Purpose: This report is aimed to assess the performance and progress of mangrove planting project, its long term impacts on communities for sustainable safety and resilience in Vietnam and the return on investments for both outputs and outcomes.

Overview: This report presents a study and evaluation of the impact, efficiency and sustainability of the “Community-based Mangrove Reforestation and Disaster Preparedness Programme”, implemented by Vietnam Red Cross (VNRC) between 1994 and 2010. It finds  that  the  programme has  a  significant  impact towards  disaster   risk  reduction and an  enhancement   of   communities’   livelihoods, and also  a  highly  efficient way to reach  its  protective, direct  economic  and ecological  benefits.  Challenges to sustainability need to be tackled in an appropriate manner. This report consists of eight chapters including case studies of five communes, which present findings in greater detail  and  make  the  calculation  of  costs  and  benefits  more  transparent.

• An overview of the programme and its history, as basic knowledge of the background.
• The following chapter highlights the background of this evaluation, its objectives and the methodology used.
• Chapters 3-7 include  the findings of  the evaluation
• The report ends with a concluding chapter that discusses implications of the findings to VNRC and its donors, the Vietnamese  government and the wider development and disaster risk management community, not  least what role mangrove afforestation can play in future programming

Usage: Monitoring and Evaluation

Audience: Technical staff