Vietnam: the Making of Recipient Ownership and Responses to Swedish and Japanese Aid

Abstract

Vietnam, although a one-party state, has become a favourite aid recipient for many multilateral and bilateral donors, making Vietnam today the world’s third largest aid recipient, after Iraq and Afghanistan, and the World Bank’s second largest borrower. Aside from its good performance in poverty reduction and economic growth, Vietnam is popular because it is perceived as an ‘effective’ user of aid. In fact, Vietnam is often identified as a ‘best practice’ example of government ownership of the development agenda and aid management (GRIPS 2002; UNDP 1996, WB 2002). Vietnam has been selected a pilot recipient country to implement the Paris Declaration on Aid Harmonisation and Effectiveness, and a survey among donors claims that 65% of donors are aligning their aid to the government’s strategies (Jacquemin and Bainbridge 2005, p.4). The UN Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, John Hendra, recently categorised Vietnam as ‘the world leader in aid effectiveness’ (Vietnam News on 29 December 2006).

Le Thanh Forsberg is writing her doctoral thesis. This paper is a part of her thesis and the results it reports are drawn mainly from almost 100 interviews conducted between 2001 and 2005. While the author retains a full list of specific interviews, the interviewees are not identified individually because of requests for anonymity. My sincere thanks are given to all of the interviewees. None, however, is responsible for any remaining errors. The interpretations in this paper remain my own. Please see the end notes for further details on the categories of interviews.