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This paper draws on the results of telephone surveys conducted to assess the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the young people of two longitudinal cohorts (aged 19 and 26 years old at the time) of the four countries that participate in the Young Lives research programme: Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. We first review the pandemic experiences of these four countries, which differed significantly, and report on the responses of the individual young people to the pandemic and the measures taken by governments. Our main focus is on how the pandemic and policy responses impacted on the education, work and food security experiences of the young people. Unsurprisingly the results show significant adverse effects in each of these areas, though again with differences by country. The effects are mostly more severe for poorer individuals. We stress the challenges that COVID-19 is creating for meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, in particular in making it more difficult to ensure that no one is left behind.

This chapter provides information on the development of Vietnamese education under the influence of global forces based on the analysis of relevant education research and policies using Wolhuter’s frameworks. In the process of coming up with ways to develop education in the face of different influences of globalization, besides having reactions with patterns commonly found in countries around the world, Vietnam also has responses that reflect its own political, sociocultural and economic characteristics. The state still plays a controlling role in education at all levels and many culture-related features that have existed throughout the country’s history have hardly changed, namely aspects related to teachers, learners and teaching and learning methods. To sustain its education in the globalized era, Vietnam must make more efforts in various aspects such as the link between education and employment, the logic of education objectives, the feasibility and appropriateness of curricula, quality of education, especially of higher education and equality in education for underprivileged groups.

This paper aims to examine the management status quo of archaeological heritage in Vietnam seen in the case of Vuon Chuoi, a complex of Bronze Age sites located in Central Hanoi, which has been believed to be Hanoi’s first human settlement. Like other archaeological sites located in urban areas, this site has been under threat of destruction caused by land encroachment pressure. Although researchers have long waged a campaign for preservation, the dissensus among key stakeholders and the dispute over responsibility have left this site at the heart of an interminable polemic over legislation.

This research utilises a qualitative approach, and the primary data were collected throughout multiple field trips in 2019 and 2020. Several open-ended interviews were conducted with various state and nonstate actors involved in the Vuon Chuoi Complex’s management process. The discussion was also supported by analysing related legal documents retrieved from national archives and official online directories.

This paper dissects the current legislative and administrative framework applied in governing heritage in general and archaeological sites in Vietnam, in particular. The results indicate that existing flaws in Vietnam’s legal system are detectable, and the unsystematic organisation has led to deferment of the decision-making processes. Also, there is an apparent difference found in the attitude of the bodies in charge toward the treatment of listed and unlisted sites.

This research outlines that in the wake of urbanisation and industrialisation in Vietnam, a consensus among key stakeholders and an inclusive legal system are required to help preserve archaeological sites in urgent need of attention. Although several Vietnamese laws and regulations have been put into practice, they have shown critical barriers and gaps in conserving Vietnamese cultural heritage.

This chapter explores the influences of Vietnamese culture coupled with national policies on gender equality on academic women’s advancement into senior leadership positions.

In-depth interviews with 20 mid-level women leaders and five top-level leaders were conducted at four different higher education institutions in the Mekong Delta (MD) in southern Vietnam. In addition, document analysis and participant observations contributed to the overall analysis, which allowed for the cross-check of data from multiple sources to investigate the participants’ understanding, perception, conceptualization, and interpretation of their experiences of advancing in their careers.

Findings show that there is a large gap between the policies and gender practices. Gender equality does not exist in reality, regardless of tremendous efforts from the Vietnamese government and policy makers to ensure it in all spheres of life. Additionally, patriarchal hierarchy remains dominant in the institutional administrative system, and Vietnamese Confucian ideology continues to confine and adversely affect both men’s and women’s perceptions of women’s social roles, status, and forms of social participation. Nevertheless, academic women still develop professionally and find their own ways to advance to a few key leadership positions at their institutions.

The sample of this study is limited to academic women in the MD in Vietnam. Future research should include more women and universities and colleges, from not only the southern part but also other regions of Vietnam. Further, international and comparative studies should be conducted to see differences in experiences of academic women from several Southeast Asian countries as they move up their career ladder.

Because there have not been any empirical studies about women and leadership in academia in the MD, this study serves as a resource and foundation for improving gender policies and practices as well as future research on this topic and gender issues of colleges and universities in Vietnam.

This chapter focuses on the potential of urban agriculture to support progress in SDG targets 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4 in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. The chapter integrates findings from the British Council-funded project, ‘Urban Resilience from Agriculture through Highly Automated Vertical Farming in the UK and Vietnam’, undertaken in collaboration with Middlesex University, Van Lang University, and local agricultural stakeholders in HCMC. Food security in the city faces multiple challenges ranging from significant in-migration, decreasing area of cultivated land, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that continues to depress the economy and disrupt food supply chains, and climate change impacts affecting the environment and people throughout the city. HCMC accommodates a substantial agricultural sector, which is evolving from traditional to modern production practices. City’s leaders established numerous policies that emphasise green, circular economies, climate change resilience, and low carbon emissions fuelling demand for agricultural solutions that integrate traditional and modern technologies that can be embedded in the local topography, soil types, architectural space, and native culture. Findings from greenhouse trials, community awareness surveys, and stakeholder-led workshops point to a range of high-technology-supported agriculture models that, if applied flexibly throughout the varying context of the urban area, have good scope to help Ho Chi Minh City and meet its growing need for food as well as its sustainability aspirations.

Vietnam is an emerging economy in the South East Asia region. Its Generation Z is gradually taking the lead in the country. But rather than breaking away from the previous generations, this generation also shows a strong preference towards local values and solid commitment to social issues. Thus, traditional culture elements are increasingly integrated in every aspect of Generation Z’s life, such as advertising and fashion. Instead of hanging out at coffee places, they go for bubble tea. They still appreciate the traditional values but integrate them within a modern context. Brands chase after these young people by adapting their values into their products and services. In the work place, the Vietnamese Generation Z is less confident. They are partially lost in career development with poor career counselling in the education system. They desire new experience and new learning opportunities. Generation Z, who were born beginning in 1995, emerges in Vietnam as a fresh and promising force.

Reasonable risk sharing is the key to the smooth implementation of infrastructure public-private partnership (PPP) projects and the optimization of benefit distribution among the participants. This study aims to explore the risk redistribution ratio between the government and the private sector under different degree of fairness concern.

Renegotiation is a mechanism to provide flexibility and make up for incompleteness of PPP contracts. However, the threshold value of risk redistribution ratio and negotiation cost are not explicitly considered in previous studies. In addition, these studies do not consider the influence of the fairness concern psychology on the negotiation process. To address these gaps, based on risk-income equilibrium analysis, this paper established the bargaining optimization model of PPP projects renegotiation considering the fairness concerns of the negotiating parties. Furthermore, this study analyzed the influence of fairness concern degree on negotiation thresholds, negotiation results, and negotiation incomes under three scenarios.

The results showed that excessive focus on the fairness of incomes may exclude the risk redistribution ratio that is most beneficial to project incomes from the negotiation threshold. Moreover, the increase in the fairness concerns of negotiating parties can reduce the negotiation success period, but the net income may not necessarily be improved.

The main contribution of this paper is to propose a new risk renegotiation methodology based on the risk-income equilibrium analysis, which is helpful to develop risk management strategies in the construction field. The research results can provide government with reference about renegotiation in decision making and provide theoretical support for the practice of PPP renegotiation.

This research aims to explore the influence of expat teachers' attitude about local policies, and their subjective norms of social engagement during COVID-19 over their intention to leave the current country, due to COVID-19.

This study uses analysis of variance (ANOVA) and structural equation model (SEM) to examine the perception of crisis and the intention to leave among 307 expat teachers in Southeast Asia during COVID-19 and highlights the importance of policy responses and social engagement toward the minimum teacher turnover rate.

The study reveals that, the higher perceived policy responses and community engagement the teachers acknowledge, the lower chance they will move to another country. Also, this paper presents the differences in expat teachers' perceptions and intentions among demographic factors such as teaching qualification, their current country of teaching, experience at the current country, income before, during and expected income after COVID-19.

The paper justifies a conceptual framework which provides a hypothetical explanation about the influence of perceived policy responses and community engagement over expat teachers' intention to leave.

Agricultural systems in Mekong Delta have transformed to cope with climate change. Various researches pointed out that integrated agriculture-aquaculture (IAA) farming systems (i.e., rice-shrimp, rice-fish…) emerged as potential climate adaptive practices. However, limited studies are attempting to assess the sustainability of these agricultural practices. Therefore, it is essential to assess whether or not these systems will be sustainable in the context of climate change and what can be done to make it sustainable. The present study conducted the sustainability assessment of the rice-shrimp system to identify potential areas for improvement as well as policy implication to increase resilience and adaptation of coastal IAA system which could contribute to the understanding of other coastal agricultural deltas around the globe.

This study used a quantitative approach including the assessment protocol of van Asselt et al. (2014), the assessment framework of Vanloon et al. (2005), and the MCA methodology to flexibly and holistically assess the sustainability level of agricultural systems.

Results concluded that rice-shrimp systems have the potential to improve livelihood, food security, and adaptation of coastal farmers. Major improvements should be considered for productivity, efficiency, and equity themes, while minor improvements can be made for stability, durability, and compatibility themes.

This research could be used as a guideline for sustainability assessment in a context-specific case study of IAA, which showed a potential for the application of other climate-smart IAAs in similar contexts around the globe.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted various systems that drove people to adapt to certain technologies, such as electronic government services, for daily survival and to meet social distancing requirements. Therefore, this study aims to determine the antecedents of e-government use based on prospect theory and modified unified theory of acceptance use of technology (UTAUT) during a pandemic.

Convenience sampling of 368 respondents from Vietnam was conducted, and questionnaires were distributed personally or by email. The data were analyzed following a two-stage structural equation modeling (SEM) using SPSS v23 and AMOS v23. The validity and reliability of the instrument were tested and ensured.

Results show that perceived severity drives government support and social influence while perceived security drives government support, social influence and trust. Social influence enhances government support and trust, which both drives e-government use. Mediation analysis shows that government support mediates perceived the influence of perceived severity on e-government use.

The integration of prospect theory and UTAUT brings into light what will drive the adoption of e-government in the context of Vietnam. Supporting mechanisms, such as security measures, trust-building, government support and social influence, will drive citizens to adapt to technologies provided by the government but would also rely on the perceived risks and benefits.

This study integrates prospect theory and a modified version of UTAUT to explain the drivers of e-government use. The results reveal that under uncertainties, government support is critical in driving the use of e-government for people to manage the daily lives for survival.