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Localized Poverty Reduction in Vietnam: Building Capacity for Policy Assessment and Project Planning (LPRV)
This project, the result of a partnership between Canadian and Vietnamese universities, was carried out between 1998 and 2003. Its purpose was to reduce poverty in Vietnam thorough local training efforts, by providing Vietnamese institutions with the capacity to independently develop participatory poverty-reduction methods. Among other achievements, it helped Dalat University create a Faculty of Community Development and introduced problem-based learning into the curriculum at Vinh University.
Overall Goal: To build self-sustaining capacity in the partner institutions to develop and teach low-cost, participatory policy assessment and project planning methods that are effective in generating appropriate solutions to localized poverty, and suited to Vietnamese cultures and administrative conditions.
Objectives:
Formation of a well-resourced, self-sustaining Centre for Localized Poverty Reduction (CPR) at each Vietnamese partner university.
Formation of an internationally associated, self-sustaining Vietnamese network of CPRs.
Reduction of poverty in 15 representative communities through specific learn-by-doing policy assessment and planning projects related to livelihood protection, income generation, and service accessibility.
Production of knowledge about effective participatory methods, and dissemination of this knowledge to other communities, government agencies, NGOs, and educational institutions.
Broadened and deepened relations between Canadian and Vietnamese institutions and people.
Introductions to concepts and tools of participatory planning and policy assessment methods through workshops in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.
Development of inter-disciplinary CPRs at each of the five partner Vietnamese universities.
Formation of specialized teams (e.g., concerned with gender or ethnic communities (3 communities per Vietnamese university).
Lessons-learned workshops.
Production of curriculum materials.
Formation of a Coordinating Centre for Poverty Reduction (CCPR) at NCSSH/VASS minorities, or urban poverty composed of members from each of the 6 Vietnamese and 2 Canadian partner institutions.
The main results obtained are described below.
In the area of heath, significant advances were made in the creation of local health care services through the collaboration between the University, health institutions and communities. This was reflected in the increase in primary health care cover and in the health prevention campaigns such as vaccinations and detecting cervical cancer.
In the Technology, Production and Environment area, the following advances were made:
Promotion of agro-ecological actions at the local and regional levels in collaboration with organisations, farming communities and community promoters.
Actions to aid the diagnosis, conservation, management and use of the biodiversity in the Lacandona Rainforest in collaboration with the local population. Advising interested groups on how to create Sustainable Environmental Management Units, mainly in the Marqués de Comillas Region.
Knowledge of the vegetation and fauna (amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals) served as a basis for establishing eco-tourist projects, for example in the Marqués de Comillas Region in the southeast of the state of Chiapas.
Support was given to different types of actions at the local level and in poorer communities for promoting agro-ecological experiences and sustainable agriculture, including actions aimed at stopping the deterioration of land due to erosion and improving agriculture by using practices such as incorporating organic materials, crop rotation and establishing polyculture.
Efforts were made to reintroduce traditional agro-ecological practices by supporting the farming culture, particularly the productive systems that use human and natural resources more efficiently, with the aim of satisfying the basic needs of the population.
In the area of Culture, Education and Human Rights:
A collaboration programme was carried out with institutions in the education sector to produce a series of publications that promote education for peace in the primary education sector.
Follow-ups were carried out of the models and platforms for social participation in the programmes aimed at promoting sustainable human development in the Lacandona Rainforest region. A report was drawn up on the “Programme for the Sustainable Development of the Rainforest” by the state government as was the case of the “Programme for the Sustainable Development of the Rainforest”, which is being carried out in collaboration with the European Commission.
Other considerations:
It was necessary to carry out scientific research from an interdisciplinary perspective. The interdisciplinary work was not only seen as different disciplines working together, but also as a means for defining the aim of the study, the research methods and interpretation of the processes. Interdisciplinary work has been a fundamental element in the research process, which has allowed us to redefine the relationship between the university and society from a critical perspective. An applied research project of this type faces some problems, such as those that result from the different priorities and rhythms that exist between the research project (predominantly related to the logic of knowledge) and the social groups (predominantly concerning action). There are likewise problems intrinsic to the different cultures and problems resulting from linking different areas and types of knowledge (disciplinary and traditional), which can be a source of conflict for complex problem of human development. On one hand, there is the problem the involvement of specialists from different disciplines in the social sciences, natural sciences, technology, etc., who tackle defining and approaching different processes and problems by considering them from the perspective of human development. On the other hand, there is the problem of accepting and recognising other methods of knowledge and learning as well as the problem of making this knowledge explicit through different ways of social participation. The research project has aimed to link local work with regional, national and global perspectives. This collaboration faces various problems, particularly those that derive from carrying out applied research in a conflictive area with social changes aimed at resolving the political, social and cultural relationships, such as those that characterise the state of Chiapas.
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