The Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) is a joint collaboration between the Centre for Community Support Development Studies (CECODES) under the Viet Nam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Viet Nam since 2009, with the close partnership and support of the Centre for Theory Work of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front from 2009-2010, the Front Review from 2010-2012, the Commission for People's Petitions under the National Assembly Steering Committee in 2012, and the Centre for Research and Training of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front—VFF-CRT from 2013.

The 2012 PAPI survey is the result of several years of fine-tuning. The first PAPI survey was piloted in three provinces in 2009 and then expanded to 30 provinces in 2010. Through these first two iterations, questions were adjusted to better capture citizen experiences.