Hanoi, Viet Nam. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) organized a four-day national multi-stakeholder workshop to raise awareness for common understanding on and to discuss the use and the implementation  of  the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) in Viet Nam.

Six years have passed since the endorsement of the VGGT by the  Committee on World Food Security on 11 May 2012, and three years since the agreement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The VGGT are an international instrument that can be used by many different actors to improve governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests. They serve as a reference, set out principles, and internationally accepted standards for practices for the responsible governance of tenure. They are voluntary and do not replace laws and treaties, and they do not reduce existing obligations under laws or treaties.

To maximize country ownership and commitment for the sustainable implementation of the VGGT, FAO provides system-wide capacity development support to Viet Nam strengthening people, organisations, institutions and the enabling policy environment based on jointly assessed country needs. A participatory Capacity Analysis (CA) was included in the workshop consisting of a structured, inclusive and interactive process where discussions with and a facilitated self-diagnosis of key national stakeholders centred on major capacity issues, perceptions and suggestions for improvement at different levels. In addition, to define learning initiatives that can enhance the individual capacities of the country stakeholders effectively, the workshop also included a Learning Needs Analysis (LNA). The goal of an LNA is to identify potential learning needs of the identified target audience, in order to enhance their abilities to implement the VGGT and improve responsible governance of tenure at national level.

The combined CA/LNA will provide the basis to define further tailored VGGT activities in the country, from now until mid-2020, based on a system-wide capacity development strategy that is believed to provide a tool that enriches the ongoing governance of tenure discussion, guides the development and implementation of relevant laws and policies, helps strengthening the use of the VGGT as a checklist against which tenure governance can be assessed, and provides examples of best practices.
The workshop is made possible through the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).