2ND INTERNAL TRAINING: CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH - ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO- ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCE FOR LIVE HOOD ADAPTATION WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

On July 23th, 2018, following the objectives of REACT ToT2,  the training titled “Assessment of socio - ecological resilience for livelihood adaptation with drought and salinization in Mekong delta” was held at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City, with guest speaker Assoc. Prof. PhD. Nguyen Hong Quan from Center of Water Management and Climate Change (WACC). 

The training is part of the REACT project - Strengthening climate change research and innovation capabilities in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia - coordinated by University of Alicante (Spain) and funded by EU’s Erasmus+. The REACT project focuses on improving teaching quality of higher education - college, university, postgraduate education - of the three countries, especially in the field of climate change research and innovation.

The training was hosted by Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies with the support of lecturers from Faculty of Sociology, USHH - VNUHCM. The training attracted a wide range of participants including staff, researcher, postgraduate student, lecturer and student from many departments, institutes, research centers and several universities ( University of Economics, University of Technology and Education, Lac Hong University, Thu Dau Mot University, University of Architecture, Pedagogical University, Tra Vinh University), along with staff members from USSH’s departments. In addition, there were journalists attending the training.

 At the beginning of the training, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Xoan - Dean of Faculty of Sociology, HCMUSSH - gave an introductory speech about the REACT project, the importance of understanding the current environmental issues. She also expressed her gratitude to all the participants for attending the training.

In the first part of the presentation, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hong Quan introduced some theories about the socio-ecological system and especially emphasized on the interaction between human and nature within the system, following by some theoretical frameworks and common socio-ecological analysis methods which have been using in Vietnam and the world. He also made clear distinction among three concepts: Resilience, Adaptability, Transformability as well as the importance of damage evaluation within the socio-ecological system. In addition, some indexes to evaluate the environmental resilience to climate change and practical experience on constructing the questionnaire for social survey to ensure statistical meaning based on these indexes were also discussed during the training.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hong Quan_Presenter of the training

In the second part, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hong Quan addressed some basic facts on research activities in Mekong Delta. In this part, he presented his research on developing sustainable living model and socio-economic development model for the region given the frequent droughts and salinity intrusion. The research explored challenges in improving awareness and encouraging local people to change to an adaptive living model in accordance with climate changes, as well as the effectiveness of the model.

Participant discussed with the presenter

In the Q&A session, along with discussion on the research methodology regarding climate change, participants expressed their concerns of the language barrier and the translation of some jargons such as resilience, vulnerability, and adaptability. Specifically, there are many translations of these jargons, which cause confusion during research and knowledge dissemination to the community. However, they unanimously agreed that this is a common problem in the field of social research as there has been yet a final solution.

The training is an opportunity for researchers to introduce their researches and exchange their experience to expand cooperation and foster innovation in climate change research. At the end of the training, Dr. Tran Dinh Lam - Director of Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies - gave his remarks on the practical meaning of the training in the contribution of improving awareness about climate change, especially among students given its current negative impact on economy, society and people’s lives. Moreover, the knowledge provided in the training is also very essential to managers, policy-makers in drafting and implementing the plan to have effective responses to climate change.  

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