Promoting people’s participation and governance in Vietnamese cities through the Association of Cities of Vietnam (ACVN)

Donor: European Union and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Project details:

The overall objectives to which the action shall contribute are

• increased people’s participation on local level in Vietnam and
• improved governance and independence of local self-administration in Vietnam.

The specific objective of the action is the strengthening of the capacity of the Association of Cities of Vietnam.

Expected results are:

• Communication between citizens and city administrations involved in the action and service delivery in these cities have become more transparent and effective;
• The implementation of the decree on grassroots democracy has improved in the cities involved in the action;
• Sustainable improvement of people’s involvement in development planning and land use planning in the cities involved in the action;
• ACVN has been strengthened with regard to the relevance of training services and with regard to its financial sustainability.

The target groups of the action are:

• The staff and representatives of ACVN as well as national Vietnamese experts ready to cooperate on a continuous basis in consultancy and training programs of ACVN;
• About 300 experts/civil servants from 30 members of ACVN in charge of development planning,    and-use planning, grassroots democracy realization and good governance – among them at least 50%    women;

About 200 decision makers from members of ACVN and from national institutions.

Activities:

The main project activities will be:

• Inception Workshop and Management Training
• Assessment study - including the perception and opinion of the citizens through polls with at least 50% participation of women - in four selected member cities of ACVN on the actual status of people’s participation in local planning and decision making and on good governance in administrative services.
• Two workshops on findings of the assessment study and reform- and development concepts in the thematic fields of the action.
• Joint working groups in the 4 thematic fields of the action with experts from ACVN and its members, national Vietnamese experts and international experts on curricula for training of ACVN member’s civil servants.
• 4 two-weeks training of trainer courses in these fields.
• Pilot activities in four selected cities on practical implementation in the four thematic fields of the action.
• Three four-days training courses in each of the four fields with 25 participants each, coming from 30 ACVN member municipalities.
• Installation and servicing of an interactive Website at ACVN for dialogue and exchange among ACVN members and experts.
• 4 working groups of ACVN and Vietnamese experts in the 4 thematic fields with yearly reports to be published by ACVN.
• Consultancy on institutionalization of the training unit at ACVN and on regulations on fees for membership and participation in trainings.
• Monitoring of the impact of trainings and exchange activities in the thematic fields of the action in 30 municipalities during month 18-27 of the action with recommendations for the last months.

Closing workshop with focus on questions of sustainability and of extension of the results.