Developing rural entrepreneurship to combat poverty in Dien Bien Province

In the mountainous region of Dien Bien in Northern Vietnam, women farmers, very often from marginalized ethnic minorities, live in extremely precarious conditions. It was in this province that the Anh Chi Em microfinance program came into being in 2007, thanks to the French NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde. AFD is supporting this action.

Copyright : Entrepreneurs du Monde

“I was able to buy twenty or so ducks…”

The NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde is implementing the Anh Chi Em project, either directly or in partnership with local entities. This microfinance program targets the poorest and most vulnerable families. The NGO offers customized and scalable financial services (loans, savings) and non-financial services (training, follow-up, awareness-raising) through this microcredit project.

In addition to the loans allocated to families for livestock farming and farming activities, the NGO supports local communities, particularly women, by giving them technical training and raising their awareness in terms of trade and how to keep a family budget. “With the loan, I was able to buy twenty or so ducks. The money I made when I sold them allowed me to start pig breeding”, remembers Ca Thi Pom, a woman from a village in Dien Bien Province.

In 2011, 3,700 families were supported by the program, an 86% increase compared to 2010. 2,000 loans have been allocated for an average amount of EUR 91. 14,400 people have attended training sessions.

An innovative microfinance program

The Anh Chi Em program has developed over the years with the aim of always better meeting needs. For example, Anh Chi Em now offers loans with different amounts and maturities in order to adapt to the economic cycles of activities. In addition, a team of trainers and social workers offer and provide support, as well as training for families.

Anh Chi Em is testing an innovative project for the future. It encourages participants to sort and sell their waste and put the money they earn on a savings account. Finally, the NGO is currently working on creating services that would allow farmers to organize themselves into interest groups or networks.

7,000 people expected to benefit from a microcredit

Anh Chi Em will be able to develop its activities and support some 7,000 people thanks to the program agreement with AFD. It will also allow it to considerably strengthen its institutional and financial visibility. In addition, this program agreement will scale up exchanges of experience between the organizations supported by Entrepreneurs du Monde in other countries (Benin, Burma, Cambodia, Haiti, India, the Philippinesµ...).

AFD started supporting Entrepreneurs du Monde back in 2009. It invested EUR 961,000 in this Anh Chi Em project between 2010 and 2011 and AFD more recently signed a 3-year program agreement. Under this program agreement, AFD is providing EUR 305,000 of further support to Entrepreneurs du Monde for a 3-year period (2012-2014).

AFD has already supported a dozen or so French NGOs in Vietnam

Some 150 non-governmental organizations from France have been operating in Vietnam for about twenty years now. French NGOs account for 10% of international NGOs working in Vietnam and cover a total of 63 towns and provinces. The operations of these NGOs cover a very wide range of activities, including education and vocational training, rural development, social integration, energy, health and microfinance.

Since 2008, AFD has financed a dozen or so projects led by French NGOs in Vietnam, for a total amount of over EUR 2m. These NGOs include internationally renowned NGOS (such as Handicap International and Entrepreneurs du Monde), as well as smaller NGOs with a more limited range of activities in Vietnam or Southeast Asia (such as digital gateways or Codev Viet Phap). French NGOs have taken account of the new realities of Vietnam – a middle-income country on the verge of becoming an emerging country – and of the constraints on access to financing and are tending to implement more and more innovative initiatives. AFD works to support these developments.

Source: AFD

Civil society and democratisation in Vietnam

The existence of civil society and its vibrant activism have been shown to contribute to a nation’s development and democratisation.

Is there a civil society in Vietnam? Is Vietnam democratising? These questions need to be addressed amidst scepticism of — or even a rejection of the existence of — both a functioning civil society and democratisation Vietnam.

Civil society is broadly defined as a network of non-state actors that differ from organisations such as self-governed sport clubs, research institutes and think tanks. The non-state actors in this context are commonly referred to as social organisations or associations. The key tenet of civil society is that it is independent of the state by all means — it is not subjected to state control and influence in any way or form. Only when this tenet is strictly upheld can civil society scrutinise public policies effectively without state restrictions.

The state control of, and restriction on, social organisations in Vietnam make many believe that there is no civil society. In Vietnam, it is very complicated. Social organisations in Vietnam can be split into two categories: governmental and pseudo non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The former includes those that are either financially sponsored and guided, or not financially sponsored but guided by the Communist Party of Vietnam. There are six governmental organisations that operate closely with the Communist Party: the Fatherland Front, the Farmers Union, the Women’s Union, the General Confederation of Labour, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the Veterans Association. There are also two other national unions: the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations and the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), whose membership is in the thousands nationwide. Also within this category are professional associations such as the Vietnam Journalists Association and economic federations like the Vietnam Economic Association.

The second category, pseudo NGOs, is represented by organisations that must register with the government under the auspice of VUSTA. These organisations proclaim themselves as NGOs, operating on their own initiatives and funds without state intervention and influence.

However, activities of these NGOs are under strict surveillance of government watchdogs. Thus, they are very careful about their criticisms, if any, against the government. A legislative project to develop a law allowing social organisations to exist free from government control in Vietnam is currently on the backburner, as the government fears that the law might put it in a political dilemma if it does not allow independent organisations to operate.

In recent years, with the support of social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and blogs, citizens in Vietnam are more updated and engaged in public affairs, and are more likely to challenge the legitimacy of the government and, above all, the communist party’s monopoly rule. Netizen (internet citizen) communities are increasingly engaging in activities such as calling for demonstrations or exposing corruption cases, making many believe that a civil society already exists and democratisation is coming in the two countries. However, liberal democracy theorists would not be so optimistic. Some conditions are necessary, though may not be enough, for both civil society to operate and democratisation to occur, like freedom of association, freedom of speech and independent press. Unfortunately, most western civil society and democratisation theorists would agree that these conditions are still absent in Vietnam. In fact, the existence of social organisations networks and the activism of netizen communities should be considered as social capital, which really matters for democratization only when the above necessary conditions become available.

One cannot be too optimistic about the existence of civil society and ongoing democratisation in Vietnam. But there is no doubt a solid foundation for change. It is now just a matter of time.

Source: East Asia Forum

Vietnamese Restaurants Turn Philanthropy Into Business

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM— Among the countless street children Jimmy Pham has met over the decades, the one who comes to mind most often is a young girl whose mother slammed her head against a wall 16 years ago.

“It’s Uncle Tuan!” he remembers the five-year-old greeting him on the street. The girl’s mother, who was beside her, then suggested beg for money from Pham, a stranger who lately had become a kind of casual benefactor to the local children. When the girl refused to beg, her mother punished her with a beating.

The memory of that girl, and others like her, played a key role in the origin of KOTO, the restaurant chain Pham went on to found in 1999. KOTO uses its eateries to take young people off the street and train them in the service industry.

Unlike when Pham started out, Vietnam now has a whole host of vocational charities that take the teach-them-to-fish approach. Instead of a handout, the organizations specialize in a teaching marketable skill - from baking brownies to tailoring trousers. The thinking is that they can pass these skills on to poor or disabled people, who then can support themselves. But Pham says even this approach is no longer enough.

“We’re not content with showing them how to fish anymore,” Pham, 40, said in an interview at KOTO’s restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. “We want to show them how to set up the fish shops and teach others to fish.”

Case in point: Pots 'n Pans. A group of KOTO alumni opened the restaurant in Hanoi this year, using the experience they gained through their alma mater and sending some of the profits back to it. KOTO stands for “Know One, Teach One.”

The non-profit’s shift in strategy is still new, but reflects more generally the endless reinvention that began from KOTO’s early days.

Pham, who as a baby fled Saigon for Australia as the Vietnam War was winding down, returned in 1996 as a travel agent. He was struck immediately by the poverty and says he spent his first few weeks buying meals for street children and giving them money.

But he knew that couldn’t last. After a few years, he set up a sandwich shop in Hanoi so he could hire young Vietnamese and help them earn a living. He called that group KOTO’s inaugural class (twice a year, the KOTO branches in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City each welcome a new class of 30 recruits).

But the first class looked nothing like the ones today. Pham rented a house for the teenagers, who left it a mess and told the landlady to charge him double so they could keep the extra money. They skipped out on their English classes and thought of him, Pham said, as a “big fat turkey.”

“Looking back, I could have been very angry,” he said. In the background at the restaurant, “Hello, Vietnam,” a song of homecoming by a Vietnamese-Belgian, played softly.

But instead of giving up, Pham and his colleagues built on the concept. Over the course of 13 years, through a process of trial and error that still is evolving, KOTO has become one of the most recognizable social enterprises in the country. Its restaurants, which serve Vietnamese and fusion cuisine, are a favorite stopover during diplomatic visits, and its catering appears regularly at embassy and consular functions.

Thuy Hang, a public diplomacy officer at the Australian Consulate here, called KOTO “special” because it “not only provides a high standard of employment-focused skills training to young people, but also broader 'life skills' training.”

The recruits live together for two years at a training center, one in each city, but food service makes up just part of their lessons. They learn English and play soccer, but also take 36 workshops that cover everything from personal finance to sex education.

The rigorous application and vetting process requires that the trainees start between ages 16 to 22 and come from disadvantaged backgrounds. More than 500 Vietnamese have graduated with a certificate accredited by Box Hill Institute, which provides vocational education in Australia and through international partners.

Soon, Bui Viet An will count himself among those alumni. Having lost both parents by age 10, he grew up with grandparents in a thatch-roof house that, one year, blew apart in a storm.

“I wasn’t happy, because it was just my grandparents and they were sick,” An, 23, said during a break from his training. “From seventh grade, I would go to school in the morning, and in the afternoon go look for work.”

He was bussing tables at a noodle shop, sometimes as early as 5 a.m., and as late as 2 a.m., when he heard about KOTO. After he graduates at year’s end, An hopes to work at a five-star hotel.

At this stage in its transition, KOTO is moving to shed the image of charity and become a self-sustaining business. The organization has had its share of lean years, relying on government, corporate, and private donors because its restaurants still don’t make enough profit to fund the training, which costs an estimated $10,000 per student.

Pham, dubbed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum last year, talks about turning a profit by diversifying the enterprise, maybe expanding into the hotel business and setting up in other countries. He wants people to come to KOTO for the quality, not just the philanthropy, but says it will remain a “business with heart.” 

Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/turning-philanthropy-into-business-in-vietnam/1530684.html

Chemical Warfare: Agent Orange in Vietnam

AUGUST 10, 2012, AT NOON: 51 YEARS AFTER THE CHEMICAL WAR BEGAN IN VIETNAM, WE SHOULD BE SILENT IN MEMORY, THEN TAKE ACTION TO REMEDY

To take action go to http://www.vn-agentorange.org/

There are images from the U.S. War against Vietnam that have been indelibly imprinted on the minds of Americans who lived through it. One is the naked napalm-burned girl running from her village with flesh hanging off her body. Another is a photo of the piles of bodies from the My Lai massacre, where U.S. troops executed 504 civilians in a small village. Then there is the photograph of the silent scream of a woman student leaning over the body of her dead friend at Kent State University whose only crime was protesting the bombing of Cambodia in 1970. Finally, there is the memory of decorated members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War testifying at the Winter Soldier Hearings, often in tears, to atrocities in which they had participated during the war.

These pictures are heartbreaking. They expose the horrors of war. The U.S. War against Vietnam was televised, while images of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have intentionally been hidden from us. But what was not televised was the relentless ten years (1961-1971) of spraying millions of gallons of toxic herbicides over vast areas of South Vietnam. These chemicals exposed almost 5 million people, mostly civilians, to deadly consequences. The toxic herbicides, most notably Agent Orange, contained dioxin, one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man. It has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a carcinogen (causes cancer) and by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth defects).

From the beginning of the spraying 51 years ago, until today, millions of Vietnamese have died from, or been completely incapacitated by, diseases which the U. S. government recognizes are related to Agent Orange for purposes of granting compensation to Vietnam Veterans in the United States. The Vietnamese, who were the intended victims of this spraying, experienced the most intense, horrible impact on human health and environmental devastation. Second and third generations of children, born to parents exposed during the war and in areas of heavy spraying — un-remediated “hot spots” of dioxin contamination, — suffer unspeakable deformities that medical authorities attribute to the dioxin in Agent Orange.

The Vietnamese exposed to the chemical suffer from cancer, liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, defects to reproductive capacity, and skin and nervous disorders. Their children and grandchildren have severe physical deformities, mental and physical disabilities, diseases, and shortened life spans. The forests and jungles in large parts of southern Vietnam were devastated and denuded. Centuries-old habitat was destroyed, and will not regenerate with the same diversity for hundreds of years. Animals that inhabited the forests and jungles are threatened with extinction, disrupting the communities that depended on them. The rivers and underground water in some areas have also been contaminated. Erosion and desertification will change the environment, causing dislocation of crop and animal life.

For the past 51 years, the Vietnamese people have been attempting to address this legacy of war by trying to get the United States and the chemical companies to accept responsibility for this ongoing nightmare. An unsuccessful legal action by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange against the chemical companies in U.S. federal court, begun in 2004, has nonetheless spawned a movement to hold the United States accountable for using such dangerous chemicals on civilian populations. The movement has resulted in pending legislation HR 2634 – The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2011, which attempts to provide medical, rehabilitative and social service compensation to the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, remediation of dioxin-contaminated “hot spots,” and medical services for the children and grandchildren of U. S. Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese-Americans who have been born with the same diseases and deformities.

Using weapons of war on civilian populations violates the laws of war, which recognize the principle of distinction between military and civilian objects, requiring armies to avoid civilian targets. These laws of war are enshrined in the Hague Convention and the Nuremberg principles, and are codified in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Optional Protocol of 1977, as well as the International Criminal Court statute. The aerial bombardments of civilian population centers in World Wars I and II violated the principle of distinction, as did the detonation of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9 of 1945. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese people were killed in an instant, even though Japan was already negotiating the terms of surrender.

The use of Agent Orange on civilian populations violated the laws of war and yet no one has been held to account. Taxpayers pick up the tab of the Agent Orange Compensation fund for the U. S. Veterans at a cost of 1.52 billion dollars a year. The chemical companies, most specifically Dow and Monsanto, which profited from the manufacture of Agent Orange, paid a pittance to settle the veterans’ lawsuit to compensate them, as the unintended victims, for their Agent Orange related illnesses. But the Vietnamese continue to suffer from these violations with almost no recognition, as do the offspring of Agent Orange-exposed U.S. veterans and Vietnamese-Americans.

What is the difference between super powers like the United States violating the laws of war with impunity and the reports of killing of Syrian civilians by both sides in the current civil war? Does the United States have any credibility to demand governments and non-state actors end the killings of civilians, when through wars and drones and its refusal to acknowledge responsibility for the use of Agent Orange, the United States has and is engaging in the very conduct it publicly deplores?
In 1945, at the founding conference of the United Nations, the countries of the world determined:
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, andto promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.

If we are to avoid sinking once again into the scourge of war, we must reaffirm the principles of the Charter and establish conditions under which countries take actions that promote rather than undermine justice and respect for our international legal obligations. The alternative is the law of the jungle, where only might makes right. It is time that right makes might.

August 10th marks 51 years since the beginning of the spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam. In commemoration, the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign urges you to observe 51 seconds of silence at 12 noon, to think about the horrors of wars which have occurred. We ask you to take action so as not to see future images of naked children running from napalm, or young soldiers wiping out the population of an entire village, or other atrocities associated with war, poverty, and violence around the world. We urge you to take at least 51 seconds for your action. In the United States, you can sign an orange post card to the U.S. Congress asking it to pass HR 2634. This would be a good start to assist the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange as well as the next generations of those exposed to these dangerous chemicals in both Vietnam and the United States.
Jeanne Mirer, a New York attorney, is president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild. They are both on the board of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign.

To sign the petition, go to http://www.vn-agentorange.org/ 

Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemical-warfare-agent-orange-in-vietnam/32227

Vietnamese AO Victims to Get Free Medical Treatment in South Korea

As many as 80 Vietnamese Agent Orange (AO) victims will be provided with free medical check-ups and treatment in South Korea next week, state media reported. This is part of a program from June 4-8 funded by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), the Korean Victims of Agent Orange Veterans Association (KAOVA) and Korean Television MBC in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Vietnam-Korea diplomatic ties 2012.

This is the first time such a lot of Vietnamese AO victims receive free medical check-ups and treatment at a foreign hospital, VUFO Vice President Don Tuan Phong said. “Such activities are expected to help Korean people know more about Vietnam and its AO consequences, then, they would join the fight for justice for AO victims,” he added. Tran Xuan Thu, Vice President-cum-General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange /dioxin said many international friends stand side by side in the fight for justice to support Vietnamese AO victims.

So far, at least 17 AO-related diseases have been claimed by Vietnam and U.S. health experts, including nine various kinds of cancers, Thu said, inserting that AO could affect most of the human body and especially reduce immune systems to make victims vulnerable to communicable diseases. About 4.8 million people in Vietnam are reportedly exposed to AO and about three million currently suffer from AO-related diseases.

Source: Vietnam News

Ethnic Minorities Need Stronger Voice in Public Policy on Poverty

Ahead of next Monday's Consultative Group meeting on breakthroughs in poverty reduction, Oxfam's associate country director Bert Maerten talks about the importance of local voices in achieving poverty reduction. Lives have improved tremendously in rural areas during the last decade, even in remote and mountainous areas. Prior to 2007, women in Ban Lien, a remote commune in northern mountainous Lao Cai Province, had little access to markets and the outside world. Since a market was set up in 2008, they have been able to sell surplus vegetables there. The market is also a place for information sharing and has improved channels and opportunities for communication. Such a sense of progress and achievement exists among many communities around the country. Millions have lifted themselves out of poverty. Despite such progress, opportunities seem to be bypassing a significant number of people who live in chronic poverty.

According to a joint poverty monitoring survey conducted by Oxfam and ActionAid in 10 communes nationwide, 23 per cent of those surveyed live in chronic poverty – 45 per cent or more of those in ethnic minority communities. Nationwide, 5-6 million people are estimated to be food insecure, while one of three children under five is stunted. These are far from ‘pockets' of poverty but are large swathes of the country mired in deep, intergenerational poverty. Similarly, new forms of injustice are also emerging. The manner in which opportunities, resources, risks and benefits are shared is critical in a middle-income country. As access to and control over natural resources become more valuable and contested, risks increase alongside new economic opportunities. Winners and losers are created, shifts in power occur and barriers can become more entrenched. In a more diverse economy and society, the voices of people, especially the poor and marginalized, need to be heard in order to confront exclusion and guarantee a fair distribution of opportunities and benefits. Poverty is increasingly concentrated among ethnic minorities. Minorities are five times more likely to be poor than the Kinh majority. In 2010, minorities accounted for 47 per cent of nation's total population living in poverty and two-thirds of those in the poorest 10 per cent of the population. Understanding sources of such inequality, including patterns of social exclusion, discrimination and stigma, will be crucial in order for public policy responses to be more effective. For example, ethnic minorities suffer from poorer quality services, such as health education and infrastructure.

They consistently have poorer quality land allocations, even when statistics show they have more land. Restrictions on access to forest lands has had enormous impacts on some ethnic minority communities. But important innovations in public policy are already underway or being explored. The social security strategy offers opportunities to better target and tailor household assistance. Cash transfers are being considered and piloted, while block grant allocations to authorities in poor areas should enable better decisions about what investments and approaches are needed to address local poverty. We have also seen important changes in the media, although other shifts are needed to overcome the exclusion of ethnic minorities.

Stronger and genuinely participatory processes need to be instituted that enable discussion, debate, and advocacy of ethnic interests. A broader dialogue about the role of culture in poverty reduction and development is important. The ability for a people and nation to reflect on and question the various forms and causes of exclusion is one of biggest challenges facing the achievement of a prosperous and just society. But it is through this that the fight against poverty and injustice will ultimately be won.

Source: Vietnam News

EU Pledges to Provide $1B ODA for Vietnam This Year

The European Union (EU) has pledged to provide EUR745.3 million ($1 billion) worth of official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam in 2012, accounting for 13.24% of the total pledged by international donors for the country. Ambassador Franz Jessen, who is Head of the EU delegation to Vietnam, made the statement at the launch of the “EU Blue Book 2012,” an annual publication on EU development in Vietnam, on May 31. Of the sum, non-refundable aid makes up 32.5%, or EUR245.21 million, Jessen said, highlighting that EU remains one of the leading ODA providers for Vietnam. He hoped that the EU’s grants and loans to Vietnam will stimulate policy changes and growth in targeted areas, including public finance management and economic reform, private sector development, poverty reduction, administration, social affairs and technology.

The diplomat said the Vietnam-EU relations have been expanded beyond development cooperation programs. Amid the economic crisis in Europe in particular and in the globe in general, the EU’s remarkable committed assistance to Vietnam has reflected the importance of the Vietnam-EU relations, he said. The ambassador described the upcoming signing of the Vietnam-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) this year as a manifestation of the wide and unceasingly developing cooperation between the bloc and Vietnam.

The EU has become Vietnam’s second biggest trade partner with the two-way trade stood at EUR18 billion in 2011, including the latter’s trade surplus of EUR7.6 billion. Vietnam and the EU plan to start the first round of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiation between July and September 2012.

Source: VOV