An Initial Assessment of Civil Society in Vietnam

The Civil Society Index (CSI) report for Vietnam highlights a number of features of civil society not previously investigated and a range of new insights. In brief, civil society can be characterised as being very broad-based through numerous civil society organisations (CSOs). However, not all organisations are deeply anchored in civil society, for example some members of the mass organisations are automatically members in the public sector.

Another characteristic is that civil society is segmented into various organisations with different functions. On the one hand, the “old” mass organisations and professional associations, which are broadly accepted as an integrated part of society, and on the other, a “new type” of organisation that developed in the 1990s, but is not fully recognised by society, such as NGOs, CBOs and other types of informal organisations. The report focuses on four main types of organisation: mass organisations (MOs), professional associations, Vietnamese NGOs (VNGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs).

All organisations are seen together as part of the Vietnamese civil society, collectively called civil society organisations (CSOs). The core activities of most CSOs are directed towards poverty reduction, humanitarian relief, self-organisation and professional development, but little CSO effort is directed towards advocacy. On the whole, civil society is an important area of activity for citizens in Vietnam, but it lacks vitality in some respects and areas, among which advocacy is one of the weakest. The environment for civil society is one of the main factors for its relative lack of vitality as the conditions for forming organisations are not enabling.

Full text of the executive summary of this report can be downloaded form here.