New country program 2008-2012

Recently the new country program of Helvetas in Vietnam has been adopted by the Helvetas program commission for the period 2008-2012. The country program is a medium term, strategic planning, and management tool which provides a perspective on the programmatic and the sector approach of Helvetas in Vietnam. It is a reference paper for discussions on the future of the program, on the relationships with donors and partner organisation.

Mission of Helvetas Vietnam

Within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, the Vietnamese Comprehensive Poverty Reduction Strategy (CPRGS) and the current Socio-Economic Development Plan (2006-2010) Helvetas Vietnams' mission is to support Vietnams' development efforts by enhancing local capacity of disadvantaged people and of local partners institutions and to contribute to the quality of the development process.

Objectives of Helvetas Vietnam

The overall objective of the program is to contribute to a sustainable development in Vietnam especially to improve the living conditions of poor households and to support local partners in remote rural areas in the ongoing institutional and process reform allowing more decentralisation and enhancing the democratisation process. The more specific objectives per working area are:

Infrastructure in rural area (IS)

Access to drinking water and sanitation: to improve access to drinking water and to improve sanitation for the people living in rural areas; to increase sustainable water management systems and practices.

Mobility: to improve access to local markets for people in remote and upland areas in the Northern part of Vietnam.

Natural Resources Management (NRM)

Value Chain Development and marketing of agricultural and forestry products: to support and strengthen sustainable and environmentally friendly value chains of agricultural and forestry products for local and export markets; to stabilize and to increase the income of smallholders by taking into account the gender gap

Sustainable Natural Resources Management and Climate Change: to support the communities in remote upland areas of Northern Vietnam and in the Mekong River delta to adapt to climate change and to respond to it.

Education and Culture (E&C)

Education: to support the provincial schools and selected district political centers to provide modern, learner centred and practical training for commune staff in planning, budgeting, finance, and agricultural & forestry extension; to increase teachers capacities in participatory curriculum development.

Civil Society and State (CS&S)

Decentralisation and Governance: to strengthen decentralised and local structures in regard to improved service provision in agriculture and rural development, participatory planning and financing at commune level, improved administration procedures and processes at provincial, district and commune level, improved adoption and dissemination of grass-root democracy principles, gender awareness, awareness regarding ethnicity, awareness regarding domestic violence and discrimination of women and ethnic minority, and finally regarding an enabling environment for the development of SME at provincial level