Vietnam Launches $49M IFAD-funded Project on Climate Change Response

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has funded a project on Adaptation in the Mekong Delta (AMD) costing total $49.3 million in the Mekong delta provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh. Comprising three components until 2020, the project will improve rural livelihoods and strengthen people’s capacity to adapt to climate change, benefiting 125,000 vulnerable people. The project target poor communities, specifically female-headed and ethnic minority households in the localities and will work to develop climate-resilient agricultural systems, salinity-tolerant fish varieties and off-farm livelihood opportunities. Since 1979, IFAD has invested roughly $281 million in 12 programs and projects in Vietnam, benefiting more than 507,900 households. Being among the five countries hardest hit by climate change, Vietnam has invested about $1 billion in climate change response over the past decades. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam – Vietnam Economic Times May 16 p4, www.ifad.org)