As published in ECODE on February 2, 2021

In the framework of GCF-UNDP project, on January 22, in Dong Hoi city, ECODE Center organized a planning workshop on integrating climate risk information into socio-economic development plans at all levels of Quang Binh province in the period of 2021 - 2025. The workshop aims to promote integrated planning and capacity building for leaders and staff in departments and local authorities. This activity has great practical significance in the context of Quang Binh, which is recovering strongly from the historic disaster in October to November 2020. Quang Binh is also finalizing the formulation of development plans and strategies for the next 5 years.
From the achievements of the Risk Pack development mission, ECODE Center is making efforts to introduce Risk Pack to stakeholders to provide necessary technical and information inputs for planning, communication, and training in 7 GCF-project provinces. Accordingly, the participants were trained on methods, integrated implementation procedures, planning discussion and selection of priority solutions for the locality in terms of risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

Dang Tien Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Binh province, said that natural disasters as well as climate change are progressing more and more severe and causing many serious consequences affected socio-economic of Quang Binh province. In 2020, natural disasters caused serious damage to the province with an estimated loss of more than 3,700 billion VND, of which the storm and floods that accumulated in October 2020 accounted for 3,500 billion VND, killed 25 people, injured 197 people, damaged completely 104 houses, 106,000 houses collapsed, ... That harsh reality shows the need for immediate and long-term solutions to adhere to local practice and starting with proactive integrated planning.

Participants at the workshop said that the integration has been regulated and guided in a number of documents and policies such as Circular 05/2016-Ministry of Planning and Investment, and Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control. Provinces have actively integrated risk reduction objectives and solutions into the planning and implementation process, but the results are still limited. Some of the reasons mentioned by the participants were due to the lack of specific guidance documents, difficult to apply, limited knowledge and skills on integration, monitoring and evaluation of local officials, budget allocation and limited long-term solutions to climate change. Most of the opinions suggested that there should be a legal document with more detailed integration guidelines, appropriate to the context of the country and local conditions.

Discussions at the workshop highlighted the local disaster risk and climate change situation, proposed urgent and long-term solutions related to planning and implementation. Participants said that in order to develop plans that are systematically integrated, firstly, it is advisable to establish interdisciplinary working groups with the participation of different fields; secondly, natural disaster prevention and control plans should be formulated before the socio-economic development plan; and finally climate change and disaster risk assessment results should be a part of the input to planning as a basis for proposing adaptation and mitigation measures.  

The GCF project implemented by UNDP in collaboration with Vietnam Disaster Management Authority has achieved many important results and contributed directly to the local risk reduction efforts. By the end of December 2020, the project has supported the province to build 811 safe houses and carry out 11 training courses on community-based disaster risk management/assessment. Mr. Do Manh Hung, Project Manager - Central Project Management Board (CPMB) said that the project has been and will continue to support 7 project provinces, including Quang Binh province, to upgrade the database system of climate, and contribute to perfecting institutions and policies on natural disaster and climate change prevention and control.

The Workshop on Integrating Climate Change in Quang Binh is one of 7 workshops held in 7 coastal provinces under the project “Strengthening resilience to the impacts of climate change for vulnerable coastal communities in Vietnam” (GCF resilient to climate change) funded by the Green Climate Fund through UNDP.