ASSETS BASED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MODEL IN VIETNAM (A Successful Case Study In Fighting Against COVID-19 Pandemic)

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
CASE STUDIES IN ASIA
A Collection of Contemporary Cases from Social Work Perspective
Editors :
Dr. Shashidhar Channappa
Dr. Nagaraj Naik M
Published by
Suvvi Publications
Gama-577214, Dr. B.R Ambedkar Road
Shikaripura, Shivamogga District, Karnataka
Mob: 9620083614
suvvibooks@gmail.com

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
CASE STUDIES IN ASIA
A COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY CASES FROM SOCIAL WORK PERSPECTIVE
Editors:
Dr. Nagaraj Naik M
Published by
Suvvi Publications
Gama-577214, Dr. B.R Ambedkar Road
Shikaripura, Shivamogga District, Karnataka
Mob:9620083614
suvvibooks@gmail.com
First Impression : 2021
Pages : 284
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Paper Used : 70 gsm
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© : Author
Price : 550
ISBN :978-81-953397-2-3
Inner Layout : Anith Sham
Cover Page : Arunkumar .G
Printed at : Chamundeshwari prints, Bangalore
© Copyright Authors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by
any means-whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic-without written
permission of both publisher and author except in the case of brief excerpts used in
critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is
illegal.The views and opinions expressed in this book are author own and the facts
reported by them have been verified to the extent possible.
ii

Acknowledgement
This book was edited with the constant support and
guidance of researchers, Social Work Professionals and
academicians. The articles in this book focusses on
community development case studies and practices in
the Asian countries. The edited articles portrays broad
information about the developmental work which are
carried in the civil society and throws light on the effort,
perseverance, practices, commitment, ideas, and
changes they brought for the community.
At the outset, we thank Prof. Ramesh B, Registrar
Evaluation, Bangalore City University, Bengaluru and Mr.
Vasudeva Sharma N.V, Executive Director, Child Rights
Trust, Bengaluru for their continuous guidance, mentoring,
encouragement and unconditional support at various
stages of publishing.
We the editors profusely thank all the authors for
contributing their valuable articles for this book. We
appreciate and thank the effort, support, guidance and
encouragement of Naoki Nakamura, Japan,
Dr. Margaret Lavina Fernandes, India, Dr. Mohammad
Hafiz Uddin Bhuiyan, Bangladesh, Yagamuni Hashini
Samurdhika Silva, Sri Lanka, Dr. Sajjad Hussain,
Pakistan, Dr. Purnima Pandey, Taiwan, Dr. Azlinda
Azman, Malaysia, Mrs. Atik Rahmawati, Indonesia, Dr.
K. Hemalatha, India, Md. Rabiul Islam, Bangladesh, Le
Thi Nhung, Vietnam, Rev. Omalpe Somananda, Sri
Lanka in bringing out this book.
vi

We are indebted to Mr. Sriganesh MV, Secretary
General, India Network of Professional Social Workers
Associations (INPSWA) for validating and endorsing the
book. Our gratitude and appreciation goes to
Prof. Sanjai Bhatt, Delhi School of Social Work ,
University of Delhi, Dr Neaz Ahmed, Professor,
Department of Social Work, Shahjalal University of
Science and Technology, Bangladesh, for their
comments and suggestions which has added value to
the text that will hopefully satisfy the needs of the
reader.
In addition, we are grateful to Mrs. Anitha Menon,
Visiting Faculty, Department of English, The Oxford College
of Arts, Bengaluru, and Mrs. Srota pandya, Counsellor
and Social worker for providing insight and feedback in
completion of this book.
We would also like to thank Mr. Sunil Kumar BN,
Publisher, Suvvi Publications, Shikaripura for accepting
our manuscript to print.
Finally, we thank all our friends and family members,
who have supported us throughout in completing this
endeavour and without whom this work would not
have been possible.
vii
Dr. Nagaraj Naik M

xxxi
Content
Foreword i
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Acknowledgement v
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List of figures v
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List of tables i
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About the Editors x
List of contributors x
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Preface x
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1. Supporting Children and Young People 33
by Community Development:
Case Studies from Japan
- Naoki Nakamura
2. Parents’ Association of 48
Deaf Children (PADC) Model :
A Comprehensive Mother Centric Model
for Empowering Mothers' to Facilitate
Mainstreaming of Children with
Hearing Impairment
- Margaret Lavina Fernandes,
Mallikarjuna M, Bhaskar Shetty,
Anuradha, and Ratna B Shetty
3. Changing Socio-Economic Trends
in Rural Community : 71
A Bangladesh Case Study
- Md. Hafiz Uddin Bhuiyan and Md. Tafhimul Islam
4. Development Induced Displacement
- An Indian Case Study 92
- K. Hemalatha

xxxii
5. Participatory Development through 108
Non-governmental Organizations :
A Case Study of NRSP in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
- Sajjad Hussain
6. Legal Rights and Practices of Tea Garden 127
Child Workers in Bangladesh
- Md. Rabiul Islam and
Mohammad Mostafijur Rahman,
7. Asset Assessment among Indigenous 146
Community in Indonesia:
A Model of Empowerment
- Atik Rahmawati and Adi Fahrudin
8. Buddhist Social Work : 200
It’s Contribution to Community
Development in Sri Lanka
- Rev. Omalpe Somananda
9. Behaviour Modification and 218
Self-Management Training
for Caregivers of Children with
Disabilities in Malaysia
- Paramjit Singh Jamir Singh, Azlinda Azman,
Syazwani Drani, Aznan Che Ahmad and
Mohd Iqbal Haqim Mohd Nor
10. Assets based Community Development Model 233
in Vietnam (A successful case study in fighting
against COVID-19 Pandemic)
- Le Thi Nhung and Nguyen Trung Hai
11. Living in diaspora : Experiences of
Indian Women in Taiwan 255
- Purnima Pandey and Mei-Kuei Yu
12. Holistic Social Work Intervention to the 269
Rural Community Issues : A Case Study
from Rural Sri Lanka
- Hashini Silva

Community Development Case Studies in Asia / 233
10
Assets based Community Development
Model in Vietnam
(A successful case study in fighting
against COVID-19 Pandemic)
Le Thi Nhung and Nguyen Trung Hai
INTRODUCTION
It has been over eight months since the first known case of
COVID-19 in Vietnam was announced on January 23rd, 2020
(Coleman, 2020). By the end of September 2020, the country has
had 1,094 confirmed cases, including 1,007 recoveries, 47 active
cases, and 35 deaths (Vietnam Ministry of Health, 2020) while it
has reached over 34,153,000 coronavirus cases in the world on
October 1st, 2020 (Worldometer, 2020). Despite a 1,400-
kilometre- spanning land border with China, where the novel
coronavirus originated, and the rocketing number of coronavirus
cases day by day in the world striking fear and panic across the
globe (MacDonald, 2020), Vietnam was the control of this
outbreak without any newly confirmed cases for days and
received acclaim by global media as having one of the best-
organized epidemic control programs in the world (Walden,
2020) for its immediacy, effectiveness, and transparency

(Humphrey & Pham, 2020). According to the survey conducted
by Dalia Research Institute in March 2020, among the countries
in the world Vietnam is the country with the highest satisfaction
about the government’s response to the epidemic with 62% of
Vietnamese believing that the government has implemented
appropriate COVID-19 disease control measures, followed by
other top five countries including Argentina (61%), Austria
(58%), Singapore (57%), China (56%) and South Africa (56%)
(Vu Nguyen, 2020). Similarly, a release on Forbes magazine
rated the level of people’s trust in the government up to 89%,
leading Vietnam to the 1st rank in the list of surveyed countries
(McCarthy, 2020).
The linchpins of Vietnam’s success have been strategic testing,
aggressive contact tracing, and effective public communication
campaigns (Waden, 2020; MacDonald, 2020). Highlighting on a
combination of early decisive action, extensive testing, vigorous
quarantining, and social unity (Humphrey & Pham, 2020),
Kidong Park, the WHO’s representative to Vietnam said:
“Vietnam responded to this outbreak early and
proactively. Its first risk assessment exercise was
conducted in early January - soon after cases in
China started being reported…The country quickly
established a National Steering Committee for
COVID-19 Prevention and Control under the
auspices of the deputy prime minister which
“immediately” implemented a national response
plan”. (Humphrey & Pham, 2020)
Under the perspectives of community development, adding to
the government’s good role performance, there are many positive
stories on Vietnam’s community-based response. Community
development strategies in Vietnam aim to organize communities
in ways that increase their capacities to partner with institutions,
the participation of local people, transparency and equality, and
unity within local communities (Yen & Luong, 2008).

LITERATURE REVIEW
Globally defined by the United Nation as “a process where
community members come together to take collective action and
generate solutions to common problems” (UN, 2014), the purpose
of community development is adopted by the International
Association for Community Development (2016) “to work with
communities to achieve participative democracy… through the
organization, education and empowerment of people within their
communities …whether these be of locality, identity or interest, in
urban and rural settings.” (IACD, 2018, p8). Columbo (2003)
conceptualized the action strategies on community development,
improving the neighbourhood based on three approaches:
Rational Planning, Assets- Based Community Development, and
Community Organizing. Under the first perspective, there is a by-
and- large assumption that external resources will be called in and
control over the process and programs is outside the
neighbourhood. In contrast, the second stress on the mobilization
of local resources, carrying out this work locally. Meanwhile, the
last one takes a different approach in which the process is
controlled within the neighbourhood, external resources are,
however, brought to cope with community problems (p.11).
Fretzmann & McKnight (1993) started with community
residents, identifying their individual and organizational resources,
and building from there, which is at the opposite end of the
spectrum from Rational Planning (Columbo, 2003, p.19). The
Asset- Based Community Development model (herein called
ABCD) involves assessing the resources, skills, and experience
available in a community; organizing the community around
issues that move its members into action; and then determining
and taking appropriate action (McKnight & Kretzmann, 1996).
It focuses, first and foremost, on the capacities of neighbourhood
residents, businesses, and groups. By treating relationships as
assets, ABCD is a practical application of the concept of social
capital, present in the networks, norms, and social trust inherent
in associations whose members work together in concerted
collaborative action (ABCD Institute, 2015).

Community development stresses on people’s participation
and empowerment. Increasing participation and building social
cohesion, mutual respect, and confidence have the potential to
result in sustainable change (National Institute for Health and
Clinical Excellence- NICE, 2009). It empowers the people of the
community by encouraging them to utilize what they already
possess (Mathie, Cameron & Gibson, 2017), strengthening the
roles of commune leaders, promoting local participation, and
ensuring transparency and equity among different community
groups (Yen & Luong, 2008). The village/commune development
approach (VDP/CDP) centred around former president Ho Chi
Minh’s saying that “People know, people discuss and people
supervise.”, is often useful in Vietnam for shifting centralized
management to more decentralization, helping develop local
governance at the grassroots level (Yen & Luong, 2008).
The frame for neighbourhood planning shifts from the agency
to the community and its residents become the agents of action
(Columbo, 2003, p.19). However, ABCD methodology recognizes
that systemic injustice may require disadvantaged communities
to seek assistance from outside the community. ABCD maintains
that interventions from exterior sources will be most effective
when a community’s assets are leveraged at full capacity
(Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993, p.14). Beyond the mobilization of
a particular community, it gets involved with how to link micro-
assets to the macro-environment (Nurture Development, n.d.).
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
ABCD is defined as a methodology for the sustainable
development of communities based on their strengths and
potentials. Each community has a diverse and potent web of gifts
and assets, a unique set of skills and capacities to channel for
community development with five key assets: individuals,
associations, institutions, physical assets, and connections
(Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993; ABCD Institute, 2015).
O Individuals : The residents of the community at the centre
that have gifts, skills, assets, etc.

O Associations : Small informal groups of people, such as
clubs, working with a common interest as volunteers
O Institutions : Paid groups of people who generally are
professionals who are structurally organized are called
institutions.
O Physical Assets : Land, buildings, space, and funds are
other assets that can be used
O Connections : Exchanges between people sharing their assets by
bartering, etc. by people who are connectors through building
relationships with the individual by individual.
These assets are broken down into three categories: Gifts of
individuals, Citizens’ Associations, and Local Institutions
(McKnight & Kretzmann, 1996). Citizens’ Associations includes
both formal and informal associations. Asset maps are a core tool
for exploring community assets, abilities, skills, and strengths.
Figure 10.1 Community asset map
(Source : Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993)

ABCD is practically applied for social capital, “networks
together with shared norms, values, and understandings that
facilitate co-operation within or among groups” (Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development-OECD, n.d).
Located in neighborhood places, social capital is commonly
agreed as an intangible and ambiguous concept and fairly
divided into three main categories by the OECD as bonds,
bridges, and linkages. Bonds links to the closest people based on
a sense of common identity “people like us” while bridges links
that stretch beyond a shared sense of identity to distant friends,
colleagues, and associates. Linkages cohere to people or groups
further up or lower down the social ladder (values).
In ABCD, social capital must link into existing infrastructure.
The linkages arise from coordination of effort at strategic and
operational levels across a range of partner agencies and
organizations; including linking into existing infrastructure and
initiatives, resources, and engaging senior managers and people at
grassroots and their engagement at different levels across
organizations to achieve effective ‘buy-in’ and action (NICE, 2009).
In the Industry 4.0 of the era technologies, it will be a combination
of hardware, software, and biology and an emphasis on advances
in communication and connectivity (Schwab, 2015). Hence, existing
infrastructure should count on such components of technologies.
Figure: 10. 2. Vietnam’s adopted ABCD model in pandemic contexts
(Source: The authors, 2020)

The paper comes up with a conceptual framework on Vietnam’s
adopted ABCD model in pandemic contexts as following:
In the ABCD model, the Local and External Resources (within
Vietnam) is the most important factor. This includes the three
components which are assets from individuals, organizations
and institutions. For the first component, individuals’ gifts could
provide their talents, capacities, own assets, leaderships and
initiatives. For the second component, different organizations,
remarkably the political-society organizations, one very unique
of Vietnam, and NGOs from volunteers, social groups, charity
groups, contributed their fundraising and human resources. For
the third component, the frontiers included those from military,
hospitals, labour and social units for the taskforce groups and
basement of treatment. There were also involvement from
enterprises for their initiatives and funding. All of the three
components came at once thanks to the cohesion and solidarity
as the Social Capital of Vietnam. In ABCD, Existing
Infrastructure and ITs were linked to Social Capital and Local
and External Resources for operation. Foremost, to direct,
monitor and connect all the factors and components were the
central role of Public Administration during the whole fighting
against the pandemic.
The paper determined on how this adopted ABCD model
worked out during the pandemic contexts, especially the Covid-
19 pandemic.
KEY FINDINGS PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
The involvement of the whole political system with public
administration is one of the keys to Vietnam’s success story
against the Covid-19 epidemic till now. It is about the early
implementation of aggressive social distancing policies, strong
action from political leaders, and the muscle of a one-party
authoritarian state (Sullivan, 2020). Clearly and repeatedly,
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed: “Fighting the
epidemic is like fighting against the enemy! Ministries,

governmental sectors, and localities must not be subjective to
ensure people’s lives and health, prevent the epidemic from
spreading, and minimize deaths. The whole political system
must get involved.” (Duc Tuan, 2020). Before the end of January
2020, the country quickly established a National Steering
Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control under the
auspices of the deputy prime minister which “immediately”
implemented a national response plan (Humphrey & Pham,
2020), critical to coordinate the actions and communications of
relevant actors at different levels of governments.
The Ministry of Health (MH) assumed the prime responsibility
for coordinating with the governmental agencies, formulating
and submitting to the Prime Minister for promulgation a
directive on prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic in
the spirit and involving the entire political system. Also, MH had
a strict and regular working regime to inspect and take
preventive measures, financial preparation, ensuring availability
of medicines and facilities for epidemic prevention and control.
As a result, the guidance on Covid-19 outbreak prevention and
detection had been issued by the MH on January 21st, 2020. The
Prime Minister also emphasized regular information, especially
proactive preventive measures, not causing confusion and
wavering among the people as well as recommending people not
to go to places where crowd gather. Furthermore, MH and their
assigned medical facilities and body units developed a more
detailed prevention scenario in each specific situation, research,
and updated treatment regimens.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids & Social
Affairs (MOLISA) & the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly
assessed and identified suspected cases with the complete tracing
of all people who came in contact with the virus and from
countries with high risks and frequent immigration flows. As a
result of policy design based on MOLISA’s consultation, the
Vietnamese government passed a financial support package of
VND 62 trillion ($2.6 billion), directly supporting people in
difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic on April 10th, 2020.

Beneficiaries of this support package included employees who
had to postpone labor contracts, part-time workers who were
unemployed but are not received unemployment benefits,
enterprises which has no revenue or no financial source to pay
salaries, employers, individual business households, and people
with meritorious services to the nation (MOLISA, 2020).
Moreover, the Prime Minister emphasized the role of agencies,
committees, and local authorities (Ministers, Chairmen of the
People’s Committees of provinces and cities) in actively controlling,
proposing and implementing necessary measures to protect
people’s lives and health in the prevention and control of Covid-
19 outbreak (Dabla-Norris, Gulde-Wolf & Painchaud, 2020) from
infecting tourists, by air, water, and road in due consultation
with the health sector at their zone (Duc Tuan, 2020).
SOCIAL CAPITAL
Rooted from a country with lots of traditional and village
values and culture, the social capital (bonding, bridges and
linkages) are reflected in Vietnamese idioms and folklores, such
as Asian family oriented culture, (“Flesh and blood”, “Brothers are
like hands and feet”, “When the blood sheds, the heart aches”,
“Blood is blood/Blood is thicker than water”, “Every bird likes
his own nest”, “Couples living in harmony have strength to
displace the Eastern Sea”), community cohesion/social solidarity in
neighborhood (“Better be a neighbour that is near than a brother
that is far”, “With the four seas all men are brothers”, “When
the head aches, all the body hurts”), collective spirits (“One
swallow does not make a summer”, “A single bamboo can’t form
a row/ Many hands make ligh work”, “Union is strength”,
“United we stand, divided we fall”, “Weak things united become
strong”, “The more, the merrier”, “One for all, all for one”, “Four
eyes see better than two”), and supportive spirits (“Healthy leaves
cover torn leaves”, “Do to others as you would have them do to
you”). During the lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, the local,
nearby neighbourhoods and external resources have come at
once for the unity of the whole society fighting the pandemic.

ABCD draws out strengths and successes in a community’s
shared history as its starting point for change (ABCD Institute,
2015). Vietnam’s successful strategy and community-based
responses were informed by its experience with previous
outbreaks, like the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS,
in 2003 (Dabla-Norris, Gulde-Wolf & Painchaud, 2020). The
quick and systematic strategies of prompt, comprehensive
identification and isolation against the coronavirus are the
lessons learned from SARS, including prompt identification of
persons with SARS, their movements and contacts; effective
isolation of SARS patients in hospitals; appropriate protection of
medical staff treating these patients; comprehensive
identification and isolation of suspected SARS cases; exit
screening of international travellers; timely and accurate
reporting and sharing of information with other authorities and/
or governments (WHO, 2003). The whole society fighting spirits
shared actions, war rhetoric, and nationalism in its fight against
the pandemic are inherent in Vietnamese long and shared
history about the wars and annual natural disasters, such as
floods, typhoon or droughts, as Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan
Phuc has said: “Fighting the epidemic is like fighting against the
enemy!”, “Every business, every citizen, every residential area
must be a fortress to prevent the epidemic.” This has hit a nerve
with many Vietnamese, who are proud of their ability to stand
together in a crisis and endure hardships (Ebbighausen, 2020).
Moreover, social capital is a process of communicating
acceptable behavior and values, monitoring actions, and taking
action when the norms are violated (Colombo, 2003). Therefore,
widespread public buy-in, surveillance, and trust were critical
for success. Effective and transparent communications won the
population’s buy-in and contain broader lessons for developing
countries (Dabla-Norris, Gulde-Wolf & Painchaud, 2020). From
an early stage, communications about the virus and the strategy
were transparent through well-coordinated multi-media, which
earned the public trust and helped society adhere to protective
and containment measures (MacDonald, 2020). Vietnam’s already
robust state security apparatus had applied a widespread system

of public surveillance, helped along by a well-supplied, and
generally respected, military (Ebbighausen, 2020).
Music and entertainment become a good way for raising public
awareness and strengthening patriotism, belief, and optimism
among the citizens. Slogans have included “staying home is
loving your country”, “social distancing is a form of patriotism”,
and “the virus is your enemy” (Waden, 2020). Songs and dancing,
for example, the Ghen Co Vy, or Washing Hand Song, composed
by local musicians in collaboration with the Ministry of Health
went viral around the world for its quirky message and dedicated
choreography. Since then, ordinary people have written their
COVID-19 songs, including one by an adorable father-child duo,
titled Worry Not, Danang Will Overcome COVID (Tran &
Klingler-Vidra, 2020). Positive habits for precautionary measures
such as using hand sanitizer and facial masks turned into
acceptable behavior, values, and norms, a kind of social capital
(Column, 2003).
LOCAL AND INTERNAL RESOURCES
As the social capital with the linkages arises from coordination
of effort at strategic and operational levels across a range of
partner agencies and organizations (NICE, 2009), human resources
worked together for the whole society. In the affected zones, the
whole society were involved both locally and externally with
individuals, staff, and volunteers of organizations (Political-
Professional Organizations, INGOs, NGOs, and enterprises) and
staff of national and local institutions. The fighting against the
widespread Covid-19 pandemic require not only making use of
local-based assets in the affected community but also mobilizing
external resources, mostly domestic national assets and partly
international support.
Individuals
ABCD model primarily focused on residential individuals
with their assets, capacities, strengths, leadership, initiatives, and
time-bank. Whenever a small cluster of infections emerged, the

entire village or city was blocked from the outside world by the
implementation of a vigorous 14-day quarantine policy. In early
April, 45,000 people have to be quarantined for only 240 infected
people (Ebbighausen, 2020). There were many good daily stories
among support from families, friends, acquaintances, and
neighbours. In Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang City, Hai
Duong province and others, when one residential building or one
ward or village was blocked down, food, fresh water, and
necessities had been brought in by their families and nearby
neighbours outside the quarantine zone and passed through a
strict checking of the taskforce team at the barriers. Since February
2020, when all the schools, especially at kindergarten and primary
levels, were closed for months and parents were busy at work,
kids were taken daily care by grandparents, relatives, close
neighbours, or parent’s colleagues. “Each interview we have
conducted in Vietnam has also reminded us of humanity’s virtues.
These heartening examples of solidarity can help us all get
through this crisis.” (Tran & Klingler-Vidra, 2020).
During the epidemic, it is unique that a group of Vietnamese
individuals around the country provided such gifts to affected
communities. While Danang City became the epi-centre during
the second wave, as the report on August 2020, the City Relief
Fund received more than 49 billion VND, 5,200 USD, hundreds of
tons of goods and necessities, more than 1 million masks of all
kinds, tons of thousands of medical protective suits (Ngo Huyen,
2020). The slogan “Whoever needs to come to get it. If you have
difficulty, get one pack per day. If you are okay, please give it to
someone else” commonly appeared on many charity locations and
food stores in Hanoi, Danang, Ho Chi Minh City, and others.
Remarkably, initiatives and entrepreneurship from the
individuals were very good stories of how talented and
innovative Vietnamese could work for the goodness of the
society and community. Hoang Tuan Anh, one businessman,
had initially donated a batch of smart doorbells to hospitals in
Ho Chi Minh City. His technological expertise in food
distribution turned into an 24/7 automatic dispensing machine

providing free rice for people out of work such as street sellers,
housekeepers, lottery ticket sellers (Yen Duong, 2020). Hoang’s
rice and mask dispensers have been replicated by entrepreneurs
and charities across the country. Similar ‘rice ATMs’ have been
set up in other big cities like Hanoi, Hue, and Danang. It has
been going far beyond with facial masks and hand-sanitizer
dispensers later on (Hoang Trieu, 2020).
Another story is about Kao Sieu Luc, a famous baker with
dragon fruit bread, mooncake dragon fruit, and sharing his
recipe with the country and other businesses. His first initiative
was to help dragon fruit farmers who could not export their
crops due to Vietnam’s strict travel restrictions (Tran & Klingler-
Vidra, 2020).
Organizations
ABCD model is often marked with the roles of local/
grassroots NGOs in the close support of INGOs and IOs to
Vietnam. In Danang City, there were more than 60 volunteer
groups across the city, actively participating in the prevention
and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, providing logistic services
to frontline forces (Ngo Huyen, 2020). They were in different
forms, such as the clubs, transports, youth volunteers,
enterprises, charity groups, etc. Among them,
20 representative groups of volunteers were awarded
Certificates of Merit from Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland
Front Committee of the city for their outstanding contributions
(Ngo Huyen, 2020). The initiative “Zero Dong Fair” to provide
free food and necessities have been spread through Hanoi,
Thanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City, Kien Giang, etc. When it came to
Danang, to serve the right people in needs, the volunteer group
cooperated with local authorities to review households in
difficult circumstances affected by COVID-19 and issued
coupons for each family (Van Hoang & Huy Hoang, 2020). In
Hanoi, doctor Khuat Thi Hai Oanh and her social enterprise had
set up An- Egg- A- Day charity program to provide food, masks,
and essential goods for the homeless and extremely poor families

throughout northern Vietnam. The charity also helped people in
need to find work and accommodation, and it subsidized their
rent (Tran & Klingler-Vidra, 2020).
Distinguished Political-Society Organizations played a very
important role during disasters and pandemics. The Vietnam
Fatherland Front from central to local levels had mobilized cash
transfer, in-kind support, equipment, and necessities of over 2,200
billion VND which had been allocated to Ministry of Health and
critical areas across the country (Dung Trinh, 2020). The resources
come from domestic and foreign agencies, units, organizations,
businesses, and individuals, and fellow citizens abroad. Apart from
Vietnam Fatherland Front, there were five other main organizations
and associations in Vietnam’s political systems, including Vietnam
Trade Union, Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Vietnam
Women’s Union, Vietnam Veterans Association, and Vietnam
Farmers Association. Lots of them have been getting involved at the
frontiers and other working groups with different levels and tasks.
Institutions
The strategy was swiftly deployed with the help of the
military, public security services, and grass-root organizations,
which speaks of some features unique to Vietnam (Dabla-Norris,
Gulde-Wolf & Painchaud, 2020). Working groups combined a
group of army forces, doctors, nurses, social staff, volunteers,
and para-professionals have been the effective taskforces with
specific tasks at the frontlines. The army soldiers, the policemen,
and para-professionals worked day and night for surveillance
and security. The military camps were filled up with guarantees
in the most favourable and possible conditions. Social staff paid
home visits for assessment, identification, document support for
people in need. Doctors and nurses focused on treatment and
care for patients and suspected cases. Volunteers produced and
distributed masks, free disinfectant water, practically helping
their people (Kim Oanh, 2020). All of them were readyto do
manual jobs, take hardship, and sacrificed themselves for
volunteered at the frontlines, isolated from their families. On

social media, there were lots of heart-breaking photos of where
soldiers, volunteers, and nurses taking a nap or sleeping on the
floors, in the corners, or in the corridors.
Significantly, co-operatives and enterprises were also provided
with a variety forms of support. Vingroup, FLC Group, Vietnam
Young Entrepreneurs Association supported and established the
Covid-19 Disease Prevention and Control Fund (Kim Oanh,
2020). Through the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland
Front and direct channels to hospitals, they offered funding and
medical equipment, machinery- chemicals, such as VinGroup
(100 billion VND), Inter-Pacific Group (30 billion VND), HD
Bank (10 billion VND), FLC Group (5 billion VND), Hoa Phat
Group (5 billion VND), etc. Also, Vingroup invested and sponsored
three Covid-19 rapid response research projects through
Innovation Fund and Big Data Research Institute. Vincom Retail
has announced to spend 300 billion VND to support partners in
leasing commercial center space throughout the system. Bamboo
Airways belonging to FLC Group offered a special support policy
for partners wishing to transport medical supplies and
equipment for humanitarian purposes on domestic flights,
through priority forms, commodity and commodity freight
subsidies. HD Bank spent 5,000 billion VND in concessional
finance, the preferential interest rate is only 6.5%/year, 3,000
billion VND to finance enterprises of supplying pharmaceuticals,
medical equipment, and materials, packages to reduce interest
rates from 2-4.5% for customers affected by Covid-19. The bank
also dedicated a credit package of VND 1,000 billion to Loc Troi
Agricultural Chain to ensure the rice production and supply for
the country (Phuong Linh, 2020). The Voice of Vietnam, VTC
Digital Television, and the Vietnam National Fatherland Day
Project Board have jointly implemented the program of donating
medical masks and joining hands with the community (Journalists
and Public Opinions, 2020). At the same time, smaller enterprises
contributed to what they had. While lots of restaurants and
cafes’ had been temporarily closed by the lockdown, they cooked
and delivered free meals, juices, and coffee to the frontline
taskforce.

EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE AND ITs
One of Vietnam’s strategy against coronavirus is quarantine
policy and isolation, which created enormous challenges to a
lower-middle-income country with limited capacities. Existing
infrastructure and facilities at local and national levels including
buildings, transport, and power supplies were surveyed to map
out different levels of treatment and quarantine. Both national
and city hospitals in both public and private sectors were
assigned for the frontline treatment. Abandoned or branch
hospitals in Binh Duong Province, Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh Phuc
Province, Tien Son Sports Center in Danang City became field
hospitals. Most military camps around the country, Hostels of Ho
Chi Minh City National University and University of Labour &
Social Affairs, private hotels and resorts, etc. got involved in
providing quarantine support.
Multi-media has been used for transparent information and
public awareness. Details on symptoms, protective measures,
and testing sites were informed through mass media, a
government website, public grass-roots organizations, public
posters, via text messages on mobile phones, voice messages
before a phone call. At the same time, Vietnam threatened and
punished those spreading fake news with hefty fines and even
jail for misinformation and influential profit earnings
(MacDonald, 2020). People in Vietnam, for example, could use
most of the world’s social networks, especially Facebook, Zalo
serving as a giant information platform and sharing opinion
directly or indirectly, of government policies (Yen Duong, 2020).
Some channels of the hotline 111 for children’s SOS was
temporarily divided into the hotline for legal consultation of the
62,000 billion VND social support package during a critical time
in April and May 2020.
Vigorous tracing policies as one of the key strategies, the
government also launched contact tracing apps (MacDonald,
2020; VN Explorer, 2020). On 9 March, the health declaration
application named NCOVI was officially launched. After installing
NCOVI application on smartphones, people could enter full

personal information as required to start using. Based on the
data submitted, the health system would know the cases that
need attention to ensure the fastest and most effective medical
assistance. In April, Vietnamese cybersecurity firm BKAV
launched Bluezone, the application uses Bluetooth low energy
positioning technology to detect people in close contact with
infected people via smartphones quickly, and accurately. It is
among dozens of contact-tracing apps built globally to notify the
public of any potential exposure (Dien Nguyen An Luong, 2020).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
As the results of the study both with desktop reviews and a
case study about Vietnam’s context during the Covid-19
pandemic, the authors have come up with discussion and
conclusion of several main points related to the ABCD model as
following:
Social capital is rooted in traditional and cultural
values, shared history (war rhetoric and previous
experience in fighting against pandemic), patriotism,
nationalism, solidarity/cohesion at different levels of
ecological systems: family, neighbourhood, village/
commune, and nation. Widespread public buy-in,
surveillance, and trust were critical for success
against the epidemic.
In a widespread pandemic, the support and commitment of
society is important with all its available local and external
resources. Beyond the mobilization of a particular community, it
also gets involved with how to link micro-assets to the macro-
environment (Nurture Development, n.d.). In the context of low
economic and inferior technology, human capital is the most
important factor with enormous gifts, talents, innovation, and
readiness for participation. The effective coordination and
teamwork of the taskforces are very important to call for the
resources and carry out different tasks, strategies, vigorous
identification, holistic protective measures, prevention, and

public awareness. The effective informal helping occurred in social
networks that featured diversity, quality, interconnectedness,
formal and informal organizations, supportive, communicated,
and enforced traditions, norms of behaviour, attitudes, and
neighbourhood stability (Froland, p. 40-41, 137-149 in Columbus,
2003, p.7), so as the ABCD model. Existing infrastructure should
link with IT in technologies of Industry 4.0,
Finally, public administration is another essential component
in the model, not only to create an administrative environment
but also to give a directive to the people at the first stage of
community development. People have a chance to take their key
roles at some different levels of participation and empowerment
and self-awareness during and through stages, and lastly, they
take their ownership and leadership. ABCD maintains interventions
from exterior sources to be most effective when a community’s
assets are fully charged, and the foremost goal of community
development is achieved.
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