A workshop on sharing lessons in enhancing access to information for ethnic minority communities took place in Bac Kan on 20 December 2019.

Representatives of Thanh Van and Mai Lap communes were happy to share their experiences in implementing the access to information model to other communes. Photo: ©Nguyen Van Thanh/CARE

The event was held by CARE,  the Agriculture and Forestry Research and Development Center for mountainous region (ADC) and Bac Kan Department of Justice. This was part of the European Union-funded Increasing Ethnic Minority Women’s Access to Information for Improved Governance and Development (I2I) project. Fifty participants attended the workshop. They are leaders of different agencies at provincial, district, and commune levels, and community representatives.

At the workshop, Communication Teams of Thanh Van and Mai Lap commune presented results of building two-way communication between local authority and community. The model enabled the people to evaluate and give feedback to local authority on the process of information provision, and to raise the need for information to the local authority via the Communication Team and using the community score card.

This model also received positive feedback and earned recognition for its effectiveness from governmental agencies at both provincial and district levels. The provincial People’s Committee awarded two project participating communes, Thanh Van and Mai Lap, certificates of merit for their contributions to better access to information. Besides, activities of the Communication Teams in these two communes and the application of community score cards in collecting and responding to feedback on information provision at grassroots level were also highly appreciated. 

Group discussion at the workshop. Photo: ©Nguyen Van Thanh/CARE

The workshop ended with commitment of both communes to maintain the model and incorporate it into the public management system at communal level after the project’s closure in February 2020. Cho Moi district’s Division of Justice proposed that ADC and CARE support it in introducing the model and providing capacity building activities to replicate model in all communes in early 2020.

The Increasing ethnic minority women’s access to information for improved governance and development (I2I) project is implemented by CARE and NorthNet, a network of over 10 local civil society organisations (CSOs) in the mountainous region in northern Vietnam, with financial support from the European Union.