07/38 The Policy Research Capacity Strengthening to Implement Vietnam's 2001-2010 Socio-economic Strategy Project

Description:
The Policy Research Capacity Strengthening to Implement Vietnam's 2001-2010 Socio-economic Strategy project was to improve coordination and cooperation among Government institutions in policy research and to contribute to the achievement of 2001-2010 socio-economic development strategy targets. This was to be achieved through strengthening policy research capacity of the project's participating institutes. The Project was implemented from 2002 to 2005 with the following Institutes:
- Prime Ministers Research Committee
- Central Institute for Economic Management
- Vietnam Institute of Trade
- Institute of Finance Science
- Institute of State Organisation Science
- Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs
- National Centre of Economic Information and Forecasts

The overall objectives of the Project were to:
1. increase the quality and quantity of policy reports and recommendations made by research institutions to the Prime Minister and the Vietnamese Government
2. strengthen policy research capacity to contribute to the scaling up and hastening the economic reform process and international and regional economic integration and cooperation for Vietnam
3. assist capacity-building/human resource development in economic policy research and policy making
4. improve the quality of policy research in partner organisations to fulfil their research obligations to the Government and the Prime Minister.
In order to achieve this various activities were undertaken by the participating Institutes and funded by Sida. An independent review was conducted in 2007 to assess the impacts of this Project and to assess if the Project Objectives were achieved. The review focused on the following areas:
1. Relevance
2. Effectiveness
3. Project Outcomes
4. Sustainability and replication of the project and its activities
5. Efficiency
6. Lessons learned and recommendations