Having aimed to raise awareness and exchange views on the role of civil society organisations in dealing with climate change challenges, and to present and discuss the initiative of forming a Network for Vietnam's Civil Society Organisations and Climate Change, the workshop was seen greatly successful.

Workshop attracted a wide variety of participants with a total of 150 delegates from civil society organisations, government and communist party agencies, international organisations, scientists, entrepreneurs and more than 50 media reporters.

In the context that climate change is particularly an urgent issue for Vietnam, as according to the United Nations' prediction Vietnam ranks among the top five countries at greatest risk from the impacts of climate change, despite government  efforts and international support, dealing with climate change still faces many difficulties and challenges.

Being part of the Vietnam's civil society, the workshop organising group recognised the need and importance of forming a collective platform for the civil society members to exchange information and collaborate with each other more effectively, to promote the internal strengths, to coordinate and integrate climate change responses into its members' operations, and to connect its members with stakeholders such as National Assembly, Government, mass organisations, international organisations and donors, in order to together address climate change issues in Vietnam. This workshop was the first event discussing such a platform - Network for Vietnam's Civil Society Organisations and Climate Change.

"Vietnam must take initiative in responding to climate change. It is truly a combat and if we can push up the traditional nation's solidarity and all people forces, in which an active participation of civil society organisations should be crucial, we will certainly win through" stated Mr. Nguyen Huu Ninh, Director of CERED and one among the recipients of the Nobel Prize in global climate change research.

Sharing the same view with Mr. Nguyen, Mr. Le Cong Thanh, the Acting Director General of the Department of Meteorology and Climate Change (MONRE) affirmed civil society organizations' significant role in supporting the Government and the community to deal with climate change, especially in facilitating bottom-up feedbacks and implementing concrete activities at local levels.

During the panel discussion in the workshop which took place in an open and democratic atmosphere, the panelists and workshop participants had a straight dialogue about practical questions such as: How much is civil society organizations' capacity? How to organize the network effectively? How will this network coordinate with other ones? What immediate activities and long-term works will the network undertake?

After the workshop, more than 50 civil society organizations registered to the network participation list. This list is being open for all Vietnamese individuals and Vietnamese organizations that are interested in and want to contribute to responding to climate change in Vietnam.