Precedents

DW in Viet Nam

Development Workshop began working in Viet Nam in 1989.

• DW’s first projects in Viet Nam (in collaboration with GRET, Paris) were located in Binh Tri Thien province (subsequently divided into Thua Thien Hué, Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces) for the demonstration of typhoon resistant building techniques. (Funded by UNDP/UNCHS VIE/85/019 through to 1991).
• DW carried out post typhoon rehabilitation and preventive training in Thanh Hoa Province. (UNDP/AIDAB - VIE/89/035).
• DW worked on rural development strategies and appropriate technology transfer in Vinh Phu and Ha Nam Ninh Provinces and in districts in Hanoi into 1993. (UNDP/UNCHS VIE/86/020).

The experience of these projects laid the basis for DW’s more recent work in Viet Nam.

Between 1999 and 2001, Canadian International Development (CIDA) supported the DW pilot project  which provided assistance, animation and training to promote preventive strengthening of houses and small local facilities in 10 communes in Thua Thien Hué province. This showed that:

• Preventive strengthening of houses is viable. Families will invest time and money on strengthening in order to reduce their vulnerability and secure the family’s situation.
• Poorer families did not have access to cheap credit for strengthening. This caused hardship in some cases because they borrowed at high rates. Creating access to affordable credit has therefore become an important issue to help poorer families reduce their vulnerability and safeguard their investment.
• The animation activities in the communes and in the schools opened up community participation in the project activities and have helped to generate a genuine level of local appropriation of the project and its message.
• The establishment by DW of Commune Damage Prevention Committees has provided a specific local institutional ‘prevention‘ framework in which commune activities can be carried out.

In a second phase starting in 2002, support from the Fondation Aid Vietnam Canada  (FAVC) and CIDA allowed DW and its commune partners in Thua Thien Hué Province to test the creation of family groups in hamlets to locally manage their house strengthening, and to provide the first credits for house strengthening (backed by a subsidy).

Since 2003 the DW programme in Thua Thien Hué has placed the family group and village of hamlet level firmly at the centre of the vulnerability reduction process, with participants and beneficiaries democratically selected by vote, and with representation on the Commune Damage Prevention Committees, who represent the commune implementation capacity for the programme. Work in schools with children extended to encourage greater expression and involvement by children expressing their views and concerns about disasters and preparedness.. Strengthening of existing houses and strengthening of schools and other public facilities continued, as did builder training.

Since 2003 DWF has been supported by the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) special programme for Disaster Prevention (Dipecho)