 2011, the GoV launched the National Climate Change Strategy
(NCCS) which further stresses the critical importance of responding to
climate change, taking adaptation as the top priority. In agricultural
sector, climate change is also amongst highest precedence. In January
2013, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) launched
the decision 66/QĐ-BNN-KHCN on the Action Plan for implementation of the
NTP-RCC in agricultural from 2012 to 2020. This action plan includes
both adaptation as well as greenhouse gas emission reduction goal which
targets 20% cut in each of 10-year periods. Economically, in late 2012,
the GoV approved the National Strategy on Green Growth. This strategy
sets out a roadmap for a green-restructuring of the growth model to
support continued improvements to the competitiveness of the economy and
living standards while coping with climate change and taking steps to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It contains specific targets related to
reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensity of the economy, reducing
energy consumption per unit of GDP, and reducing energy sector
emissions. A detailed action plan has been officially approved by the
Prime Minister. While embracing a transition towards a low-carbon
economy, Vietnam is already implementing a number of programs and
policies on energy such as the National Energy Efficiency Programme
(2006) and National Energy development Strategy (2007).
[ii]
While there are diverse interpretations, the term “civil society” in
this article means a range of Vietnamese non-governmental organizations
(VNGOs), community based organizations (CBOs), interested groups,
informal networks and virtual online forums.
[iii]
See Caryle A. Thayer: Vietnam and the Challenge of Political Civil
Society, in: Contemporary Southeast Asia, Vol. 31, No. 1 (2009), pp.
1–27.
[iv]
The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) is the standing
agency of the Committee for Foreign NGO Affairs (COMINGO). VUFO is a
nation-wide socio-political organisation whose main function is to
establish and promote friendly and co-operative people-to-people
relations between Vietnam and other countries. It controls the People’s
Aid Coordinating Committee (PACCOM) that regulates and monitors all
international non-government organizations (INGOs) working in Vietnam.
Source: FES