Vietnam

What we do

The work of ICCO in Vietnam (as part of the Mekong area) focuses on democratization while empowering small producers to participate in sustainable enterprises.  Main themes are food security and responsible business, with a cross cutting theme of protecting land rights & natural resources.

We work with the vulnerable populations: ethnic minorities, poor rural farmers and people who lost their land.  We also work together with social entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Our expertise

ICCO has been in Vietnam since the 1980s. Centered on indigenous and poor people our program has made significant contributions to the empowerment of people to assert their economic, social and civil rights. These democratic gains are the foundations of our current programs. We support indigenous and poor people to have better access to and control over natural resources, especially land and forest. And we stimulate producers and entrepreneurs to improve their position in local, national and international market structures.

In Vietnam, ICCO Cooperation South East Asia makes use of the following interlinked approaches and models:

Lobby and advocacy

In our lobby activities, we build bridges between our beneficiaries, CSOs, governments, businesses and NGOs. We work on unequal (power)relations and give a voice to the most vulnerable and excluded groups. In Vietnam, ICCO Cooperation and her partners publish researches, build sustainable economic models, raise awareness and build capacity among these groups, as means and tools in our lobby work.

Markets for the Poor (M4P)

The M4P approach aims to transform market structures by increasing the participation of the poor, and to make the market more beneficial and sustainable for them. In Vietnam, M4P is the leading approach.

Value Chain Development (VCD)

We focus on empowering small producers and marginalized groups by connecting them to viable and sustainable value chains and its actors, to generate income and improve food security.

Business Incubation & Impact Investment

Through our investments programs, ICCO contributes to fair economic development in emerging economies. ICCO provides conditional capital (such as loans, equity and guarantees), by ‘blending’ financial instruments. Our Business Incubator Program provides capacity and capital to small and medium enterprises and farmer cooperatives, for them to grow and develop into strong and independent enterprises.