CHALLENGES IN MAINSTREAMING ICH INTO
DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN VIETNAM
Vu Canh Toan

Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET-International)

Natural Hazards in Vietnam
Vietnam is a disaster-prone country that is suffered from multiple hazards such as
typhoon, flooding, flash flood, landslides, drought, coastal/river erosion, saline
intrusion, forest fire, and earthquake, etc. (Figure 1). These hazards have caused
significant human and material losses for the country. According to the Central
Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control of Vietnam, more than 2,000people lost their lives and 2,200 people were missing due to natural hazards during
the period from 1997 to 2007. In the same period, Vietnam lost nearly 1 Billion dollars
per year in term of economic damages. This situation will likely worsen as naturalhazards are becoming more and more severe and unpredictable (MoNRE 2016).

Figure 1072

Map of hazard zone in Vietnam. (Source: SRV 2004)

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Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in Vietnam – Organiza�onal Structure
Vietnam has a long tradition of responding to natural hazards. The country has set up
a comprehensive government system on disaster risk management (Figure 2). At thenational level, the Central Steering Committee for natural disaster prevention andcontrol (NDPC) led by the Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD) with members coming from all national ministries including theMinistry of Culture, Tourism and Sport (MCTS) and other organizations such as theVietnam Fatherland Front, Vietnam Red Cross, Vietnam Television and Radio provides
directions for and make important decision on disaster risk reduction activities. MARDis the standing agency of the Central Steering Committee for NDPC. A similar structure
is applied at the provincial, district and commune levels. The only difference is that, atthe local level, the chairman of People’s Committee takes the lead of the NDPC
committee. A committee for NDPC is also established in each ministry.
While the NDPC committee’s responsibility covers all aspect of DRR, the Central
Committee for Incidents and Disaster Response, and Search and Rescue is mainly incharge of emergency activities.
Although MCTS is also a member of the NDPC national Steering Committee, their roleis rather small. In addition, the ministry has been not very active in DRM/DRR
activities especially in relation to ICH.

Figure 2

Organizational structure of DRM in Vietnam. (Source: Vu Canh Toan)

DRM Policies in Vietnam
In addition to a comprehensive organizational structure, Vietnam has approved andimplemented a number of policies and programs related to DRM/DRR. The key DRM/
DRR policies include:

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• Law on natural disaster prevention and control approved in 2013
• National strategy on natural disaster prevention, response and control to 2020
approved in 2007
• 5 year and annual plans for natural disaster prevention and control aredeveloped both at the national and provincial levels. These plans are also
developed by each ministry for their own sector.
• Decision No. 1002 on community awareness raising and community-based
disaster risk management (CBDRM) approved in 2009
• Circular No. 43/2015/TTLT-BNNPTNT-BKHĐT guiding the inventory andassessment of losses caused by natural disaster. Human losses in general anddamages related to tangible heritage are considered in the inventory list.
However, damages related to ICH, ICH’s holders/practitioners are not counted in
the oﬃcial inventory.
In addition to policies directly linked to DRM/DRR, some important climate change
related policies have been endorsed and implemented including:• The national strategy on climate change• The national target program to respond to climate change• The national action plan on climate change• Sectoral and provincial level action plan to respond to climate change.
Although climate change adaptation/resilience and DRM/DRR are closely linked, these
two areas are under the responsibility of two different ministries (i.e. MARD andMinistry of Natural Resources and Environment). To date, the collaboration between
these ministries seems to be limited (AIT-UNEP-RRC.AP 2010).

Challenges in Mainstreaming ICH into DRM/DRR prac�ces/policies in Vietnam
Although the Community Based Disaster Risk Management practices has beenpromoted in Vietnam, the dominant approach for DRM/DRR in Vietnam is still verymuch top-down and technocratic. This approach presents major challenges forintegrating intangible cultural heritage (ICH) (local and traditional knowledge andexperience) into DRM/DRR activities because:• It favors scientist and technical experts and top leaders’ views that consider
natural hazards and risk as a single dimension concept. It means that problems,risks and solutions are o�en defined by these groups. Other actors such ascommunities and ICH holders who may have other views/knowledge about
disaster risks have limited room to be involved.
• It o�en focuses on the ‘nature’ driver of disaster and thus relies mainly ontechnology and inflexible concrete infrastructures such as dykes and dams.
According to a recent plan, around 91% of the budget for DRR during theperiod 2018–2020 is allocated for building and upgrading hard infrastructure

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(MARD 2017). These solutions are o�en decided and designed by technicalstaff and experts with limited consideration of knowledge/understanding abouthuman and social drivers of risk/vulnerability and of other options to respond todisasters (such as strengthening social capital, improving knowledge about theweather). As a result, a number of DRR interventions have transferred anotherdisaster risk instead of reducing it.
Other challenges for the lack of integration of ICH into DRM/DRR practices andpolicies may also include:• lack of collaboration between scientists and practitioners in the two fields ofICH and DRR• ICH is an intangible concept while there has not been any appropriate tool tosupport its integration into DRM/DRR processes and practices• limited understanding and capacity of ICH-related government staff andpractitioner about DRR and vice versa

Need of Framework/Tools to Facilitate the Dialogue and Integra�on between
ICH and DRM/DRR
To better facilitate the integration between ICH and DRM/DRR, the following
recommendations are suggested:• The approach for DRM/DRR should move away from top-down andtechnocracy-oriented ones to better engage all relevant stakeholders in all
stages of DRM/DRR processes where their views, experience and local andtraditional knowledge are accepted.
• Disaster risk reduction need to be seen as socially and culturally constructedconcept/approach in which different forms of knowledge are accepted.
• DRM/DRR efforts need to focus on reducing damages and vulnerability andbuilding resilience• Problems should be defined by all relevant groups, especially the affected
people, and solutions developed with consideration of their experience as well
as local and traditional knowledge
A framework that takes into account the recommendations above is needed tosupport the integration between ICH and DRM/DRR.

R���������AIT-UNEP-RRC.AP (2010). Scoping Assessment on Climate Change Adaptation in Viet Nam. Bangkok:
Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Pla�orm for Asia.
MARD (2017). Report prepared for the national plan for natural disaster prevention and control for theperiod 2018–2020 (báo cáo Kế hoạch phòng, chống thiên tai quốc gia giai đoạn 2018–2020). HaNoi: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

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MoNRE (2016). Vietnam Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Scenarios. Ha Noi: Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environment.
SRV (2004). National Report on Disaster Reduction in Vietnam. Report prepared for the World
Conference on Disaster Reduction, Kobe-Hyogo, Japan, 18–22 January 2005. Ha Noi: Social
Republic of Vietnam.

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