



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.
In 2018, the Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD), a local NGO in Vietnam, conducted the project “City to River to Coast” with the overall objective of reducing and recycling plastic waste in and around Hue City.
The project aims to promote the 3Rs practices (reduce, reuse, recycle) by introducing waste separation at selected local schools, through public involvement in the 5% reduction target, and through media publicity.
After almost a year, the project has implemented a range of awareness raising activities and set up 06 source separation systems at 06 schools. The primary results are significant. CSRD intends to understand how informal collection system of recyclable waste is working, and the current state of the value chain of recyclable waste in Hue city.
An integrated approach to sustainably develop the city is integral to change the practice of waste management and reach a 5% waste reduction target by 2050. In collaboration with CSRD, this project is guided by the directions in Thua Thien Hue Province’s Solid Waste Management Master Plan (2030) and Vision (2050). By aligning strongly with this Master Plan, we believe that we will achieve long term and sustainable benefits for Hue and the Province.
The following 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.
Research report: Examining the Value Chain of Recyclable Waste in Hue City – 2019: Detail
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.
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.
Plastic pollution in our oceans is a major global problem which needs support and action from international, national, and local communities. Every year, some 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in our oceans, which is equivalent to five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world.
Plastic debris kills an estimated 100,000 marine mammals every year, as well as millions of birds and fish. Plastic is particularly harmful to the environment because it takes so long to biodegrade – between 450 and 1,000 years according to some estimates.
Hue City in Thừa Thiên-Huế, Vietnam contributes to this global problem. It produces nearly 20 tons of plastic waste every day, some of which makes its way into the Huong (Perfume) River and on into the sea.
Thừa Thiên-Huế Province has prepared a Master Plan with a vision for 2050 to manage its solid waste management, but it will require coordinated and committed action across the whole community to achieve its vision. A project created by the Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD) contributes to that vision by promoting the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle – by introducing waste separation at selected local schools through public involvement in the 5 percent reduction target.
In 2018 CSRD, home to Huong River Waterkeeper, secured a grant for this project from the Municipal Recycling Waste Management Program of USAID. We would conduct a range of activities including the 3Rs model in six local schools. We set up source separation systems at each of the schools and, after training students on the impact of plastic waste and how to separate their waste, collected 1.6 tons of recyclables in the first six months. The students then sold the recyclables for money to support their environmental protection clubs.
About 5,000 students benefitted from this program, which concluded in June of this year. CSRD hopes to continue the 3Rs in local schools to meet local need for these programs.
The goal of this project has been to reduce and recycle plastic waste in and around Hue City, which will be achieved through three linked projects that have impacts on plastic waste in the city, on the river, and at the coast – at the source, in transit, and at the destination. The waste separation at local schools, completed in June, focused on waste at the source.
Part two of our project will stop waste in on the river, as it is in transit to the coast, its final destination. We are working to introduce floating ‘litter traps’ to Vietnam. These litter traps are installed at bends in a waterway so that floating litter is caught in the trap and emptied when full. They can make a notable contribution to the reduction in plastic pollution before it reaches the sea. The final stage in this project will be to conduct beach cleanups to remove plastic pollution from the coast. We will focus on cleanups in a low-income coastal village where litter accumulates on the shore of the beach or the lagoon, especially in the summer months.
Source: https://waterkeeper.org
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.
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.
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 1st September to 4th November, 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:
Pictures of the competition:
To continue earlier tours for students who are interested in environment and society fields. On 7th 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.
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.
All in the Same Boat follows the lives of three women, Tran Thi Phuong Tien, Le Thi Xuan Lan, and Le Thi Hoa. All the women have faced challenges in regards to flooding and recount their experiences in the documentary. They also attend and participate in training’s about replanting mangroves and restoring ponds to improve flood resilience.
ResilNam works with Ecosystem Based Adaptation (EbA) in coastal and urban areas around Hue City, Vietnam. “EbA includes the restoration and sustainable management of ecosystems to provide services that help adapt to to the adverse effects of natural hazards and climate change. ”
In the coastal areas around Hue City, 5 hectares of mangroves have been planted by local communities. In the urban area, 3 bodies of water in the historical center of Hue are being restored. Mangroves reduce the force of waves during storm surges, protect against coastal erosion, absorb 50 times more carbon than other ecosystems, and provide important breeding grounds for fish, prawns and crabs. The urban bodies of water, which were often used as a garbage bin, are being restored to increase their water holding capacity and quality. By replanting mangroves along the coast and restoring bodies of water in the urban area of Hue City, ResilNam is enhancing flood resilience.
Watch the following animation to learn more about how ResilNam is working to enhance flood resilience in Central Vietnam.
In the last years, flooding has increasingly affected thousands of citizens of Thừa Thiên-Huế province in Central Vietnam.
Especially the low-lying coastal areas and Hue city have been repeatedly affected by severe flooding from the sea, rivers and heavy rainfall. Along with climate change, population growth and increasing urbanisation, the people of the province are highly affected by the impacts of flood hazards. Especially vulnerable to the impacts of flooding are women. Even though they are pivotal managers of natural and environmental resources and have the experience and knowledge to build community resilience, they only hold minor roles at the level of policy formulation. Through a combined approach of using ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and strengthening the role of women in disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation (CCA), the ResilNam project wants to contribute to increasing flood resilience in Thừa Thiên-Huế province.
This documentary project wants to support this innovative approach by providing insights into the every day life of the women involved in ResilNam; making their thoughts and actions understandable and emotionally accessible to an interested public.