VIETNAM: FY2006 INCLE AND ESF TIP PROPOSALS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HANOI 000173



SIPDIS



SENSITIVE

SIPDIS



STATE FOR EAP/RSP, G/TIP, EAP/MLS



E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PHUM, ELAB, SMIG, EAID, KCRM, KFRD, VM

SUBJ: VIETNAM: FY2006 INCLE AND ESF TIP PROPOSALS



REF: A. 05 State 221411



1. (SBU) Summary and Comment: We received five proposals

for funding aimed at combating trafficking in women and

children in and from Vietnam. Our top priority for both the

INCLE and ESF funding categories is an ambitious proposal to

conduct a nationwide baseline survey to obtain data that can

be used to measure the impact of all future trafficking

interventions in Vietnam. Vietnam currently lacks any

baseline data on trafficking; the entire Vietnamese and

international anti-trafficking community operates on the

assumption that trafficking in Vietnam is a "big problem."

Without decent data on the character and scope of the

problem, the main trafficking vectors, the crossing points,

the victims, the traffickers and the trends, it remains

impossible to gauge the effectiveness of any anti-

trafficking programs. Other good project proposals came in

from the International Organization and Migration and the

Asia Foundation. After a concerted effort to reach out to

faith-based organizations, we received proposals from

Catholic Relief Services and the Evangelical Church of

Vietnam (North) (ECVN) but our review team, which consisted

of representatives from the Embassy in Hanoi, the Consulate

General in Ho Chi Minh City and the USAID office in Hanoi,

did not rank these proposals highly.



2. (SBU) Summary and Comment, cont'd: The Mission's top

recommendation is a local NGO project. If Washington

determines that this proposal has merit, Post will have to

work closely with the NGO to scrub its budget and develop an

effective system of monitoring and evaluation. Encouraging

the development of indigenous NGOs is consistent with our

MPP, and building capacity in the anti-trafficking NGO

sector is essential to fighting the anti-trafficking problem

in Vietnam. This will be more work than an off-the-shelf

proposal from a large expatriate-run NGO or IO, but it will

pay off in results. End Summary and Comment.



3. (U) The proposals we receive conformed to the format

specified reftel. We have limited this cable to summaries

of the proposals and the Mission's observations. We will

provide copies of all received proposals to EAP and G/TIP by

email. Please note that we have ranked one project at the

top of both the INCLE and ESF lists because the baseline

data it offers will be applicable to all projects on both

the law enforcement and non-law enforcement sides.



BEGIN RANK-ORDERED PROJECT SUMMARIES - INCLE

--------------



1. Baseline Data Collection and Analyses for Combating

Trafficking in Persons in Vietnam under the Coordinated

Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking -- USD

450,000 (with the option of reducing the scale of the

project, and thus the cost, to between USD 180,000 and USD

280,000).



This is by far the least "sexy" of the projects but, in

Post's opinion, the most useful and necessary one. The

recipient organization is the small Hanoi-based NGO/think

tank Institute for Social Development Studies. It is run by

Dr. Le Bach Duong, a U.S.-educated researcher who has worked

on trafficking and related issues for years. In particular,

Duong was the author of one of the few decent studies done

on child prostitution in Vietnam.



Duong's project fills a critical need in the anti-

trafficking environment: it aims to provide empirical

information that can be used for planning, designing,

monitoring and evaluating future intervention programs.



At the moment, no good data exist on trafficking in Vietnam.

We have only two kinds of data: anecdotal evidence and a

set of statistics supplied by MPS in 2003 and 2004 that is

based on police records and thus badly underreports

trafficking cases. The international community - and the

GVN - spends millions of dollars on anti-trafficking on the

basis of assumptions and cannot evaluate the impact of

programs due to a lack of baseline data. This project would

improve every other future trafficking project in Vietnam.



USAID agrees that this project proposes an intervention

which addresses a recognized gap in TIP activities, but

notes that the methodology for data collection is weak. In

addition, the project is likely to show snapshot data for

only a limited number of provinces.



2. IOM -- Combating TIP through Capacity Building and

Technical Assistance to the National TIP Steering Committee

and Law Enforcement (USD 260,000)



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IOM has taken a pragmatic approach with this proposal,

focusing its own strengths on well-established gaps in the

existing official approach to TIP in Vietnam. This project

has four main activities/focal points. It:



- provides technical assistance to the bureaucrats in Hanoi

in order to take the good but general National Plan of

Action on trafficking and turn it into a specific,

implementable work plan;



- develops a training curriculum for law enforcement

officers and border guards on TIP victim protection, and

implements it in the six hotspot provinces;



- creates a legal assistance fund to help trafficking

survivors deal with legal consequences of trafficking (for

example, registering children born in another country while

the victim was trafficked) and prosecute traffickers;



- physically upgrades the facilities in key "receiving

points" to allow for more humane treatment of trafficking

victims and easier reintegration into society.



By focusing on both law enforcement and victim protection,

this project creates an important link that has the

potential to improve the GVN's capacity to combat

trafficking while improving conditions and prospects for

survivors of trafficking. This project also builds on

successful UNODC and UNICEF efforts, and operates within the

agreed National Plan of Action on trafficking.



USAID notes that this proposal has a good policy focus, and

IOM has demonstrated past TIP experience. The project also

has low overhead (five percent). The implementation plan

for the legal aid portion could be clearer, and there may be

limited impact from this project due to the small number of

personnel trained and victims assisted.



END RANK ORDER SUMMARIES - INCLE

--------------



BEGIN RANK ORDER SUMMARIES - ESF

--------------



1. (repeated from INCLE section above) Baseline Data

Collection and Analyses for Combating Trafficking in Persons

in Vietnam under the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial

Initiative Against Trafficking -- USD 450,000 (with the

option of reducing the scale of the project, and thus the

cost, to between USD 180,000 and USD 280,000).



This is by far the least "sexy" of the projects but, in

Post's opinion, the most useful and necessary one. The

recipient organization is the small Hanoi-based NGO/think

tank Institute for Social Development Studies. It is run by

Dr. Le Bach Duong, a U.S.-educated researcher who has worked

on trafficking and related issues for years. In particular,

Duong was the author of one of the few decent studies done

on child prostitution in Vietnam.



Duong's project fills a critical need in the anti-

trafficking environment: it aims to provide empirical

information that can be used for planning, designing,

monitoring and evaluating future intervention programs.



At the moment, no good data exist on trafficking in Vietnam.

We have only two kinds of data: anecdotal evidence and a

set of statistics supplied by MPS in 2003 and 2004 that is

based on police records and thus badly underreports

trafficking cases. The international community - and the

GVN - spends millions of dollars on anti-trafficking on the

basis of assumptions and cannot evaluate the impact of

programs due to a lack of baseline data. This project would

improve every other future trafficking project in Vietnam.



USAID agrees that this project proposes an intervention

which addresses a recognized gap in TIP activities, but

notes that the methodology for data collection is weak. In

addition, the project is likely to show snapshot data for

only a limited number of provinces.



2. The Asia Foundation - Strengthen the Legal Framework to

Combat-Trafficking in Persons in Vietnam (USD 193,500)



This project is slightly less coherent than the previous

two, and does not target Vietnam's needs as precisely. It

is mainly a capacity-building project for two agencies TAF

identifies as key to anti-TIP efforts in Vietnam: the

Ministry of Justice and the National Assembly. (It also



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works with the National Legal Aid agency and the Women's

Union, which are better partners in this effort, but they

play a distinctly secondary role.)



This project builds slightly on TAF's excellent work

bringing province-level authorities from Vietnam and

Cambodia and Vietnam and China together to address

trafficking, but this seems as though it is less important

to TAF than the Hanoi-based capacity building (including the

dreaded study tour) for the National Assembly and some MOJ

officials. We are concerned that TAF overestimates the

National Assembly's role in the policymaking process.

Devoting this many resources to building the NA's capacity

to do something they are not ultimately empowered to do in

the GVN system may not be the best way to allocate

resources.



On the positive side, the funding mechanism is in place,

TAF's professionalism and capability are not in doubt, and

NA/MOJ capacity building could help with some of the USG's

other legal reform goals in Vietnam.



USAID concurs that it is a good idea to expand cross-border

information sharing, but also questions whether Vietnam

needs new legislation or increased enforcement of existing

legislation. The first two objectives are far reaching, but

limited activities (three one-and-a-half day workshops for

stakeholders, one two-day Vietnamese-Cambodian workshop plus

accompanying reports) seem unlikely to achieve the

objectives. We are unimpressed with this project's

performance indicators.



3. CRS - Enhancing Local Capacities to Stop Human

Trafficking (USD 185,000)



Catholic Relief Services has produced a relatively well-

crafted project, with an impressive (and credible) list of

outputs, which include:



- research on trafficking;

- meetings and coordination among relevant staff and

agencies;

- capacity building for officials;

- training seminars and awareness raising;

- media campaigns;

- economic empowerment through grants; and,

- support for at-risk families.



In addition, CRS is an experienced and capable operator in

Vietnam. Unfortunately, this project is very narrowly

focused; the entire project takes place in only two

districts of Vinh Long province, in the center of the Mekong

Delta. It is a worthy project, but we believe our Mission

trafficking goals may be better served through one of the

other projects.



USAID notes that it is the only project with a grassroots

approach, and the only project with cost sharing. Its

narrow focus can also be seen as a targeted approach.

However, CRS has limited previous TIP experience and this

proposal lacks strong links to ongoing projects. It is also

unclear whether activities will achieve objectives, and

whether CRS will have a person based full time in the

province.



4. ECVN - Trafficking Victim Protection and Advocacy (USD

450,000)



The Evangelical Church of Vietnam submitted this proposal

after we encouraged our faith-based organization contacts to

apply. This is a very ambitious proposal that would

essentially create a new anti-TIP NGO in Northern Vietnam

under ECVN's umbrella. ECVN does not pretend to have this

expertise already; much of the budget for this project is to

hire well-paid Vietnamese staff members and train and equip

them. ECVN proposes to do community-level awareness raising

and (though this is not clear) recruitment of volunteers in

40 separate communities, through a network of paid

representatives who will spread the word. This "missionary

style" awareness raising will also include a victim referral

service, where any TIP victims the ECVN staffers identify

will be directed to other NGOs for assistance.



Leaving aside the difficulty of funding ECVN's outreach

efforts directly, and the lack of monitoring and evaluation

in this project, the project itself is a very expensive

awareness-raising campaign that does not offer the benefits

of any of the other projects. However, it would (if we

could convince the GVN to allow us to fund this

organization) allow us to build up Vietnamese civil society



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in general and one of the more dedicated faith-based

organizations in particular.



This proposal would require substantial revision if it is

considered for funding.



END ESF PROJECT SUMMARIES.



4. (SBU) Post would appreciate the Department's initial

comments on submitted proposals as soon as possible in order

to respond to the hopeful applicants.



BOARDMAN