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Vietnam: what did we learn?

10 years working towards social protection and integration of adolescents at risk.

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draws from Vietnam. The project phase 2008-2010 set out to consolidate the ac-tion by strengthening the partner organi-sations and their project teams through technical support and capacity building. In parallel, the disengagement process was launched in 2008 with a strong focus on the sustainability of the results, based on the appropriation of the different projects by the partner organisations.

Prior to the capitalisation, an auto-evaluation workshop was held in Ho Chi Minh City on 23-24 September 2010. All Tdh partners/project teams gathered to work on the relevance, effectiveness, ef-ficiency and sustainability of each project and each model of action. An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of their project then led them to formulate rec-ommendations. The results of this work-shop can be found in the Auto-Evalua-tion Report1 (see Annexe).

The capitalisation exercise with all those directly involved in the pro-

gramme took place between the 11th and the 19th of October 2010. It was conducted by the Tdh Resource Person for PCM and an external Vietnamese facilitator. The time frame of the exer-cise covered the ten years period from 2001 to 2010, star ting when Tdh re-oriented its focus from street children to former street children, institution-alised children and adolescents at risk, and decided to address the need for protection and care through social and professional integration.

From the outset, the participants to the capitalisation exercise noted that the process remained incomplete without including the views of children and young people who benefitted from the project.

1. Terre des hommes Foundation – Delegation in Vietnam, «Auto-Evaluation, Results of Group-Work Exercises to indentify Strengths, Weaknesses, Recommendations and Lessons Learnt, Ho Chi Minh City, 23. – 24.09.2010»

Background

Terre des hommes Foundation has been working on street children issues in Vietnam since 1992, starting its activi-ties with a Study on street children in Ho Chi Minh City and introducing innova-tive approaches for the protection and care of children in street situation such as outreach work, open houses and smaller shelters. This was done in close cooperation with local partner organi-sations, both state and non-state. Fol-lowing an external evaluation of its ac-tion in 1999 and a second Study on street children in Ho Chi Minh City in 2000, Tdh and its partners developed and imple-mented two models of action with the aim to contribute to the protection and care of children in street situation and/or adolescents at risk in Vietnam through social and professional integra-tion. Tdh’s Programme for Social, Protec-tion and Integration of children in Street Situation (SPI) has covered three differ-ent urban localities, Ho Chi Minh City,

Can Tho City and Cao Lanh City, where altogether five different partners, both state and non-state, are implementing six specific projects.

The two models of action for the protection of children in street situa-tion and adolescent at risk are generally considered as highly relevant in regard to the needs of the children. It is worth noting that, in the Vietnamese context, the policy of institutionalisation prevails and street children are often confined in almost closed centres, where their chances for social and professional rein-tegration are limited. In this context, the two models of action have been able to suggest alternative ways of supporting children at risk, besides leading to their effective reintegration into family, com-munity and society.

End 2010 corresponds to the end of a three years phase of the SPI Programme (2008-2010). It is also the time when Terre des hommes Foundation with-

Reflections on sustainability and partnership.

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Objectives

In this context, it has been decided to conduct a capitalisation exercise, with the objective of highlighting the les-sons learnt over the last ten years. As the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has defined it, Experience capitalisation refers to the transfor-mation of individual and institutional knowledge into capital by those direct-ly involved in order to change a col-lective, institutional practice. The out-come is meant to directly benefit the partners, as a tool for the strengthening of their projects and their organisation, as well as Tdh, as a contribution to the development of its strategy in regard to child protection systems and its practice of partnerships.

The objects of the capitalisation were the two models of action that constitute the Programme for Social Protection and Integration of children in street situation.

These models of action2 are:

• the SPI House (group home for adolescents at risk); and

• the Counselling & Referral Desk.

In the framework of the disengage-ment of Tdh from Vietnam, the capitali-sation was an opportunity to observe the sustainability of the models of ac-tion. Sustainability, in a broad sense of the term, is understood as the ability to achieve and sustain a certain outcome for as long as there is a need. Con-cretely, in this case it aims to answer the question whether the children in street situations and the adolescents at risk will be able to continue to ac-cess the protection and care they need

Partnership, as a central element, was addressed as a cross-cutting theme.

after the programme and the partner-ship with Tdh end. In this context, it was decided to focus on two main elements - relevance3 and financial viability - when addressing the question of sustainability.

Partnership, as a central element, was addressed as a cross-cutting theme.

The capitalisation exercise therefore focused on three key questions:

• Which factors contribute to an increased sustainability?

• How did the two models of action evolve with regard to their sustainability?

• How did the partnership evolve and in which way did it contribute to sustainability?

2. For detailed information on the two models of action please refer to the Strategic Plan of the SPI Program-me 2008-2010 (available on KIT).

3. Relevance was broken down into different aspects such as relevance with regard to (a) the needs of the “beneficiaries”, (b) the socio-economic context, (c) Government plans and policies, (d) poverty reduction.

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Methodology

Unlike evaluation, capitalisation solely has the aim to foster learning and to im-prove future work. There is no aim to come to a judgement about the qual-ity of the work. Capitalisation further doesn’t aim to comprehensively look at all aspects of the projects. It only con-siders aspects or issues that are particu-larly interesting from the point of view of learning.

The capitalisation process involves four basic steps:

• Recollection of the experience

• Analysis of what happened, focusing on a limited number of aspects that are considered important by the participants

• Formulation of lessons learnt from the experience

• Application of this knowledge to future work

The lessons learnt presented below are the result of a collective and highly participative process that included all staff of the project partners as well as the Terre des hommes team. A series of cap-italisation workshops was held with the partners and project teams working with the SPI Houses model (on 12.10.2010), with the partners and project teams working with the Counselling & Refer-ral Desk model (on 14.10.2010) and with the Tdh team and former staff (on Friday 15.10.2010). On 18-19.10.2010, a restitu-tion workshop was held in Ho Chi Minh City with all partners’ representatives, project and Tdh staff to synthesize and discuss the findings.

The information gathered in the work-shops was complemented by key inform-ant’s interviews (Dr. Le Dai Tri, Mr. Daniel Keller, Margrit Schlosser and Johanna Risse).

In the first series of workshops, a mix of methods was used to carry out the first three steps of the capitalisation process:

Capitalisation is a process that aims to draw lessons from a collective experience with a view to applying these insights to improve future work. It is about learning by sharing and reflecting on one’s experience.

The restitution session was held in a world cafe format, where the findings and lessons learnt resulting from the earlier workshops were discussed and refined by a succession of groups of mixed composition. The facili-tators then jointly edited the lessons learnt that emerged from this process.

Finally, two expert panel discussions provided an opportunity for the partici-pants to put the results into a broader perspective. The topics were as follows:

1) The role and responsibility of state agencies, social organisations and social workers with regard to chil-dren in especially difficult circum-stances; and

2) The role of foreign NGOs with regard to the social development in Vietnam in general and the develop-ment of social policies and practices in particular.

The participants evaluated the workshop by ranking their satisfaction with regard to six issues: organisation and logistics, facilitators, general appreciation, outcomes, learning and participation.

Excellent Very good Good Satisfactory Not satisfactory

Participation 0 18 8 2 0

Self-learning 9 14 6 1 0

Satisfaction 3 19 8 0 0

Overall organisation and logistics 6 14 9 0 0

Methodology 15 8 5 1 0

Workshop facilitation 8 15 7 2 0

Recollection of the experience

• Timeline of key changes• Identification of major challenges

encountered, action taken and the outcome of these actions

Analysis • SWOT

Formulation of lessons learnt

• Group discussions

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Results

4.1. Lessons learnt as formulated by the participants:

Issues related to partnership and alliances• It is essential that partners share the same

objective(s) and exchange on the content right from the start to define an agree-ment about the project implementation in order to increase the sense of ownership.

• Both partners have to develop together the methodology, the tools and the monitoring and evaluation system to be applied in order to implement the project effectively.

• Collaboration with different I/NGOs from the start is essential to exchange and learn from other approaches, to develop and promote the model of action and to reduce the f inancial risks.

Issues related to project formulation and implementation

• The project has to respond to the needs of the children and youth, it has to f it into national policies and to get accept-

ance from the community in order to be appropriate to the context.

• To establish, to build and to maintain good relationships with the community and the local authorities is crucial to ensure their support.

Issues related to the management of the partner organisations

• Management board of a project must have a concrete strategy from the begin-ning to mobilize financial sources, to build contacts with social agencies and vocational training centres as well as to improve their own management capacity.

• Focus on building the capacity of the staff (for example in psychology, special-ised skills, etc.) from the beginning and during the whole duration of the project is key to ensure staff is enabled to carry out their work effectively.

• Staff should avoid having other responsibili-ties or being involved in other activities4 that may interfere with their work for the project.

The project has to respond to the needs of the children and youth, it has to fit into national policies and to get acceptance from the community.

4.2. Other issues that emerged from the discussions:

The analysis of the evolution of the programme over time revealed that important innovations were introduced after thorough re-examination of the needs and situation through studies. The Study on street children in Ho Chi Minh City in 2000 for example was instrumental in the reorientation to the SPI Houses and the Counselling & Referral Desk models. Well timed and targeted investment in situation analysis or re-examination is thus often essential to ensure relevant programming.

Another important point that was raised relates to the importance of ad-vocacy work in order to bring about pol-icy and practices changes. Networking, collaboration with a diversity of actors, exchange of experiences and other such “soft advocacy” activities allow Terre des hommes and its partners to contribute

to such changes. The lesson learnt from the Vietnamese experience is that it is useful to start advocacy work right from the beginning of a project and based on an agreed plan of action. To make the in-novative models better known, adopted more widely and accepted at a higher level, closer collaboration and network-ing with other bigger players such as SCF, Plan and UNICEF could have been useful. Tdh and the partners were in the given setting too small to make a differ-ence. Advocacy is more effective when it involves collaboration in alliances with bigger partners, and action at the central level.

An element that was widely discussed but that does not appear in the above mentioned lessons learnt is the issue of staff salary and consequently of staff turnover. The project partners have faced difficulties in retaining their staff, which is clearly linked to the level of sala-ries and which in turn has consequences 4. For instance government services in a related working field.

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Conclusion

on the delivery of the project and the services provided to the children. An adapted and efficient salary scale is es-sential; not only in order to avoid the turn-over, but also to be able to retain qualified staff.

With regard to the models of action, they are considered by the partners as highly relevant and appropriate for the needs of the youth. The importance of life skills training for the reintegration process was highlighted by all partners.

A recommendation addressed to Terre des hommes was to start with capacity building activities right from the start of the project, and to put in place a follow up system of these activities. They obviously offer an opportunity for staff to strengthen their skills and competences and to widen their knowledge. They can reinforce the management capacity of the partner and contribute to increase the degree of ownership in regard to the project, which in turn will have an impact on the sustainability of the latter. The technical support provided by Terre des hommes in regard to staff capacity building and institutional development was valued, especially in regard to Project Cycle Management, Management tools, Social Work. It was suggested that Terre des hommes should go one step further, looking beyond the sustainability of the project results solely, to include in the reflexion the sustainability of the partner organisation. The support at an institutional level can indeed contribute

to the sustainability of the partner organisation itself. However, the partners also emphasised their own responsibility and need to invest in the development of their staff and their management capacity as well as their institution.

4.3. Observations by the Tdh headquarters team

Tdh and the partners have done good work to demonstrate that the SPI House and Counselling & Referral Desk models are appropriate and effective. In con-tacts with the authorities, the project was favourably mentioned because it re-sponded to the needs of the youth, and because it produced concrete and useful results for them.

Major international actors in Vietnam (UNICEF, Save the Children, Plan) are now working to promote a child protec-tion systems approach and support the development of Social Work Centres. These developments have the potential to lead to significant improvements for vulnerable children and youth. The part-ners may wish to stay informed about these interesting developments and col-laborate with them if and when possible.

Terre des hommes is confident that its partners will show great success in the continuation of the work carried out through the two models of action.

A capitalisation process is only worth-while if the participant organisations and individuals reflect on the lessons learnt elaborated during the capitalisa-tion and apply them where appropri-ate and possible. It now belongs to the partners and Tdh to continue the think-ing and discussions on the issues that were raised and to translate the conclu-sions into practical improvements.

Terre des hommes considers con-ducting a follow-up evaluation in ap-proximately one year’s time in order to meet with the partner organisations and see whether they succeeded in sustain-ing their project. It has been suggested to keep a contact with the partners in Vietnam, and also to explore the pos-sibilities of exchanging experiences with the delegation in Myanmar, which just launched a protection project addressing the needs of at risk children. It was noted by the partner organisations that Terre des hommes did not sufficiently share

its experiences of protection projects in other contexts, which could have been useful in the development and improve-ment of the model in Vietnam. There-fore, giving the partners and the project staff the opportunity to get in contact and to share experiences on a national and international level is an initiative that could be further explored within Tdh.

Terre des hommes is confident that its partners, namely Ho Chi Minh Child Welfare Foundation, Centre for Educa-tion and Vocational Training for Children under Ho Chi Minh City DOLISA, Phu Sa Project under Cao Lanh City Office of LISA, Binh Minh Project under Can Tho City DoLISA and Thien An Social Protection Institution in Can Tho City will show great success in the continua-tion of the work carried out through the two models of action.

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InTeRnaTIOnaL headquaRTeRs:

Terre des hommes - child relief Avenue de Montchoisi 15CH-1006 Lausanne – SwitzerlandT +41 58 611 06 66

www.tdh.ch – info@tdh.ch

In GeRman-sPeakInG swITzeRLand:

Terre des hommes - child relief Schwarztorstrasse 20CH-3007 Bern – SwitzerlandT +41 58 611 07 90