resources.doctrine.dbal.connections.default.parameters.driverOptions.1002 = "SET NAMES 'UTF8'"

// $options is a simple array to hold your data
$connectionOptions = array(
    'driver'   => $options['conn']['driv'],
    'user'     => $options['conn']['user'],
    'password' => $options['conn']['pass'],
    'dbname'   => $options['conn']['dbname'],
    'host'     => $options['conn']['host'],
    'charset'  => 'utf8',
    'driverOptions' => array(
        1002 => 'SET NAMES utf8'
    )
);

$em = DoctrineORMEntityManager::create($connectionOptions, $config);

// libraryMyApplicationResourceDoctrine.php
class My_Application_Resource_Doctrine extends Zend_Application_Resource_ResourceAbstract
 {

    public function init()
    {
       $options = $this->getOptions();
       $config = new DoctrineORMConfiguration();
       //doctrine autoloader, config and other initializations
       ...
       $connectionOptions = array(
               .... //see above
       );
       $em = DoctrineORMEntityManager::create($connectionOptions, $config);
       $registry = Zend_Registry::getInstance();
       $registry->em = $em;
       return $em;
    }
}

resources.doctrine.conn.host = '127.0.0.1'
resources.doctrine.conn.user = '...'
resources.doctrine.conn.pass = '...'
....

<?php
return array(
    'doctrine' => array(
        'connection' => array(
            'orm_default' => array(
                'driverClass' => 'DoctrineDBALDriverPDOMySqlDriver',
                'params' => array(
                    'host' => 'localhost',
                    'port' => '3306',
                    'user' => '...',
                    'password' => '...',
                    'dbname' => '...',

                    'driverOptions' => array(
                        PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => 'SET NAMES utf8'
                    )

                ),

            )
        )
    )
);

resources.entitymanagerfactory.connectionOptions.driverOptions.1002 = "SET NAMES utf8"

default-character-set=utf8

resources.doctrine.dbal.connections.default.parameters.driverOptions.charset = "utf8"

// Create new Doctrine Manager instance
$doctrineManager = Doctrine_Manager::getInstance();

// Set charset to UTF8
$doctrineManager->setAttribute(
    Doctrine_Core::ATTR_DEFAULT_TABLE_CHARSET,
    'utf8'
);

resources.doctrine2.connection.driverOptions.1002 = "SET NAMES 'UTF8'"

protected function _initDoctrineLibrary()
{
    require_once('Doctrine/Doctrine.php');
    $this->getApplication()->getAutoloader()->pushAutoloader(array('Doctrine', 'autoload'),'Doctrine');

    $manager = Doctrine_Manager::getInstance();
    $manager->setAttribute(
        Doctrine::ATTR_MODEL_LOADING,
        Doctrine::MODEL_LOADING_CONSERVATIVE
    );
    $config = $this->getOption('doctrine');
    $conn = Doctrine_Manager::connection($config['dsn'],'doctrine');
    $conn->setAttribute(Doctrine::ATTR_USE_NATIVE_ENUM, true);
    return $conn;
}

doctrine.dsn = "mysql://user:password@host/databasename"