ABOUT SNV
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation is a Netherlands based international NGO that delivers capacity building advisory services to over 2,000 clients in 32 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Balkans. In Asia, SNV provides capacity building services to government, non-government and private sector organisations in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as to a number of regional organisations and networks. Our 140 advisers in Asia work with local actors, primarily those who operate at national and meso levels in strengthening their capacity to effectively realise poverty reduction and good governance. SNV aims to achieve development results in two areas: (1) Reducing extreme poverty by increasing production, employment and equitable income opportunities via our work in Smallholder Cash Crops, Pro-poor Sustainable Tourism, and Forest Products; (2) Improving the access, coverage and quality of basic services via our work in Water, Sanitation & Hygiene and Renewable Energy
SNV’s Pro Poor Sustainable Tourism
Sustainable tourism has enormous potential for poverty reduction. With relatively little capital investment, tourism can yield high levels of employment and income for the poor, particularly in rural communities where biodiversity has remained intact. SNV works to develop pro-poor sustainable tourism by helping tourism stakeholders to develop policies and practices that contribute to poverty alleviation.
The Pro-Poor Sustainable Tourism (PPST) activities of SNV aim to strengthen our clients’ abilities to enhance the local socio-economic impact from tourism through our services in:
• Improving product quality and commercialisation in tourism destinations
• Developing market linkages and value chain development for tourism products and services
• Mainstreaming ‘inclusive business’/pro-poor principles in private sector businesses, and
• Improving policy making and sector coordination.
SNV and the Mekong Region:
In the Mekong region, SNV is providing pro-poor tourism support in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam
1. Pro Poor Sustainable Tourism activities in Cambodia:
In Cambodia, SNV aims to enhance the local socio-economic impacts through tourism as described above. Based on the current Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Tourism and SNV, the emphasis of SNV’s intervention is in the policy framework, especially ecotourism. Ecotourism is emphasized due to the fact that 95 per cent of the poor live in the rural areas, in the vicinity of the natural sites. After the policy, strategy and action plan has been approved and ratified, the emphasis will shift towards implementation including capacity building of local knowledge and service providers, commercial viability and market access. The following case – Mekong Discovery Trail – provides an example on implementation.
The pro-poor sustainable tourism team works with the Ministry of Tourism, Departments of Tourism and Tourism Development Committees in the provinces, Cambodia Community-based Ecotourism Network, and Cambodian Association of Travel Agencies. The development partners include The World Tourism Organization, Asian Development Bank, AECI and FPSC, IFC/MPDF, WWF, and local knowledge providers such as the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
Case study: Mekong Discovery Trail Project
Kratie and Stung Treng – two northeastern provinces on both sides of the Mekong River – consist of 80 communes with a population of roughly 0.4 million people. The region is endowed with several natural attractions and historical sites. The infrastructural facilities are, however, weak and the people mostly depend on agriculture for livelihood, though its productivity is low. As a result 140,000 to 200,000 people live under the provincial consumption poverty line (under US$ 0.50). Tourism is therefore considered as a major option for alleviating poverty and achieving sustained development of the region.
The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) approached SNV and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in order to alleviate poverty by developing appropriate forms of tourism in Cambodia’s less developed provinces and to implement the national level ecotourism policy and strategy conducted by MOT with SNV’s technical assistance. As a result, the Mekong Discovery Trail project has been developed jointly between the MOT, UNWTO and SNV. The project has been divided into three phases:
• phase I: Kratie Tourism Master Plan (completed in December 2007)
• phase II: Planning and Design of the Mekong Discovery Trail (on-going)
• phase III: Implementation (will commence in the second half of 2008).
During the phase I, SNV provided advice in stakeholder approach and in marketing and product development. The master plan process was also supported by a pro poor tourism review conducted by Mekong Private Sector Development Facility and SNV. The value chain analysis in Kratie indicated that less than 12 per cent of tourist expenditure has pro poor impacts at present. Therefore the Kratie Tourism Master Plan emphasized interventions to increase these impacts.
During the phase II, SNV will undertake a baseline survey at destination, enterprise, commune and household level along the trail from Kratie to Cambodia/Lao PDR border. The survey, which will be conducted together with the provincial tourism departments, will provide the basis for monitoring and evaluating the success of the project and its impacts towards poverty alleviation.
SNV has also sourced funding for a capacity building project targeting the provincial tourism development committees in Kratie and Stung Treng Provinces. This project is being implemented by the Cambodia Community-based Ecotourism Network (CCBEN), local capacity builder, and supported by SNV’s technical advice.
The implementation phase will concentrate on capacity building, supporting and training communities/individuals/businesses in setting up MSMEs, enhancing the quality of visitor experience by implementing the interpretation plan and establishing guide training and accreditation, and ensuring economic sustainability by targeting appropriate markets and market segments with promotional materials and familiarization tours.
If all project recommendations are implemented, it is expected that
• 3,500 people in Kratie and 700 in Stung Treng will be employed directly and indirectly by tourism sector by 2017. Based on the Kratie pro poor tourism review around 50 per cent are from poor backgrounds and they support a family of five people.
• The Mekong Discovery Trail is designing to involve four communities in tourism development directly. Around 19,342 people, of which close to 50 per cent are believed to live under the provincial poverty line, reside in these communities. It is estimated that 50% of the poor would be involved in yet to be established CBT committees and their activities and therefore benefit directly from tourism. Therefore the number of beneficiaries in the communities is estimated at 4,800.
• Improved linkages to the supply chains, especially agriculture sector, will increase the number of indirect beneficiaries considerably.
2. Pro-poor Sustainable Tourism activities in Lao PDR:
SNV Lao PDR works closely with the Lao National Tourism Administration (LNTA), Provincial Tourism Departments/Offices (PTD/O) and other relevant government organisations to strengthen their capacity in pro-poor sustainable tourism development and management. Supporting the private sector is also critical to success and clients include the Lao Association of Travel Agents (LATA) and other industry associations.
Partners working with SNV Lao PDR in pro-poor sustainable tourism include the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the European Union, the Mekong Private Sector Development Facility (MPDF) and NGOs such as the Wildlife Conservation Society.
By 2010, it is expected that SNV – through it pro-poor sustainable tourism interventions – will have contributed to generating increased income and employment opportunities for 160,000 poor people.
Case study: Pro-poor tourism development in Houaphanh province
Houaphanh, a poor and remote province in the northeast of Lao PDR, is home to many ethnic minorities. SNV was requested by the Lao PDR Government to support the Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) in pro-poor sustainable tourism development. The goal of our interventions was to spread the benefits of tourism across all districts in Houaphanh province and increase income generation and employment opportunities for poor people in the area.
Since 2005, two SNV advisors have been working in the Houaphanh. Their work has focused on:
• Implementing recommendations of the Houaphanh Provincial Tourism Action Plan
• Organising tourism awareness seminars and training in various districts
• Improving the tourism information centre in the provincial capital and building capacity of PTO staff in information centre management
• Developing promotional materials and increasing the capacity of PTO staff to market the province as a tourism destination
• Increasing the capacity of PTO staff in tourism planning and preparing a long-term pro-poor sustainable tourism development strategy for the province
• Developing the capacity of PTO staff to collect and analysis statistical data in relation to tourism activity for the purposes of monitoring and evaluation and industry development
• Implementing three UNWTO ‘Sustainable Tourism - Eliminating Poverty’ projects.
Achievements: Tourism is a relatively new phenomenon in Houaphanh Province and, until recently, international visitor arrivals were negligible. However, the province recorded significant increases in 2005 +76%, 2006 +57%, and 2007 +57%, with consequent increases in revenue. 2008 figures follow a similarly positive trend.
Other achievements include:
• The development of a flagship attraction at the Viengxay Caves
• Widespread international media coverage which has helped to successfully market the province as an international tourism destination
3. Pro-poor Sustainable Tourism activities in Vietnam:
As a “spearhead” of Vietnam’s economy, the tourism sector in Vietnam is expected to grow at over 16% per year contributing 4.75 billion USD to national GDP and employing 1.2 million people by 2010. This diverse and labor intensive industry presents enormous opportunities for poverty reduction. At the same time, this rapid growth presents important challenges, such as poorly planned product development, a lack of available skilled labour and management, and the skills and knowledge to find adequate solutions – especially at the meso-level where much of current tourism development and investments takes place.
Tourism can, and should, yield significant benefits for the poor both in main tourism destinations as well as in remote, rural areas with few viable alternative sustainable development opportunities and often huge tourism development potential. SNV’s deliberate choice is to harness the booming tourism sector to pro-poor development objectives, an approach fully in line with Vietnam’s National Tourism Action Plan. This investment choice is intended to make a significant difference in terms of reducing environmental degradation, improving governance, and improved tourism products and market competitiveness resulting in more inclusion of women and minorities, and diversification of income generation opportunities for the poor.
Through the supporting clients and partners our aim is enchaining the poverty reduction and sustainable development potentials of Vietnam’s booming tourism sector. Collectively, our efforts will make significant contributions to an improved policy and planning context, supporting the creation of a more effective and market-based tourism sector, that fully maximizes the poverty reduction opportunities and sustainable development of tourism in Vietnam. Our targets are to create new income earning opportunities for 300,000 currently poor individuals through interventions that also address social and gender equity, enhanced local governance, and best practices in sustainable development.
Case study: Law on Tourism
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) initially contacted SNV Vietnam in June 2003 to provide support to the development of the country’s first Law on Tourism. For SNV this provided an opportunity to work on national-level tourism legislation for the first time, as well as commence important working partnerships with VNAT and the UNWTO also a partner in this initiative.
SNV’s role was to provide targeted technical assistance for integrating sustainable development and poverty reduction imperatives into the Law, along with process facilitation support. The delivery of these services employed a capacity building and multi-stakeholder engagement approach. This process included 5 regional and 2 national-level workshops and numerous stakeholder consultation activities designed to raise awareness and gain inputs from local authorities, destination management bodies, tourism businesses, local communities and relevant government agencies for the development of the Law.
This extensive consultation process provided inputs from tourism sector stakeholder groups to improve the content and relevance of the Law and also significantly raise awareness amongst these groups on the importance of sustainable development and poverty reduction through tourism. These extensive consultations were also a key factor in the Law passing through the National Assembly approval on the first reading in June of 2006
As a result of this work, the Law on Tourism now contains specific directives and other provisions for sustainable development and poverty reduction and has gained recognition as an international “best practice” in this regard by the UN-WTO, UNEP, UNESCAP and ODI amongst others.
The same approach employed in two subsequent phases of the Law development and implementation process. During these phases VNAT took more of a leading role based on the skills acquired during the previous phase of the project, with similar results achieved in terms of broad stakeholder engagement leading to important inputs and endorsement and further strengthening of the legislations ability to provide for sustainable development and poverty reduction.
The most recent phase of the law implementation process involved support to the creation of specific regulations and the outlining of a comprehensive implementation manual for the Law on tourism. Once again, extensive stakeholder consultations were held, supplemented by strategic inputs and advice on poverty reduction and sustainable development form SNV.
Throughout this process more than 2,500 representatives from tourism stakeholder groups took advantage to provide direct inputs to this legislation formularization. The Law is well known to and widely supported by government and industry. Specific provisions that address sustainable development and poverty reduction a stakeholder engagement processes are secured and detailed in the Law.
As Vietnam’s tourism sector continues to grow at a remarkable rate, a new law is now in place that supports a healthy and vibrant tourism sector strongly linked to enhancing local livelihoods for 1,000,000 people directly engaged in and influenced by Vietnam’s booming tourism sector.
SNV sustainable tourism services are part of our contribution to the worldwide fight against poverty, specifically as it relates to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For the latest news regarding our sustainable tourism work, please visit our website: http://www.snvworld.org