Civil Society in Vietnam: Moving from the Margins to the Mainstream

By
Gita Sabharwal and Than Thi Thien Huong1
July 2005

Introduction

1. This paper presents an overview of civil society in Vietnam. It begins by

defining civil society and what it means in the context of this country. It then
presents an overview of the current state of play of the different elements of
civil society organisations and the overarching legal framework in which they
operate. It examines the engagement of donors with civil society. In
conclusion, it sets out the need to develop a common shared approach and
strategy for engagement with civil society in Vietnam.

Changing Context

2. The broad based political organisation of the Communist Party of

Vietnam (CPV) combined with the tradition of a one party state until recently
allowed for little space for growth of an independent civil society. The political
discourse of the CPV was not supportive of organisational expression of
collective identity and interest outside the framework of the Party. Though
Vietnam in the past had a rich associational life2 civil society as understood in
mainstream development practice has remained underdeveloped. Mass
organisations have been the largest and most dominant of social groupings.
They occupied the space that civil society organisations tend to occupy
across other countries and political contexts.

3. However, since doi moi the political and economic context is rapidly
changing characterised by opening up of the economy and a move towards
global integration. This has led to the emergence of social groupings outside
the party. Some have argued that since mid 1990s the institutional
environment appears to be shifting from a total state domination of
development activity to an acceptance of the contribution of other
development actors. In other words, Vietnam can be described as
characterised by a low but increasing tolerance of autonomous civil activity
though civil society remains a politically sensitive issue.

4. There are two broad trends that one notices over the past decade.
Firstly there has been the growth of development NGOs essentially different
from the organisations that emerged as a product of the retrenchment
process3 during the late 1980s. Secondly, there has been a mushrooming of
1
The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not of the organisation that
they work for.
2
Craft guilds, traders, farmers associations etc existed before and during the French rule.
3
Administrative decentralisation and consolidation reduced the size of the state apparatus by some
50,000 with many of the cuts falling on scientific and technical institutes and professional interest
groups. The NGOs that emerged were largely descendants of Government Institutes and staffed by
retrenched Government staff. In other words they have emerged from the political mainstream of Party-
State organisation and that different organisations vary in the degree of independence that they desire.
Thus they are always closer to the state than their counterparts in other countries.

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associations – voluntary, non-profit, non-Governmental, community based,
grassroots and cooperative. These associations fulfil a variety of roles ranging
from organising activities, to income generation to disseminating knowledge.
These new associational forms together with the mass organisations provide
material assistance to the poor but do not engage in public debates about
policy.

5. The current interplay between government and civil society groupings

in terms of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs, or
“institutional environment”, appears to be shifting from a total state domination
of development activity, to an acceptance of the contribution that other players
may bring. The Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2000-2010) and the
draft Socio-Economic Development Plan (2006-2010) reflect this changing
context and set out a challenging role for CSOs in Vietnam. Broadly, this
covers three areas of action:

1. Strengthening the decentralisations process through the Grassroots

Democracy Decree i.e. enhancing accountability of governments at
the provincial, district and commune level;
2. Enhancing the participation of poor in the development planning,
implementation and monitoring i.e. strengthening voice of the poor in
policy making and implementation; and
3. Supporting service delivery for poverty elimination with particular focus
on HIV/AIDS and social safety nets i.e. improving access to the hard
to reach.

6. It is worth noting that this shift has taken place gradually, with CSOs
now emerging at the margins of development context. This has been helped
by building of relationship of trust between government departments and
specific INGOs. As evident from the SEDP there is now recognition from the
highest levels that civil society organisations may have a more mainstream
role to play in the development of the country and taking action against
poverty. However, this role or range of roles has yet to be fully defined by
government or by civil society itself. There is much potential for facilitating
CSOs movement from the margins to the mainstream of development action
and increasing their impact on the policy-making process.

Civil Society Spectrum in Vietnam

7. The term “civil society” is defined as “the broad range of organised

groupings which occupy the public space between the state and the individual
citizen”4. The term civil society is used in development circles in Vietnam.
However, its use is recent, and as a conceptual base for understanding
interconnections between various civil society actors, there is much work to
be done in developing a common, meaningful and locally relevant definition.

8. Civil society in Vietnam can be described as consisting of a range of

organisations, which when organised along a spectrum consist of CBOs5 at
4
DFID’s Approach to Working with Civil Society, 1999
5
CBOs include small savings and credit groups, user groups, water user associations etc.

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one end of the spectrum and research based organisations and INGOs at the
other end. There are several other elements that fall between these two ends
such as mass organisations, cooperatives, social and charity funds and Local
NGOs etc. Its important to note that in the context of Vietnam, the media and
the private sector are not being considered as part of civil society at this point
in time.

9. At the lower end of the civil society spectrum are the CBOs or
organisations of the poor such as water user groups, savings and credit
groups, farmers collective etc. Most activities undertaken by the CBOs are
financially sustainable and their emergence is closely associated with
donor/INGO development interventions.

10. Occupying the middle band of the civil society spectrum are
cooperatives, mass organisations, social and charity funds and Local NGOs.
It’s worth examining each separately, as they play different roles and have
potential to develop further. The new Cooperatives are largely emerging
through endogenous processes. They provide the opportunity for a new
generation of local leaders to seize economic opportunities by organising
farmers to produce and market their goods collectively.

11. Mass organisations are redefining their role and position in the rapidly
changing development context of Vietnam. Over the past decade they have
proved to be effective in reaching services down to the communes. They are
an important vehicle for improving access of services specifically across the
poorest provinces but are not effective in promoting accountability of local
government’s. Mass organisations are largely funded by the Party though
increasingly they are collaborating with INGOs to implement development
programmes.

12. Charities are engaged in reaching services mainly to the urban poor.
They are largely supported by domestic donations. In the future charities will
continue to play a role in enhancing access to the hard to reach urban poor.

13. NGOs are the latest entrant and are developing their identity while
progressively widening their remit, function and outreach. Financial resources,
capacity and the legal framework remain a key constraint. In the long run they
have an important role to play in enhancing accountability, voice and access.

14. At the higher end of the civil society spectrum INGOs occupy the space
that NGOs tend to occupy in other developing countries in South Asia. They
are largely engaged in implementing development programmes at the level of
the commune/district and piloting innovative development interventions for
poverty reduction. More recently there has been a trend amongst some of the
more progressive INGOs to operate through LNGOs. This has allowed them
to strengthen the LNGO capacity in implementing development programmes
while increasing their outreach. Some have successfully engaged in the policy
making process of the state while others have been engaging in issue based
advocacy. In the long run, as capacities of local NGOs develop they will need
to redefine their role vis a vis the emerging development context of Vietnam.

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15. Research institutions operate within the framework of the
government and ministries. They are not always an “independent voice” that
tables’ alternative analysis and contributes to evidence based policy making.
In the future, they have a critical role to play.

16. The local CSOs in Vietnam tend to be densely concentrated along

the Red River and Mekong delta of Vietnam. The few development oriented
NGOs have now begun to spread their operations into some of the poorer
provinces of the country. Most well off provinces have small savings and credit
groups, water user associations, NGOs and INGOs. But their spread begins
to thin pretty fast as one moves to the highlands.

17. Data suggests that there are roughly 140,000 CBOs, 3,000
cooperatives under the new law with most of them operating in the areas of
agriculture, fisheries, construction, sanitation and health care. There are about
200 charities and 1000 Local NGOs that are registered. However, we need to
bear in mind that over the past decade the number of CSOs is rapidly growing
and these figures are rough indication of the density of CSOs in Vietnam.

Legal Framework for Civil Society: Fixing the Parts & Missing the Whole

18. The legal framework is constantly evolving to keep pace with the
challenging role that the government has set for civil society. Individual
decrees relating to different elements of civil society have been issued in the
recent past. These decrees/laws provide the basis for the establishment of
civil organisations that operate relatively independent of the state. However,
these ad hoc regulations do not add up to a comprehensive and clear legal
framework for the formation and operation of NGOs/CSOs. This is also an
indication that the issue of “independent” civil society organisations remains
political sensitive.

19. Broadly, there are five important decree/laws currently in existence,

which govern different elements of civil society organisations in Vietnam. The
laws and decrees show clarity of purpose for cooperatives, CBOs and
charities. The Grassroots Democracy Decree 79 (2003) institutionalises the
participation of local communities/CBOs/organisations of the poor in
development activities at the level of the commune. This is seen as an
important step in the development of civil society in Vietnam. The law on
Cooperatives recognises cooperatives as voluntary organisations functioning
as independent economic entities. The law on Science and Technology
recognises professional associations as independent service organisations
with the only option available to most development NGOs. The decree 177
recognises charity and social funds. Lastly, the law on Associations is
currently under revision by the NGO Department of the Ministry of Home
Affairs. It is hoped that the law, which is in its 10th draft, will define the
concept of NGOs along with their role, function and management
arrangements. The only option currently available to development NGOs is to
be registered under the law on science and technology. This requires them to
justify and link their existence and operation to science and technology.

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20. The analysis of these decrees confirms that the Government is keen to
set out roles and responsibilities for the new forms of associational life that
emerge.

Donors Engagement with Civil Society

21. Donors in Vietnam do not have an explicit approach or strategy for

engaging with civil society organisations. For most bilateral organisations
the small grant scheme provides the organising framework for engagement
with civil society organisations. Some multilaterals particularly the UNDP and
ADB also have similar schemes. Support under these schemes is not
positioned to be strategic in nature. They generally support small ad hoc
projects ranging from income generation to training, service delivery,
awareness generation programmes to human rights and democracy
promotion.

22. There are many donor-funded initiatives to support research capacity

in a wide range of policy-related fields. Analysis suggests that support is
limited to three or four research organisations, some of the regional
universities and ministry based research bodies. Most of this support is for
Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and its different institutes such as
Institute of Economics, Institute of Sociology and Centre for Analysis and
Forecast. Central Institute of Economic Management and the Vietnam
National University along with Vietnam Union of Science and Technology
Association are some of the other research bodies that are currently being
supported.

23. Support to research organisations is largely focussed on building

capacity of Vietnamese researchers. The link between research and policy
related analysis is not always explicit across these projects. Donors also
support new areas of research such as WTO with specific thematic focus
such as gender. Most of this support remains ad hoc with little attempt at
rationalising engagement and offering comprehensive funding for capacity
building.

Conclusions

24. The embryonic stage of civil society in Vietnam and the continued
political concerns and sensitivities around its development makes the task of
strengthening this sector a challenge. Engagement in this sector will require
the donor community and the government to develop a common shared
approach and strategy to support civil society to move from the margins into
the mainstream of development practice and debate. With Vietnam currently
engaged in developing its five-year plan and with its rapid integration into the
world economy, the time may just be right for the donor community to start
this process in close consultation with the government.