Development Strategy

The development priorities of the Community Development Center form part of the Institute for Water Resources Economics (IWRE) Development Strategy to 2035, with a vision to 2045, and reflect the Center’s assigned functions and responsibilities.

Development focus

The Center focuses on participatory water governance, the collective economy and rural infrastructure development. Within the Institute’s priority on local water governance and climate-resilient rural development, it leads work on organizations, participation, livelihoods and capacity development.

Priorities

• Improve organizational models, coordination, decentralization and empowerment; strengthen communities, local water user organizations and cooperatives.
• Assess water services from users’ perspectives, linking service performance with equity, livelihoods and resilience.
• Develop participatory management models for small-scale and on-farm irrigation, rural water supply and environmental sanitation.
• Develop local datasets, survey and evaluation tools; strengthen analysis of local institutions, household and collective economies, gender and social inclusion.
• Provide training, advisory services and knowledge transfer, and scale up models suited to different ecological regions.

Expected product groups

Products include organizational models and financing arrangements for water user organizations and cooperatives; criteria and tools to assess service quality, costs, affordability and willingness to pay; guidance on responsibilities; local datasets; and capacity development programmes for officials, organizations and communities. Finance, infrastructure and basin governance components are developed jointly with the Institute’s specialist units.

Roadmap to 2035

2026–2030: refine conceptual frameworks and criteria, develop baseline datasets and pilot models in representative ecological regions, linked to new rural development and the collective economy.

2031–2035: standardize and scale up models; establish regular training and advisory programmes; progressively connect local data with system and river basin governance.

Vision to 2045

Within the Institute’s long-term direction, the Center will continue to strengthen research and knowledge transfer in participatory governance, community development and the collective economy, connecting research with the needs of local authorities, grassroots organizations and water service users.

Sources: IWRE Development Strategy to 2035, with a vision to 2045, full version, Hanoi 2026; Decision No. 07/QĐ-VKTTNN dated 9 July 2026.