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RESEARCH CO-OPERATION FOR SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN
VIETNAM (RDViet)
Abstract
This part of the proposed research and
capacity building programme in Rural Development will have a
main coordinating function for research activities within
the Sida supported rural development sub-programme that
involve primarily institutions in agriculture, forestry and
rural development in Vietnam. The objectives are to further
develop existing research and teaching capacity at the
collaborating institutions to enable them to carry out
multi-disciplinary research, designed to analyse rural
development and reduce poverty in the rural areas. It will
be based on combined approaches to social and natural
sciences, systems analysis, natural resources management and
rural livelihoods analysis. This will be achieved by
networking activities, including annual national workshops
and scientific meetings, support to relevant
multi-disciplinary research projects with a focus on poverty
reduction, institutional analysis and food security at the
participating centres, support to research training and
capacity building and a programme web-site. The capacity
building component will include a two-year MSc programme,
PhD training and participatory curriculum development. The
expected results for the first phase (2004-07) include the
publication of 15-20 scientific papers, seminar proceedings,
popular scientific articles, training manuals, the
production of 10 MSc graduates, and initially the training
of 5-8 PhDs.
Rationale
Vietnam is the home of about 80 million
people, of who about 37% are estimated to live in poverty
(World Bank, Attacking Poverty, 1999, p3). Over 90% of the
poor live in rural areas and agriculture remains their main
source of living (World Bank, Attacking Poverty, 1999, p2).
Vietnam has largely a rural economy, with two-thirds of the
labour force deriving its livelihood from agriculture. Thus,
policies and strategies that guide agricultural development
will have an important impact in the near future on the
economic growth and poverty reduction in Vietnam. In the
Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (CPRGS),
which is the main poverty reduction paper (PRSP) jointly
drafted by the Vietnamese Government and the donor community
and approved by the Government in May 2002, agriculture and
rural development are considered as playing a crucial role
in achieving widespread gains in poverty reduction (CPRGS,
p132) and seen as a crucial component of the CPRGS (CPRGS, p
67). A number of important specific measures for Rural
Development are put forward in this document (CPRGS,
pp132-133).
There is an increasing realisation that rural
poverty can only be alleviated through a holistic approach
that takes account of the multifaceted nature of poverty and
the need therefore to integrate activities destined to
provide a sustainable solution. This will require a new
generation of professionals with a broad and
interdisciplinary training and a capacity to handle
questions of research, training, extension/communication
regarding natural resource management, sustainable
livelihoods and rural-urban interfaces from economical,
ecological and social viewpoints. Unfortunately, the
training of resource persons at all levels has been
mono-disciplinary, which produces specialists skilled in
specific areas but with little experience in responding to
needs outside their area of expertise. As a consequence,
there is a serious lack of resource persons who are skilled
"generalists" which is a prerequisite for the integrated
approach that is needed to promote sustainable Rural
Development.
Many universities/institutions in Vietnam
have recognised the limitations of the mono-disciplinary
nature of their training curricula and have taken steps to
provide alternatives by developing initiatives that
emphasise rural and community development as opposed to the
commodity-oriented approach, which has been the norm in the
past. Recently, several universities have introduced some
subjects relating to Rural Development at undergraduate and
postgraduate level, including short courses on introduction
to Rural Development, agricultural extension and integrated
farming systems. Nevertheless, many universities have been
established BSc degree courses on or Economic and Rural
Development (such as Hue College of Economics, Faculty of
Economics of Hanoi Agric. University etc.) or Extension and
Rural Development (Hue College of Agriculture &Forestry,Nong
Lam University, An Giang University etc.). Thus, there are
at present a number of new initiatives to bring together,
and a keen interest to build a strong network in a
capacity-building programme on sustainable Rural
Development. However, the shortage of teaching staff with
higher training in Rural Development limits the progress
within the new initiatives.
Expected impact
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Improved capacity for impact assessment
of policies for rural livelihoods, which can provide
inputs for evaluating and monitoring the recently
adopted Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth
Strategy (CPRGS) towards the benefits of the rural poor
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Several universities are offering BSc
degrees in Rural Development. The programme will
strengthen the capacity of the teaching staff of the
Rural Development Departments. The research will also
feed into the curricula development for the Rural
Development Education.
Capacity objectives
The objective of the co-operation programme
is to strengthen existing competence for research and
education in rural development by creating a platform and
network for co-operation between different universities and
institutions bringing together experience from different
disciplines. The national, regional and international
interaction will provide a basis for the development of more
multi-disciplinary and systems oriented approaches to
development research.
The objectives are:
-
To strengthen human capacity for rural
development research and education at universities and
research institutes in Vietnam.
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To build a network of universities and
institutions involved in rural development facilitating
the exchange of experience and co-operation in research
and education.
-
To develop curriculum for rural
development education at the universities offering this
education to get MSc on RD.
-
To strengthen capacity of researchers to
relate their research directly to the context of the
rural population and improve methods for working with
the farmers and rural population.
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To make results of the research available
to policy makers and practitioners involved in rural
development.
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To establish fora for interaction and
sharing of information and experience between
stakeholders in rural development.
Research objectives
Improved knowledge, skills and capacities in
rural development research in areas, which require a
multidisciplinary and integrated approach, such as the
understanding of rural change processes, natural resource
management and poverty alleviation.
The objectives are:
-
Strengthened experience of
multidisciplinary research and links between natural and
social sciences in developing the understanding of
sustainable rural systems.
-
Strengthened experience of holistic
approaches to research like systems thinking and
livelihood analysis.
-
Strengthened relevance of the research to
policy and practice in rural development and the
livelihood situation of the rural population.
Framework of analysis
The programme will emphasise
multi-disciplinary and integrated analysis of systems in
rural development. Questions of poverty alleviation,
institutional analysis, gender questions and food security
will transcend the programme.
The boundaries for rural development are
recognised to be broader than the rural areas as migration
and market interaction with the urban areas are increasing.
Rural-urban linkages in livelihood development including
rural industrialisation and employment are also part of
rural development.
The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SL)
provides a broad framework for a large part of the research.
The sustainable livelihoods approach (as developed by
Chambers and Conway (1992) and elaborated by Ian Scoones
(1998)) recognizes the complexity in people's livelihoods
and the multiplicity of strategies they adopt to secure
their livelihood and adapt to changing circumstances. Their
strategies and capacity depend on the level of risk,
household assets and the institutional structures, policies
and processes that provide the context for people's
livelihood. This context as well as people's access to
resources is continuously changing. Research in rural
development therefore needs to focus on the broader
capacities of rural systems to provide sustainable
livelihoods under continuously changing environmental and
socio-economic conditions.
Participatory methods for training and
research and working in multidisciplinary teams are
encouraged. The approach is based on collaborative learning
with a range of participants and accepts that there are many
views and visions, which affect, both the appreciation of
the "problem" and the search for measures, which will
improve the situation. The research methods therefore build
on the interaction between different stakeholders in rural
development, including researchers, policy makers,
practitioners and the rural population.
Expected outputs
In particular the skills and capacities in
the following areas which require an integrated approach
will be reinforced: Natural Resource Management, Social
Forestry, Community Development, Poverty Alleviation,
Understanding of Rural Change Processes and the following
methodological approaches: Systems analysis, Livelihood
analysis and Participatory methods.
With respect to the programme components the
following outputs are expected:
Research
An anticipated total of around 15-20 projects
(supported by the research fund as part of the PhD and MSc
student field research) will be carried out in the first
four-year period. The results of these will also be
translated into Vietnamese and made available at different
levels of society (for example policy makers at government,
provincial and district level, farmer groups, Women's Union,
extensionists etc. It is expected that approximately 15-20
publications will be produced in the first programme period,
including seminar and conference proceedings, journal
articles, booklets, training manuals, electronic and
web-page articles.
Capacity building
Capacity building is included at several
levels, i.e. scientific and pedagogical short courses for
researchers and teaching staff, PhD training and development
of an MSc programme in Rural Development. In total 10 MSc
graduates will be produced and initially 5-8 PhD graduates.
Around 30-40 university and research institute staff will
participate in 4-5 short training courses.
Networking
A core function of the programme will be to
provide a network platform for agriculture, forestry and
rural development institutions in Vietnam that are involved
in rural development research/ and research training. A
programme web site will be established and a national
workshop held annually. Training courses (1 or 2 each year)
will be held to strengthen communication and information
flow.
To further support a strong network of
expertise on Rural Development concerns the programme will
build links with several other institutions in Vietnam and
Sweden that are involved in research on Rural Development
and provide a platform for sharing information in the broad
field of research on rural development, encouraging
multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research and thereby
providing a synergy effect to the joint Vietnam-Swedish
research cooperation on rural development concerns.
Methodology
To achieve the set objectives the programme
will initially organize workshops in Vietnam and Sweden to
share views on priority issues in rural development research
and strategies to strengthen multi disciplinary research and
to plan in detail the MSc program. Courses to be included in
the programme will be developed jointly by experienced
national and international specialists in the field.
Research seminars involving both national and international
professionals will help develop a common understanding of
the theme and help ensure that the research and training are
of high quality and are focused on relevant issues.
Within the programme, research projects that
are multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional and that
focus on priorities of the rural poor will be developed with
emphasis on improving the methods and capacity of analyzing
how technical solutions can be effectively applied by the
poor. Participatory methods, systems analysis and livelihood
analysis will be applied. A multi-institutional group at
DRDS will vet collaborative research projects that involve
SLU and the active involvement of young researchers (both in
the Vietnamese institutions and at SLU) will be encouraged.
Research papers by PhD students must be published in
internationally recognized, peer-reviewed journals.
Gender considerations
Priority will be given to research which
furthers the understanding of gender aspects in rural
development, including the impact on men and women of rural
development policies, interventions and processes of change
due to increased globalisation and market integration.
Gender awareness is one of the relevant
criteria for which prioritisation of research applications
are made. Gender considerations will also be taken into
account when selecting participants for training and
education in order to have a balance of male and female
participants (4 of 7 PhD candidates are female).
Gender sensitivity is an important part of
the training provided both at MSc and PhD level, both as an
integral part of socio-economic analysis and as a separate
gender course.
Environmental considerations
In a Rural Development research programme
such as this environmental concerns will be a basic
principle of all research and capacity building activities.
Environmental issues are crosscutting and in research
projects within the domain of this programme they will
relate to how the poor affect and are affected in their
livelihoods including access to resources, quality of
resources, policy changes and exposure to risks.
Ethical considerations
Ethical approval of medical or health
research projects is required as follows (for projects
carried out in countries outside Sweden):
Projects involving human subjects require
ethical approval by a responsible authority in the country
concerned. In case Swedish researchers or institutions
participate, approval is also required from a Swedish
ethical committee.
Projects involving experiments with animals
should, whenever possible, be approved by a responsible
authority in the country concerned. In case Swedish
researchers or institutions participate, approval is also
required from a Swedish ethical committee for animal
experiments.
Renewed ethical approvals are required, where
applicable, when changes or additions are made with regard
to the original project plan.
Risk analysis
Problems that could occur would be that key
individual researchers at some of the collaborating
institutions may leave for other positions and be difficult
to replace leading to temporary delays or changes in planned
activities
Programme activities during the first
agreement period
Within the new programme, activities will be
promoted within three main areas:
Networking
A number of networking activities for staff
and students at the participating centres will be initiated,
including during the first year, an agreement on high
priority research topics to pursue in the first period. As
part of the staff development and networking at least one
annual workshop/seminar on themes of current Rural
Development concerns will be included. National and
International specialists on relevant Rural Development
issues will be invited to the seminars. Presentations will
be published in hard-copy proceedings and electronically on
the programme web platform.
Networking among the participating centres
will be facilitated through the development of a programme
web platform. Skills training in web-based communication
will be included as needed. The website will strengthen
communication and information flow among the programme
stakeholders and have facilities for sharing of programme
news, real time communication, access to information,
web-based distance training, relevant data bases and links
to other Rural Development sites. Research news exchange
will be promoted among institutions. The hub for the
interactive web site will be built at CRD/HUAF.
Research training and capacity building
It is emphasized that research is the major
part of the training, and both MSc and PhD level research
should be based on actual problems of the rural areas in
different parts of Vietnam, with interaction and sharing of
results with different stakeholder groups. While
considerable capacity for Rural Development research and
higher training already exists in Vietnam further support to
research training is necessary to reach the visions outlined
initially in this proposal. We propose support at three
levels:
MSc on Rural Development
A training programme at MSc level will be
developed jointly in the first year with an international
degree awarded by SLU for the first batch of 2005-06. In the
last two years of the period the activities will concentrate
on joint development of curricula, training material and a
strategy to make it possible for Vietnamese institutions to
offer a local M Sc in 2008. The MSc programme will be based
at CRD/HUAF (Hue City), but it will draw on resource persons
nationally and internationally. Pedagogical and scientific
details of the MSc programme will be developed jointly in
2004 and it is expected that the first batch will start
training in Feb. 2005. A batch for the MSc training will
consist of 10 candidates, who will be proposed by the
participating institutions and interviewed and approved by
SLU. The MSc programme will take two years to complete and
will include one academic year of training courses followed
by 6-months research and 6- months analysis and writing of a
thesis. A suggested outline of the theoretical part of the
proposed MSc programme is attached (Appendix V). Expected
outputs of this activity are 10 MSc graduates with their 10
publications and MSc curriculum including training materials
such as books, guidelines etc.
PhD training
It is proposed that initially 3 PhD
candidates go to SLU, Sweden and 3-5 other go to
international universities in the region such as AIT,
Changmai, Khonkaen (Thailand) that are well known for their
Rural Development research training. PhD candidates
(Attached CV's candidates in Appendix VI.1-VI.7) can
initially be selected from existing staff and at a later
point from those who have completed their MSc training.
Individual supervisors must approve candidates for research
training at SLU and funding assured before hand. It should
be emphasized that the research will be carried out in
Vietnam, and focus on issues of current concern. The thesis
will consist of 4 or 5 articles published in international
journals or a monograph depending on the theme. MSc and PhD
research can be a part of a larger collaborative research
project and the specific details of the research training
will then be agreed upon during the first year. The PhD
programs are generally expected to take 4 years to complete.
Expected outputs are 5-8 PhD graduates with at least 8
publications.
Short courses
Short courses for research students,
researchers and field staff, who will be involved in
projects, may be included when required. Some of those
courses will be taken in parallel with PhD courses. Such
courses will be offered by existing staff at the
participating centres as needed and may include: Website
design and use, Introduction to Rural Development,
Introduction to Agricultural Extension methods, Community
development, Rural credit, Business planning & agribusiness,
Project management and monitoring.
Multi-disciplinary and joint research
In a framework of the RDeVIET project, the
research fund for PhD and MSc students aims to stimulate
research into new and important areas of Rural Development.
At the beginning of 2004 the participating centres will
jointly agree on priority research areas. Research topics
that have already been defined in the programme include:
1.
Integrated Farm Diversification for
Sustainable Agriculture and Poverty Alleviation in Coastal
Sandy Areas of Central, Vietnam
(Ms HOANG THI THAI HOA - Dept of Extension and Rural
Development, HUAF, Hue). The objectives of study are: (i) to
carry out integrated assessment of the current farm
diversification practice based on land use and natural
resource exploitation; (ii) to analyze processes and
dimensions of farm and livelihood diversification of the
local communities; (iii) to analyze the degradation of agro
biodiversity under the livelihood diversification and
current economic globalization; (iv) to analyze livelihood
(diversity) of the coastal sandy communities within the
local framework for poverty alleviation and agro
biodiversity protection. And the expected outcomes (i)
Generated knowledge on current agro biodiversity, its
management, utilization, issues for agriculture development;
(ii) built awareness of values and roles of agro
biodiversity for sustainable agriculture among stakeholders;
(iii) Implemented pilot community-based conservation of
integrated farm diversification; (iv) developed
demonstration models on agro biodiversity conservation
farming; (v) recommended policies to include agro
biodiversity management in sustainable agriculture
development.
2.
Rural Development for Poverty Alleviation in
the Mekong Delta Basin Fresh
Water Areas: Diversification in Agriculture -
Promising Agricultural Practices from Farmers During the
Flooding Season in the Mekong Delta (Mr. VO TONG ANH - An
Giang University, An Giang). Research objectives will
concentrate on analysing promising agricultural practices
done by farmers during the flooding season in the Mekong
Delta, finding the correlation between founded models
opposed to physical, social and economical condition,
propose options for promising agricultural models on
different "agro-ecological zone" areas in the Mekong Delta.
During the flooding season, farmers in the Mekong Delta
(Vietnam) spend most of their time coping with flood
disaster that effects households, other infrastructure, and
in the same time also their land/livestock. Hence, they
cannot effort to carry out any agricultural activities at
all. Nowadays, the government has recognized the importance
of farmer's income during the flooding season instead of
providing relief for their damage due to such disaster.
During recent years, many "cụm tuyến dân cư vượt lũ"
projects (raising high dykes along rivers for farmers to
build solid houses) allowed farmers to practice some
agricultural activities during the flooding season for
generating income as an evidence tendency. Studying the
relation of different activities versus physical, social and
economical condition for further extension is therefore a
crucial concern from policy makers at different levels.
3. Development of sustainable
crop-livestock farming systems in the rain fed saline area
of the Mekong delta (Cantho University, Can Tho). This
project is to develop a suitable and sustainable model of
integrated farming system between crop and livestock in a
typical rain fed saline area of the Mekong Delta. Several
new agricultural technologies will be consistently combined
into a farm household in order to better use household's
resources for economic development while keeping good
environment. The project is also to enhance the human
resource of investigating partner in the project in rural
development aspect. The research will base on bottom up
approach to set up the farming model. In addition, much
attention will be paid for the linkage between farmer,
researcher, and extension worker to scale up the success
from the project. Community in the research site will
benefit from learning the technologies of sustainable
farming from the pilot site setting. Study on ways of
managing and using sloppy land to increase the soil quality
and livelihood of the locals in the North Central Region of
Vietnam (Mr HOANG VAN SON - Vinh University, Nghe An). The
research aims to apply land management form on sloping land
of upland region of Nghe An province/North Central region of
Vietnam, to improve to soil quality, productivity and income
of household and also contribute to hunger eradication -
poverty reduction. Through this study, the University,
researchers will have good chances to improve capacity by
involving in research and training program. We do hope that
outputs from the research on establishing a appropriate land
management form system in the upland region of Nghe An
province/North Central region of Vietnam will achieve
following criteria: Productivity, resources conservation,
economic efficiency, sustainability and accepted by farmers;
applied and replicated in practice.
4.
Forest and forest land management policies
and livelihood of rural people in mountainous areas of Thua
Thien-Hue province (Ms. HOANG THI SEN - Dept of Rural
Development, HUAF, Hue). The objectives of this research is
to understand the policies and programs on forest and
forestland management of Vietnamese government, analyse the
roles of different stakeholders in implementing the policies
and programs on forest and forest land management in the
region, examine the access of local people to the policies
and programs on forest and forest land management by gender
and social groups, evaluate the influences of the policies
on livelihood of the community from gender perspective and
test the joint forest management model by doing
participatory action research. The project will be conducted
to understand the policies on forest and forest land
management of the government, the roles of different
stakeholders in implementing the policies in the region,
accessing to the policies of local people by gender and
social groups, influences of the policies on livelihood of
the community from gender perspective. It will be also
implemented to test the joint forest management model by
doing participatory action research for adjusting policy to
achieve the objective of watershed area protection and
benefit of the local people at the same time. PRA tools,
stakeholder analysis, formal interview and participatory
action research framework will be applied to collect data
and doing the research. Descriptive statistic and
qualitative method will be used to analysis the data.
5.
Appropriate land use for poverty alleviation
in the central highland of Vietnam (Ms. TRANG THI HUY NHAT -
Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City). The Central Highland
Vietnam consisted of 3 provinces (Kontum, Gia lai, Dac Lac)
covers an area of 5.45 million ha, of which about 1.25
million ha are agricultural land. Density of population of
is low with many ethnic minorities. Agricultural production
based on basalt soil is a main livelihood activity but the
income does not adequately support people with poverty
index: from 0.377 to 0.127 (according to data sources of
United Nations- 11/2002). It results in deforestation,
serious soil erosion. Expected results on (i) diagnosis on
land use existing and poverty, including description of land
use existing; assessment of productivity results;
explication of farmer's motivation in production model
selections; analysis of matrix SWOT (Strength-Weak-
Opportunity- Threat) for major crops, livestock; regression
analysis and factor analysis; poverty and inequity; (ii)
forecast of socio-economic perspective and market tendency,
including forecast of socio-economic perspective; forecast
of important market tendency (price, new crops or
livestock); (iii) planning agricultural development,
including planning agriculture development on
agro-ecological zones; planning relevant non-agriculture and
infrastructure development; (iv) agricultural project
feasibility studies: scenario on agricultural development;
measures for agricultural project; cash- flow; financial
evaluation (NPV, IRR, PP, Benefit and Cost ratio, risk
analysis,..); economic evaluation of project: social effect
and income distribution. Results from the Rural Development
research will also be presented at the annual workshops and
published in hard-copy proceedings, in international
journals and also electronically at the programme website.
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