The underrated but critical role that fast-tracked ‘emergency innovation’ played in Viet Nam’s much heralded success in containment of COVID-19, is central to its aspirations to rapidly restore growth while co-existing with the pandemic.

The shared goal of overcoming COVID-19 has resulted in an avalanche of innovation of all shapes and sizes to respond to the impacts of the pandemic in Viet Nam from nationally produced test kits and masks during global stockouts to rice ATM’s and Zero Dong supermarkets. The pandemic has resulted in new dynamics between different actors from government, businesses and citizens, as well as new mechanisms for coordination and collaboration within the Government, which especially in the innovation policy space has been one of the longstanding challenges. These new mechanisms can be linked to both strong state capacity in agility and adaptiveness as well as the entrepreneurial nature of Vietnamese society.  However, from this experience, three questions arise: How can the newly surfaced mechanisms of governance and dynamics of rapid emergency innovation be sustained and help drive recovery in a co-existing with COVID reality? How do we make sure the recovery is not built around single-point solutions but a portfolio of interventions for systemic impact? And how to build forward better in ways that are inclusive and sustainable?

Following the regional UNDP-NESTA study Strategies for Supporting Inclusive Innovation, which highlights case studies from across ASEAN countries particularly Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Viet Nam, UNDP Viet Nam embarked on a journey to uncover what does inclusive innovation mean for the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy in Viet Nam. Moreover, the study on Viet Nam’s Inclusive Innovation Policy introduces a new understanding of the concept as “innovation of, by and for people as both producers/innovators and consumers/users for the purpose of both sustainable economic growth and social advancement.” This conceptualization aims to broaden the understanding of innovation and include more segments of the society in the innovation narrative and promote new growth drivers for sustainable growth that are based on new value creation and leaving no one behind.

These study findings were discussed in the Second Action-oriented workshop on inclusive innovation in Ha Noi 3 July co-organized with the Central Institute of Economic Management under the Ministry of Planning and Investment convening policymakers across the board and bringing together NGOs and business representatives to discuss how to promote inclusive innovation in Viet Nam. The workshop discussed how should inclusive innovation policy be further mainstreamed in the context of the Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2021-25 and the National Innovation Centre and what are the innovative supporting institutions needed? Furthermore, it uncovered how the entrepreneurship of the Government can also help innovators fast track pre-commercialization and commercialization of R&D results so that more truly made in Viet Nam innovative products will be available?

These questions are more timely than ever in the co-existing with COVID reality where moving from emergency to inclusive innovation is paramount. During the lockdown period, mutually shared mission on containing the spread of COVID-19 combined with entrepreneurial Vietnamese people resulted in three newly surfaced dynamics that have played a part in Viet Nam’s successful COVID-19 response. These are particularly exciting from the inclusive innovation lens:

1. The Government has demonstrated breath-taking agility and innovation amidst the crisis through creating new partnerships and leveraging social networks. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the Government united by a shared mission and mandated to think outside of the box, can gather policymakers around the same table and unshackle the innovation and creativity of even the most rigid bureaucrats. It also emphasizes the importance of cross-ministerial collaboration, multiple partnerships, including between the Government and the private sector as well as academia, which have led to a successful response.

2. Many businesses in Viet Nam shifted their business models to serve market demand during the lockdown. From textile to logistics companies, enterprises in Viet Nam have adapted to changed circumstances by trying to sustain their business. Attempting to avoid what seemed like an inevitable bust caused by change in global demand, many Vietnamese companies have been able to flip the coin to their advantage.

3. Finally, the COVID-19 outbreak has unleashed the creativity of people, spurring new types of grassroots and social innovations. This highlights the inventiveness and resilience of the people of Viet Nam thriving in the face of adversities. It emphasizes the need for whole-of-society approaches in emergencies and has demonstrated how the creativity of people can be harnessed to address commonly shared societal challenges.

These are examples of ‘emergency innovations’ of the Government, Businesses and the People that have been catalyzed by the COVID-19 response providing a shared goal and unleashing the country’s mass entrepreneurial nature. However, now the same leadership and innovation that has helped Viet Nam so successfully contain the pandemic, will be needed to re-stimulate the economy allowing the creative forces of the people to happen in a way that ensures decades of development won’t be backtracked and those most vulnerable are not being left behind.

Similarly, to the findings of the study, the workshop participants highlighted the need for stronger implementation and less cumbersome government processes asking for new mechanisms for policymaking in the new reality. Therefore, some key recommendations from the report and workshop discussion include the need for:

1. Assessing the mechanisms of the ‘entrepreneurial emergency State’ that overcame bottlenecks in implementation and existing regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate inclusive innovation among the above highlighted three groups in the recovery phase;
2. Creating exploratory environments and geographical areas for testing new policies and regulations as well as exploring de-regulation to facilitate ‘Triple A Governance’ that is Anticipatory, Adaptive and Agile to manage new volumes of uncertainty;
3. Establishing Inclusive innovation intermediaries - institutions which could help to encourage collaboration, and knowledge transfer, across innovation ecosystem players such as the government, large enterprises, research institutes, grassroots innovators and SMEs as the drivers of inclusive recovery.

This highlights the crucial role of UNDP in continuing supporting the Government in strengthening these key capacities in addressing complex development challenges in the recovery phase. Now that the acute crisis is passing in Viet Nam and the role of ‘emergency innovation’ is less salient, the Government needs to find ways to see beyond the ‘pressures of the present’ and find ways to anticipate future risks and  bridge innovation and resilience in building back better. The newly surfaced dynamics outlined above need to be sustained through the recovery and firmly rooted in the ‘co-existing with COVID -reality’.

Leave No One Behind (LNOB)