Climate change has been rising and causing more damage to multiple sectors, regions and communities throughout the country, especially in agriculture and rural development. Alongside the Vietnamese government, civil society organizations including national and international NGOs have made great efforts and contributed effectively in the response to climate change. The document “Civil society organizations and the National Plan for Climate Change adaptation” is an initiative of the Center for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) funded by the Global Environment Fund’s Small Grants Program (UNDP / GEF/SGP) in Vietnam under the Project Strengthening the role of civil society organizations in the development of the National Adaptation Plan on Climate Change”. The document was compiled by experts from the Institute of Natural Resources and Environment (CRES), Center for Ecological Community Development (ECODE) and Center for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD). The project aims to: i) Enhance the capacity for advocacy and policy dialogue on CC for civil society organizations (CSOs) and representatives of climate-vulnerable communities, thereby effectively contributing to the development of the National Adaptation Plan on Climate Change (NAP); ii) Create a forum for information sharing on CC mitigation and disaster risk reduction in some areas where CSOs have successfully implemented many adaptation projects; iii) Document successful models of CCA as a reference for the NAP development process, thereby encouraging replication of these models in other localities. Accordingly, this document is composed of 4 main parts:

Part 1. Introduction: Background, Rationale, Objectives and Approach, Research methods, development of evaluation criteria for adaptation models;

Part 2. Civil society organizations in Vietnam in response to CC; Project “Strengthening the role of civil society organizations in the development of the National Adaptation Plan”;

Part 3. Development of a set of evaluation criteria for community-based adaptation models and usage guidelines.

Part 4. Review and evaluation of adaptation models according to the proposed set of criteria and the role of civil society organizations in the success of CCA models;

Part 5. Conclusion and recommendations.

With this structure and content, we hope that the document will serve its purpose well for the readers, first of all for policy makers related to NAP and NAP-Ag, to support various local authorities to concretely implement NAP in the management of CCA models, for officials of NGOs and the local community in implementing adaptive livelihood and climate-smart agricultural activities. It can also provide useful reference for relevant researchers, development officers, students, and post doctorates in related fields. During the compilation, we have received candid and profound comments from seasonal managers and experts in CC, agriculture, natural resources, irrigation, government leaders, local agencies, and especially national/local and international CSOs implementing CCA projects.

(On behalf of the authors: Dr. Trương Quang Học)

Click here for more information