Village monitoring and review summary report: period up to mid 1998

This report presents the main results and recommendations from the MRDP (Vietnam Sweden Mountain Rural Development Programme) village monitoring and review process for the period up to December 1997. The MRDP works in 259 villges in the provinces of Phu Tho, Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang, Lao Cai and Ha Giang, in Vietnam. The report focuses on four main aspects: changing socio-economic situation; local organisational development; changes in land use and production; and rural finance (savings and credit. The report is based on the analysis and documentation made by villagers during PRAs (Participatory Rural Appraisals) and village planning exercises, with further analysis by province and district staff at a Monitoring and Review Workshop held in Ha Giang in 1998. It contains a summary of the ideas and learning as made by staff at all levels of the programme. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis and presentation are used, including: household and village examples summarising progress and achievements; data analysis and summary from activity monitoring and village wealth ranking exercises; organisational diagrams to show the evolution of local organisation over time; matrix ranking and scoring; and summary tables and ranking of peoples ideas on the progress, achievements and shortcomings of activities and on development trends in general.