Landestrategien for udviklingssamarbejdet med Vietnam er under revision.
Der foreligger nu et udkast til revideret strategi for perioden 2006-2010, som er udarbejdet i samarbejde mellem Danida, ambassaden Hanoi og Vietnams regering, skriver udenrigsministeriet på sin hjemmeside torsdag.
Næste skridt i processen er at drøfte strategiens målsætninger med den danske ressourcebase. Der holdes derfor møde om udkastet til den reviderede landestrategi for Vietnam fredag den 17. juni kl. 10-11.30 i Udenrigsministeriet, lokale M3 (til venstre inden receptionen).
Alle interesserede er velkomne. Efter høringen vil strategiudkastet blive færdiggjort og forelagt udenrigsministeren, U-landsstyrelsen og Folketingets Udenrigsudvalg.
Tilmelding til mødet kan rettes til fuldmægtig Louise Nuoto Dohn på 33 92 09 65 / [email protected], fuldmægtig Michael Vinding på 33 92 09 75 / [email protected], alternativt til Asien-kontorets forkontor på 33 92 09 53.
Skriftlige bemærkninger er også velkomne og kan fremsendes til Danida, [email protected], frem til den 20. juni.
Her den operative bistandsdel af udkastet:
4. Danish-Vietnamese Cooperation 2006-2010: The Programme
Support to economic, administrative and judicial reforms
Goal for support to economic, administrative and judicial reforms
– Poverty reduced to 17 per cent by 2010.
– To promote a professional, transparent, accountable, service-oriented and non-discriminatory public administration.
– Development of the rule of law that ensures predictability, equality, non-discrimination and protection against abuse.
With a view to support Vietnam in its poverty reduction efforts the World Bank has from 2001 annually provided a Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC), which has been supported by a number of bilateral and multilateral donors.
The PRSC-process has become the key vehicle for dialogue on overall policy reforms through the use of a policy matrix and annual triggers for achievements in important reform areas.
PRSC 3 covering 2004 focused on important issues in relation to
1) the transition to a market economy with a socialist orientation,
2) social inclusion and environmental sustainability, and
3) good governance and public administration.
This included i.e. progress in equitization of state owned enterprises and reform of the financial sector, further quality improvement in education, restructuring of state owned forest enterprises and development of a strategy for the judicial sector.
The PRSC is a joint funding mechanism of budget support administered and audited by the World Bank. The World Bank, EU, Asian Development Bank, UK, Japan, Canada, Holland and Denmark supported PRSC 3 financially.
Denmark has contributed to the financing of PRSC from its start. A five-year economic reform support programme for the period 2004-2008 includes continued annual support to PRSC.
In the dialogue on future PRSCs Denmark will attach importance to strengthening gender, good governance, decentralization, popular participation, rights based issues and environment. Also themes such as ethnic minorities, strengthening of the private sector and increased focus on HIV/AIDS prevention will be promoted.
The reforms support programme opens the possibility for supporting more directly poverty targeting programmes pending an assessment of the quality and effectiveness of such interventions, which is expected to be revised, following a recent evaluation.
Furthermore the programme provides research support regarding economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development for Central Institute for Economic Management, which is a research institute and think tank under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The Danish assistance to Public Administration Reform (PAR) is initially concentrated in the Dak Lak-province and aims at decentralization and delegation of powers to the lowest appropriate level.
It builds on four thematic approaches:
1) Decentralization of administrative decisions to district and commune levels,
2) increasing service orientation of public service units,
3) improving and decentralizing financial management and
4) training and capacity development.
Based on the experience in Dak Lak it will at a later stage be considered whether to expand the support to PAR to another 1-2 provinces with large concentrations of ethnic minorities possibly together with other donors.
While PAR also contains clear anti-corruption measures the magnitude of the corruption problem in Vietnam calls for specific action.
Denmark is already providing financial support for Vietnams preparation to ratify the UN Convention against Corruption. Based on the results of the ongoing diagnostic study and the governments own new policies and measures, Denmark will consider further support to anti-corruption. Such assistance will to the extend possible be provided as joint funding with other interested donors.
Denmark is one of the major partners in reform of the judicial sector. The objective of the Danish support is to assist in creating a legal and institutional environment that promotes poverty alleviation, human rights, good governance and gender equality through increasing access to justice.
The planned new phase of support to the judicial sector will focus on raising the capacity of the national institutions to increase public participation in law making and public access to the judicial sector including courts, procuracy and lawyers.
The programme will through separate project activities support the Office of the National Assembly, Supreme Peoples Court, Supreme Peoples Procuracy and Bar Associations.
SUPPORT TO WATER AND SANITATION
Goals for the support to the water and sanitation sector:
– 85 per cent (pc.) of the rural population has access to clean and safe water in 2010
– 75 pc. of the rural population has access to hygienic latrines and have good personal hygienic care by 2010
– National Water Resources Strategy and revised Law on Water Resources have
been adopted and implemented by 2010
While the present phase of the Water and Sanitation Sector Programme comprises both rural and urban water and sanitation, the second phase of the Danish support to water and sanitation – which will cover the period 2006-2010 – will focus on rural water supply, sanitation and integrated water resource management.
The second phase will be formulated in accordance with the priorities defined in the Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy and the five-year Socio-Economic Development Plan 2006-2010 and in close cooperation with other donors in the sector.
Emphasis in the Danish supported programme will be on poverty targeting, national ownership, sector wide approaches and long-term sustainability. Accordingly the programme will be implemented through the Vietnamese partner systems.
The assistance to rural water supply will focus on poor communities, children and ethnic minorities. The approach will be in accordance with the National Strategy for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation with emphasis on community involvement of both women and men in decision making, operation and maintenance in accordance with the Grassroots Democracy Decree.
The aim will be to support the development and implementation of a national strategic sector plan in close cooperation with the Government of Vietnam and other donors.
The support to sanitation and hygiene will aim at increased coverage in hygienic latrines and improved health through good personal hygiene. It is foreseen that the health authorities will be the main Vietnamese counterpart in these activities.
Focus will be on simple solutions in the poor communities, schools and health centers. Information, education and communication activities are essential in promoting sanitation and hygiene and the use of local motivators have already proved successful in this regard. As the motivators are often confronted with questions on HIV/AIDS they will be trained to respond to these questions.
The role of the private sector in both water supply and sanitation is expected to be of paramount importance in combination with appropriate micro-finance mechanisms, which the marginalized groups and in particular female-headed households can access.
The level of assistance to integrated water resources management will depend on the commitment and institutional framework from the Vietnamese side.
The aim will be to promote a better knowledge and utilization of the water resources in order to prevent water from drying up and being polluted, protect the quality of ground and surface water, and strengthen the national and local capacity for integrated water resources management.
Action-oriented research may contribute to the quality of the work and consolidation of the achievements and this could include linkages between water and sanitation and HIV/AIDS in a Vietnamese context. Monitoring will be an integral part of the work and a basis for results-based management.
SUPPORT TO FISHERIES
Goals for support to the fisheries sector
– Growth rate of 4,2 per cent (pc.) annually in fishery sector
– Growth rate of 7,5 pc. annually in fisheries export value
The first phase of the Fisheries Sector Programme from 2000-2005 is expected to reach its objective of supporting the overall growth in the sector and have contributed to making fisheries one of the biggest net earners of foreign exchange to Vietnam.
The second phase of the programme will strive to make a stronger poverty focus and directly target the poor segments of the fishery communities, i.e. primary producers in the capture fisheries and aquaculture and small traders.
The success at the export markets for Vietnamese fisheries products will be further exploited to improve the livelihood of the less privileged parts of the fishing communities both men and women. At the same time the aim will be to increase production for the domestic market and thereby contributing to improved supply of animal proteins.
While quantitative growth remains important a continuous enforcement and development of quality standards will be pursued, as the global markets increasingly demand sound environmental practices.
Women play a significant role in the fisheries sector i.e. in net-making/-mending, marketing, aquaculture and processing industry. The programme will promote gender equality in i.e. employment, participation in local credit organizations, aquaculture co-management and marketing.
The Ministry of Fisheries will be assisted in developing and implementing an HIV/AIDS action plan within the sector. This is particularly important for fisheries communities with migratory fishers involved in capture fishing.
The Programme will work both at the national, provincial and local levels. At the national level activities will primarily be related to legal and policy issues, at the provincial level administration and at the local level to pilot and demonstrations activities with emphasis on community participation in accordance with the Grassroots Democracy Decree.
The Programme will operate in nine provinces in the north including Son La, the center including Dak Lak and in the south. Implementation will be through Vietnamese institutions, which will also be responsible for financial management.
The programme will be concentrated in four major areas of intervention, namely strengthening of fisheries administration both at the national and provincial level, strengthening of capture fisheries management, sustainable aquaculture development and improvement of post-harvest handling and marketing of fish.
SUPPORT TO AGRICULTURE
Goals for support to the agricultural sector
– Rural poverty reduced 20 per cent (pc.) in 2010 from 40 pc. in 2000
– Poverty among ethnic minorities reduced from 69 pc. in 1992
– Growth rate of 4-4,5 pc. annually
The second phase of the Agricultural Sector Programme – which will start in 2007 – will be more focused and have greater emphasis on poverty reduction than the present phase.
It will address poverty both among ethnic minorities, who often live in areas with high incidence of poverty, and among poor farmers – both women and men – in lowland areas with high population density.
The programme is expected to comprise a limited number of provinces, including Nghe An and Dak Lak, and to include a few national interventions based on the experiences from the present phase such as small livestock, integrated pest management and other targeted activities of high priority for alleviating poverty.
Support to provinces will constitute the major part of the programme. It will be a mix of more general rural development activities with a livelihood approach and more specific activities aimed at improving agricultural techniques with a focus on both the specific conditions among the ethnic minorities in the highlands – which has not been addressed sufficiently by agricultural research and extension – and the situation for poor farmers in
the lowland.
Support will be given to local initiatives to develop more market oriented production systems, promote diversified land use and exploit the full potential of improved and integrated farm production systems as well as strengthen the marketing chain. It is essential to involve the poor farmers – both men and women – directly in the planning and implementation of activities.
As women have a central role in agriculture emphasis will be given to gender equality in i.e. training, credit provision, decisionmaking and design of other specific interventions.
The programme will address possible adverse environmental impacts of for instance application of agrochemicals and of business development. The provinces will be supported in promoting a transparent and accountable administration and in providing equal access to information and services with in the sector.
Support will also be provided for HIV/AIDS prevention at the provincial and national sector level as necessary.
Support for research in rural development comprising agriculture, rural economics, rural sociology and poverty alleviation will also be promoted particularly through building capacity in Vietnamese research institutions by cooperation between international and Vietnamese research institutions.
The programme will be implemented through Vietnamese institutions at both national and provincial level, which will also be responsible for financial management. To the extent possible Vietnamese monitoring systems will be used.
SUPPORT TO BUSINESS
Goals for the support to the business sector
– Creating 1,45 million new jobs annually
– Increasing the number of newly registered businesses by 20 per cent annually from 150.000 in 2004
– Reduce work accidents from 35 per thousand workers to 10 per thousand workers in 2010
The Government of Vietnam in its Socio-Economic Development Strategy for 2001-2010 decided to reduce poverty by moving towards a market economy with a socialist orientation.
While many reforms have already taken place or are under way to create a more conducive environment for business in general and for small and medium sized enterprises in particular, the implementation of the reforms is the critical part.
Especially the provincial authorities, playing a principal role in implementing many of the reforms, are experiencing difficulties in meeting the new requirements and in adjusting to the changed policy regime.
Therefore the focus of the business sector programme – which first phase runs from 2005-2009 – is to a considerable degree on support to implementation of the reforms at provincial level.
However, although a lot has been done at the national level, new inconsistencies and gabs are being discovered. Therefore the programme will provide support to macro, meso and micro level aspects of private sector developments.
At the national level support will be given to foster the use of formalized and transparent channels for resolution of commercial disputes, which is important for the further internationalization of the Vietnamese economy and will assist in easing business transactions and, in turn, the competitiveness of the private sector.
Also support will be given to capacity building in policy-making, coordination of policy implementation and in conducting studies on the business sector. Strengthening the capacity of the Economic court and the voluntary arbitration system, as well as support to developing more professional and competent business lawyers will do this.
Assistance will be given to national policy initiatives, to meet international requirements for standardization and certification and for research, which can feed into the national policy process regarding private sector development.
The meso level is here understood as the provincial level and concentrated in four provinces: Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, Ha Tay and Nghe An.
This level will concentrate on improving the business climate by i.e. streamlining administrative procedures and increasing transparency in decision-making; improving the working conditions in SMEs and strengthening tripartite mechanisms; and supporting provincial business associations and their role in the policy dialogue.
At the micro level of individual enterprises the programme is essentially addressing the working conditions and the need for support services.
All activities will be gender-mainstreamed aiming at full women representation in decision-making bodies and committees and equal share of women among beneficiaries.
Environmental concerns are directly reflected in the objective of improving labour conditions. By providing direct support to trade unions and business organizations the programme contributes to furthering the tripartite dialogue. The programme also aims at increasing the awareness of and initiating activities related to HIV/AIDS prevention at the workplaces.
The programme will be implemented through Vietnamese partner systems, which will also be responsible for financial management.
During the inception phase the programme will fund a consultancy aiming at developing a joint monitoring system for the SME sector and all relevant donor programmes.
SUPPORT FOR CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
With a view to promoting increased creation, peoples access and participation as well as diversity in the Vietnamese society Denmark will increase its cultural support to Vietnam during the strategy period.
A specific strategy for Danish-Vietnamese cultural cooperation is under development. The plan is to concentrate on a limited number of strategic areas with potentially high impact.
This could include i.e. dialogue with and capacity development of the Ministry of Culture and Information and other government institutions regarding i.e. the role of culture and arts in society; children and arts with the aim of stimulating the interest of the young generations; strengthening of arts at grassroots level; and exchange of performing arts between Denmark and Vietnam.
The present Vietnamese-Danish Cultural Fond will be continued but most likely with a revised focus in light of the other expected areas of support.
Bilateral assistance OUTSIDE the Country Programme
Support for ENVIRONMENT
Goals for the Environment Programme
– Waste water is treated and solid waste collected and managed from 50 per cent (pc.) of households and 70 pc. of enterprises in densely populated areas that are part of the programme
– 95 pc. of the population in all urban areas in which the programme invests have access to safe water and sanitation
– Air and water quality attains national standards in programme provinces.
The rapid economic growth over the last decade or so has led to increasing environmental problems in Vietnam. The countrys natural resources are being degraded. Biodiversity and forest areas continue to be under pressure from a growing population and from industries.
Many areas are increasingly troubled by industrial hotspots and the rising level of urbanization poses serious problems with regard to managing waste and providing safe water and sanitation.
Water and air pollution is increasing in most parts of the country and particularly in urban areas where the problems are aggravated by inadequate zoning.
Vietnam has recognized the seriousness of the environmental situation and has adopted the National Strategy for Environmental Protection, which aims
at securing sustainable livelihoods and improved living conditions for the poor.
The Danish Environment Programme supports the implementation of this strategy primarily in a limited number of provinces in the north, central and south of Vietnam. It will focus on
1) pollution control in poor densely populated areas,
2) environmentally sustainable development in poor urban areas,
3) cleaner production initiatives and improvements in occupational health and safety in industry,
4) sustainable livelihoods in and around marine protected areas and
5) capacity development support for environmental planning and management.
Gender will be mainstreamed by ensuring equal participation and representation of women and men in demonstration projects, which will be the major mode of operation and be based on demand. As women are often more exposed to environmental hazards than men, improvements in the environment will have a direct positive impact on the health of women.
Peoples participation will be a central tool in improving urban planning practices and decision-making as well as creating sustainable livelihoods in
marine protected areas in accordance with the Grassroots Democracy Decree.
HIV/AIDS-prevention activities will be included in the different interventions. The programme will generally be implemented through Vietnamese institutions and systems.
Together with a number of other donors Denmark is providing basket funding to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for better coordination in consultation with the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Further opportunities for joint funding or other relevant harmonization efforts will be pursued and can be accommodated within the focus areas.
SUPPORT for Private Sector Development (PSD), Business Linkage Programme and Mixed Credits
Through the Private Sector Development Programme, Denmark has since 1996 supported commercial cooperation between Danish and Vietnamese enterprises.
The programme has led to the establishment of more than 50 long-term cooperation agreements including joint ventures with a total workforce of approximately 14.000 employees. Furthermore the programme has supported more than 100 start-up arrangements also laying the foundation for further company cooperation.
The programme is demand-driven and companies within many different sectors have benefited from the transfer of technology, know how, market access, management skills, environmental improvements and investments for which the Private Sector Development Programme is a catalyst.
The Private Sector Development Programme will be continued in the strategy period and is expected to gain even more momentum as the Vietnamese economy integrates more into the global economy.
With a view to engaging Danish enterprises directly as investments partners in the equitization of Vietnamese state-owned enterprises, the Business Linkage Programme has been introduced in Vietnam.
The aim is to attract Danish investors and technology partners to link up with and buy into equitizing Vietnamese enterprises in need of investors as well as technological, operational, managerial and marketing upgrading.
The Mixed Credits provides concessional loans to development projects in Vietnam. Since 1995 twenty projects have been and are being implemented to a total value of approximately 120 million US dollar, and 10 other projects are in the pipeline. Late 2003 an untied facility was introduced and one project has successfully applied this new facility.
Focus of the mixed credit support has to a considerable extent been on water and sanitation projects with others projects within fishery, agriculture and media. In the coming strategy period efforts will be made to broaden the sectoral coverage of mixed credits.
Public health and vocational training are among the potential new areas of support. Emphasis will also be given to increase the interest of the business sector in these soft loans.
CAPACITY building in research and research projects
In addition to research activities financed via the sector programmes and other projects under the country programme, specific support for research and research capacity building projects are being provided through the Council for development Research.
The projects at present cover a wide range of research areas such as reproductive health, aquaculture, fish diseases, protected area management and research within agriculture. The research is mainly linked to Danish development assistance to Vietnam and often carried out as university twinning projects.
SUPPORT through Danish NGOs
Only a limited number of Danish NGOs are active in Vietnam. They include ADDA (Agricultural Development Denmark Asia), CARE Denmark, Caritas Denmark, Danish-Vietnamese Association, Danish Council of Organization of Disabled People, Sex and Society and the Danish Organization for Renewable Energy.
Only a few of the NGOs have representatives in Vietnam. The Vietnamese partners are a mixture of civil society; parastatal and government organizations and organizational links to the local or central government is required in all cases.
