GPS Field Visit- Politics & Global Issues | Latest New
GPS Field Visit- Politics & Global Issues | Latest New
We just got back from a fascinating field trip that took us off campus and into the political worlds of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLS), Canadian Foreign and Domestic Policy, and a number of United Nations agencies and programmes.
All in one day!!!
RLS is a political foundation associated with the far left parties in Germany. Why are they in Hanoi? We found out!!!
“It turns out that all political parties in Germany, if they win enough seats to get into parliament…” Mateo told us “…get funding for their foundations which do outreach, support, and political education. RLS has been active in Vietnam since 2009 but there are other German political party foundations here as well!”
At RLS we were greeted by their director, Stefan Mentschel, and introduced to their team who lead a number of projects and activities. We also learned more about their philosophy.
“They put people before politics” noted Tunny.
Our next stop was the brand new Embassy of Canada.
“We had a field trip last year to the old Canadian Embassy in the Old Quarter near the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Really charming place” observed Mr. A “The new location is really polished, sleek, & high tech”.
We were greeted by Canadian Ambassador Steil, who organised our visit, and who “…seems like such a down to earth guy. He was really friendly and approachable. I enjoyed his discussion” commented Nam Khanh.
We then heard important policy and political points from members of Ambassador Steil’s team, each representing different ministries and departments in Canada including defense, trade, migration, development.
“I’m Canadian so I thought I knew everything about it” said David “But hearing from all these senior representatives of their portfolios have me a number of different perspectives”.
Our final stop was Green One United Nations House, the seat of a number of different United Nations agencies including the World Health Organisation, Population Fund, International Labour Organisation, and UNICEF.
Our visit was organised with the cooperation of United National Resident Coordinator in Hanoi, Ms. Pauline Tamesis.
“We had some fascinating round table discussions in small groups with each of the organisations” commented Niamh “and what was interesting is that each of them were the heads of their organisation in Hanoi and had a deep understanding of the important issues we were discussing”.
The purpose of the GPS Excursion & Field Visit Series, similar to our GPS Visiting Expert Series, is to expose GPSers to policy making and policy makers at different levels of scope, scale, impact, and analysis to help support our Engagement Project Process.
These visits are intended to strengthen our knowledge and understanding of the challenges of the policy making process as well as to build relationships with our stakeholders.
This particular visit is intended to expose GPSers to political non-governmental, governmental, and multilateral perspectives of global issues with local implications.
“I now have a lot of ideas for my Engagement Project” commented Dakota.
“I think I was able to narrow down my ideas a little and make some good contacts through this field visit” offered Emil.
To get started, we did some preliminary research on the different stakeholders we planned to visit. These stakeholders come from different ‘levels of analysis’ or ‘scope’. That is ‘GPS-jargon’ to explain that each stakeholder comes from a different perspective, level of power and influence, goals, interests, and intended outcomes, willingness and abilities.
Aaliyah notes that “…we’ve come to learn that the goals of non-governmental organisations”