and contribute to social development led SRD to pay particular attention to facilitating community based organisations, which included a series of activities from building capacity for farmer facilitators to supporting the formation and operation of farmers’ groups such as business development groups, shared interest groups, water use associations, participatory land use management groups and farmer seed production groups. This has not only facilitated farmers’ collective actions and strengthened their negotiation power but also created a platform to mobilise farmers to work together for common interests. The success of SRD’s interventions in sustainable agriculture and livelihoods was strengthened by our approach to project development – a process involving close consultation with and participation of local people to ensure that they hold ownership of their development and their needs were met.
Research and Advocacy As one of SRD’s priority programmes in the second Strategic Plan, SRD’s advocacy has gone far beyond its targeted objectives. In order to promote NGOs’ effective poverty reduction, community development and resource management models to be better recognised, SRD has paid strong attention to compiling and documenting organisations’ experiences with different initiatives, and collecting good initiatives from other organisations. Through engagement in different forums, SRD has shared these experiences with policy makers and a wider network to promote replication and expansion of the initiatives. The most significant results of this objective are the documentation and promotion of the application of SRI, the documentation of NGOs response to climate change in Vietnam, integrating in to local Socio-Economic
Development Planning (SEDP) process, and the maintenance of the SRD and VNGO and Climate Change (VNGO&CC) websites has also been assessed to an effective standard for popularising good examples of NGOs. To meet our aim of enabling SRD, other NGOs, and social businesses to take part in government programmes on poverty reduction (e.g. Official Development Assistance or ODA), SRD first built our strong reputation to become one of the most creditable NGOs in Vietnam, among CSOs and to government related ministries such as VUSTA, MARD, MONRE and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and donors. As a foremost professional VNGO, SRD has also actively participated in a number of poverty reduction forums contributing constructive and practical ideas to assist in the design of poverty reduction and pro-poor policies relating to agriculture, rural development and climate change in Vietnam. In addition, to enable the participation of all of Vietnamese civil society in this process, SRD has proactively maintained and updated information on different policies and programmes related to development and poverty reduction in Vietnam through SRD’s website and the VNGO&CC website.
Strategic Plan for 2013-2017
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