WISDOM Project

The Water-related Information System for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong Delta, WISDOM is a multidisciplinary project of German-Vietnamese Initiative. Its main objective is to develop and implement a platform for the collection, exchange and processing of water related information; this platform will also provide operational services in the fields of disaster prevention and mitigation and integrated water resources management in the project region.

The Center for Development Research ZEF is contributing the social science background and perspective to the project. ZEF’s core task is to implement the project’s work package on knowledge management (WP 2000), which is about:

-      knowledge management systems governing the water sector,

-      water policy and planning and

-      local politics of water management

The results of the research will be integrated into the water information system and also guide the process of system design and implementation of the project. In addition, the existing knowledge management system will be strengthened through various capacity building activities.       

The main partner organisations of ZEF in Vietnam are the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute MDI (Can Tho University) and the Southern Institute of Social Sciences, SISS (Vietnamese Academy for Social Sciences). 

Since the beginning of 2008 ZEF has been operating a project office within the premises of MDI in Can Tho. In April 2008 four junior researchers of ZEF will start their one year field research in the Delta. Most of the research will be done in Can Tho, in both rural and urban areas. The various PhD research topics are as follows:

-          Managing and Governing Knowledge in the Water Sector of Vietnam

-          Coping with Floods: Local Knowledge in the Mekong Delta

-          Planning and Implementation of Dyke Systems in the Mekong Delta

-          Rural water supply in the Mekong Delta