Projects – Centre for Social Research and Development

CSRD is awarded the 2021 RISK Award with “Strong Roots, Strong Women” Project

CSRD is awarded the 2021 RISK Award with “Strong Roots, Strong Women” Project

We are delighted to be award the 2021 RISK Award* of the Munich Re Foundation as a project called Strong Roots, Strong Women that aims to empower women for community and coastal ecosystem resilience jointly with key stakeholders. With the cooperation with UP Transfer GmbH at the University of Potsdam, Germany, we expect for establishing a community-run mangrove nursery at Southeast Asia’s largest lagoon, which is linked to an innovative micro-credit fund supporting women. Mangroves can help not only to reduce flood risks and coastal erosion but also to generate multiple social, ecological, and economic co-benefits that support those directly depending on local natural resources.

We would like to thank all who supported us to attain its overwhelming success on this award.

*RISK Award has been set up by Munich Re Foundation in collaboration with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) to help improve risk reduction and disaster management.

For more information about this project, please visit here or here.

Share the research results about project The Value chain of recyclable in Hue City

On the morning of October 15th, 2019, The students of RMIT held a meeting to share the research results about project “Examining The Value chain of recyclable in Hue City (Vietnam) for Better Plastic Pollution Mitigation” with the Departments, stakeholders in Thua Thien Hue Province.
The overall purpose of this research project is to select and analyse the sub sector value chains within Hue City’s recyclable waste management sector. By doing so, the sub sector value chains should provide an understanding into potential revenue generation and loss throughout both formal and informal waste management systems.

Discuss the results of the research activity.

The research project aims to develop a better understanding about the value chain of recyclable waste in Hue City so that CSRD can better plan its interventions for better waste collection systems, promote the role of vulnerable women in the informal sector, and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills.

The economic potential of recyclable materials is embedded in the service chain and material recovery processes. The informal sector plays a vital role in removing valuable material from the waste stream, where low-value plastics are utilised for economic gain. The informal waste management sector is comprised of vulnerable communities, predominantly women of lower socioeconomic status, who work to support their families financially. These populations depend primarily on the revenue generated from independent operations, and the system thrives through capitalising off a free-market system. Through promoting the role of the informal sector, an increase in material value is achieved. This has the potential to minimize the volume of waste that ends up as contamination in the environment.
Households serve as another significant contributor to the recyclable waste system and are responsible for 26.6% of material sent to the waste stream. The role of households can be maximised through recommended community education programs that focus on training women in source separation. This endeavour ensures that household recyclable waste is managed appropriately and increases the value in the chain.

Gender Incorporation in Large Scale Projects

Oxfam’s partner, the Center for Social Research and Development (CSRD), is organizing the final learning workshop with 50 participants from communities, people’s committee, Quang Nam women’s union, and hydropower company representatives in central highland in Vietnam on 25 March 2019 in Tam Ky capital.
In this workshop, CSRD highlighted their result of the work on Gender Impact Assessment in hydropower project related to environment, society and gender impact in Central Highlands areas. This workshop provided a good opportunity to lodge the recommendations and policies on managing impacts to determine the participation of communities, women’s groups and stakeholders to minimize the negative impacts of hydropower projects and promote the positive aspects of hydropower.

CSRD director presents an up-to-date about the overall “Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in dam affected communities” project and its implementation achievements.

CSRD’s publication documents lesson of Gender Impact Assessment in Hydropower projects in Vietnam.

Oxfam’s Inclusion Project funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Australian government supports CSRD to enhance “Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in dam affected communities” along 3S Rivers (Sekong, Sesan and Srehpok) areas of the Central and Central Highland of Vietnam.

Competition about designing guiding board of waste separation

Plastic pollution in our oceans is a major global problem which needs support and action from international, national and local communities. Hue City is also contributing to this global problem more and more seriously.
Every day, there are nearly 20 tons of plastic waste are discharged in Hue city, one of them has discharged Huong river and directly to the sea. The project “ Municipal Waste Recycling Program to Reduce Plastics Pollution of the Oceans“ with the main objective of minimizing and recycling plastic waste in and around the city of Hue.
Within the project’s framework, the competition about designing waste classification guiding board is one of the most important activities which implement at 06 schools. The competition takes place from 1^st September to 4^thNovember, 2018. Schools have been participating in a variety of organizations, with a total of 1,331 students completed and sent to the project. The project rewards for 18 prize-winning works from 06 schools, each school has 03 selected works, the works will be printed and applied into 03 trash bins of the waste classification system.
Content of competition: drawing works relating to waste classification guideline for waste classification systems at schools: Mixed waste classification trash bin, Paper classification trash bin, Plastic and Metal waste classification trash bin.
Competition’s purpose and meaning:

Raising students’ awareness on impacts of plastic waste pollution and implementing 4R model (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle);
Propagandizing, raising community’s awareness on environmental pollution reality, minimizing the usage of plastic bags and plastic items and implementing environmental protection activities in Vietnam;
Creating a useful playground and arousing the passion, thinking, creativity and awareness of environmental protection of the students. Especially, encouraging students to protect the environment, limiting the usage of plastic items and plastic bags.

Pictures of the competition:

Study Tour for Master’s degree in Can Tho University

To continue earlier tours for students who are interested in environment and society fields. On 7^th November, 2018, the Center for Social Research Development (CSRD) has been hosting a study tour for 11 Master students in Environmental and Resource Management branch at Can Tho University.

Students visited the Green Susu vegetable shop at 30 Dong Da street, Hue city; mangrove forest in Con Te and Ru Cha, Huong Phong commune (Huong Tra town) and waste classification model at Hoang Kim Hoan Secondary School, Hai Duong Commune (Huong Tra Town), Thua Thien Hue Province.

Visited Con Te mangrove in Huong Phong commune – Huong Tra town.

The students’ program aimed to learn, and to connect their knowledge in school with practical activities. These activities give students a chance to learn more about social issues, organic agriculture, coastal mangroves, the benefits of waste classification activities at the source, etc.

Ecosystem-based adaptation to increase flood resilience of vulnerable people – Evidence from central Vietnam

Floods are amongst the most devastating natural disasters, especially in Asia. Sea-level rise, changing rainfall patterns due to climate change as well as rapid urbanization result in increased flood risks at Asia’s coasts and inland areas.
Developing countries are especially vulnerable to floods due to their limited capacity to prevent and absorb disaster effects. Furthermore, within developing countries the poorest people are often the most vulnerable, as they live in the most threatened locations and struggle to adapt due to income constraints. Women present another vulnerable group, because they commonly experience disadvantages in social, cultural, economic and political domains as well as legal status and opportunities. These socio-cultural circumstances lead to increased deaths among women during floods, and higher poverty rates due to more unemployment and a lack of basic rights. Moreover, women face more psychological stress during and after a disaster due to the women’s caretaker role.
To limit the impacts of floods, ‘structural measures’, such as dikes or reservoirs, are the main focus of flood management in many regions within Asia, including Vietnam. However, these measures are often associated with negative impacts on the environment, on which especially poor and vulnerable communities depend on. A useful and complementary approach is Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA).
EbA is a more inclusive approach that takes into consideration vulnerable groups, whose livelihoods directly depend on natural resources, and make it a possible means to strengthen their position by offering multiple benefits. These measures also seem promising to help achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 (Gender equality), 10 (Reduced inequalities) and 13 (Climate Action).
images2029347_lu_lut Ecosystem-based adaptation in Thua Thien-Hue Province
The Vietnamese province of Thua Thien-Hue is regularly hit by floods, which stand to get worse in the future. Recent flood events in November 2017 resulted in a cost of 830 billion VND and led to the loss of nine lives. The threat posed by floods makes adapting and managing flooding a highly urgent matter. At the same time, many of Thua Thien-Hue’s coastal communities suffer from unstable livelihoods and insufficient (financial) resources to recover from disasters. On average, 55% of a household’s income and a little less than 20% of the household’s food consumption comes from seafood, showing the importance of this natural resource. Additionally, women do not have a strong decision-making role and as such are often left out of adaptation and management plans.

In 2018, two EbA measures will be implemented in Thua Thien Hue Province jointly with the Disaster Management Centre, the Women’s Union and local communities. Both EbA measures aim to reduce flood risks while simultaneously supporting local livelihoods. In the old town of Hue City, we will restore urban water bodies. These are important water retention areas during heavy rainfall events. Moreover, many households live near the ponds or visit them frequently: about 50% of the respondents visit them at least once a day, which means the ponds and their appearance have a significant impact on the way people experience their environment. At the Tam Giang Lagoon, mangrove restoration will take place. Mangroves can help reduce wave and tidal energy as well as coastal erosion. Moreover, they improve water quality and provide important breeding grounds for fish. Here we will provide evidence that both measures hold up to the promise that EbA is favored by vulnerable groups, and is therefore more inclusive.
tải xuống.png2

Approach

For this study we conducted 1010 comprehensive household surveys across Hue City and the Tam Giang Lagoon. The comprehensive survey included a discrete choice experiment (DCE). A DCE is a valuation method that is widely used to value goods that are not (yet) sold on the market and is commonly applied. A DCE involves making choices between different packages that consist of changes in ecosystem services and a payment for these changes. By observing the trade-offs that respondents make it is possible to estimate relative values of the goods. This reveals the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of the local households for changes in the ecosystem services that are affected by the EbA measures, which are presented in Figure 1.
tải xuống.png3

Findings

We find that there are positive WTP values for all ecosystem services. This indicates that the households in both sites see benefits from the EbA measures that they are willing to pay for. At the Tam Giang Lagoon the most valued change is the increase in seafood abundance. A change in recreation suitability, i.e. a cleaner urban areas with more opportunities for recreational activities, is valued most in Hue City. To investigate if EbA is more inclusive, we divided our sample in two sub-samples according to income and gender differences.
Figures 2 and 3 show the estimated WTP for households above and below the mean income of our sample. It is clear that lower income households are willing to pay more for the benefits from EbA. While these households have less money to spend, they stand to gain more due to their current vulnerability. For example, less damage to their property means smaller repair costs and an overall safer environment, whereas increases in tourism, or recreation suitability, can lead to better employment and business opportunities. The potential increases in seafood abundance result in more stable livelihoods and food security.
tải xuống.png4

Via the gender sub-samples we find that women have higher WTP values for all the ecosystem services, except for changes in tourism in Hue City, where WTP values are more or less the same (see Figures 4 and 5). An increase in protection from storms and floods not only protects women and their family’s lives during a flood, but also means that the work that needs to be done during the flood itself and the aftermath is reduced. Positive changes in seafood abundance and recreation suitability mean a more secure and pleasant environment for their household. The development of tourism provides interesting opportunities for women to increase and stabilize their income, especially in the rural areas where little other job opportunities arise.
tải xuống.png5

Implications

EbA is a possible means to adapt to climate change and can reduce the risk of disasters while simultaneously improving the flood resilience of those that are especially vulnerable to the impacts. Analyses focusing on the role of women and the poor in EbA measures implemented in Central Vietnam, such as the restoration of urban ponds and mangroves, provide an evidence in favor. Lower income households as well as women, in both urban and coastal areas, hold higher values for the changes that occur due to these measures, which not only reduce the risk of climate change impacts, but also present (new) livelihood opportunities and income security. It is therefore recommended to consider complementing structural measures such as dikes or reservoirs with EbA measures, and look into locations where EbA measures can replace hard measures altogether.

The project

In addition to this policy brief, the ResilNam project will complement these findings by also making further recommendations regarding:

The gender gap in flood resilience across the province;
The possible well-being impacts of flooding (across genders);
Gender dynamics in disaster risk management;
Community level adaptation projects.

The policy recommendations across all of the ResilNam activities can help increase flood resilience of urban and coastal communities in Thua Thien-Hue Province. Additionally, the ResilNam directly invests in ecosystem-based adaptation measures in collaboration with local stakeholders to increase flood resilience and strengthen the role of women in disaster risk management.
The project is part of the Global Resilience Partne rship Water Window and it is implemented by the University of Potsdam, the Centre for Social Research and Development and the Institute for Environmental Studies/VU University Amsterdam.
tải xuống.png6
Sourse: https://www.weadapt.org/knowledge-base/ecosystem-based-adaptation/eba-as-an-approach-to-increase-flood-resilience-of-the-vulnerable

Share the reseach results with students of Geography – Geology Department

On the afternoon of April 7, 2018, Dr. Philip Bubeck, a Researcher and a member of the project entitled “Enhancing flood resilience in urban and coastal areas in Thua Thien Hue Province (or Resilnam), held a meeting to share the research results with the students of Geography – Geology Department, Hue Science University.
The meeting’s content focused on some research related to land usage status, tendency of increasing flood and its damages in Hue City. In addition, the survey results of the ecosystem values conducted by Resilnam project in urban and coastal areas in Thua Thien Hue Province were shared with the students. The results were analyzed and compared from material resources based on different tools and methods of research. This research and many activities were coordinated among Resilnam project, Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD) and Department of Geography and Geology in Hue Science University.

teachers and students of Geography – Geology Department in the meetings of sharing research results.

Dr. Philip Bubeck, a researcher of Postdam University, Germany.

Raising awareness about roles of women on disaster resilience.

Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD) organized a training: “Roles of women on Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA)” for nearly 35 members from Women’s Union in province, city, wards, communes in Thua Thien Hue province.

Trainees from Women’s Union in 4 wards and 3 communes in Thua Thien Hue province.

“Ecosystem-based Adaption (EbA) is the process of ecosystem recovery, conservation and management which aim to provide supporting services on climate change adaption”. Women can participate and support on natural disaster prevention and control to reduce the risk of disaster and adapt ecosystem-based.

Trainees participate in discussion group.

Participants show their ideas in the discussion group.

Roles and contributions of women can be implemented if they are provided knowledge and raising awareness. In addition, men in their family can share the housework so that women can have more time on EbA activities. Besides, local authorities need to create conditions for women to participate in some activities such as community development, natural disaster prevention, climate change adaptation which meet gender need.
End of the course, participants were supplied knowledge. Besides, they also want to learn more about of EbA. CSRD is going to raise awareness of participants by visiting and learning about EbA model.

CSRD in partnership with Women’s Union to implement activities in Thua Thien Hue Province

Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD) and Women’s Union in Thua Thien Hue province had a meeting to discussed and planned for activities within the framework of the project: “Enhancing flood resilience in urban and coastal areas in Thua Thien Hue province”.

Training course and communication activities on raising awareness are two main activities which implemented by CSRD and Women’s Union. Implementing two training courses for women in four wards in Hue centre areas and three communes in coastal areas in Thua Thien Hue province. Focus on “Roles of women in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) activities, barriers and bridges on the decision-making of DRM policies ”. In addition, communication activities at 7 local areas are also implemented.

Mrs. Ngo Thi Anh Tuyet – Vice-chairman of Woman’s Union shared her opinions about activities in the future.

Activities focus on practical knowledge about DRM and EbA for participation such as participate on study tours, learn about local knowledge on project area, participation will share knowledge and experience together. Communication activities will be celebrated by members of Women’s Union which based on their experience to strongly approach and spread.
Activities will be operating in March and April 2018.

Working with the Community on Disaster Risk Management

CSRD has been working with the community to recognise and develop the role of women in Disaster Risk Management. CSRD coordinated ten discussion groups in December 2017 to collect information about how women assist in Disaster Risk Management,

and what the barriers and opportunities are for decision-making and policy development. The discussions groups were conducted at three communes around the Tam Giang Lagoon (Quang Loi, Hai Duong and Loc Vinh communes) and in Hue City, and were facilitated by Ms Nguyen Thi Phuc Hoa, a consultant with many years of professional experience.

Women contribute to the project with many positive and creative ideas.

They use their common sense and initiative to solve problems.

Natural disasters affect everyone, but the impacts on women and men are completely different. Women suffer most from natural disasters but they are also the ones who offer the solutions, knowledge and experience to minimise the risks of natural disasters. Experience shows that they play a major role in disaster risk reduction and that they adapt well to climate change. However, their importance isn’t properly recognised and they are limited in their ability to participate and make decisions in the family and in the wider society. Thanks to the participation of women in this project, disaster management activities in these localities will be more effective and economic losses will be minimized. The project will bring about practical benefits through some positive activities which will enhance the participation of women in professional organisations and all levels of the Women’s Union.

Activities for the project “Improved Flood Resilience in the Coastal Areas, Lagoons and Urban Centres of Thua Thien Hue Province” are coordinated by a partnership between CSRD, Potsdam University (Germany) and Amsterdam University (Netherlands).