This launching workshop is a part of Network for Agriculture and Rural Development Think-tanks for Countries in Mekong sub-region (NARDT) funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The Network of Agriculture and Rural Development Think-tanks (NARDT) project is designed to form a consortium with flexible cooperation mechanism where think tanks of different stakeholders of Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao and Vietnam can work together in an effective manner to improve the quality of policies in agriculture and rural development and facilitate the up-scaling and institutionalization of good practices, innovations and lessons learnt from the programs supported by IFAD and other donors.

The workshop was co-chaired by Dr. Tran Cong Thang - DG of IPSARD and NARDT projec director, Dr. Thomas Rath - IFAD country director to Vietnam, and Dr. Dang Kim Son - Senior Regional Facilitator of NARDT project. 

The overall goal of the project is to improve quality of policy formulation and impacts of policy implementation in agriculture and rural development sector through the promotion of information sharing, experience exchange, joint-research and institutional capacity strengthening for the policy think-tanks, networks and dialogues in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

The NARDT project directly benefits the members of the network. They are policy think tanks of ministries, research institutes, agribusiness associations, farmer organizations, NGOs, etc. This helps to improve the research quality and make research activities more practical. Indirect target groups are a large number of farmers and rural residents in 4 countries when they can access to knowledge ad experiences through the ICT-based platform and benefit from better ARD policies. Similarly, other interested parties can also easily acces s to the information and knowledge that they need.

IPSARD is the lead agency of NARDT project, responsible for coordinating the regional Network in CLMV and taking lead in setting up and coordinating country-level network (NARDT-Vietnam). NARDT-Vietnam consists of potential policy think tanks in Vietnam and a member of regional-NARDT. Network’s activities may include, but not limited to knowledge sharing, capacity building, joint studies and policy dialogue.

The NARDT-Vietnam launching workshop aimed to

• announce the launching of “Network for Agriculture and Rural Development for Policy Think Tanks in Vietnam” to local stakeholders,
• express interest of becoming partners and members of NARDT in Vietnam, and
• gather inputs and ideas from stakeholders to form the research and policy advocay agenda of NARDT-Vietnam

The launching workshop attracted 50 participants from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, research institutes and centers, development partners, NGOs, Farmer Associations, and Agriculture-related Private Sectors.