Migrant workers to receive services

Migrant workers see photos about their life and livelihood in cities. Six local non-governmental organizations set up a network to help migrant workers better receive social welfare. — VNS Photo Bich Huong

Six Vietnamese non-governmental organisations set up a network for migrant workers called M.net, which aims to help migrant workers receive better social welfare services and voice their opinions on political issues.

M.net was officially introduced yesterday in Ha Noi. The six founding members are the Institute for Community and Health Development (LIGHT); the Centre for Development and Integration; the Research Centre for Gender-Family and Community Development; the Institute for Policy Studies, Law and Development; the Viet Nam Judicial Support Association for the Poor; and the Center for Social Work Community Development Research and Consultancy.

According to the General Statistics Office, in the last decade, migration from rural areas to urban areas increased, from two million migrants in 1999 to 3.4 million in 2009. The increase is expected to continue to 5 million in 2019, accounting for five per cent of the country's population.

LIGHT Vice Director Nguyen Thu Giang said about 90 per cent of migrant workers in the informal sector hardly receive social welfare benefits such as healthcare, education, housing and clean water.

M.net wanted to find barriers that stopped migrant workers from receiving such benefits, help them access public services and connect them with policymakers in their host localities, she said.

Senior Programme Co-ordinator on Governance Nguyen Thu Huong of Oxfam in Viet Nam, which supported the network's establishment, said it was introduced at the right time. Migrant workers contributed to urban development but weren't able to access any sort of Government safety net.

Tran Thi Khanh, 43, a scrap-iron dealer from the northern province of Hung Yen, said she and her family moved to Ha Noi 10 years ago, rented a room and sent their children to private school.

"I have to send my children to private schools with tuition fees much higher than that in public schools, because we have no residential registration book in Ha Noi, so my children cannot attend public schools," she said.

Another migrant, Ta Thi Ngot, 64, said migrant workers like her did not get health insurance cards.

She said she wanted to get health insurance and needed help applying for a card.

Yesterday M.net opened an exhibition displaying photos taken by street vendors and scrap-iron dealers in Ha Noi. It was part of a project LIGHT ran from July 2014 to December 2016 to support street vendors and scrap-iron dealers in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem and Nam Tu Liem districts.

Source: VNS

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

List of non-governmental organizations in Vietnam

A directory on Wikipedia. However, it contains mostly international NGOs actually.

Link here >>

Vietnam recognizes foreign NGOs’ contribution

The Vietnam Union of Friendship Associations hosted a ceremony to recognize the contribution of foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to the sustainable development of Vietnam this year in Hanoi yesterday evening.

Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan, chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, states at the ceremony (Photo: VGP)

 Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan warmly welcomed representatives from 45 NGOs attending the event and emphasized its significance.

Despite having become a middle income nation, Vietnam has still faced with many difficulties and challenges such as war consequences, natural disasters and climate change, hunger elimination and poverty reduction, he said.

Foreign NGOs’ contributions including experiences and human resources have considerably supported Vietnam to build and implement socioeconomic development strategies.

For the last five years, they have assisted Vietnam with US$300 million a year, a great source to the country.

The 45 organizations honored at the ceremony are outstanding ones in the community of 493 foreign NGOs regularly operating in Vietnam. Of these, 14 have been in the country for more than 30 years.

Mr. Nhan appreciated the sentiment, and sincere and effective cooperation and help of international friends, organizations and especially NGOs to Vietnam.

He believed that the friendship, cooperation and partnership between Vietnam and NGOs will continue to be strengthened; contributing to peace, stability and mutual understanding between Vietnam and other nations in the world as well as boost the country’s socioeconomic development and global integration.

Source: SGGP

Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations to mark 65th anniversary

The Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) will hold a number of activities to mark its 65th anniversary, according to Don Tuan Phong, VUFO Vice Chairman and General Secretary, while speaking in a news conference in Hanoi on October 29.

Among the activities are a forum on peace, unity and friendship as well as a visit to the place where the Congress established Vietnam’s Committee for World Peace Protection – the predecessor of the VUFO – in Dinh Hoa, northern Thai Nguyen province.

The organisation will also hold the 65th anniversary ceremony of its traditional day and cultural exchanges with international friends in Hanoi while honouring non-governmental organisations who have assisted Vietnam in poverty alleviation and social-economic development.

The VUFO chose November 17, 1950, the day President Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to the Congress on the birth of VUFO, as its traditional day.

According to Phong, from few member organisations in its early days, the VUFO has increased the number of its member organisations to 111 today.

Over the past years, with its role as a social-political organisation focusing on people-to-people external relations, the VUFO has showed itself as an active, flexible, innovative and effective agency. It has contributed largely to the country’s reforms, nation-building and defence.

The organisation has helped with the collaboration with foreign non-governmental organisations (NGO).

As a result, the country has established cooperation with nearly 1,000 foreign NGOs of more than 30 countries and territories.

Since 2000, NGOs have disbursed over 3 billion USD for thousands of projects to eliminate hunger and overcome war aftermaths, as well as those on public health, natural disaster prevention, environmental protection and capacity building for Vietnamese organisations at all levels.

Source: VNS

Between Trust and Structure: Citizen Participation and Local Elections in Viet Nam

As human and economic development in Viet Nam has increased over the nearly three decades of Đổi mới (‘Renewal’), people’s expectations of governance are also changing. Viet Nam’s Constitution and political structure offer opportunities for citizens to participate in governance both directly (through in-person engagement at the local level) and indirectly (through voting for People’s Council and National Assembly delegates). These forms of participation can be summarised in the two familiar slogans of ‘People know, people discuss, people do, and people monitor’, and ‘Government of the people, by the people, and for the people’. Yet the implementation of legal rights to participation often lags behind the letter of the law. How can citizens be more actively involved in public decision making?

This research report is the result of collaboration between the international non-governmental organisation, Oxfam and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to examine and analyse citizen participation in policy-making processes and political life. It forms part of a series of UNDP-commissioned studies on Viet Nam’s governance and public administration performance conceived on the basis of the wealth of data and information provided by the Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI). The report employs an innovative combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to compare citizen participation at the national level with in-depth conditions in local communities.

Download report in English >>>
Executive Summary in English >>

Source: UNDP

Civil Society in Vietnam

 Introduction

1. This paper presents an overview of civil society in Vietnam. It begins by defining civil society and what it means in the context of this country. It then presents an overview of the current state of play of the different elements of civil society organisations and the overarching legal framework in which they operate. It examines the engagement of donors with civil society. In conclusion, it sets out the need to develop a common shared approach and strategy for engagement with civil society in Vietnam.

Changing Context

2. The broad based political organisation of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) combined with the tradition of a one party state until recently allowed for little space for growth of an independent civil society. The political discourse of the CPV was not supportive of organisational expression of collective identity and interest outside the framework of the Party. Though Vietnam in the past had a rich associational life civil society as understood in mainstream development practice has remained underdeveloped. Mass organisations have been the largest and most dominant of social groupings. They occupied the space that civil society organisations tend to occupy across other countries and political contexts.

3. However, since doi moi the political and economic context is rapidly changing characterised by opening up of the economy and a move towards global integration. This has led to the emergence of social groupings outside the party. Some have argued that since mid 1990s the institutional environment appears to be shifting from a total state domination of development activity to an acceptance of the contribution of other development actors. In other words, Vietnam can be described as characterised by a low but increasing tolerance of autonomous civil activity though civil society remains a politically sensitive issue.

4. There are two broad trends that one notices over the past decade. Firstly there has been the growth of development NGOs essentially different from the organisations that emerged as a product of the retrenchment process during the late 1980s. Secondly, there has been a mushrooming of associations – voluntary, non-profit, non-Governmental, community based, grassroots and cooperative. These associations fulfil a variety of roles ranging from organising activities, to income generation to disseminating knowledge. These new associational forms together with the mass organisations provide material assistance to the poor but do not engage in public debates about policy.

5. The current interplay between government and civil society groupings in terms of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs, or "institutional environment", appears to be shifting from a total state domination of development activity, to an acceptance of the contribution that other players may bring. The Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2000-2010) and the draft Socio-Economic Development Plan (2006-2010) reflect this changing context and set out a challenging role for CSOs in Vietnam. Broadly, this covers three areas of action:

    1. Strengthening the decentralisations process through the Grassroots Democracy Decree i.e. enhancing accountability of governments at the provincial, district and commune level;
    2. Enhancing the participation of poor in the development planning, implementation and monitoring i.e. strengthening voice of the poor in policy making and implementation; and
    3. Supporting service delivery for poverty elimination with particular focus on HIV/AIDS and social safety nets i.e. improving access to the hard to reach.

6. It is worth noting that this shift has taken place gradually, with CSOs now emerging at the margins of development context. This has been helped by building of relationship of trust between government departments and specific INGOs. As evident from the SEDP there is now recognition from the highest levels that civil society organisations may have a more mainstream role to play in the development of the country and taking action against poverty. However, this role or range of roles has yet to be fully defined by government or by civil society itself. There is much potential for facilitating CSOs movement from the margins to the mainstream of development action and increasing their impact on the policy-making process.

Civil Society Spectrum in Vietnam

7. The term "civil society" is defined as "the broad range of organised groupings which occupy the public space between the state and the individual citizen" . The term civil society is used in development circles in Vietnam. However, its use is recent, and as a conceptual base for understanding interconnections between various civil society actors, there is much work to be done in developing a common, meaningful and locally relevant definition.

8. Civil society in Vietnam can be described as consisting of a range of organisations, which when organised along a spectrum consist of CBOs at one end of the spectrum and research based organisations and INGOs at the other end. There are several other elements that fall between these two ends such as mass organisations, cooperatives, social and charity funds and Local NGOs etc. Its important to note that in the context of Vietnam, the media and the private sector are not being considered as part of civil society at this point in time.

9. At the lower end of the civil society spectrum are the CBOs or organisations of the poor such as water user groups, savings and credit groups, farmers collective etc. Most activities undertaken by the CBOs are financially sustainable and their emergence is closely associated with donor/INGO development interventions.

10. Occupying the middle band of the civil society spectrum are cooperatives, mass organisations, social and charity funds and Local NGOs. It's worth examining each separately, as they play different roles and have potential to develop further. The new Cooperatives are largely emerging through endogenous processes. They provide the opportunity for a new generation of local leaders to seize economic opportunities by organising farmers to produce and market their goods collectively.

11. Mass organisations are redefining their role and position in the rapidly changing development context of Vietnam. Over the past decade they have proved to be effective in reaching services down to the communes. They are an important vehicle for improving access of services specifically across the poorest provinces but are not effective in promoting accountability of local government's. Mass organisations are largely funded by the Party though increasingly they are collaborating with INGOs to implement development programmes.

12. Charities are engaged in reaching services mainly to the urban poor. They are largely supported by domestic donations. In the future charities will continue to play a role in enhancing access to the hard to reach urban poor.

13. NGOs are the latest entrant and are developing their identity while progressively widening their remit, function and outreach. Financial resources, capacity and the legal framework remain a key constraint. In the long run they have an important role to play in enhancing accountability, voice and access.

14. At the higher end of the civil society spectrum INGOs occupy the space that NGOs tend to occupy in other developing countries in South Asia. They are largely engaged in implementing development programmes at the level of the commune/district and piloting innovative development interventions for poverty reduction. More recently there has been a trend amongst some of the more progressive INGOs to operate through LNGOs. This has allowed them to strengthen the LNGO capacity in implementing development programmes while increasing their outreach. Some have successfully engaged in the policy making process of the state while others have been engaging in issue based advocacy. In the long run, as capacities of local NGOs develop they will need to redefine their role vis a vis the emerging development context of Vietnam.

15. Research institutions operate within the framework of the government and ministries. They are not always an "independent voice" that tables' alternative analysis and contributes to evidence based policy making. In the future, they have a critical role to play.

16. The local CSOs in Vietnam tend to be densely concentrated along the Red River and Mekong delta of Vietnam. The few development oriented NGOs have now begun to spread their operations into some of the poorer provinces of the country. Most well off provinces have small savings and credit groups, water user associations, NGOs and INGOs. But their spread begins to thin pretty fast as one moves to the highlands.

17. Data suggests that there are roughly 140,000 CBOs, 3,000 cooperatives under the new law with most of them operating in the areas of agriculture, fisheries, construction, sanitation and health care. There are about 200 charities and 1000 Local NGOs that are registered. However, we need to bear in mind that over the past decade the number of CSOs is rapidly growing and these figures are rough indication of the density of CSOs in Vietnam.

Legal Framework for Civil Society: Fixing the Parts & Missing the Whole
18. The legal framework is constantly evolving to keep pace with the challenging role that the government has set for civil society. Individual decrees relating to different elements of civil society have been issued in the recent past. These decrees/laws provide the basis for the establishment of civil organisations that operate relatively independent of the state. However, these ad hoc regulations do not add up to a comprehensive and clear legal framework for the formation and operation of NGOs/CSOs. This is also an indication that the issue of "independent" civil society organisations remains political sensitive.

19. Broadly, there are five important decree/laws currently in existence, which govern different elements of civil society organisations in Vietnam. The laws and decrees show clarity of purpose for cooperatives, CBOs and charities. The Grassroots Democracy Decree 79 (2003) institutionalises the participation of local communities/CBOs/organisations of the poor in development activities at the level of the commune. This is seen as an important step in the development of civil society in Vietnam. The law on Cooperatives recognises cooperatives as voluntary organisations functioning as independent economic entities. The law on Science and Technology recognises professional associations as independent service organisations with the only option available to most development NGOs. The decree 177 recognises charity and social funds. Lastly, the law on Associations is currently under revision by the NGO Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is hoped that the law, which is in its 10th draft, will define the concept of NGOs along with their role, function and management arrangements. The only option currently available to development NGOs is to be registered under the law on science and technology. This requires them to justify and link their existence and operation to science and technology.

20. The analysis of these decrees confirms that the Government is keen to set out roles and responsibilities for the new forms of associational life that emerge.

Donors Engagement with Civil Society

21. Donors in Vietnam do not have an explicit approach or strategy for engaging with civil society organisations. For most bilateral organisations the small grant scheme provides the organising framework for engagement with civil society organisations. Some multilaterals particularly the UNDP and ADB also have similar schemes. Support under these schemes is not positioned to be strategic in nature. They generally support small ad hoc projects ranging from income generation to training, service delivery, awareness generation programmes to human rights and democracy promotion.

22. There are many donor-funded initiatives to support research capacity in a wide range of policy-related fields. Analysis suggests that support is limited to three or four research organisations, some of the regional universities and ministry based research bodies. Most of this support is for Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and its different institutes such as Institute of Economics, Institute of Sociology and Centre for Analysis and Forecast. Central Institute of Economic Management and the Vietnam National University along with Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Association are some of the other research bodies that are currently being supported.

23. Support to research organisations is largely focussed on building capacity of Vietnamese researchers. The link between research and policy related analysis is not always explicit across these projects. Donors also support new areas of research such as WTO with specific thematic focus such as gender. Most of this support remains ad hoc with little attempt at rationalising engagement and offering comprehensive funding for capacity building.

Conclusions

24. The embryonic stage of civil society in Vietnam and the continued political concerns and sensitivities around its development makes the task of strengthening this sector a challenge. Engagement in this sector will require the donor community and the government to develop a common shared approach and strategy to support civil society to move from the margins into the mainstream of development practice and debate. With Vietnam currently engaged in developing its five-year plan and with its rapid integration into the world economy, the time may just be right for the donor community to start this process in close consultation with the government.

Source: Global Policy Forum