About

Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment (C&E) is a Vietnamese not-for-profit and non-governmental organisation established in 2008. C&E works to promote participation and improve capacity of local community groups and organisations for better solutions to environmental issues that are related to their life, contributing to the development of civil society and sustainable environment in Vietnam. C&E has a network of community groups all around Vietnam including young volunteers and civil society groups who work on sustainable development field.
At the moment, C&E is working on many projects related to Sustainable Development such as: “Education for Sustainable Development” , “Youth Action on Sustainable Lifestyles” and “Capacity Building for Community”.

Vision:

C&E envisages the future of Vietnam in which grassroots communities and organizations actively participate in solutions to environmental problems, sustainable use of natural resources, and maintenance of sustainable life of themselves.

Local participation – of local communities and government – is highlighted in C&E works. We believe that no one know and solves local problems as good as the local stakeholders do.

Missions

C&E embraces the mission to support local communities, community-based organizations, and civil society organizations in formulation and implementation of locally sustainable initiatives to protect the environment, natural resources management, and promote sustainable development.

Target beneficiaries: local communities, community-based organisations, and civil society organisations

Young people are the most important target beneficiary of C&E. Young people today constitute an important group within our consumer societies, and the habit they develop now will play a decisive role in future consumption patterns. Their decisions as consumers exercise a growing influence on markets and lifestyles. Therefore, they deserve special attention in efforts to change wasteful consumption patterns into ones that are more attuned to sustainable development.

Ethnic minority groups are the main target beneficiary of C&E. In Vietnam ethnic minority groups account for 13 percentage of the country population, however making 60 percentage of the country poor population (UNDP, WB). Natural resources play a vital role in most of the ethnic groups’ livelihood and culture (shifting cultivation, collecting forestry products… However, most of the current state policies / programs relating to forestry management ignore or exclude the traditional characteristics, hindering the development of the ethnic group. C&E promote a participatory & culturally appropriate management of natural resources balancing environmental interests and indigenous groups’ traditional livelihood, then culture.

Disadvantaged women is the another group that C&E include in its works. For that reason, gender is mainstreamed in most of C&E projects.

1. C&E AREAS OF FOCUS

Research: conducting quality research on socio-environmental impacts on local communities such as impact of climate change, sustainable consumption and production, socio-environmental impact of land acquisition for industrial zone construction and public purposes, community participation in management and effective use of natural resources….

Intervention: C&E design and translate local initiatives into intervention projects for sustainable management of natural resources. We promote local communities in initiating and implementing intervention activities. That is because we trust that no one know and solve best the local problems as directly related local communities do

Capacity building for the community and civil society organizations in the form of training, workshop, dialogue, and forum on emerging issues which are related to environmental protection and effective use of natural resources. This is to enable the community and civil society organizations to participate effectively in development activities and decision-making process at localities.

Policy advocacy to strengthen public voice on specific issues which are related to environmental monitoring and detecting violations of environmental legislation, to comment on policy and plan of environment issues and sustainable development, and to advocate policy and decision-making process.

Networking and partnership to enhance linkage which serves to maintain and connect environmental initiatives of community and civil society organisations (CSO) nationwide.

1. C&E HUMAN RESOURCE  

Our team includes members as follow

In addition, we have a group of volunteers who cooperate with us on event basis.

 OUR COOPERATION

Currently we are having key sponsors as follow:

• Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS) in Southeast Asia – A German Political Foundation working in Vietnam since 2009: In 2010, C&E begin to put the relationship of cooperation with RLS in Vietnam through a testing activity. With the support of RLS, C&E held a successful workshop on “People right-based natural forest management” in Thua Thien Hue on 20-21 August, 2010. The conference attracted 67 participants who come from diverse organisations, local communities and authority throughout the country. Since the beginning of 2011 C&E has become the official partner of RLS. As a result, RLS assisted C&E in conducting a project titled “Community-Based Forest Management Capacity Building In Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam: The Right-Based Approach” in 2011. With supported from RLS, currently C&E is conducting a project titled “Sustainable management of natural forest through raising awareness and building capacity to improve the rights and legal status of ethnic minority communities to natural forest in central Vietnam” phase 1 (2012-2014) and phase 2 (2015-2017). Simultaneously, other Project with supported from RLS on “Partnership to support and promote informal and non-formal education for Advocating an eco-lifestyle and climate change adaptation and mitigation in Vietnamese Universities” 2015-2017.

• Sida – Swedish Embassy in Hanoi: As mentioned in the introduction, C&E was founded by members of the Vietnamese Advisory Group of the Sida Environmental Fund which was established by the Swedish Embassy in Hanoi. The members of Advisory Group helped Sida to manage about 300 small projects nationwide between 1997-2008 in order to promoting and supporting community initiatives in environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources. In the phasing out of Sida in Vietnam 2009-2013, three non-governmental organizations including two NGOs of Vietnam – C&E and the Action Centre for City Development (ACCD) and the Global Action Plan Sweden are joining in a partnership cooperation to introduce EcoTeam in schools and to promote environmental sustainable way of living for households in Vietnam. To facilitate this cooperation, the Embassy of Sweden in Hanoi supported these NGOs the Project on Community Action for Climate Change through partner-driven cooperation for the period of 2010 – 2015.
• SGS – Group Management Ltd, Switzerland and Vietnam – A company with extensive inspection, verification, testing and certification experience globally:

At the end of 2008 C&E started working on Global survey on sustainable lifestyle (GSSL) – a joint initiative of the UNEP and Task force on sustainable lifestyle led by Sweden as an NGO partner. The survey was carried out in Vietnam successfully with more than 500 feedback questionnaires from Vietnamese young adults to share their ways of living and their vision for the future with friends from all over the world and different cultures. GSSL-Vietnam has pointed to the fact that Vietnamese youth are eager for sustainable change and are taking initiatives for that purpose. It is essential that proper and timely support be provided to them to facilitate their actions. For next step, C&E has developed a strategy plan (2010-2012) to use the YouthXchange (YXC) toolkit on Sustainable Lifestyles of UNEP and UNESCO by translating YXC toolkit into Vietnamese and delivering capacity-building trainings and communication campaigns in Vietnam in order to promotion of a responsible consumption and sustainable lifestyles movement in Vietnam. In 2010, C&E engaged in the project “Capacity Building Workshops on Sustainable Lifestyles” which was coordinated by UNEP and supported by SGS – Group Management Ltd in Geneva, Switzerland.  The project intends to focus on capacity-building for sustainable lifestyles among youth in higher education institutions, students, networks, educators, teachers and professor in Vietnam and the Philippines. With the generous support from SGS-Geneva and SGS-Vietnam and other partners, C&E facilitated and networked young people, youth groups and students across Vietnam for sustainable lifestyle, behavior change and climate awareness and action. With great energy and creativity, C&E staff built and shared a number of learning and action products and processes engaging government organizations, business and NGOs in initial steps to introduce sustainable lifestyles to people in Vietnam. Based on the results, SGS – Geneva continued support for C&E project titled “YOUTH EXCHANGE IN VIETNAM: advocating and promoting sustainable consumption and lifestyles among Vietnamese youth” for the year 2011-2012.

• Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources  and  Environment under Ministry of Planning and Investment/UNDP Vietnam co-supported with SGS (Switzerland) for the project “Capacity Building Workshops on Sustainable  Lifestyles” 2010 and “YOUTH EXCHANGE IN VIETNAM: advocating and promoting sustainable  consumption  and  lifestyles among Vietnamese  youth” for  the  year  2011-2015.

Besides, we provide our consultancy services to many other International NGOs / development projects in Vietnam.

1. SUMMARY OF “C&E” PROJECTS/ ACTIVITIES

• Project on “Sustainable management of natural forest through raising awareness and building capacity to improve the rights and legal status of ethnic minority communities to natural forest in central Vietnam”. This project is supported by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS) in Southeast Asia – Representative Office Vietnam, phase 1 (2012-2014) phase 2 (2015-2017).
• Project on “Partnership to support and promote informal and non-formal education for Advocating an eco-lifestyle and climate change adaptation and mitigation in Vietnamese Universities”. This project is supported by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS) – Representative Office Vietnam (2015-2017).
• Project on Community Action for Climate Change through partner-driven cooperation for the period of 2010 – 2015. This project is supported by Sida – Swedish Embassy in Hanoi to implement in Hanoi city, Thai Binh and Thua Thien Hue provinces.

• Project on “Young, Wild and Living Green” funded from The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), USA (September, 2015- May, 2016).
• Participating in project “GetGreen Vietnam” funded by SWITCH-Asia Program of European Union (2011-2014);

• Project on “Capacity building workshops on Sustainable Lifestyle for Youth” and Project on “YOUTH EXCHANGE IN VIETNAM: advocating and promoting sustainable consumption and lifestyles among Vietnamese youth”, supported by SGS – Group Management Ltd, Switzerland and Ministry of Planning and Investment/UNDP, 2010-2012. This project is implemented in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh cities.
• Project on “Empowering San Diu ethnic women to improve their living conditions and reduce poverty in the buffer zone of Tam Dao National Park”. This project is supported by New Zealand Embassy in Hanoi to implement in Dong Bua Village, Tam Quan Commune, Tam Dao District, Vinh Phuc province from June 2011 to June 2012.
• Project on “Community-based Forest Management Capacity Building in Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam provinces: The Right-Based Approach”. This project is supported by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung – Representative Office Vietnam, 2010-2011.
• Participating in the “Global survey on Sustainable Lifestyle” (GSSL) in Vietnam of UNEP Task force on Sustainable Lifestyle Branch, 12/2008 – 12/2010.
• Erasmus plus from Europe:  02 project: The “Sust-food project “Create Sustainability through Non Formal Education” with 6 partners, Hello Youth (Sweden), Mine Vaganti NGO (Italy), Faal Dernegi (Turkey), Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment (Vietnam), VSA (Thailand) and Aswaaz (India) funded by Erasmus plus  aims to enhance cooperation among Europe and Asia in the entrepreneurial exploitation of the opportunities displayed by Food sustainability as well as in the concrete pursuit of environment priorities. The aforementioned main aim pursued through exchange of good practices and transnational cooperation functional to production of training format supporting youth operators in the regions involved in the transfer of entrepreneurial competences sustainable food business to young people. Total 24 youth exchange from C&E to capacity building sustainable food project and four start up relating food was found by youth as Food hub in this link, Ngong enterprise with rice and worm farming; Hama village with fish sauce start up production; and The project “Inspire youth through Youth Exchange Program” on youth volunteering financed by European Union through Erasmus+ program, Capacity Building for Youth in ACP countries, Latin America and Asia.  The project involves organizations from Romania –   Center for Education and Consulting Structural Instruments,  Italy – MV International, Philippines – Institute for Global Education Exchange and Internship – IGEEI, Peru – Brigada De Voluntarios Bolivarianos Del Peru, Argentina – Circulo Italo Argentino Raices Sardas Buenos Aires Norte, and Viet Nam – Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment. The Vietnamese participants had a chance to gain insight into concepts of volunteerism, reflect on their role as volunteers and discuss their community needs with other participants from Romania and Mine Vaganti NGO (Italy), the Philippines, Peru  and Argentina. The participants have also developed volunteering initiative plans for their community and country.

Some of Consultant’s services

       Project “Collective Action for Water Conservation_CAWACON” supported by USAID  amim to raise social awareness of water pollution and promote community initiatives to protect Vietnam’s surface water resources, and prevent and control water pollution will be implemented during period ( 2021-2023) by Vietnam Water Conservation Network (VIWACON) including 6 key members: Center for Environment and Community Research (CECR), Center for Development of Community Initiative and Environment (C&E), Center for Water Resources Conservation and Development (WARECOD), Centre for Sustainable Development of Water Resources and Adaptation to Climate Change (CEWAREC), Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (INEST), Vietnam Fisheries Society (VINAFIS) and Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association (VWSA) jointly agree to cooperate in water conservation activities in Vietnam. (CECR), the proponent of the Vietnam Water Conservation Network, to be the coordinator for activities from January 2021 – December 2023.

• Leading firm in the contract No. 005/GMS-FDM: Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM). This contract requested by Department of Irrigation (DOI) under Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Lao PDR, supported by ADB (December 2015 – May 2018.
• Workshop “Development of energy – Green Growth – Climate Change: Efforts and Gaps”. This contract requested by Vietnamese Energy Alliance (VSEA), funded by European climate fund (March, 2016).
• Services Contract No. 12/2015/HĐKT title: Dissemination of research results to some topics to raise awareness about responding to climate change for pupils. Supported by Program of Science and Technology to serve the national target program to cope with Climate Change, MONRE (10-12/2015).
• Service Contract VIE/033 15 009 title: Short term Consultancy to conduct TOT courses on sustainable development and environmental education following “I Learn Green Living” methodology for teachers in Thua Thien Hue. This contract requested by The Climate-Adapted Local Development & Innovation Project (CALDIP, VIE/033), jointly funded by the Governments of Vietnam and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (7-9/2015);
• Organising “No Impact Week” at four Universities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh cities in 2014 for The No Impact Project (NIP) and Redraw The Line (RTL), funded by ADB and Sida (4-11/2014);

• Development of Vietnam National Green Growth Strategy. This contract requested by Department of Science, Education, Natural Resources and Environment (DSENRE) under Ministry of Planning and Investment supported by UNDP Vietnam (December 2011 – September 2012);

• Organising communication event “The Future We Want – Messages of Vietnam Youth to Rio+20”, 2012 in cooperation with DSENRE-MPI/UNDP (2012).
• Study tour on integrated management of disaster risk including adaptation to climate change in Australia in cooperation with Central Project Office on irrigation under MARD. Funded by the Central Irrigation Project (ADB4) (December, 2009);

• Training courses on Enhancing Environmental Management Capacity for local staffs in Yen Tu Heritage and Beauty Site, Quang Ninh province. It was supported by Institute for Conservation of Monuments (ICM) under Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, 2009-2010.

Further detail about the projects/activities can be provided upon request.