Each regional office makes grants in fields that most effectively address problems in that region. In the Vietnam office, we support efforts in six key areas:
Development Finance and Economic Security
We promote improved access to financial services for disadvantaged groups, such as low-income households, ethnic minorities and women. Financial services of importance to these groups include credit, savings, insurance and money transfers. We seek to promote greater outreach by formal financial service providers, including banks, credit cooperatives and nonbank financial institutions. We also support specialist microfinance institutions and networks to strengthen and formalize their operations.
Education and Scholarship
We work to build intellectual resources and to support research in the social sciences. Under our Scholarship for the Future initiative, we bolster the research-oriented disciplines of sociology, cultural studies and anthropology. Training workshops, research grants, overseas scholarships and support for curriculum development help strengthen these fields and integrate them into international professional communities.
Environment and Development
Ford grantees are promoting sustainable wealth creation in disadvantaged communities that depend on natural resources. This involves helping poor people generate more income from the markets in which they sell products and services. We also support work to promote security of land tenure.
International Cooperation
We fund activities to assist Vietnam in strengthening its institutional capacities and achieving its national goals of equitable economic growth and regional and international cooperation. Our International Relations Training and Outreach Initiative helps fund training in international relations and diversifying relationships with the United States, two priorities of the Vietnamese foreign policy community.
Media, Arts and Culture
The foundation believes that thriving culture, arts and media are essential to a vibrant society. Under the Spaces for Creative Encounter and Expression initiative, programs are focused on revitalizing the documentary and feature film industries and encouraging artists to reflect on the world around them. We are also working to expand knowledge in the field of arts and culture management and to fund grants to document and preserve Vietnam’s diverse arts and cultural traditions.
Sexuality and Reproductive Health
We fund programs aimed at ensuring that vulnerable groups can exercise their right to access information and services for sexual and reproductive health and lead lives free of sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy and violence. We also promote strengthening the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic by funding projects that focus on new approaches to preventing HIV transmission, address injection drug use and provide support for sexual minorities and women living with HIV. In Thailand, we are supporting research to explore and respond to the link between gender-based violence and women’s vulnerability to HIV infection.