RUDEP began to develop and test a participatory planning process in 2002 and trialled this in its communes. The approach was modified over time and renamed Commune Development Planning to match the approach developed in Son La Province. The process was accepted by the Provincial People’s Committee (PPC) after further trialling and modifications and in 2007 the PPC  issued a decision to use the process in all 186 communes in 14 districts as the form of government planning.

          The process was renamed the Socio-Economic Planning Process to match the government process. RUDEP provides some funding for this process but the implementation is run by DPI and the districts. RUDEP sees this process as an essential part of the empowerment of rural people who can learn that their view matters. The people can have an input into what happens in their commune and be aware of the available budgets and what these budgets are used for. The process allows transparency and builds accountability of the commune officials to the people.

          RUDEP began its own savings and credit program because in 2002 it was difficult for poor farmers to access credit and in participatory meetings, people identified access to credit as their major need.

          RUDEP developed operational procedures and supported savings and credit groups to form. Each group was provided with training in procedures, management, accounting and business plans.  Each group had to contain at least 50% women and at least 50% poor households. Each group had a management board and had its own bank account into which seed funds were deposited. The procedures allowed for the groups to own the funds if they demonstrated effective performance after two years. RUDEP contracted the district and commune Women’s Union to attend monthly meetings of each group and provide support and on-the-job training. RUDEP also provided each group with funds each year to implement a plan for income generating activities. This acknowledged that credit alone was not sufficient to raise incomes and people also needed technical training to improve or diversify farm activities.

          In upland communes, RUDEP supported a program the developed the skills of selected group members to act as trainers in functional numeracy and literacy so that they could then train other group members. Illiteracy was a major constraint to the successful operation to the savings and credit groups and also constrained people’s ability to interact with the outside world for marketing or seeking agricultural advice. Literacy training not only gives them basic skills to function in the world but also the confidence to do so.

Figure 1: Savings and Credit Group status: by year

Commune Development Funds

          RUDEP uses Commune Development Funds (CDF) to fund economic, social and infrastructure activities in communes. After the participatory planning process, the communes submit plans to RUDEP associated with the funds allocated for CDF to each commune. These plans are approved and funds are disbursed in tranches to CPC bank accounts (VBARD accounts for economic and social activities and State Treasury accounts for infrastructure). 

          RUDEP began to use CDFs to devolve more responsibility to communes for their activities. CPCs act as project owners and the system has been in operation for two years. RUDEP had provided and continued to provide training to CPC members to enable them to become competent to be project owners.

Extension Trainings

          Provincial and district extension agencies were contracted to conduct agricultural training and demonstrations with farmer groups. Initially RUDEP PMU did the contracting, but with the introduction of CDFs, the CPCs then did the contracting.

           RUDEP conducted a training needs analysis of extension staff in 2004 and based on this, delivered a training program in 2005. This initial program was mainly technical. In 2006 RUDEP began to implement a training program based on Participatory Agricultural Extension Methods (PAEM) and to expose extension staff to using these techniques in implementing the CDF contracts and also in implementing contracts for innovations in communes, ie exposing farmers to new technologies and products that usually do not appear in a participatory plan as farmers are not aware of them. The idea was to provide an ongoing training program for extension staff and then give them ample opportunity to practise the new skills in the field with farmers.

          RUDEP also developed a program for animal health which builds the skills of provincial and district animal health staff who then gain experience  by training commune paravets in RUDEP communes

Marketing

          As farmers have gained new skills in agricultural technology, they have identified that the next major constraint to increasing income is marketing. RUDEP developed a capacity within the province to conduct rapid market appraisals (RMA) and identify constraints and opportunities to improve the marketing of commodities. This capacity involves a group comprised of government staff, private business people and farmers.

          The group reviewed six commodities and has begun to implement activities associated with improved marketing practices.

Infrastructure

          RUDEP allocated funds to each commune for small scale infrastructure projects. A total of 21% of RUDEP budget was used for infrastructure projects and technical assistance and support to the infrastructure activities. Infrastructure projects were taken from the participatory planning process with potential projects identified by households attending the planning meetings. The main projects selected by households were: intra commune roads, water supplies, small irrigation schemes, kindergartens, electricity schemes and suspension bridges.  

          RUDEP used the basic Vietnamese Government procedures for infrastructure but added participation of beneficiaries for design, contractor selection, supervision and operation and maintenance and added a consideration of any environmental effects  

          Initially this training program was done using external trainers from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, Can Tho, etc and we focused on five main areas: planning and implementation; facilitation and communication; problem solving; budget preparation and management; and monitoring and evaluation. We used courses of short duration (three days) so that people could attend without too much interruption to their work.

          In 2006, RUDEP started working with the Political School and together developed a program that built the TOT competence of provincial and district  trainers and built a curriculum for six CPC topics: CPC leadership; Village leadership; administration; finance; land administration; and legal issues. This program was developed in 2006 and rolled out and tested in RUDEP communes in the first part of 2007. The program was then used to train staff from the 43 Program 135/2 communes in six upland districts.

Forest Land Allocation

          RUDEP has worked with the Department for Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) to develop Guidelines for participatory forest land allocation. These guidelines have now been approved by the PPC for use in all of the province. RUDEP has supported the implementation of the guidelines in 15 communes that will result in the allocation of approximately 20,000 ha of forest (including unused) land to approximately 6,000 households by the end of 2007. RUDEP is also supporting the initial participatory steps in a further 51 communes with the Provincial Government to pay for the mapping and allocation of forest land in 2008.

          The RUDEP process is different from that previously used as it involves the participation of households at an early stage so as to resolve any issues or disputes early and give a distribution of land that everyone understands and accepts. This results in fewer disputes at a later time and a greater transparency of the process prior to allocation. RUDEP sees that land ownership is key to establishing a sustainable forest program in the upland areas that benefits poor people. RUDEP is also supporting nursery development in the 15 communes so that people can access seedlings and have the capacity to repeat the process themselves in future years.

Communication

           RUDEP has linked with USAID, Intel and World Resources Institute (a USA NGO) to trial and promote wireless communications in rural communes in Quang Ngai. The system being installed in the communes at present is a cost effective alternative to fibre optic cable and mobile phone towers and provides internet access in addition to mobile phone communications.

          In addition to testing wireless communications technology, RUDEP is keen to look at the effects of improved communications on reducing poverty and to work with people in the communes to develop effective ways to utilise communication systems for things such as marketing information, medical support and information, agricultural support and information, etc

2. Successes

• Socio-Economic Planning Process: adopted by the provincial government and being used in all 186 communes in all districts as the standard planning system.

• Savings and Credit: over 4,000 households in 166 groups are operating a savings and credit scheme with a portfolio-at-risk rate of 2.5% and savings of VND 1.2 billion. Studies indicate significant increases in income and asset ownership.

• CDF: successfully managed by 23 communes to implement VND 29 billion of economic, social and infrastructure activities over two years.

• PFLAP: guidelines adopted by the provincial government and 10,000 ha of forest land in 15 communes allocated to households by December 2007

• CPC capacity: RUDEP has built the capacity of the CPCs and Village Leaders in its 23 communes and is now working with the Political School to continue this support to all Program 135/2 communes

• Gender: RUDEP has enforced that all activity (interest) groups contain at least 50% women members. This number grew to 75% in the savings and credit groups without further RUDEP pressure. RUDEP conducted gender analyses to determine the roles of men and women in agricultural activities and promoted the involvement of women when they tended to be responsible for an activity eg pig raising.  The reason for the focus on gender is that the cost of ignoring the role of women is high and it is essential that women are involved if poverty is to be reduced

• Empowered farmers:  RUDEP has sought to empower men and women in rural communes by giving them the skills and confidence to function in a market economy. An empowered person will have the confidence to ask for information and will know where to go to get such information. They will not rely on a poor service that may or may not come to their commune. We have see significant changes in both lowland and upland communes but it is clear that the upland people are starting from a very low base and still have a long way to go to be considered empowered.