I.	Centre for Rural Development in Central Vietnam.Add: 102 Phung Hung, Hue, Thua Thien Hue, VietnamTel: +84 543 529749;  Email: office@crdvietnam.org;Website: http://crdvietnam.org

II. INFORMATION ABOUT CRD

Director: Dr. Truong Quang Hoang

1. Background:

Centre for Rural Development in Central Vietnam (CRD) under Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry (HUAF) was established according to decision numbered 73/QD-TC dated 7/11/1995 issued by Hue University Director.

2. Vision, Missions and goals: 

• Vision:

A developed rural society with sustainable well-being, environment, ecology, equity and democracy.

• Missions:

CRD’s missions are to conduct research, training, and technology transfer and policy advocacy in rural development in order to improve livelihood, environmental and ecological protection, social equity and democracy

• Overall goal

Contribute to a better life of the target groups andsustainable development of the rural society in the context of international integration, market economy and challenges of climate change.

• Specific goals

• Goal 1: Develop sustainable agricultural production and market linkages.
• Goal 2: Enhance capacity on climate change adaptation and disaster risk management.
• Goal 3: Improve the efficiency of natural resources management and biodiversity conservation
• Goal 4: Promote good governance and reforming of policy and institutions in rural development
• Goal 5: Enhance CRD capacity on good governance and social enterprise development

Core values 

CRD will continue its development path on the basis of core values that have been developed and maintained, including:

• Professionalism
• Creativity and innovation
• Dedicated, whole-hearted, responsibleness and faithfulness
• Transparency, prestige and high quality

Target groups

The poor, ethnic minorities and vulnerable groups especially women and children

III. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE:

The 02 main fields of activities of CRD are Consultancy and Development.

As for human resources, CRD has 10 full time staff and numerous part time ones who are lecturers of HUAF and some other colleges of Hue University. CRD staff is well-qualified to meet the requirements of rural development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction (HEPR)  programs in the areas. Recently, over 50% of CRD staff has Post-graduate Degree, mostly from abroad.

IV. FIELDS OF ACTIVITIES:

CRD has 05 main fields of activities:

• Sustainable livelihood development and Poverty reduction (PR)
• Disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change (CC)
• Natural resource management and environmental protection
• Good governance
• Social enterprise

V. CONTRIBUTION TO RURAL DEVELOPMENT, POVERTY REDUCTION AND HUNGER ERADICATION PROGRAMS IN THE CENTRAL REGION:  

The contribution of CRD to rural development and HEPR programs in the Central region are presented in 04 main activities as follows:

Building projects and conducting fund-raising for the localities: 

From 1995 to 2015, CRD has carried out 160 projects in 200 communes of 200 districts, mainly in 07 central provinces from Nghe An to Quang Ngai with a total budget of 180 billion VNDs.

Building capacity for the people for HEPR: 

CRD has conducted a number of activities to enhance the capacity of the people, namely:

Capacity building for the communities via training classes:

There have been appropriately 48,000 participants (including both farmers and officials of all levels) taking part in training classes held by CRD to improve capacity in both production and management.

CRD has also established 52 models of production development and those of agricultural production towards climate change adaptation. Besides, the Centre has organized 613 on-field workshops with the participation of 18,500 farmers to evaluate the results of production and share experiences in applying state-of-the-art technology advances.

Organizing study tours for the people

CRD has organized 60 study tours for 1,650 people of the communes to learn and share experiences in different fields to develop production (exclusive of the tours at home and abroad for CRD staff and the University lecturers).

Carrying out development researches:

Over the last years, CRD has conducted 41 researches in 03 main fields:

• Researches on production development and livelihood improvement for the people
• Researches relating to climate change
• Researches relating to policies

On the basis of the research results, CRD has published 16 books and 58 scientific articles in Agriculture and Rural Development Magazines, Journal of Science of Hue University and other national and international academic journals.

Other fields of activities relating to HEPR:

Emergency relief: CRD has implemented emergency relief of natural disaster aftermath to approximately 50,000 beneficiary households at 50 communes in 04 provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam.

Information exchange: CRD regularly hold national workshops/conferences on an annual basis in order to exchange information and experience with different partners in related fields.

VI. CONTRIBUTION TO THE UNIVERSITY:

Apart from contributions to production, CRD also has also been actively contributing to the development of the University in some aspects as follows:

• Improving capacity of the university staff, thereby helping improve the quality of teaching 

+ CRD has organized a number of study tours for hundreds of University staff to many other districts of the country as well as to some neighboring countries.

+ CRD is also a place where outstanding students are selected for further training with a view to providing qualified human resources for other departments of the University when needed.

• CRD was the basis for the University to have established new disciplines on Extension and Rural Development since 2002 and post-graduate on rural development since 2008 in order to meet the requirements of society. CRD projects have been serving as places for students of Department of Extension and Rural Development to practice and do research.
• Transferring technological advances into production and serving as a bridge between university and society:

Many technological advances have been successfully transferred and applied in production; various models have been established and replicated to other localities in the Central. Technological advances have helped increase crop and livestock productivity and minimize diseases, thus significantly contributing to improving the income of the people.

Contributing to the Welfare Fund of the University:

CRD has always been the largest contributor to the Welfare Fund of the University, and in some years accounting for up to 50% of the contribution by all the units of the University.

VII. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION:  

International cooperation is a prominence of CRD. In recent years CRD has been cooperating with over 35 international organizations.

VIII. NOBLE AWARDS