CAPACITY BUILDING IN APPLIED NATURAL RESOURCEECONOMICS AND MANAGEMNET FOR RURAL AREAS OF VIETNAM Project title: Capacity Building in Applied Natural Resource Economics and Management for
Trang 1CAPACITY BUILDING IN APPLIED NATURAL RESOURCE
ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMNET FOR
RURAL AREAS OF VIETNAM
Project title: Capacity Building in Applied Natural Resource Economics and Management
for Rural Areas of Vietnam
Project code: CARD 025/05 VIE
Authors: Dr Pham Van Hung1, Prof Gordon MacAulay2
Project implementing organizations:
1
Faculty of Economics and Rural Development, Hanoi University of Agriculture (HUA)
2
University of Sydney, Australia
1 Introduction
Vietnam is one of nations, which is
experiencing a rapid growth with market
oriented economy development However, the
rapid economic growth has also resulted in
enormous pressure on nation’s natural
resources Because of market imperfections and
failures, especially with respect to various
natural resources, there is a problem due to
resource overuses This leads to arising
economic inefficiencies, and social and
environmental problems
According to the world’s experiences, scientists
has showed that knowledge (understanding) on
economics and natural resource management
has been a crucial factor for sustainable and a
long-term development of economies In all
management and research levels, including
staff, researcher and extension workers, the
level of knowledge, understanding and using of
the principles of natural resource economics
(NRE) and management is limited
The project CARD/ 025/05 VIE (Capacity
Building in Applied Natural Resource
Economics and Management for Rural Areas of
Vietnam) has been designed to improve
understanding and strengthen teaching and
research capacity in natural resource economics
and management field for the two leading
universities in agriculture training field in
Vietnam (Hanoi University of Agriculture and
Can Tho University) The project also establish
relationship among universities; extension
system and encourage to transfer of knowledge
from the University teaching and research staff
to extension staff and farmers
The project links to the CARD strategic objective which focuses on increasing rural productivity and increasing agricultural efficiency and competitiveness The project also links to strategic objectives for reducing vulnerability to environmental and economic shocks and the intermediate objective for increasing stability of household incomes through encouraging diversification of production and marketing
2 Research contents and methods
2.1 The components of the project
In order to assess the level of resource use and
to prepare suitable documents for each management level, the project focuses on need assessment which relates to natural resource use of farm households in 3 regions: North, Central and South
The CARD program focuses on teaching and training This project also organizes series of trainings for lecturers; research on natural resource economics and management (trainings and send scholars
to University of Sydney);
o Course 1: Organizing two trainings for lecturers and research staff of Universities, research institutes at Hanoi University of Agriculture
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o Course 2: Organizing two
trainings for lecturers and research
staff of Universities, research
institutes at Can Tho University
o Sending 4 scholars (2 from Hanoi
University of Agriculture, 1 from
Hue University and 1 from Can
Tho University) to study in
University of Sydney
Organizing training workshops for
extension staff from central to provincial
and district levels in the North and in the
South of Vietnam;
Conducting pilot workshops for farmers,
farm managers, agricultural co-operatives
managers and local agricultural extension
staff at 3 regions: North, Central and
South;
Consulting to build curriculum for
undergraduate subjects such as natural
resource economics, environmental
economics and fishery economics for
Hanoi University of Agriculture; Can Tho
University
Building websites for reporting project
activities and delivering knowledge on
natural economics and resource
management
2.2 Approaches
The proposed project is designed to strengthen
the capacity building in natural resource
economics in Vietnam in a layered framework
In the first layer, and after considerable
consultation, the University of Sydney staff
will provide research, teaching and policy
analysis training to Vietnamese academics,
policy analysts and extension specialists at a
national level This training will be in the
context of the problems and issues identified in
the farmer surveys In the second layer, those
trained in the first layer will train the extension
specialists and policy analysts at a provincial
level The training will be designed to impact
the advice and information provided to farmers
on the use of natural resources This will be
demonstrated through a series of district level
workshops In the third layer, extension
workshops for farmers will be conducted, with
a focus on economically efficient natural resource management
Communication/Outreach Approach The main
approach to communication/outreach is through extension workshops that will be conducted in the Mekong Delta at Can Tho University, the Central Coast through Hue University and in the north of Vietnam at Hanoi Agricultural University These workshops will address the strategic questions
of strengthened and broadened capacity for economics training of extension personnel in Vietnam Once this capacity is built it will provide a continuing human resource base which can be sustained into the future
2.3 Implementation Methods
2.3.1 R&D Methodology
The approach used in the proposed project is through research into specific resource use issues designed to allow development of training modules for use on knowledge transfer and knowledge base building These modules will help to increase communication efficiency and knowledge delivery as well as understanding of leaders and farmers about natural resource management In addition, knowledge from trainings will facilitate information updating and curriculum development in universities
Under the project, there are various small scale studies in the field of fishery; water and land use and forestry These studies are carried by scholars and supervised by professors from University of Sydney
2.2.2 Participatory Methods
On-going consultations with the major stakeholders will be conducted in order to, in the first place determine the nature of the training and extension activities, and subsequently to obtain feedback and readdress some key issues This will assist in developing the priority areas for training
2.2.3 Methods to Address Capacity Gaps
The project has direct and indirect objectives aiming at target beneficiaries including lecturers; researchers; and policy makers from universities and research institutes; agricultural extension staff and agricultural staff at
Trang 3provincial and district level; farmers and farm
managers
The gap in knowledge on natural resource
economics and management is well defined
and filled in
2.3 Dissemination Strategies
The project itself is built around disseminating
training outcomes to smallholder farmers and
natural resource users in Vietnam The
ultimate role in the dissemination of the
outcomes to small-scale farmers will be played
by the Vietnamese extension personnel that
will be trained under the project This role will
be enhanced through initial farm level pilot
workshops conducted within the scope of this
project These workshops will be designed to
ensure the flow from economic theory and
applied economics (improved capacity of the
academics, policy makers and extension staff)
to natural resource management on the farm
(delivered to the small holder farmers)
3 Results and discussions
3.1 Training, workshop
The central feature of the project has been a
series of workshops in which 296 people
actively participated The process was to
provide training in resource management to a
group of academics who then provided the
training for the extension workshops and then
the extension specialists provided training for a
series of Pilot farmer workshops (3
workshops)
The list of completed workshops is provided so
as to reflect the extent of the key activities over
the life of the project
Training Workshop, Hanoi (12-16 July,
2006) with 26 participants
Training Workshop, Can Tho, (17-21
July, 2006) with 19 participants
Extension Workshop, Hanoi (22-26
January, 2007) with 25 participants
Extension Workshop, Can Tho (29
January to 2 February, 2007) with 26
participants
Extension Workshop, Hanoi (16-20 July,
2007) with 26 participants
Extension Workshop, Soc Trang (23-27 July, 2007) with 20 participants
Pilot Farmer Workshop, Van Giang
(16-17 January, 2008) with 30 participants
Pilot Farmer Workshop, Soc Trang (23-24 January, 2008) with 30 participants
Pilot Farmer Workshop Vinh, Hung Nguyen, (14-15 July 2008) with 33 participants
Pilot Farmer Workshop Van Giang, Hung Yen (18-19 July 2008) with 30 participants
Pilot Farmer Workshop Soc Trang (21-22 July 2008) with 31 participants
Roundtable on Resource Management Issues in Vietnam (17 July 2008) with 31 attendees
In addition, 4 research scholars visited the University of Sydney for approximately 3 months each and each produced a significant research paper in the field of natural resource economics and management
The outcome of the training workshop has been highly appreciated by participants In particular:
3.1.1 Competency Assessment of Academic Staff
Competency assessment requires that a standard is set against which to test the level of skills of a person or persons in relation to what
is expected This is clearly best done by observation of what people do rather than what they say For the purposes of this project a set
of questions were asked before and after the training and then for a smaller group a significant period after the training in a Post Training Survey This can only be a very limited assessment and therefore can only be indicative of the outcomes from the program The level of knowledge and the capacity of the academics involved in the training were clearly lifted as reflected in the pre and post workshop knowledge tests The average score for a set of knowledge questions about issues relating to natural resources before the Training Workshops was an average score of 43.1 per cent correct answers in Hanoi and 53.8 per cent in Can Tho These percentages rose to 71.7 per cent in Hanoi and 65.6 per cent in Can
Trang 4CARD 025/05 VIE – Applied natural resource management
Tho after the training These are average
numbers and clearly an improved
understanding was gained in relation to some
issues and not so for others The more
technical areas were less well understood but
for some of the basic ideas such as an
externality and discounting and compounding
there was significant change
Results from the Post Training Survey who
that all the respondents who attended the
Training Workshops said they had changed
their thinking about resource management,
they incorporated materials into their
educational materials, changed their methods
of teaching and had developed new materials
relating to resource management This implies
a significant shift in the capacity and
perspectives of this group of academics and
this is likely to continue to grow and develop
3.1.2 Competency Assessment of Trained
Extension Staff
The success of the workshop evaluations for
the Extension and Pilot workshops
demonstrated the capacity of university and
extension staff to provide excellent quality
training as a result of the training they were
given along with their existing capacities and
skills In the case of the set of Extension
Workshops in July 2007 the average score on a
set of questions related to natural resource
issues was 42.9 in Hanoi and 45 per cent in
Soc Trang These scores increased to 58.2 and
65 per cent after the training The results from
the Post Training Survey also reflect use of the
materials provided in the Extension
Workshops Clearly, new skills and ideas have
been gained which allow material from the
training to be used in extension activities Of
the 25 respondents 22 (88 per cent) said they
had incorporated material from the training
into their extension work and 20 (80 per cent)
had changed their methods of training as a
result A total of 15 (60 per cent) had
developed new materials relating to resource
management and 15 (not a matching 15
people) had changed the materials they
provided to farmers These results do not
measure the extent of the changes but reflect
the use of ideas and materials and imply an expanding set of skills obtained in the training
On a more subjective level there was also significant capacity development for some of the presenters at the Extension Workshops who had not previously used PowerPoint All presenters very successfully utilized this medium Both University of Sydney staff and senior staff of both Hanoi University of Agriculture and Can Tho University provided support and a level of mentoring for the academic and extension staff during their presentations A total of 28 different people presented one of more presentations over the set of workshops (excluding University of Sydney staff) This included both university trainers and extension trainers
3.2 Curriculum Change
A detailed discussion was provided in the Project Technical Report No 1 (Milestone 3) of the draft curriculum proposal for an Environmental and Resource Economics course in the Faculty of Economics and Rural Development at Hanoi University of Agriculture and the course Environmental Economics in the School of Economics and Business Administration at Can Tho University The content of training workshops
on natural resource economics and management has been utilized by lecturers of the two universities and combine in their teaching lessons for both undergraduate and post graduate level
3.3 Website Documentation and Use
The Resman (short for Resource Management) website is located in and maintained by Hanoi University of Agriculture The site contains most of the PowerPoint presentations made at all the workshops, the discussion papers, policy briefs and decision-making tools Additional training materials have also been added to the site and there is opportunity for comments and discussions Over 20,000 hits have been made to the website
Trang 53.4 Smallholder Benefits
Smallholder benefits from the project are
expected to flow directly from the reported
workshops as a result of providing training
directly to farmers, albeit a relatively small
number
Although, only 3 workshops were organized
for farmers at three regions, they have been
promoting awareness of a large group of
farmers on environmental problem in the
intensive production environment which is
simply done by the sharing of experiences that
was undertaken However, over the longer
term the benefits of having provided training to
a group of academics and also extension
workers has provided some of the necessary
background support for the work at the farmer
level Also, as a result of the pilot workshops
there is now a small number of people who
have prepared teaching material and actively
participated in presentation of training to
farmers on significant resource management
issues under general guidance Overall, while
the smallholder benefits from this project are
expected to take some time (3-5 years) to start
being apparent, a number of the necessary
steps have been undertaken towards the
delivery of a set of smallholder benefits
targeted to the better management of
agricultural resources
3.5 Capacity Building
The broad focus of the project is on capacity building at the academic, extension and farm levels As noted above there were 28 people involved in providing training sessions to participants as well as the three academics from the University of Sydney This involved
a total of 160 sessions of which Vietnamese presenters presented 76 sessions and most had attended the training or extension workshops For the five Pilot farmer workshops the development of extension specialists in giving presentations in workshops in the area of resource management has been significant Nine specialists all presented well-prepared presentations for significant periods of time They were assisted by their own colleagues and also by the academic staff at Hanoi University of Agriculture and also Can Tho This represents a significant development in teaching capacity in the area of natural resource economics
In addition to development of a teaching capacity there was development of research capacity as well Four research scholars spent about three months each at the University of Sydney and learned skills in relation to the development of research papers in natural resource economics
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4 Conclusions and recommendations
The challenges to the environment in Vietnam
are very large indeed Particularly is this the
case with water pollution and the degradation
of its quality Many farmers are aware of the
problems but unclear as to how to reduce them
Thus, it is essential that more training is
provided in the area of natural resource
management and that this has a high impact
The three-tier process used in the project
seemed to work well and provided a sense of
linkage from academic program to farmer level
The training of leading extension personnel at
university level in natural resource management
seems also to be important as relatively few of
the extension specialists seemed to have
detailed knowledge in this area However,
gaining significant impact at the farmer level is
likely to need farmer-level training but also
demonstration and ‘hands-on’ experience
To evaluate impacts of trainings provided by
the project is very challenging due to the highly
variable learning styles, the personal nature of
learning and the fact that it is a labour intensive
process It is also important that the numbers of
participants in group-learning environments are
not too large or again impact is lost These
factors have been managed in the project as
well as possible with the use of groups that are
not over 25 for the Training and Extension
workshops and not over 35 for the Pilot farmer
workshops
It also became apparent over the life of the
project that there has been significant growth in
the research and teaching resources going into
environmental and natural resource use areas
Encouragement was given by the project
activities to this investment This is an
encouraging sign in that there will eventually
be significant progress in alleviating some of
the worst resource use inefficiencies and effects
of pollution and waste However, it also clear
that the institutions and organizations in
Vietnam will have to find their own way
through the web of resource and environmental
issues, not the least of which, is the development of their own methods and approaches to teaching and research designed to resolve the issues they face
References
1 Project No 025/05VIE, “Capacity Building in Applied Natural Resource Economics and Management for Vietnam” Final report 6 (Milestone 11) CARD Program Available online: www.resman.edu.vn
2 Project No 025/05VIE, “Capacity Building in Applied Natural Resource Economics and Management for Vietnam” Report 5.5 for Milestone 10 (Reporting for Milestone 10 and Revisions to Milestone 11) CARD
www.resman.edu.vn
3 Project No 025/05VIE, “Capacity Building in Applied Natural Resource Economics and Management for Vietnam” Report 5 (Milestone 9) CARD Program Available online: www.resman.edu.vn
4 Project No 025/05VIE, “Capacity Building in Applied Natural Resource Economics and Management for Vietnam” Technical Reports 2 and 3 (Milestones 6 and 8) CARD Program Available online: www.resman.edu.vn
5 Project No 025/05VIE, “Capacity Building in Applied Natural Resource Economics and Management for Vietnam” Progress Report (Milestone 7) CARD Program Available online: www.resman.edu.vn