- Title
- Working with the Vietnam Women's Union- why a social-political organisation makes a good research partner
- Creator
- Smith, Michelle; Newman, Suzie
- Relation
- Extension Farming Systems Journal Vol. 7, Issue 2, p. 123-125
- Relation
- http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=709520207964884;res=IELHSS
- Publisher
- A F B M Network
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2011
- Description
- Many projects desire to 'make a difference' and ultimately their success is determined by the practice change that it evokes at the end user. Research for development projects, such as those commissioned by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), recognises that the pathway to impact is long term. To enhance the chances of success, partnerships need to be built that lead to project outputs being taken up and propagated by existing systems and networks. In Vietnam, the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) is one example of an existing network that can effectively do this. For the ACIAR Indigenous Vegetables project (AGB/2006/112) the VWU is the lead partner in a project designed to develop and test models that improve the profitability of women farmers supplying indigenous vegetables into transforming markets. The project is also looking to develop effective communication strategies for women farmers that encourage practicechange, in both the production and marketing of their crop. This collaboration is an unusual one for ACIAR. Traditionally research partners, particularly lead partners are agricultural institutions or University departments. The VWU is a social-political organisation with goals that include raising the capacity and knowledge of women, to affect gender equality. They operate on four administrative levels within Vietnam-central, provincial, district and commune. This provides them with an extensive network enabling them to integrate new information into existing systems and promote change at different levels. The use of multidisciplinary teams has long being advocated in research for development work (Conway 1987, Grandstaff and Grandstaff 1987). When they exist, typical team structures could be a biophysical scientist, economist, social scientist, a specialist depending on project need such as ecologist, marketing specialist, or climatologist. As a political government organisation the VWU has real power which can be utilised by the project to bring about practice change. This paper uses the VWU as a case study and supports the inclusion of project partners with a community centred advocacy role.
- Subject
- Vietnam Women's Union; social-political organisation; multi-disciplinary; capacity building
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1047049
- Identifier
- uon:14730
- Identifier
- ISSN:1833-203X
- Language
- eng
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