Vietnam Liaison Officer

A quick note about my job...unfortunately my time here isn't just about eating out and touring the country...I wish!

In my position as the Vietnam Liaison Officer, I act as the "go between" for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the Association of Cities of Vietnam (ACVN). Essentially, I help coordinate technical exchanges between officials from Canadian cities with officials from Vietnamese cities.

For example, if a city in Vietnam wants to work on developing a recycling program, we might pair that city up with a Canadian city, say, Vancouver. The technical staff in Vancouver that are in charge of the city's recycling program would then provide their Vietnamese counterparts with the expertise, training and information necessary to set up a similar project in Vietnam, taking into consideration the local context and resources available. Ultimately, it's the Vietnamese counterparts that manage the project and are responsible for the long term sustainability of it. The Canadians merely assist to build the capacity of their overseas colleagues and to "train the trainer".

At the moment, the FCM and ACVN are in the process of evaluating the end of three partnerships between Canadian and Vietnamese cities, on subjects such as waste management, tourism development and land information management. As part of the evaluation process, I was recently given the opportunity to facilitate a half-day monitoring and evaluation workshop in Hanoi with our Vietnamese project partners from Lang Son, Nam Dinh, Tuy Hoa and Vung Tau.

Unfortunately, my vietnamese language skills remain quite basic, so I had to use the services of simultaneous translation from english to vietnamese with the help of two professionals. It was an amazing experience, and despite the language barrier, I think the workshop elicited a lot of good questions and comments as well as active participation from all of the delegates involved.

I enjoy working as the Vietnam Liaison Officer as it combines many of my interests: travelling, urban planning and international development.