Donate to support Vietnam
Your donation strengthens women’s leadership, disability inclusion and climate resilience for Mekong river communities.
The Mekong River flows through six countries before it reaches Vietnam. By the time it arrives at the delta, it carries the consequences of every decision made upstream.
Dams reduce freshwater flows. Development projects alter sediment patterns. Climate change compounds everything. And the communities that depend on the delta are the first to feel it.
Yet Vietnamese communities aren’t standing by. Women’s groups, disability organisations and community networks are demanding a real seat at the table where decisions about their water and land are made.
Oxfam works alongside these communities to strengthen their voice. When you donate to Vietnam through Oxfam, you’re backing the people already leading change, and helping ensure they have the skills, connections and platform to continue.
Why your support matters in Vietnam
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is one of the most productive agricultural regions on Earth. It feeds the country, and much of the world, with rice, seafood and fruit. But it is also one of the most climate-exposed.
Saltwater intrusion is already penetrating 15 to 20 kilometres up major river mouths during the dry season, threatening the crops and freshwater supplies that millions of families depend on.
At the same time, upstream dams are reducing the freshwater flows the delta needs, and sea levels are rising.
These three pressures (saltwater intrusion, reduced river flows and sea level rise) are compounding each other. For farmers and fishing families with no buffer against shocks, the combined impact is severe.
The communities bearing the heaviest cost of these changes are the ones with the least power to influence them. The people growing the rice and fishing the rivers don’t control the decisions about their water. And despite the delta’s extraordinary productivity, the Mekong River Delta has the highest multidimensional poverty rate in Vietnam.
Women carry a disproportionate share of agricultural and care work, yet are routinely excluded from the planning processes that determine how water and land are managed. People with disabilities face the same exclusion from the decisions that shape their daily lives, through lack of opportunity, not ability.
That’s poverty driven by inequality. And it’s exactly what Oxfam works to challenge.
How Oxfam is working in Vietnam
Oxfam works alongside Vietnamese communities and local organisations to ensure the people most affected by changes to the Mekong have a genuine voice in shaping those changes.
Ensuring disability inclusion in water governance
Through the Mekong Inclusion Project Phase 3 (IP3), Oxfam works with the Hanoi Association of People with Disability to ensure people with disabilities participate fully in water governance and climate decisions.
In January 2026, disability organisations in Vietnam contributed their experiences to ASEAN-level climate dialogue through IP3, ensuring that grassroots testimonies shaped regional recommendations (not just government positions). This is inclusion in action: lived experience reaching the rooms where policy is made.
Strengthening women’s participation in river decisions
Women in Vietnam’s delta and highland communities are deeply knowledgeable about the rivers, fisheries and land systems that sustain their families. But that knowledge rarely reaches the planning tables where development decisions are made.
Oxfam supports women to participate in local governance, understand their rights, and influence decisions about the water resources that shape their lives.
Building climate resilience for river-dependent communities
As the Mekong Delta faces compounding climate pressures, communities need more than awareness. They need the skills to monitor change, adapt their livelihoods and advocate for the governance reforms that address root causes.
Oxfam works with local partners to help river-dependent communities track environmental changes, develop locally-led responses, and push for fairer management of the Mekong’s shared resources.
Oxfam acknowledges the support of the Australian Government through DFAT, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Key focus areas
Gender justice
Supporting women to participate in decisions about water, land and natural resources, ensuring their knowledge and leadership shapes local and regional planning across the Mekong.
Disability and social inclusion
Working with disability organisations to ensure people with disabilities have equal participation in water governance decisions that affect their communities.
Climate resilience
Helping river-dependent communities adapt to the triple pressures of sea level rise, upstream development and saltwater intrusion, and advocate for fairer governance of the Mekong’s shared resources.
Why choose Oxfam
We work alongside Vietnamese communities and local organisations who understand the challenges and are already driving solutions. When you make donations to Vietnam through Oxfam, you’re backing:
Local partnerships
Every program is grounded in community knowledge and led by local organisations.
Long-term resilience
From water governance to climate adaptation, we focus on lasting impact (not just emergency relief).
Proven accountability
As a member of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), Oxfam follows the highest standards of transparency and effectiveness.
A regional approach
Our work in Vietnam is part of a wider Mekong strategy, ensuring solutions are shared, connected and led by the communities who know the river best.
Justice over charity
We support communities to lead their own future. It’s not about charity. It’s about fairness, dignity and equal rights.
How your donation helps
Every donation to Oxfam could support community-led programs across the Mekong region and in Vietnam. Here’s what your support can help make possible:
- Women with a real voice in water decisions, through support for women’s participation in local governance and Mekong planning processes
- Disability inclusion in water governance. Ensuring people with disabilities participate in the decisions about resources that shape their daily lives
- Communities equipped to adapt, through climate resilience training, environmental monitoring and locally-led advocacy
- Vietnam’s voice in regional decisions, connecting Vietnamese communities with partners across Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao PDR
- Fairer development outcomes. Backing the communities most affected by upstream decisions to influence how the Mekong is managed
Your donation is more than a brief moment of support. It’s a commitment to fairer water governance and a more just future for Vietnam’s river communities.
Donate to Vietnam now
Vietnam’s communities aren’t waiting for fairer decisions to arrive. They’re working every day to make them happen: in village meetings, in regional forums, and at tables where the future of the Mekong is being shaped.
Your Vietnam donations help ensure their voices reach further. Every contribution backs locally-led advocacy, inclusive governance and the climate resilience that river communities need.
Donate now to support Oxfam’s work in Vietnam.
Learn more about Oxfam’s work in the Mekong region
Want to understand the bigger picture? Explore how Oxfam works to support gender equality, climate resilience and economic equality. Or browse our current appeals.
Learn more about how Oxfam works across the region: Mekong region, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
Oxfam’s partners
Centre for Social Research & Development, Hanoi Association of People with Disability, Mekong Institute, Oxfam in Vietnam
Donate to support countries like Vietnam
Vietnam’s communities aren’t waiting for fairer decisions to arrive. They’re working every day to make them happen. Help their voices reach further.