Under the project Pilot Model of Community Participation in the Planning of Public Facilities at Local Level sponsored by World Bank in Vietnam, on 17/12/2012, CISDOMA collaborated with the People’s Committee of Tan Bac commune to organize the seminar “Grassroots Democracy Ordinance with people’s lives.” The seminar aimed at providing a comprehensive view of the current state of implementation of Grassroots Democracy Ordinance (GDO), and solutions to maximize the effectiveness of the ordinance in Tan Bac commune.
This was the second activity of the project, following the launching ceremony held in January, 2012. Attendees of the seminar included Hoang Minh Thap – Chairman of Tan Bac People’s Committee, Van Lao Lu – Secretary of Tan Bac Party Committee, representatives of five authoritative bodies, and the Chiefs and Party Cell Secretaries of seven villages in Tan Bac commune.
The participants discussed the role of GDO in people’ lives and the current state of implementation of the ordinance in Tan Bac commune, where the practice of GDO can be seen to have faced with many limitations. Most participants were not fully satisfied with the results achieved because of the imposed thoughts still present in the implementing process of the ordinance. In addition, GDO was not effectively propagated due to inappropriate propagating methods and limited understandings about the ordinance of local officers. To solve these problems, the participants discussed and came up with many ideas to have GDO implemented well at local level. They concluded that efforts should first be aimed at improving local officers’ understanding and raising awareness among local people of GDO using leaflets and village meetings.
At the end of the seminar, Van Lao Lu, Secretary of Tan Bac Party Committee, said: “On behalf of Tan Bac commune, I would like to thank CISDOMA, especially Mr. Tran Thap Long (facilitator of the seminar), for giving us more insights into the current state of GDO in our commune and helping us find solutions to implement it better. We hope that with the help of CISDOMA and donors, this situation will have been improved by the end of this year.”
By Nguyen Thi Thanh Nha
