Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI) of Vietmam and agroecology

Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI) was founded in 5 June 2006 as a merger of its antecedents as Towards Ethnic Women (TEW, 1994), Centre for Human Ecology Studies of Highlands (CHESH, 1999) and Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Research and Development (CIRD, 2000).

The grassroots development work of the last 20 years has resulted in the National Key Farmer Network (NKFN), which in turn has consolidated into Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Community Based Institutions (CBIs). These grassroots institutions are now step by step taking over the facilitating and coordinating role in poverty alleviation and community development in the basis of integration between values of the customary institutions and formal systems via the Mekong Community Networking and Eco-Trading (MECO-ECOTRA). SPERI is focusing on education and lobby and conduct applied research in the context of market economy.

On the basis of the achievements, recommendations, challenges and initiatives of different thematic networks among MECO-ECOTRA, SPERI facilitates policy researches, policy analysis and promote social capital through Indigenous Minority Youth Leadership Development Strategy (YILEDS) by Farmer’s Field Schools (FFSs).

SPERI’s vision towards Livelihood Sovereignty of the indigenous ethnic minority communities in the Mekong region is determined by five fundamental interrelated rights: 

1. the right to Land (basic); 
2. the right to performance one’s own religion on one’s own land (unique); 
3. the right to practice one’s own knowledge in daily farming (practice); 
4. the right to decide what to grow on one’s own land (holistic); and 
5. the right to co-government of one’s land (strategic). 

This is the vital empowerment strategy for the indigenous ethnic minorities in order to sustain and enrich their original civilized dignity and achieve their self-determination towards their own ancestral traditional value of “nurturing nature”. See: SPERI's Charter: Download

Below video demonstrate how upland farmers' in Vietnam  find themselves locked in a poverty trap of producing unproductive (small tubers) cassava for the market while depleting the upland soils. This is symptomatic for how farmers can be locked in and not benefit of innovation or research. Research should at least be able to identify scenarios for a way out of such situation. The access to Ginseng plant material (with a high market value) and the work of extension services on the ground to train on agroecology good practices would make a considerable difference. The use of Vietnamese extension videos could be very helpful and could  increase the impact and efficiency of the participatory training sessions organized by ngo's and extension services.