Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Science and Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envsci When research meets NGOs: The GVC-UCODEP project in the Bắc Giang Province and Cầu River (Northern Vietnam) and its feedback on national monitoring programs Silvia Giuliani a, ⁎ , Margherita Romanelli b , Rossano Piazza c , Marco Vecchiato c,d , Sarah Pizzini c,e , Giorgio Tranchida f , Fabio D’Agostino f , Stefania Romano a , Luca Giorgio Bellucci a a CNR-Institute of Marine Sciences, Via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy b GVC-Civil Volunteer Group, Via Baracca 3, 40133, Bologna, Italy c Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30172, Venice Mestre (VE), Italy d CNR-Institute of Polar Sciences, Via Torino 155, 30172, Venice Mestre (VE), Italy e CNR-Institute for the Dynamics of Environmental Processes, Via Torino 155, 30172, Venice Mestre (VE), Italy f CNR-Institute for the Study of Anthropogenic Impacts and Sustainability in the Marine Environment, Via del mare 3, 91021, Capo Granitola - Campobello di Mazara (TP), Italy ARTICLEINFO Keywords: International cooperation Northern Vietnam POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) Soils Sediments Management advice ABSTRACT The International Cooperation GVC-UCODEP project “Promotion of environmental protection in the Việt Yên, Yên Dũng and Hiệp Hòa districts in the Bắc Giang Province, Vietnam” aimed at the restoration and preservation of natural resources together with the improvement of life conditions of the local population. It focused on the management of pollutant factors and ecological resources of the Bắc Giang Province. An important part of the project was devoted to the implementation of an institutional frame for monitoring the status of the environ- ment, and within this frame a scientific survey was promoted in order to assess the degree of contamination from persistent organic pollutants in soils and sediments of selected areas of the Bắc Giang Province and the bordering Cầu River. The toxicological significance of measured concentrations, and the relative importance of pollutant sources were also investigated. At the same time, enforced Vietnamese regulations were studied to check their effectiveness in protecting the population and the environment. Results of this combined work provided a series of suggestions to central and local authorities in order to ensure people’s health and a better monitoring of local natural resources. It is our hope that the described approach and methodology could inspire similar synergies between research and non-governmental institutions in other developing countries. 1. Introduction As other countries in Southeast Asia, Vietnam has experienced a period of deep economic transformation through the reformation of the productive sector (the Đổi Mới “renovation” plan) that, from the mid 1980s, shifted the country’s economy from planned to open and market. These reforms led to very high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates that peaked in the mid 1990s up to 9.54% per annum, with a 2016 estimate of 6.21% (World Bank, 2018). As a consequence, living con- ditions of the Vietnamese population have increased considerably in the last decades and the rapid growth has catapulted Vietnam to middle income status in 2010, contributing to a rapid decline in poverty (World Bank, 2012). This achievement permitted to reach the first one of the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals: “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015” (MDGs Report, 2015) five years earlier than expected. However, the development of Vietnam has not been homogeneous and, as it often happens in fast growing economies, inequalities are rising. Indeed, when looking at the 2016 UN Human Development Index (HDI), Vietnam is ranked among the medium de- veloped countries (115th out of 188), mainly because the difficult ac- cess to education for some minorities and a low Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (UN Development Programme, UNDP, 2016). In ad- dition, the intensification of productive activities (industrial as well as agricultural), coupled to the inadequate management of natural re- sources, might lead to the increase in pollution levels (as already ob- served in environmental matrices, biota and human fluids; Cu et al., 2002; Thom, 2006; Giuliani et al., 2008; Giuliani et al., 2011; Giuliani et al., 2015; Pollution Control Department, 2016; Tomilina et al., 2016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.09.004 Received 8 May 2019; Received in revised form 5 September 2019; Accepted 6 September 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: silvia.giuliani@bo.ismar.cnr.it (S. Giuliani). Environmental Science and Policy 101 (2019) 279–290 Available online 20 September 2019 1462-9011/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T