| This project, funded by ODI's
Civil Society Partnership
Programme, aims to provide an understanding of the role of research
institutes and think-tanks in policymaking in Vietnam and in so doing
provides an understanding of the role of one specific element of civil
society in a transition country.
Consultation is a routine practise in Vietnam and the demand for
objectivity and evidence-based policy making is rising as Vietnam's
economic expansion requires increasingly sophisticated approaches
to address complex and new issues of reform. Civil society, in the
form of structured non-governmental bodies, has not been a significant
element of the policy-making process in Vietnam to date. However
there are alternative approaches which encourage state-society policy
dialogue such the media or the strengthening existing state accountability
and transparency structures to encourage a plurality of semi-autonomous
actors. The role of research institutions and think-tanks in channelling
evidence and a diversity of voices into the policy-making process
in Vietnam is less understood, and donor support of research to
stimulate policy debate in this area has not been a priority.
The recent Grassroots Democracy Decree and the on-going public
administration reforms in Vietnam, which include a process of budget
decentralisation, aimed to enhance the accountability of governments
at the provincial level and below and to increase the participation
of the poor in development planning, implementation and monitoring.
However the majority of civil-society associations at the sub-national
level do not engage in evidence based-policy debate but are restricted
to performing a variety of roles such as income generation or the
dissemination of knowledge.
Cecilia Luttrell (ODI) is working together with Nguyen Thang (the
director of the Centre for Analysis and Forecast which is a policy-orientated
research institution within the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
- VASS) and his team. The project examines the experience and constraints
faced in feeding evidence into policymaking at the national and
sub-national levels in Vietnam. It will in particular provide some
in-depth analysis of the research-policy linkages at various levels
as mentioned above, as well as some specific nationally-led initiatives
attempting to promote evidence-based policy making in Vietnam. On
this basis, it will draw some key lessons learnt, with special focus
on identifying the major bottlenecks and on this basis, priorities
in strengthening the role of evidence-based policy making in Vietnam.
As such, the case study may be useful both for Vietnam, and for
other countries in transition.
In April 2006
a workshop was held at VASS with various research institutes
at the national and sub-national level to enable the discussion
and validation of the preliminary results from the case study work
and to provide training and dissemination of the wider results from
the CSSP. The workshop also provided an opportunity to share the
learning on bridging research and policy with the Vietnamese research
community. The workshop was facilitated by Cecilia Luttrell and
Naved Chowdhury from ODI. Case studies were presented by CAF as
well as from Hochiminh City Institute of Economics Research (IER).
The topics covered included establishment of HCMC Fund for Urban
Development, Economics Growth and its Implications for Polices in
Vietnam and Decentralization Decree of HCMC.
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