Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) into development, meaning “the screening of development decision-making and implementation through a climate change lens to achieve climate resilient development”, has become a key policy in development practices in Vietnam. However, the country’s highly fragmented and centralized political system is an important impediment to smooth mainstreaming. This study addresses how donors can assist Vietnam in effectively mainstreaming CCA responses into sector-ministries, an area still not adequately explored by academics and policy makers. Based upon literature review and field observations, the paper finds that, by making use of the four-step process of ‘mainstreamed policy dialogue’, donors, as ‘disguised’ change agent, could help alleviate fragmentation issues step-by-step and create more effective mainstreaming. The Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Support Programme to Respond to Climate Change is chosen as a case-study and reveals the achievements of the ‘mainstreamed policy dialogue’. In conclusion, several challenges, such as the active involvement of non-governmental organisations, still lay ahead. Moreover, donors should invest more in research and capacity building at the national recipient level in order to ascertain the full integration of CCA in Vietnamese development planning and to overcome the key barrier to mainstreaming.

Keywords: Mainstreaming, Policy dialogue, Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), Vietnam, JICA.