Since 2011 the PAPI annually surveys more than 13’000 citizens in all provinces of Vietnam. The launch of the PAPI 2014 report took place on 14 April 2015 in Hanoi. Numerous representatives of central and provincial governments, people’s elected bodies, mass organisations, research institutions and embassies and international agencies attended the event.

Samuel Waelty, SDC country director in Vietnam, delivered a keynote at the launching event. He praised the great achievement of PAPI in stimulating a debate on the performance of provincial governments in Vietnam. He also drew the attention of the participants to the low score of the dimension “participation at the local level”. Based on the SDC collaboration with several Vietnamese provinces Samuel Waelty advocated that to apply commune participatory socio-economic development plan and to transfer funds to communes from the budgets of provinces and national targeted programs will allow citizens to implement their priorities. This will very likely increase the ownership of the citizens and positively influence their perception of” participation at the local level”.

PAPI is conducted by the Centre for Community Support & Development Study, a Vietnamese NGO, under the political umbrella of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the apex organization of all Vietnamese mass organizations. UNDP is providing technical assistance and SDC is the main donor of this initiative

The full PAPI report, fact sheets for all 63 provinces and all data can be accessed at: www.papi.vn.