Project Annual Report, 2007

Strengthening citizens’ participation in local socio-economic development, Phu tho province

Part 2

3. Proposed second phase: scope, direction and objectives

3.1. Direction

In several planning workshops with our partners from the communities, building on the achievement of the first phase, we come to agreement on the directions in the next two years as the 2^nd phase. They are:

1. Focusing on the work with the ethnic minority, their livelihood, and culture in sustainable farming and /or agro-forestry systems;
2. Focusing on the work with the poorest among the poor and women to effectively access and utilise their rights to befnefits promised by government for poverty alleviation as advocacy cases.
3. Strengthening ethnic minority organisations, and resource people for monitoring government poverty alleviation policies and advocacy;

The direction for second phase of this project was discussed and approved at our planning workshop in Nov 2007 in Bavi.

3.2. Scope

In this plan, RDSC Phu Tho will work in five communes in two districts of Tan Son and Thanh Son, but in much smaller number of villages compared to 100 villages in the previous phase. Up to three villages for Community-Based Tourism, four villages for up-lifting the livelihood of the poorest, and three villages for sustainable farming system. These ten villages are selected from two districts of Tan Son and Thanh Son. In addition, RDSC PT supports two networks of the community-based organisations for improving and broadening their services in reaching out.

3.3. Progress to date

The major activities and their progress made using the remaining resource at RDSC for the period from 1 Oct 07 to 1 Jan 08 to date are listed in the matrix bellow.

4. Conclusion

In the last three years, RDSC in Phu Tho has been working towards achieving the set objectives. At some degree, the third objective of influencing the agriculture authority, particularly at that district level, in decision making is too ambitious, thus it was achieved partially at the village and commune levels. The project produced good results in assisting villagers to establish community-based services, such as women’s credit Unions, veterinary associations, and other revolving funds, which are important actors in local development. The broad base of these institutions has laid a strong foundation for RDSC to work creatively in supporting grass-roots networks of community-based organisations, strengthening ethnic minority identity in the context of Vietnam’s shift to market economy using community-based tourism as a tool, and supporting local capacity to address poverty.

RDSC Phu Tho has learned a number of managerial and developmental lessons in the last three years. Financial and human resource management is the areas where RDSC Phu Tho found there the key area for improvements. RDSC Phu Tho has sent a detailed budget and activity plan to ICCO and RDSC Phu Tho calls for ICCO’s support for its proposal for the second phase./.

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