Country Office 506493 OXFAM NOVIB COUNTR

General

The Coalition Support Programme (CSP) aims to contribute to more accountable governance and to more progressive policy processes and impacts in Vietnam. CSP operates by identifying, fostering and supporting issue-based coalitions for effective advocacy within thepolicy making process. #Coalitions# in this context means multi-stakeholder cooperation among Vietnamese NGOs (VNGOs), state agencies at different levels, media, universities and research institutes, and the private sector. CSP expected to deliver the following outcomes: Improve policies, policy making and monitoring processes via (1) Functioning coalitions ready to act on issues of public concern through effective multi-stakeholder involvement in policy processes, and (2) Strengthening engagement of non-governmental organisations at national and sub-national levels to promote public participation and accountability in law-making and oversight agendaof the National Assembly. Six coalitions have been supported through the implementation phase (phase 1, from 2013 to 2015) on Mining, Forest Land (Forland), Land Policy (Landa), Clean Water, Health, and Agriculture. The coalitions joined CSP on a rolling basis over the first year of the implementation phase: Mining and Forland began in March 2013; Landa in June 2013; Clean Water in September2013; and Health and Agriculture in January 2014. In addition to policy processes advocated by each of the six coalitions, CSP identified key cross-cutting policy opportunities affecting the operating environment for coalition members. In 2015, CSP contributed to 5 cross-cutting processes. In total, the six coalitions and CSP have contributed to 43 policy processes during the last three years (with some processes extending over more than one year). From January 2016, CSP decides to support 4 coalitions, including MiningCoalition, Forland, Clean Water Coalition, and Agriculture Coalition base on the result of end-term review. Beside of 4 coalitions, Oxfam also cooperate with People Participation Working Group (PPWG) which has more than 200 members and coordinate by the Institute for Studies of Society, Economics and Environment (iSEE), a Vietnamese NGO. PPWG is an informal network that acts as a forum for organisations and professionals - such as donors, government employees, NGOs, project managers, consultants and researchers to exchange information and ideas on issues relating to people#s participation, grassroots democracy and civil society. In recent years, PPWG has been an active group to do awareness raising and advocacy for policies and legislation towards enlarging civil society space in Vietnam such as advocacy for amendment of Constitution 2013, Law on Law, Law on Access to Information, Law on Association and Decree 93 on management and utilisation of foreign non-governmental aid. Through its work, PPWG also strengthens cooperation among different civil society actors and increase the public understanding and support for a necessary role of civil society in Vietnam. Oxfam has been an active steering committee member of the PPWG since it established in 1999, we also acted as the chair of the group during 2005 - 2006.