“Capital is not all about money” is the message concluded by Mrs. Thao, 82 years old, in Ngu My Thanh Village after attending the training.

Indeed, community capital is not only money but also other types of capital including natural, physical, human and social capital.

The training helped them to identify the other resources currently held by the community and to use these resources to build a strong and sustainable community. This is also the objective of the project which will help the community to advocate for themselves and to own their development process.

Over two days the Center for Knowledge Co-creation and Development Research (CKC) carried out training on Assets Based Community Development (ABCD).  This training focused on the strengths of the village – rather than its problems – and will help to build the ‘zero plastic waste village’ model through 50 local women in Ngu My Thanh Village.

Through the training, participants gained a better understanding of the strengths and assets of their community. At the same time, they also had an opportunity to develop their teamwork skills and to create and develop their ideas for building a zero plastic waste model for the village.

“I never participate in doing teamwork before like this. Actually, I don’t think when we do in teamwork we have to face a lot of controversy in our team to choose a good idea for our project” – A woman in Ngu My Thanh village shared.

With CKC’s support, participants were divided into four groups to discuss and develop their ideas. They had the opportunity to visualize their idea and can now implement that idea in their community.

In the next stage, the groups will present their project results through a competition which will look for initiatives which reduce plastic waste in the community.

Some photos were taken during the training:

Journal article with Nguyen Quy Hanh and Vo Dinh Anh Tuan. Journal of Research and Development 3-4 (2014):  137-142 (with ) [2014].

From the systems thinking perspective, this research discusses the link and integration between climate change and development. On this background, it analyses policies and practices of climate change response in Thua Thien Hue, one of the most severely affected province by climate change in Central Vietnam. The research concludes that climate change response in Thua Thien Hue is prominently influenced by the concepts of modernisation theories and characterised with hard component technology, donor-driven and state-led design, and multi-sector involvement yet loose connection and coordination among programs and projects. More importantly, many climate change research and response actions beyond the provincial adaptation plan, which have become increasingly active, multi-dimensional and effective, are not well connected and strengthened. In order to integrate climate change and sustainable development, our findings suggest that climate change response endeavors put further emphasis on trans-disciplinarity, networking for intensified knowledge sharing and impact synergy, and promotion of participation and knowledge of local communities. In other words, knowledge integration should be nourished and promoted.

Journal article with Nguyen Quy Hanh, Journal of Development and Studies 6(132), 2016.

The last few years have witnessed the fourth wave of immigration of Vietnamese to Thailand:  migration of workers from Central Vietnam.  Stronger cooperation on labor matters between the two countries would not only open the gate for Vietnamese to work abroad, but could also address the current trend of illegal labour migration and protect the rights of migrant workers.  This research attempts to integrate migration and labor migrants abroad within a development context.  Through this conceptual framework and through an analysis of Vietnamese migrant workers in Thailand, this paper makes recommendations for policy planning and research directions for the future.