Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark

Danida

VIETNAM

GOOD GOVERNANCE AND PAR

2007-2011

PROGRAMME DOCUMENT

File no.: 104.Vietnam.45

December 2007

Table of content

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

COVER PAGE

List of abbreviations and acronyms

1.Introduction

1.1 Background

1.2Overall Programme Management and Coordination

1.3Overall budget for the GOPA programme

2.PAR PILLAR

2.1.Introduction

2.1.1 Background

2.1.2. Programme Development

2.2.Status Assessment: Socio-Economic Development

2.2.1 Geographic and Demographic

2.2.2. Socio-Economic Data (2005)

2.2.3. Major Socio-Economic Development Issues 2006-2010

2.2.4. Some socio-economic Development Targets 2006-2010

2.3.Status Assessment: Public Administrative Reform

2.3.1. National PAR Master Programme 2006-2010

2.3.2. Dak Nong

2.3.3. Lao Cai

2.3.4. Lai Chau

2.3.5. Dien Bien

2.4.Programme Components

2.4.1. Capacity to Steer and Implement PAR

2.4.2. Institutional and Organisational Reform

2.4.3. Quality and Effectiveness of Civil Servants

2.4.4. Application of Modern Management Methods

2.4.5. Extending the Danida Support for PAR in Dak Lak Province

2.5.Programme management

2.5.1. Programme Implementation Strategy

2.5.2. Programme Implementation Structure

2.5.3. Technical Assistance and Coordination

2.5.4. Monitoring and Evaluation

2.5.5. Reviews and Reports

2.6.Budget and Financial Management

2.6.1. Overall budget allocation

2.6.2. Programme budget by line items

2.6.3. Budget Procedures

2.6.4. Accounts, Flow of Funds and Financial Reports

2.6.5. Procurement of Goods and Services

2.6.6. Cost Norms

2.6.7. Audits

2.7.Risk Assessment and other Issues

2.7.1. Risk assessment

2.7.2. Development of Gender and Minority Groups

2.7.3. Environmental Considerations

2.7.4. Programme Sustainability

2.8. Implementation Plan

2.8.1. Inception Phase

2.8.2. Implementation Phase

2.8.3. Completion Phase

2.9. Logical frameworks for the PAR Pillar

2.10. Provincial component budgets

2.11. Terms of reference for technical assistance

2.12. Suggested outline implementation plans for year 1

3. GOOD GOVERNANCE PILLAR

3.1Strategic basis for the Good Governance Pillar

3.2Objectives

3.3. Governance Context

3.4.Activities of other donors within Good Governance

3.5. Danish assistance

3.6. Vietnamese partners

3.6.1.Existing partners to DANIDA

3.6.2.New Partners

3.7. Strategic considerations

3.8. Cross-cutting issues

3.9.Description of components

3.9.1. Component 1: Strengthening of the National Assembly

3.9.1.1. Sub-component 1.a.: A model for support to a specialized petition agency

3.9.1.2. Sub-component 1.b: Parliament-to-Parliament Partnership

3.9.2. Component 2: Academic Forum on Human Rights Education

3.9.3. Component 3: Establishment of Human Rights Law Centres

3.10. Total budget for the Good Governance Pillar

3.11. Management and organisation

3.12. Financial management

3.13. Progress and annual reporting

3.14. Risks and assumptions

3.15. Logical framework: Good Governance Pillar

3.16. Counterpart budget and detailed activity budgets for the Good Governance Components

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The development objective of the Programme for Good Governance and PAR (Public Administrative Reforms), GOPA, is to strengthen the effect of public administrative and democratic reform initiatives in Vietnam. The programme will support four remote provinces in PAR implementation and establish partnership between Danish institutions and Vietnam’s National Assembly, universities and research institutions with a view to pave the way for the establishment of a public petition agency relevant to the Vietnamese context, enhance capacity of National Assembly deputies and among universities and research institutions, the latter within human rights law and human rights education.

The programme consists of two pillars with a budget of 31.5 million DKK each and 6.5 million DKK in unallocated funds. The Office of the National Assembly will be the lead agency for the programme and will ensure overall coordination of activities and compile programme level reporting. A National Coordination Committee co-chaired by the Office of the National Assembly and the Embassy of Denmark in Hanoi will meet once a year and be in charge of reviewing progress and decide on the use of unallocated funds to new activities. One pillar includes support to PAR in four remote provinces and the other support to good governance initiatives. Denmark has for a number of years been actively supporting the Government of Vietnam with promoting economic development, good governance and public administration reform, as well as legal and judicial development. The Programme for Good Governance and PAR running from 2007-2011 aims to provide more strategic and focused support, covering key elements that would contribute to the promotion of good governance.

The PAR pillar will cover support to the provinces of Dak Nong in the Central Highland and Lao Cai, Lai Chau and Dien Bien in the northern part of Vietnam. These four mountainous provinces are targeted by Danida, as they are also the beneficiaries of the Danida-supported sector programme on agriculture and rural development (ARD SPS), which is scheduled to start in 2007 for a period of 5 years, as well as the Danida-supported water sector programme, which started end of 2006.

The available budget for the PAR pillar of 31.5 million DKK will include 28.5 million DKK (about 5.10 million USD) to be allocated to support PAR implementation in the four provinces and 3 million DKK (about 537,000 USD) to extend the second phase of the Dak Lak PAR support ending in 2008. This would enable the opportunities for learning and synergy between the four provinces and Dak Lak to continue until the completion of the Governance programme.

The four new PAR partner provinces are at different stages of their economic growth. Lao Cai is more prosperous and has more resources. It has gone the furthest in implementing PAR. The other three provinces however are newly established and have made slower progress. Lao Cai’s PAR orientations for 2006-2010 contains more ‘breakthrough’ elements that when piloted could contribute to the development of new regulations. The other three provinces, partly because of their need to catch up, generally tend to continue with implementation of existing PAR regulations and guidelines.

Hence, programme support in Dak Nong, Lai Chau and Dien Bien would begin with replicating current regulations, such as One-Stop-Shop (OSS) implementation. However, as Lao Cai has greater resources and capacity, the PAR support there can begin with both replication and break through PAR outputs. The benefit of enabling Lao Cai to move ahead is that useful lessons can be drawn and good practice disseminated to the other provinces.

The PAR pillar contains two dimensions. The first dimension is based on the specific conditions and requests made by each province. The second dimension is a set of common PAR themes, based on the orientation of the national PAR Master Programme 2006-2010, to provide an overall strategic framework. Hence, the Public Administration Reform Pillar consists of four main outcomes:

1. Increased capacity to direct and steer PAR in the province;
2. A strengthened ability to respond to the demands of institutional reform, including the separation of state management and public services;
3. Improved management and development of civil servants;
4. Increased ability to apply and use modern management techniques and practices.

A log frame has been designed for each province based on the above four programme outcomes. As each province is at different points of growth and capacity the log frames would be unique to each province. However, there will be some similarities and certain common outputs and indicators.

The PAR Pillar will be implemented as autonomous PAR components in each of the four provinces. Based on the principles set out in the Hanoi Core Statement each province would deliver the component outcomes directly through their line agencies. Generally, the management of provincial components would take place through existing provincial structures, which would include:

• The provincial People’s Committee
• The provincial PAR Steering Committee
• The Department of Home Affairs (DOHA)
• The PAR Division within DOHA

The steering body in each province will be the Provincial PAR Steering Committee. Technical assistance will be provided by a National Programme Support Team and an International PAR Advisor, as well as short-term international and national consultant inputs. The National Programme Support Team will also support the four provinces to form a benchmarking network (as well as Dak Lak) to share experience and mutual learning.

The Good Governance Pillar (GP) of the Programme is focusing on a selected number of key thematic areas i.e. complaints handling, democratic governance and human rights education at academic institutions. The components are:

1) Strengthening of the National Assembly, which has two sub-components:

a) A model for support to a Vietnamese Petition specialized agency

b) Parliament-to-Parliament Partnership

2) Academic Forum on Human Rights Education

3) Establishment of Human Rights Law Centres

Five key local partners will form twinning partnerships with Danish counterpart institutions. The Vietnamese institutions are the Office of the National Assembly, the Board of Petition of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), the legal faculty of the National University and the HCMC Law University. The Danish institutions involved include the Administration of the Danish Parliament, the Danish Ombudsman’s Institution and the Danish Centre for Human Rights. The total financial framework for 2007-2011 is 31.5 million DKK, which excludes contributions from the Vietnamese partners in the form of staff and staff time, office localities, running costs etc.

The immediate objectives are:

• A petition agency established and functioning well.
• The capacity of a number of MPs and provincial deputies in democratic parliamentary work enhanced.
• Capacity in human rights education enhanced.
• Human rights law centres at two universities facilitating capacity building in human rights law operational.

Thematically, the support will be provided in:

- building key institutions to support democratic reform and strengthen key institutions within the legislature;

- building capacity at the universities and academic institutions in human rights law and human rights education.

The Good Governance Pillar focuses on supporting reform processes within the legislature, institutions of the legislature and academic institutions. It is designed to build the capacity of the involved institutions in supporting their efforts to promote good governance. At the same time, capacity and resource bases on human rights law at universities and other parts of the higher education system will be supported so as to promote capacity in and education of human rights law.

Gender mainstreaming in the target institutions of the Good Governance Pillar will be ensured. While HIV/AIDS prevention is not directly targeted as an issue, the educational activities will include themes such as the rights of HIV/AIDS affected and issues related to discrimination. Supporting the reform processes and the building of democratic institutions in Viet Nam will lead to increased understanding and awareness of the importance of participation of the poor.

COVER PAGE

Country:Viet Nam

Sector: Good Governance

Title:Good Governance and PAR Programme

Overall budget: DKK 70 million (Danida funding). 6.5 million DKK unallocated funds.

Implementing Agencies:

People’s Provincial Committees of Dien Bien, Lao Cai, Lai Chau and Dak Nong, Office of the National Assembly, the Board of Petition of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, The National University, Law Faculty, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law.

Programme Pillars:PAR Pillar (31.5 million DKK) and Good Governance Pillar (31.5 million DKK)

Duration:2007-2011

Start Date:December 2007

List of abbreviations and acronyms

CPCommunist Party

DANIDADanish International Development Assistance

DIHRDanish Institute for Human Rights

DKKDanish Kroner

ECEuropean Commission

HCMCHo Chi Minh City

HREHuman Rights Education

ICInformatics Centre

ILRSCInformation, Library and Research Service Centre

IRCTInternational Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims

JOPSO Danish Judicial and Legal Reform Project

MOFMinistry of Finance

MOJMinistry of Justice

MOPSMinistry of Public Security

MPMember of Parliament

NANational Assembly

NAPA National Academy for Public Administration

NASCNational Assembly Standing Committee

NLAANational Legal Aid Agency

ONAOffice of the National Assembly

PARPublic Administration Reform

SPPSupreme People’s Procuracy

SPCSupreme People’s Court

UNDPUnited Nations Development Programme

UNCATUnited Nations Convention against Torture

1.Introduction

1.1 Background

Viet Nam has since 1993 been a Danish Programme Cooperation Country. The strategic framework for the support to Viet Nam defines good governance, democracy and human rights as a priority area. The Good Governance and PAR Programme (GOPA) will run from late 2007-2011 and consists of two pillars, i.e. the Public Administration Reform (PAR) Pillar and the Good Governance Pillar (GP). The programme will support four remote provinces in PAR implementation and establish partnership between Danish institutions and Vietnam’s National Assembly, universities and research institutions with a view to pave the way for the establishment of a public petition agency relevant to the Vietnamese context, enhance capacity of National Assembly deputies and among universities and research institutions, the latter within human rights law and human rights education.

The programme has an overall budget of 70 million DKK and consists of two pillars with a budget of 31.5 million DKK each. One pillar includes support to PAR in four remote provinces and the other support to good governance initiatives. Denmark has for a number of years been actively supporting the Government of Vietnam with promoting economic development, good governance and public administration reform, as well as legal and judicial development. The Programme for Good Governance and PAR running from 2007-2011 aims to provide more strategic and focused support, covering key elements that would contribute to the promotion of good governance.

The development objective of the Good Governance and PAR Programme is:

Good governance and administrative and democratic reform at central, provincial and local levels enhanced.

Via support to PAR in four remote provinces and support to the establishment of partnerships between Danish institutions and Vietnam’s National Assembly, universities and research institutions the programme aims to pave the way for improved local administrations at the provincial and local levels, the establishment of a public petition agency relevant to the Vietnamese context, enhance capacity of National Assembly deputies and among universities and research institutions, the latter within human rights law and human rights education.

1.2 Overall Programme Management and Coordination

The Office of the National Assembly (ONA) will be the lead agency for the programme and will ensure overall coordination of activities. As necessary it will compile programme level reporting based on the annual progress reports from the programme partners and present programme progress to a National Committe Committee.

The Office of the National Assembly will provide staff and their time to undertake this coordinating role. Based on identified needs and prior agreement with the Embassy of Denmark, ONA can use the budget set aside for programme level coordination to hire two support staff members, one Coordinator/Translator and one Assistant/Accountant to assist ONA in carrying out its coordinating functions.

The provincial steering committees for the PAR Pillar and the steering committees for the components and sub-components of the Good Governance Pillar have the mandate to review and decide on annual work plans and budgets as well as to review and approve progress reports and monitor progress for their respective activities. They will make the approved work plans, budgets and progress reports available to the Office of the National Assembly to assist it in carrying out its coordinating function and to enable it to compile progress reporting to the GOPA National Coordination Committee. The Office of the National Assembly will not be involved in the daily management of operational activities and hence not be a member of the sub-programme level steering committees. It can, however, be invited to attend such meetings.

It is the responsibility of the Project Director of each component and sub-component to ensure that all component and sub-component programme activities are carried out within the framework of the programme document, the programme’s funding agreement and other legal documents such as minutes from high-level consultation between Denmark and Vietnam.

The GOPA National Coordination Committee will be co-chaired by the Office of the National Assembly and Embassy of Denmark in Hanoi and will meet once a year to review progress, ensure that efforts are sufficiently coordinated and decide on the use of unallocated funds to new activities. The NCC has the responsibility of:

i) Monitoring progress of all programme activities based on work-plans and reports submitted by programme partners;

ii) Providing recommendations to programme partners based on its review of programme progress;

iii) Making recommendations on matters of programme level concern and Government of Vietnam requirements on the management of ODA;

iv) Giving advices/recommendations to programme partners (when requested) so as to make sure that all norms and procedures issued by the Government of Vietnam and DANIDA are applied in the same way by all components and sub-components.

v) Making reports to the Embassy of Denmark and the Government of Vietnam on programme implementation (annually and as required).

vi) Decide on the on the use of unallocated funds to new activities. Unallocated funds cannot be allocated to activities already defined in this programme document.