A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999

Vietnam's rural areas have experienced several periods of different development policies since the country's unification in 1975. The ways of mobilization of people to participate in development work and the extent of people's participation changed over these periods. Since 1990, as the result of an increasing number of international funding agencies in Vietnam, the number of programmes and projects addressing rural development has increased. These programmes and projects introduced a new approach as the fundamental principle in their operation, namely, the bottom- up approach. The approach emphasizes maximum people's participation in the project cycle: planning, implementation, benefit sharing and evaluation. Mountain Rural Development Project is one of the SIDA-funded projects aimed at promoting development in mountain rural areas in Yen Bai province. People's participation has been considered crucial for it to achieve its goals. People's participation in MRDP is understood as their involvement in planning, implementation, benefit sharing, monitoring and evaluation. This study has aimed to explore the extent to which and how people participated in MRDP, and people's perception of the effectiveness of local organizations promoted by the project, and identify factors influencing people's participation. Based on the findings, recommendations for measures of promoting people's involvement in development are made. It was found that local people were actively involved in MRDP throughout its cycle. In village development plan making, people regularly attended village meetings, which were held as an open debate forum for local people to discuss and decide issues regarding village development. PRA exercises, as a core instrument for planning in MRDP, were conducted with people's active involvement. In implementation, to enhance people's participation in project activities, some types of organizations were introduced and promoted. Village Management Group, which was formed by local people, acted as an implementing and monitoring agency of project activities at the village level. In extension and saving and credit schemes, the two major components of the project, "interest group" and "trust group" were formed among the people themselves. Such organizations played a very important role in mobilizing people to participate voluntarily in project activities in a well-organized manner. During its implementation, the project has brought various types of benefits to local people. One apparent benefit that was stated by most people was that the project helped to increase knowledge of households. However, people expressed their strong agreement that project benefits had not met the needs of local people. The analysis also indicated several factors influencing people's participation, including social, economic and institutional factors, of which institutional factors were most fundamental. To promote people's participation, in rural development it was necessary to introduce and reinforce a proper participatory approach in development work, especially in the planning stage, with strengthened concerned agencies. The role of government and international funding organizations was indispensable in the process.