HANOI—April 8, 2008

The Ford Foundation has accepted a proposal submitted by the East Meets West Foundation (EMW) to develop a pilot action research program to deal with the effects of climate change for Vietnam's most vulnerable communities. The Ford Foundation has awarded EMW $99,000 USD to conduct the study in Quang Nam Province to develop a model program applicable to typical communities (i.e. poor communes in coastal or river basin areas). The end result of the study will result in a clear set of guidelines to inform development planning.

With this study, EMW will begin to get involved in determining the best way to help poor and vulnerable communities in rural Vietnam adapt to the effects of climate change. EMW aims to have an influence on local and national policy on the part of both the government of Vietnam and international agencies involved in community development, community planning and construction.

Executive Director John Anner notes, "Given EMW’s 20 years of development experience in Vietnam, not only in the technical aspects of community development, but also in the extensive process of consultation with targeted beneficiary groups, we anticipate being able to make significant  contributions in working directly with communities and the local authorities to raise awareness of the broad range of implications of global climate change." EMW’s twenty years of development work in Vietnam has allowed it to accumulate significant political capital, critical to the successful implementation of local and regional development programs.

EMW will conduct the pilot program in Quang Nam province where East Meets West has an excellent relationship with the local authorities and the communities. The program will address education on the effect of climatic change and the potential prevention and rehabilitation measures; community consultation, responses and adaptation; and, institutional arrangement and coordination among local authorities, NGOs and communities.

East Meets West is planning to link to these efforts by working with local authorities to ensure that all development activities take into account the likely effects of climate change; by working in partnership with other INGOs through the Climate Change Working Group to help develop and coordinate INGO development work with respect to climate change; and, by creating a model program for a typical vulnerable community.

This model program will be designed to be affordable, practical, effective and within the capabilities of the local community to implement. The program must both inform and fit with emerging government and INGO responses to climate change. The program must fit with EMW’s criteria for launching new programs, which are that the program must be innovative, high-impact, scalable and capable of attracting significant resources.

The end result will be a publication and a multi-sectoral set of trainings aimed at helping vulnerable communities adapt to the effects of climate change. These publications and trainings (in English and Vietnamese) will be used to help local communities, local government agencies, provincial-level authorities and NGOs plan more effectively for climate change.

The proposal arose out of the many meetings EMW staff have attended about the impact of climate change in Vietnam. One important meeting was the January 23rd Workshop on Policy Dialogue on Climate Change and the National Target Program on Climate Change Adaptation, sponsored by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (the MONRE Minister attended), and attended by most of the major multilateral and bilateral donors and NGOs. Considerable time and energy has already been focused on this important set of issues and Vietnam's government understands the potential implications of global climate change for a vulnerable country such as Vietnam, and is making significant initial efforts to determine how best to respond. Workshop participants at the highest level understood that technical fixes, while certainly important in dealing with this unusually broad and complex set of issues, will not be enough.  Direct consultation with the people who will most likely be affected by global climate change is a critical aspect of dealing with this issue.

For more information, contact the Communications Department at info@eastmeetswest.org.