This is Machida(M1). Here is the brief report of research visit to Vietnam conducted at the end of last month.
Prof.Abe, Ms.Kojima(D1) and myself, Machida (M1), made a reserch visit to Hanoi, Vietnam from 26th September to 2nd October.
View from the hotel
Hanoi city was celebrating its 1000th anniversary
The trip was for the purpose of listening to the voices of Japanese experts and Vietnamese counterpart on capacity development (CD) and capacity assessment (CA) and, by so, adding more practical point of view to Machida’s research. Activities there includes (1)site visits to three technical cooperation projects on environmental management by JICA, (2)interview to Japanese experts, (3)questionnaire survey on “capacity assessment” to Vietnamese counterpart and (4) discussion with local university students on “community and urban waste management” as an initial trial of Ms.Kojima’s research.
Here are the three projects we visited.
Project(1) 3R initiative in Hanoi
Project Name:Implementation support for 3R INITIATIVE of Hanoi City for Cyclical Society
Project Period:2006.11-2009.11
Counterpart: Hnaoi People’s Committee(HPC) / Hanoi Urban Environment Limited Company(URENCO)
Landfil site
Composting Plant
3R Model area
Project(2)
CD of Environmental Research Institute
Project Name:Enhancing capacity of Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology in Water Environment Protection (Phase 2)
Project Period: 2008.1-2012.1
Counterpart: VAST/IET(Vietnamese Academy Science and Technology / Institute of Environmental Technology)
with Phase1(2003.11-2006.10) and Phase2 project members
One of the laboratories of VAST/IET
Project(3) Sustainable Tourism in Halong
Project Name:The Project for Environmental Protection for Sustainable Tourism Development in Halong in Vietnam
Project Period:2009.7-2012.7
Counterpart: Quang Ninh Province Department of Natural Resources and Environment(DONRE)
Discussion with Veitnamese counterpart
Polluted rever by coal mining industry
Floating community in Halong Bay(also relevant to another project)
with project menbers
Discussion with local university students
Major findings of this visit are as follows.
A term “capacity development” has stated to be used around year 2000 by JICA staff and some Japanese experts.
Contents and definition of “capacity” for each projects has not been discussed thoroughly on daily basis. Rather, CA itself or evaluation of the project serves as the opportunity to make counterparts recognize and understand what is capacity expected to develop during the project.
Japanese experts are referring to JICA’s reports on CD and CA including CA checklist but heavily modifying it so it become most relevant to the project.
JICA’s technical cooperation seems recognized less flexible by counterparts, while Japanese experts tend to make more persistent efforts for the capacity development of counterpart than other major agencies.
Potential research topics revealed would be,
Difference on the efficiency and performance / impact between technical cooperation projects by public bureaucrats and private development consulting firms.
Consequences of the various extents of flexibility among agencies on the way of project formulation and implementation (especially the roll of PDM or LogFrame).
Personally, I found the stay really stimulating and felt the need to track the domestic / international history of evaluation practices as well as the latest situation.
Lastly, I thank Kojima-san for all the arrangements and Prof.Abe for the funding to my spendings on this mission. Also, I would like to express my gratitude to JICA staff, JICA experts, Vietnamese counterparts and local students who genrously contributed to our study.
More detailed report will be uploaded soon.