From Policy to Practice and Back

The report examines the challenges and successes of implementing Western sustainability and development agendas within Vietnam's highly centralized party-state. It analyzes how historical legacies, including Chinese influence and the impact of the US war, shape current governance and social dynamics. Through various case studies—including hydropower strategic environmental assessments, poverty reduction programs like Chia Sẻ, and research on Agent Orange—the author demonstrates that while the Vietnamese state is open to experimental pilot projects, it remains resistant to reforms that challenge its monopoly on power or its paternalistic view of ethnic minorities. The document concludes that long-term engagement and an understanding of local cultural contexts are essential for effective policy advice in Vietnam.

• There is a fundamental divergence in how 'governance', 'policy', 'transparency', and 'accountability' are understood; while Western donors view them as instrumental and procedural, the Vietnamese state often views 'policy' as the concretization of Party thinking in unquestionable directives.
• Ethnic minorities in Vietnam are significantly marginalized and over-represented among the poor, accounting for 47% of the poor in 2010 despite making up only 15% of the total population.
• Poverty alleviation for ethnic minorities is often hindered by a 'mission civilisatrice' mindset and the use of lowland Kinh standards for measuring wealth, which devalues traditional assets and knowledge.
• The use of Agent Orange during the US war has left a lasting legacy of health problems and social stigma, with some families interpreting disabilities as punishment for ancestral misdeeds due to deep-rooted fatalism.
• The Chia Sẻ rural development programme demonstrated that while participatory planning can increase real incomes and women's visibility, the Vietnamese government may prioritize infrastructure over the decentralizing and empowering elements of such projects.
• Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) for hydropower in Vietnam revealed that current social and environmental mitigation measures are inadequate, and that population displacement of marginalized ethnic minorities is the most significant social risk.
• Market reforms (Đổi Mới) have increased overall GDP and reduced poverty but have also led to increased income disparities and new vulnerabilities for smallholder farmers exposed to international commodity price fluctuations.
• Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools used in the Song Hinh dam resettlement project allowed affected Ede and Bana communities to influence specific terms of their relocation, though long-term livelihood restoration largely failed.

APA

Lindskog, E. (2015). From Policy to Practice and Back. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/NEW/sei-lindskog-2015-from-policy-to-practice-in-vietnam2016.pdf

Chicago

Lindskog, Eva. From Policy to Practice and Back. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2015. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/NEW/sei-lindskog-2015-from-policy-to-practice-in-vietnam2016.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lindskog |first1=Eva |title=From Policy to Practice and Back |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=June 2015 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/NEW/sei-lindskog-2015-from-policy-to-practice-in-vietnam2016.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lindskog2015from, author = {Lindskog, Eva}, title = {{From Policy to Practice and Back}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2015}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/NEW/sei-lindskog-2015-from-policy-to-practice-in-vietnam2016.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }