ECUE-Novelnarrative on CS in VN Civil society in Vietnam has gone through different period, since 1993, when the governmental Decree number 35 to allow of establishment of NGO (so call scientific organizations) in Vietnam. Presently, there is a diverse spectrum of associational life inVietnam, including: (-) membership based associations, clubs, foundations registered or not; (-) registered NGOs under the form of institutes, center, social enterprises; (-) networks, movements, religious organizations, and (-) a growing number of political groups. The latter are not recognized by the Government. So far, civil society had great contribution to the development of the country.
Civil society space has been shrinking over the past recent years. Vietnam has reached low middle-income status;many donors have withdrawal from the country. The government has imposed different restricted laws and policies to the operation, e.g. decree 93 to control financial inflow and decision 76/2010/Q#-TTg to manage international workshop/meetings, limiting outreach activities of CSOs and financial depletion from international development assistance.
These have been leading to the low impact of the civil society#s work and networking between civil society is loose. Rethinking civil society is necessary.
Beside these visible factors, like in many other countries, #narratives have become a weapon for closing civic space. State and non-state perpetrators of violence and restrictions are crafting and mobilising public narratives as a core strategy. They use stigmatisation and smear attacks to discredit and isolate activists and movements. They manipulate news, public opinion, and beliefs and fears to legitimise repressive actions and divide and undermine civil society. They spread negative narratives that portrayactivists as anti-national, anti-development, undermining societalnorms, elitist, unaccountable and corrupt, and even as terrorists. These narratives and their framing foster and exploit existing prejudice to generate fear, call into question whose rights and voices count, justify legal restrictions and repression, and to create conditions for violent attacks and impunity #.
According to the study #benchmark assessment of civil society space in Vietnam#, social and cultural values is one of fundamentalfactors to influence the expansion or shrinking of civil society space. The space expands when the public participate in philanthropic activities, increase their support/acceptance of independent social criticism and ideological difference, care about social injustice and political activities. In other words, the more people participate in and support for civil society the broader space that civil society creates. The people willingness to participate in and support for civil society is influenced by thenarrative about civil society. This is why the state and other actors are using narratives to confuse, scare and prevent people from participating in and supporting for civil society.

Therefore, created space for different civil societygroups to strategically reflect on moving forward and to create and disseminate alternative narrative is important. This project seeks to unite civil society actors in order to reflect ways of working, conduct strategic planning, thus strengthening the capacity of CSOsactors. On the other hand, it also focuses on searching for new narratives of civil society, as well as ways to promote socialjustice and human rights agendas. It seeks ways to build strong popular support for civil society and activist movements thatcan withstand delegitimizing narratives. It is a long-term work and requires more than smart and well-framed communications campaigns.

The project objective
1. Strengthened engagement and interactions among CSO actors including registered NGOs and emerging youth groups, i.e. CBOs toward a more united civil society sector.
2. Enhanced communication by civil society actors targeting different publics, of novel narrative and values portraying CS constructive image to development.