Fact Sheet: USAID Vietnam Leads

In 2019, the Government of Vietnam embarked on preparing a new generation of national and provincial leaders, and new socio-economic strategies for the 2021-2030 period. National and provincial authorities endeavor to improve the business environment to facilitate business investment and promote trade. Substantial efforts have been made on capacity building for better governance at both national and provincial levels. In this context, USAID Vietnam Leads aims at improving professional development opportunities for local leaders, ensuring the transfer of policy know-how in managing a market economy, the private sector, and trade.

A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN BUILDING LOCAL GOVERNANCE CAPACITY

USAID Vietnam Leads uses a holistic approach to strengthen leadership and governance capacity of senior provincial officials, and to ensure a sustainable transfer and utilization of policy expertise, through:

(1) Improving the quality of training programs of Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics (HCMA) for senior provincial government officials with a focus on leadership and governance; (2) Providing policy advice to local governments with an evidence-based policy-making approach through collaboration between international and national scholars and practitioners, and Vietnamese champion provinces; A Provincial Development Forum will be organized for local issues and initiatives to be shared and discussed among experts, policy-makers, and provincial top leaders; (3) Strengthening Vietnam-U.S. collaboration; USAID Vietnam Leads serves as the partnership between Indiana University-Bloomington, a leading U.S. educational institution in public affairs, and HCMA, Vietnam’s national center for mid-level and high-ranking government officials; Various professional development activities are deployed, including partnership in training, research and policy advocacy; A Hub for Provincial Leadership and Development will be established and based in HCMA.

EXPECTED RESULTS

USAID Vietnam Leads aims to achieve the following results: 1) An institutionalized strategic partnership to sustain strong ties between Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and American public policy institutions; 2) Institutionalized new training curricula for senior provincial government officials; 3) Enhanced capacity of provincial government officials in making and executing new economic and social development plans to support market development, private sector, and trade.