This study reviews the success of the process used in the Second Red River Basin Sector Project. The Project concerns Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Red River Basin of northern Vietnam and cuts across the issues of institutional capacity-building, public awareness, poverty alleviation, gender, and stakeholder participation.

This paper presents the experience of stakeholder participation in the process of identifying issues and possibilities linked with hydropower development. It is concerned with Stage 2 of the National Hydropower Plan (NHP) Study in Vietnam (SWECO 2004). In order to document a general trend in Vietnam it gives a brief account for stakeholder participation level in Stage 1 of the NHP Study. A positive development has taken place over the past decade, much in line with international thinking; towards a systematic grip to upgrade stakeholder involvement.

This study emphasizes the importance of involving stakeholders in data formation related to assessments of hydropower development as a prerequisite for projects to be sustainable. It concerns the emerging dissonance between policy and its implementation after the UNCED and UNSSD conventions, when using hydropower development as a case. The new policies make it mandatory for implementing agencies to introduce or expand social considerations far beyond old practices. About a dozen project cases are assessed to show how policy change has influenced project design and implementation gradually. Readers will find a detailed account for new data formation methods through stakeholder mobilization. The book shows how the sustainability drive combines with democracy and grassroots involvement to influence stakeholder formation of project details.