Seaphony Orchestra ©

Courtesy of Lune Production                                        
and photographer Thao Dang, 123 Studio.

Background

The British Council in Vietnam is preparing to launch Heritage of Future Past (2018-2020), a Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth project under Culture and Development.  

This project will engage with the music and film heritage of Vietnam, with particular focus on the aspects of music and film heritage that are under threat, disappearing or under-represented. We will use innovative approaches in working with music and film heritage to create inclusive and sustainable growth in the heritage sector in Vietnam. These approaches will allow a wide range of communities to contribute to and benefit from the protecting and sharing of their heritage, which will promote a more dynamic understanding, utilisation, and enjoyment of heritage assets in both everyday life in the communities and in artistic, curatorial, and educational practices that enable further innovation of cultural heritage. 

Music and film heritage, especially that of or representing marginalised groups (due to economic, social, or political reasons), including rural and ethnic minority communities, are becoming less and less relevant in the contemporary culture and society in Vietnam amidst the country’s continuing economic growth. A number of unique and valuable parts of Vietnamese film and music heritage receive very little attention and support, and are therefore facing the risk of disappearing. This situation hinders the ability of the communities of the at risk heritage assets to develop their human capital and contribute to the social, cultural, economic and environmental development of the country.  

Through extensive research and development, the project will identify communities with coherent needs for preserving and developing their music and film heritage. A process of community consultation and participatory planning will be designed to define development goals of these communities in the protection, management and promotion of their cultural heritage assets. This process will inform the design of key activities such as research, documentation, conservation, training and capacity building, experimentation and innovation, advocacy and education (including policy and community dialogues), and facilitation of the re-imagination and revitalisation of these cultural heritage assets in contemporary practice.

Project structure

What we do:

  • training, capacity building, and education at community level
  • building, sharing and innovating cultural heritage assets
  • partnership, collaboration, and policy advocacy for the management and promotion of cultural heritage.

Who we reach:

  • communities, including marginalised communities
  • artisans, artists and creative practitioners
  • government
  • individuals and organisations that constitute the heritage sector and cultural and creative industries.

Expected outcomes: 

  • Long term impact: Contribution to the inclusive and sustainable growth of the heritage sector in Vietnam
  • Medium term outcomes: 

    (i) Marginalised communities have their heritage promoted and valued; and improve livelihoods through better engagement with the protecting and sharing of their heritage
    (ii) Heritage assets are accessible and innovated through digital, capacity building, and education (including oral teaching practices)
    (iii) Heritage sector in Vietnam receive more policy and institutional support, and benefit from connection with the UK heritage sector.

Community consultation 

The project team will conduct a community consultation assignment during April 2018. 

Objectives:

  • to gather information about the needs of local communities and to define their developmental goals
  • to collect baseline data for the project. The database will then be integrated into a M&E frame work for the project
  • to inform the planning of activities to meet all the outcomes of the project.

We are looking to form a team of four for the community consultation assignment of the project:

  • one expert in cultural heritage, in intangible cultural heritage generally, or music/film heritage in particular
  • one expert in contemporary production of music/film, or inter-disciplinary, using music/film heritage
  • one expert in community development across key development sectors in Vietnam
  • one community facilitator.

This team will work closely with the Project Manager to develop and conduct a community consultation field trip to three to five locations in Vietnam. Note that these locations will include rural areas.

Deliverables:

  1. A toolkit for community consultation which includes survey questions, interview questions, planned activities and guideline for focused group discussions. All should be discussed and agreed with Project Manager prior to field trip. 
  2. Field trip to 3-5 locations to conduct surveys, interviews, and focused group discussions, following the principles of community consultation set out in Annex 1.
  3. A final report (no more than 20 pages, excluding annexes) which will include:
  • data/information summary that form a baseline on the development profile of the communities visited (see principles in Annex 1 for information)
  • situation analysis about needs and development goals of communities visited
  • recommendations for the design of project activities that fit to the community development profile and aim to meet the project outcomes. 

Time:

Twenty days during April 2018, including planning, field trip, and report writing. 

Locations:

Specific locations (to be confirmed) including rural areas in Northern Vietnam, Southern Vietnam, Central Highlands and South Central Coast. 

Remuneration:

Consultancy rate according to experience and qualification. All field trip costs covered. 

We would like to invite suitable candidates to apply by submitting an application that includes:

  • Expression of interest (two page maximum), highlighting your relevant experience/qualification and explaining why you are interested in joining the team. Please clearly specify what expert role in the team you are interested in
  • Your biography.

Individuals can submit an application for any of the four positions of the team. Organisations can submit an application for more than one position. 

All applications should be sent by email to Ms Hong Pham at hong.pham@britishcouncil.org.vn before 15 March 2018. We will only contact shortlisted candidates after 20 March 2018. 

Any inquiries please contact:

Hong Pham
Arts Manager
British Council
20 Thuy Khue
Hanoi
Vietnam
T +84 1800 1299 ext. 1924

Annex 1: Principles of community consultation

  •  Ask open questions in order to determine development needs. (These development needs should encompass needs not explicitly related to the arts and heritage sector e.g. intercommunity tensions, or childcare, or better nutrition)
  • Target both those with an established interest in the heritage and those without this interest who are part of the same community, in particular the latter group
  • Be held locally to the heritage in question
  • Engage with people from across the whole of society, aiming for inclusivity where possible across protected characteristics including:
    - age
    - gender
    - race/ethnicity
    - sexual orientation
  • Establish a baseline on the development profile of the community, collecting data on (for example):

    - what the targeting problem is, why it matters, who it matters to, and who it needs to matter to more
    - effects of problem on society, economy, politics, cultural sector, environment e.g. BOP (Balance of Payments), regional development, employment generation, New tech and know-how etc.
    - current ways of reaching out to stakeholders to secure support/buy-in 
    - examining current practices to see if there are opportunities for improvement
    - reflecting on ways to promote new practice
    - searching for instances where the problems being addressed have been solved in the local context, and attempting to describe and diffuse the practices observed. 

  • Establish methodology for programme development:

    - root cause analysis of the problem
    - types of actions needed
    - importance/urgency vs. feasibility of taking action
    - identification of most significant change needed i.e. what would the problem look like solved, in this timeframe (small and feasible actions that can lead to learning and further next steps)
    - identification of next steps needed in the coming weeks, months/two year period.

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