This sector assessment, strategy, and road map highlights the Government of Viet Nam's plans and strategies for addressing priority needs for the financial sector and identifies possible preliminary areas of international assistance. It assesses key sector development needs by analyzing strengths, constraints and weaknesses, various risks, potential threats, as well as opportunities. This knowledge product serves as a basis for further dialogue on how the Asian Development Bank and the government can work together to tackle the challenges of managing financial sector development in Viet Nam in the coming years.

The study of urbanization in Southeast Asia has been a growing field of research over the past decades. The Routledge Handbook of Urbanization in Southeast Asia offers a collection of the major streams and themes in the studies of the cities in the region. A focus on the urbanization process rather than the city as an object opens the topic more broadly to bring together different perspectives. This timely handbook presents these diverse views to build a clearer understanding of theoretical contributions of urban studies in Southeast Asia and to provide a complete collection of scholarly works that are thematically structured and a useful tool for teaching urbanization in Southeast Asia. Following the introduction by the editor, the handbook is structured along central, emerging themes. It contains six parts, which are each introduced by the editor: Theorizing Urbanization in Southeast Asia Migration, Networks and Identities Development and Discontents Environmental Governance The Social Production of the Urban Fabric Social Change and Alternative Development This handbook will be an essential reference work for scholars interested in Urban Studies, cities and urbanization in Asia, and Southeast Asian Studies.

This joint World Bank/OECD volume is the second edition of a 2006 study which charts donor approaches, experiences, and challenges integrating human rights into development policy. It analyses a range of rationales for donor approaches to human rights and results these have yielded in policies, programs and projects.

Vietnam has enjoyed significant economic success since the implementation of its "doi moi" reforms, including rapid growth in GDP, exports and foreign and domestic investment, and a shedding of poorly-performing state-owned enterprises. Despite this, however, the economic situation for many ordinary people in Vietnam is fragile, with income only just above the poverty line, and high unemployment, especially among the young. In addition, inflation is high, and the state-owned sector is still large, much of it still performing badly. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the current economic situation in Vietnam. It outlines the state of the economy, paying special attention to employment, discusses government policies including on trade and integration with the global economy, and concludes by assessing the key challenges facing Vietnam’s economy going forward.

This report discusses the political, economic and social opportunities and constraints that will influence the design and implementation of REDD+ in Vietnam. In particular, four major direct drivers (land conversion for agriculture; infrastructure development; logging (illegal and legal); forest fire) and three indirect drivers (pressure of population growth and migration; the state’s weak forest management capacity; the limited funding available for forest protection) of deforestation and degradation in Vietnam are discussed, along with their implications for REDD+. These drivers and their impacts vary from region to region, and change over time – no ‘one-size-fitsall’ formula will function across the whole of Vietnam. The report also examines the lessons learnt from various forestry and economic development policies and programmes and suggests how a future REDD+ mechanism can overcome the major challenges, which include limited funding for forest protection, weak local governance capacity, poor vertical and horizontal coordination, low involvement of the poor, women and indigenous groups, low economic returns, elite capture of land and benefits, and corruption. The report suggests that if REDD+ is to succeed, it must be participatory, that is, all players are given fair and ample opportunity to be part of the programme (particularly those with the least resources or the greatest economic disenfranchisement); transparent, that is, all players can trace how the programme is administered, including the distribution of benefits; and well-monitored, to ensure that the programme is conducted such that it meets its overarching objectives and guidelines. The success of REDD+ will also require that it take a pro-poor and pro-gender equity approach.