Public participation in law making on the rise

Nguyen Si Dung, Vice-Chairman of the Office of the National Assembly acknowledged the contribution PARAFF made in enabling Vietnamese non-governmental organisations and the public at large to constructively engage in law – and policy development. — Photo thoibaotaichinhvietnam.vn

People around the country have paid more attention to their rights in engaging in law making and policy development as well as monitoring the process.

In the meantime, Vietnamese non-governmental organisations and policy-makers were offered chances to meet and develop a mutual understanding, and learn from each other via policy dialogues.
These are the results of a three-year programme called the Public Participation and Accountability Facilitation Fund (PARAFF), which wrapped up yesterday, backed by the Government of Denmark in accordance with the Viet Nam National Assembly's Office.

The programme was kicked off in 2012 while policy dialogue was still not so common for Vietnamese NGOs and policy makers, and people were not aware of their rights to participate and voice their opinion in the compilation of laws and policies.

It was estimated that 48 NGOs and people living in 30 provinces and cites contributed ideas in the compilation of 25 laws and policies for three years.

The laws can be named as law on civil code, law on population, law on environment protection, law on housing, and law on the organisation of local Government.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the programme, Nguyen Si Dung, Vice-Chairman of the Office of the National Assembly acknowledged the contribution PARAFF made in enabling Vietnamese non-governmental organisations and the public at large to constructively engage in law – and policy development.

And the NGOs played an important role in bringing the voice of the people to law – and policy-makers at all levels, he said.

Therefore, elected bodies had more arguments and information before deciding on the policies and oversight of the Government and People's Committees, he said.

Danish Ambassador Charlotte Laursen expressed her satisfaction with PARAFF achievements in enhancing the capacity and confidence of Vietnamese NGOs and citizens to actively contribute in the processes.

She hoped that the organisations benefited from the PARAFF support would share their experiences with other organisations and continue pursuing the process of "making voices heard".

Source: VNS