Review of the Second Strategy To facilitate the participation of SRD and other NGOs in the development, evaluation and monitoring of pro-poor policies/programmes, SRD has actively participated in various policy forums across a wide range of issues. At the national level, SRD is one of few key VNGOs represented and provides input into MONRE’s Support Programme to Respond to Climate Change (SPRCC), to MARD’s International Support Group (ISG), to MPI’s National Sustainable Development Strategy, and contributes constructive and practical ideas for poverty reduction at policy forums. To enable the participation of civil society in these processes, SRD has also facilitated the process of building the organisational capacity of VNGOs on monitoring and evaluating policy implementation. Through active engagement in different initiatives including the monitoring of aid effectiveness, analysis of climate change financing and investigation of the impacts of policies on the poor following economic crises, SRD has not only raised its own capacity and practical experience but has also pioneered and provided practical examples of CSOs monitoring development programmes and policies, a very new but critical area for CSO engagement in Vietnam.
Climate Change Although climate change was only considered as a topic in sustainable agriculture in the last strategic plan, SRD has made a lot of progress in this area, becoming a leading CSO working on climate change in Vietnam. Over the past few years, SRD has undertaken three disaster risk reduction and six climate change related projects. SRD has been able to engage on climate change at all levels, from grassroots interventions to the most influential national and international policy forums. SRD has played a major role in building CSOs’ capacity on climate change in Vietnam, as the chair of the VNGO&CC network, co-chair of the
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Strategic Plan for 2013-2017
Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) and chair of the VNGO and Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (VNGO-FLEGT) Network, SRD has facilitated and coordinated the process of sharing knowledge and learning experiences between both VNGOs and INGOs. This is an important contribution to build the capacity of civil society and enhance the contributions of CSOs towards tackling climate change and environmental issues. The most significant work that SRD has done was the capacity building on climate change for CSOs project, funded by the Embassy of Finland. The successful implementation of this project helped to formalise the mechanism of cooperation between the government and civil society through the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change (DMHCC), CCWG and the VNGO&CC network in December 2011. Working in the central coastal provinces of Thua Thien Hue and Ha Tinh, which are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, SRD has helped to build the resilience of vulnerable communities to natural disasters and climate change. SRD has implemented a