“It is the great way to contact to the networks to work with later” Ramesh Khadka, senior advisor, ActionAid shared. “I like this principle, it helps discover new organizations”, said Chris Dickinson, co-implementing partner at SNV in the project Vietnam Forest and Deltas. These are two of series ideas shared among participants attending the Networks Fair organized by the network of Vietnamese Non-Government Organizations on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VNGO-FLEGT), chaired by Center for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) in Hanoi on August 13, 2014. 

The Networks Fair was an initiative based on the fact that there were number of VNGO networks across Vietnam working in the fields of forest, forest land use and climate change but it seemed that the cooperation among them was not strong enough in sharing and exploring the potential for maximizing impacts. As such, the Networks Fair aimed at strengthening the potential collaborations among networks of Vietnamese NGOs/ CSOs working in those fields to share the information, common interest and strategy as well as work-plan for the future. It was hoped to strengthen the cooperation and solidarity among networks for further efficient and effective implementation in FLEGT and Climate Change Response in Vietnam. 

The Networks Fair attracted the participation from numbers of VNGO networks including VNGO-FLEGT, Vietnamese Non-Governance Organization and Climate Chance (VNGO&CC), Land Associations (LANDA), Network of Northern Mountainous Civil Society Organizations for Sustainable Community Development in Vietnam (NORTHNET), Mekong Delta River Climate Change Network (MDR), Vietnam Rivers Networks (VRN) and numbers of INGOs such as ActionAid, Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), Winrock International (WI),  and many media representatives.

Unlike normal commercial fairs, the products exhibited at the Networks Fair were  the models, studies, research and activities implemented by different networks at central and grass-roots level. Attendees used fake money provided by the organizers to “buy products” at the Fair that they found most important, interesting and suitable for them. This was a way to learn about the work of other groups while the latter were “selling” the “products” of their work. 

At the end of the fair, members of the networks attending divided into four groups on the basis of the most common interests(indigenous knowledge, communication on CC and FLEGT/VPA, CC adaptation livelihood models and VPA/ FLEGT research). Each group discussed further information exchange, cooperation and work-plan on the basis of their strategies and plans as presented at the Fair.

- SRD -