About: The overall goal of the MDCC Forum was to build staff and institutional capacity within MONRE and EVN to support hydropower development schemes that are sustainable, environmentally sound and sensitive to overall impacts and risks.

There were three aspects to the MDCC Forum:

• SEA policy and institutional development: Identification of the gaps and opportunities for conducting SEA in the Vietnamese institutional context as part of a capacity building needs assessment, which identified appropriate roles and structures for MONRE and EVN in SEA/CIA, as well as opportunities for strengthening staff SEA/CIA capacity
• Capacity-building and training: Based on the outcomes of the institutional and policy analysis, the MDCC capacity building centered around a dedicated SEA Focus Group, supported by introductory SEA/CIA training and a study tour.
Pilot SEA of hydropower development in the Vu Gia-Thu Bon River Basin in central Vietnam: The pilot development aimed to showcase best practice SEA/CIA, providing a capacity building exercise with MONRE, EVN and other key stakeholders. Linked to the SEA pilot was a targeted capacity building program for MONRE and EVN staff on the use of GIS systems for spatial analysis of different environments, and to develop scenarios from the SEA.