Caption: A teacher and her pupils in an early childhood centre in Binh Dinh province .

Note: Click for enlargement of map.

Viet Nam

2008/2009 Allocation | $10 million

Snapshot

Viet Nam is located in South East Asia, bordering China , Lao PDR and Cambodia . Viet Nam 's population of some 84 million people makes it the second most populous country in Southeast Asia and, alongside the Philippines , one of the most densely populated. The Kinh comprise 87 percent of the population which is made up of 54 ethnic groups, most of whom live in the remote, mountainous regions of the country.

Two decades after Viet Nam 's economic renovation process ( doi moi) commenced, the changes have been remarkable. Average growth of 6-7% during this period has seen poverty reduced, incomes raised and improvements in education, health and other social indicators.

Viet Nam has already achieved the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving poverty and is well on its way to achieving most of the MDGs. However, there is still much to be done in relation to reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and ensuring environmental sustainability. The Vietnamese Government is committed to reducing the poverty rate to 10-11% by 2010, improving the quality of education and reducing high rates of maternal and infant mortality, especially amongst the country's ethnic minority groups who are particularly at risk. Despite this an estimated 9-10 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2010, with 37% of these from ethnic minorities.

NZAID priorities

Viet Nam is one of NZAID's two core bilateral partners in Southeast Asia . In May 2005, the New Zealand Government announced a tripling of its Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocation for Viet Nam from NZ$3 million in 2005 to NZ$10 million in 2008. NZAID's Viet Nam Country Strategy, developed in 2006/07, provides the framework for the expanding development partnership with Viet Nam .

NZAID is contributing to poverty elimination in Viet Nam through investing substantially in rural livelihoods and basic education. Support is given at the national level in support of Vietnamese government programmes in primary education and avian influenza. NZAID is also providing US$ 4 million over four years (2007-2010) to the One Plan Fund of the United Nations in Viet Nam . At the provincial level, NZAID is supporting early childhood education and a maternal child health programme in the south central coast province of Binh Dinh and is developing a new rural livelihoods initiative. NZAID is resuming development cooperation with the neighbouring Central Highlands province of Gia Lai commencing 2008.

NZAID on the ground

Sustainable Rural Livelihoods

In the period to 2010, NZAID will concentrate up to fifty percent of its resources on sustainable rural livelihoods.

Plant and animal health

Viet Nam faces challenges with its accession to the World Trade Organisation, particularly meeting its commitments under the Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary (SPS) agreement. NZAID's regional phyto-sanitary capacity building programme is helping to improve identification, monitoring and control of diseases and pests in horticultural exports. NZAID's support to avian influenza is helping to improve surveillance and epidemiological investigations in the animal health sector. In 2008, NZAID will investigate opportunities to address challenges in animal health and livestock production in Binh Dinh province.

Improving rural people's incomes

Creating sustainable rural livelihoods is a complex task that involves a mix of actors including individuals, communities and the private sector, supported by government and donors. NZAID intends to link rural producers to markets and value chains that are most relevant to their local context, capacities and opportunities and that will bring about real increases in their income. Following a scoping study undertaken during 2007, NZAID has initiated the design of a sustainable rural livelihoods programme in Binh Dinh province.

Avian Influenza

Since 2004, NZAID has been helping Viet Nam to combat and control outbreaks of Avian Influenza. Initial funding through Care International in Viet Nam provided emergency equipment to the veterinary services in Binh Dinh province and a subsequent initiative strengthened training, outreach and prevention services in Binh Dinh and Long An Provinces. In December 2005, NZAID provided disinfectants, protective clothing and biosafety cabinets for use by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in as part of its first very successful campaign to control the spread of the disease.

NZAID contributed $450,000 to the second phase of a Joint Programme on Avian Influenza implemented by the Vietnamese government and the United Nations. This has been followed by a $2.2 million programme with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development building the skills of animal health workers and helping the government to better understand how H5N1 is spreading amongst ducks and other bird species in the Mekong Delta. A series of epidemiological studies are being undertaken by the Department of Animal Health (DAH) and animal health workers in region seven – the Mekong delta. These will be led by four DAH staff as part of their Masters and PhD studies at Massey University .

Education

In the period to 2010, NZAID will concentrate up to one third of its resources on basic education programmes.

Primary education

NZAID and another six donors are supporting the Vietnamese government to achieve its Education for All ( EFA ) Action Plan with a special focus on primary education. New Zealand is providing budget support of US$4 million over four years from 2006-08 to Viet Nam 's Education National Targeted Programme. The goal is to improve fundamental school quality levels and to enhance the overall process of planning, implementation, reporting and monitoring of the programme.

Early childhood education

A child's capacity for learning when entering primary school depends to a great extent on the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development that has already taken place in the early years of the child's life. NZAID is supporting UNICEF's early childhood development programme, taking a particular interest in the work that UNICEF, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Viet Nam Women's Union are undertaking in the area of mother tongue-based bilingual education amongst ethnic minority children.

NZAID has committed $2.8 million to support early childhood education in Binh Dinh province. The project is being implemented by the Department of Education and Training and will construct early childhood centres in all eleven districts of Binh Dinh province. Classrooms are being built in fifty one communes. Teaching materials and toys will be provided to each facility and a series of awareness campaigns will be conducted in all project communes. These will explain the importance of early childhood education to parents and community leaders and encourage them to send their children to the newly built centres. The quality of teaching staff will be improved through refresher training. This initial training, and ongoing in-service training, will be developed with support from an Early Childhood Advisor recruited by Volunteer Service Abroad.

During 2008, NZAID will work with the Department of Education and Training of Gia Lai province to design a programme for early childhood and post-early childhood education in the province. The programme targets ethnic minority (BaNa and Jrai) and poor children, particularly children aged 5-7 years who are attending one year of early childhood education and the first two years of primary school. Early childhood teachers, Grade 1 and 2 teachers, education managers and teacher trainers at the Gia Lai Teachers' Training College , will also benefit.

Human resource development

The English Language Training for Officials ( ELTO ) programme is the longest standing of NZAID's initiatives in Viet Nam . For more than a decade, officials from Viet Nam have been coming to New Zealand to study English language with specialised themes such as foreign policy, international trade, agriculture and rural development, and governance. The second phase of ELTO ended in 2007 and a third phase is being designed during 2008.

Commencing in the 2009 academic year the number of post-graduate scholarships offered by the New Zealand Development Scholarships ( NZDS ) programme will increase to seventeen for government officials (NZDS-Public category) and another three for individual applicants (NZDS-Open category). NZDS is targeted at sustainable rural livelihoods, basic education and governance. Ten postgraduate scholarships will be made available annually under the NZDS-Public category for study in pedagogical methods. These are targeted at staff of tertiary institutions which are participating in the Viet Nam – New Zealand initiative for English language teaching.

Health

Maternal and child health

During the Viet Nam War, New Zealand provided medical services in Binh Dinh province. The connection to Binh Dinh has continued through the work of Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) and the New Zealand/Viet Nam Health Trust, primarily in the health and education sectors. NZAID provides annual funding for both organisations to carry on this work.

In March 2004, NZAID launched a US$3 million maternal and child health project in Binh Dinh, at the time one of the largest NZAID funded projects outside the Pacific. The project is being overseen by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and implemented by the Department of Health of Binh Dinh province. It provides the training and equipment needed to deliver quality health services to the people of the province. A Mid-Term Review in 2006 paid tribute to the way the project is being managed. Reviewers were impressed with the extent to which reproductive and adolescent reproductive health is now thought of as a key responsibility across all provincial departments and agencies. The project will be completed in December 2008.