Understanding Adaptive Water Governance Practices in Vietnam: Drawing Lessons for the Netherlands through Reverse Learning

Abstract

Climate change is increasing water-related uncertainty in delta regions, challenging governance systems historically built around predictability and control. While international water governance learning has traditionally flowed from the Global North to the Global South, the potential for learning in the opposite direction remains comparatively underexplored. This thesis examines the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) as a case of an ongoing transition toward adaptive water governance (AWG) and asks: What governance lessons can be drawn from Vietnam’s transition toward adaptive water management to inform future reverse learning in the Dutch adaptive water governance context?

A qualitative case-study approach was adopted, combining academic and grey literature, policy and project documents, semi-structured interviews with Vietnamese experts, and field observations involving government officials, farmers, and value-chain actors in the VMD. The empirical material was analyzed using an adaptive governance framework structured around five dimensions: Polycentricity & Collaboration, Knowledge, Leadership, Communication, and Flexibility & Variety. The resulting practices were subsequently reflected upon through comparative discussions with Dutch water governance scholars.

The findings show that the VMD’s transition toward AWG cannot be attributed to a single policy or governance arrangement, but emerges through interacting governance practices and capacities. Four broader lessons are synthesized. First, adaptive governance can combine strong national strategic direction with substantial flexibility for local interpretation and implementation, challenging a simple centralized–decentralized distinction. Second, experimentation contributes to long-term adaptation when successful pilots and their learning become embedded within routine governance rather than remaining isolated projects. Third, intermediary actors, particularly universities and research institutes, play important governance roles by connecting actors, translating knowledge, and maintaining continuity across governance levels. Finally, the Vietnamese philosophy of thuận thiên (“living with nature”) illustrates a broader shift from attempting to control environmental change toward reorganizing livelihoods, development, and governance around changing ecological conditions.

Rather than proposing that Vietnamese practices be directly transferred to the Netherlands, these lessons provide a foundation for future reverse learning and context-sensitive translation. The thesis therefore contributes to AWG scholarship by demonstrating how adaptive capacity emerges through the interaction of strategic coherence, flexibility, institutionalized learning, intermediary actors, and changing relationships with nature, while highlighting the potential of Global South governance experiences as sources of knowledge for addressing shared climate uncertainties.