The Centre for Sustainable Community Development is a Vietnamese NGO. It was established in May 2005 under the auspices of the Southeast Asian Research Association Vietnam (SEARAV).

S-CODE was set up as a result of community development work undertaken by the international NGO Population and development international (PDI) in Vietnam from 1983 to 2005.

In the spirit of excellence in leadership inspired by PDA, a team of Vietnamese staff, with the support of PDI, decided to take over the activities of PDI, creating a locally based organisation which delivers locally owned projects using local capacity.

At S-CODE, we have built on PDI's vision and values, adapting them to the Vietnamese context. Working on a wide range of poverty reduction and health improvement projects, our commitment is to work in partnership with local, regional and national organisations building local ownership and capacity.

Our relationships and partnerships extend across Vietnam and internationally. Our partnerships include the Vietnam Central Women's Union (VWU) and the Vietnam Central Youth Union (VYU), as well as Provincial Women's Unions (PWU's) the Rockefeller Foundation, Family Planning Australia, the Norwegian Church Aid, the McKnight Foundation, AusAID, New Zealand Embassy and Finland Embassy.

Board of Directors are voluntarily affiliated to the organisation, the board members include well-known experts in the areas of community development, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, sexual health and child development.

S-CODE is managed by an Executive Board, which consists of 4 founding members, including persons with expertise ranging from economics, international relations, biology and medical doctor professions. The majority of staff have worked as senior members of international NGOs and donor organizations. The founding members' experiences in development work cover a wide range of issues including integrated community development, child development, health and gender as well as project management and training.

 Our mission is to empower communities for sustainable developmentValueS-CODE is committed to working with national and local governmental organisations, mass organisations and local communities to build positive change in poor communities in Vietnam in ways which:

   - empowers and builds capacity, respecting indigenous knowledge
   - uses participatory approaches, leaving people with practical skills to be used well into the future;
   - are flexible, transparent and accountable;
   - build on learning from previous projects; and
   - are based on thorough research

Summary Vision for the Next 5 years S-CODE will expand its operations over the next 5 years to become one of the leading national non-governmental organisations working on improving the lives of poorer people, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health through an integrated community development approach. In general our programmes will centre on improving capacity and promoting democracy with local people and grass roots organisations. Our commitment is to work with local partners in a way that maximises the use of local resources, protects the environment at the same time as increasing motivation and creation. We will provide supportive supervision, planning and monitoring allowing local people and partners to develop and implement their own sustainable solutions.Detailed Vision for the Next 5 YearsS-CODE will expand its operations over the next 5 years to become one of the leading national non-governmental organisations working on improving the lives of poorer people, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health through an integrated community development approach. In general our programmes will centre on improving capacity and promoting democracy with local people and grass roots organisations. Our commitment is to work with local partners in a way that maximises the use of local resources, protects the environment at the same time as increasing motivation and creation. We will provide supportive supervision, planning and monitoring allowing local people and partners to develop and implement their own sustainable solutions.We will continue our poverty alleviation programme, working to empower communities and build their capacity and ensure that the poorest communities can benefit from WTO membership. We will focus our poverty alleviation projects in rural, mountainous and peri-urban areas targeting farmers and ethnic minority communities. Using our proven approach to integrated community development, we will work with local communities and partners to

   - expand and increase access markets
   - transfer new technologies
   - ensure that local authorities develop local strategies which link to the National Social Economic Development Plan
   - improve policy advocacy at a provincial level

We envisage that we will have an increasing role in supporting Vietnams HIV/AIDS campaign to prevent infections and reduce the stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV/AIDS. We will focus our HIV/AIDS projects in urban and border areas. Working with local peoples knowledge, S-CODE will develop information, education and communication (IEC) projects seeking to change behaviour targeting migrant populations and vulnerable women and children.Our work around reproductive health will primarily be around STI prevention. Our projects as with the HIV/AIDS programme are likely to be around IEC along with improving work on womens rights. In this area, we will target people living in mountainous regions and ethnic minority communities.Over the next 5 years we will deepen our relationships with our existing donors and develop new networks with potential funders so that we can see our organisation grow. We anticipate that the organisation will shortly have around 16 staff and that we will have opened an additional office in Lao Cai. To ensure that our organisation copes with this expansion, we will improve our internal processes and procedures to ensure that:

   - the organisation is well managed and led, encouraging participation and creativity
   - our financial procedures are of the highest standards;
   - our governance arrangements are effective; and
   - our project and programme management arrangements conform with best practice