International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs) and the capacity enhancement of ethnic minority groups in Vietnam

Abstract

Since the Renovation (1986), Vietnam has attracted more and more projects from International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs). Among 63 provinces that received INGOs' investment, there are 24 provinces belonging to ethnic minority regions that received 21% of the total investment from INGOs. Projects implemented in this region consist of many components that often include capacity enhancements in the fields of health care, education, care and protection for vulnerable groups, livelihood activities, family organizing and managing, community development. Capacity enhancement provided by INGOs has positive impacts on ethnic minority human resource development, structural economic change, improvement of vulnerable groups’ right, ethnic culture preservation and promotion, and constructing development models in ethnic minority and mountainous regions. However, such projects still have limitations due to the shortage in INGOs' budgets, the unsuitability to local circumstances of some models, and the bureaucracy of partner authorities and officials.