The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has been active in Viet Nam since 1978. Early programmes concentrated on assisting the country with the development of its rural infrastructure. As its programmes evolved toward the institutions and organizations that make development possible, UNCDF began placing more emphasis on assisting the government with its efforts to develop improved participatory approaches to development planning, establish improved and transparent procedures for procuring public goods and transferring the responsibilities and resources for rural development to the lowest levels of public administration (communes).

Local Governance

UNCDF assistance to Viet Nam began in 1978. Early programmes concentrating on assisting the country with the development of its rural infrastructure. UNCDF assistance to Viet Nam began with a small project to provide funds for machinery that the government needed to construct a dam in Phu Ninh; this led to an integrated rural infrastructure programme and then, in turn, to the demand-driven Rural Infrastructure Development Facility. In this transition, as its programmes evolved toward supporting the institutions and organizations that make development possible, UNCDF began placing more emphasis on assisting local and provincial governments to institute improved, more transparent and participatory procedures for financing, planning and delivering local public goods and to transfer the responsibilities and resources for rural development to the lowest levels of public administration (communes and districts). The success of the local development approach pioneered by UNCDF is seen in its widespread replication by major donors in Viet Nam.