Budget Support for the National Target Program 135 Phase 2 in the Period of 2006-2010 (P135-2)

Objectives:

To facilitate significant improvement in production knowledge and to accelerate a shift toward higher value-added commodities;
To sustainably improve the socio-cultural life of people living in communes facing extreme hardship in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, in order to narrow the gap in living standards among Viet Nam’s regions and ethnic groups; and
To eradicate hunger in the targeted areas and to reduce the poverty rate to below 30% by 2010, according to the Government's new poverty line.

Total Funding:

Australia: A$45 million

All Donors: A$343 million

GOV: A$950 million

Duration: 2006 -2010

Location: Nationwide

Project Components:

Accelerating production development and economic structural shift:
To make a radical change, improve production knowledge of ethnic minority people, accelerate strong agricultural economic structural shift toward combination of production and market, promote advantages of each region, and improve income.
Infrastructure development:
To ensure essential communal infrastructure facilities that are sustainable and adequate to resident and production planning, contributing to improvement of living conditions, production development, and income generation
Strengthening capacity of grassroots cadre and communities:
To provide training and fostering for commune and village grassroots cadre in according with position and classification, provide and supplement professional and managerial knowledge and skills in order to create good conditions for capacity building of grassroots cadre so that they will accomplish state administration and social management duties. To strengthen community’s capacity in all aspects, and to create enabling conditions for effective participation and supervision of management in the area.
Support in improving people’s living conditions:
To improve living conditions, improve people’s access to essential social services, improve people’s educational level, and reduce living gaps among different ethnic groups. The improvements of living environment of the people should focus on the most pressing issues, namely housing, clean water supply and environmental sanitation, health care, education, etc.

Expected outcomes:

70% of households will achieve average annual income per capita at VND 3.5 million
80% of communes have village vehicle accessible road
80% of communes have irrigation works serving 85% areas of wet paddy fields
100% of communes have enough permanent primary and secondary schools with teacher’s dormitory, necessary accessory facilities, teaching tools and materials; and boarding schools where necessary
100% of villages or village clusters have adequate class rooms for primary class, kindergarten and day care services
80% of villages have electricity in residential quarters
100% of communes have permanent clinics with adequate facilities to ensure normal treatment for people.
Access to services: 80% of households have access to clean water; 80% of households have electricity
Health care and sanitation: control and prevention of dangerous epidemic diseases; increase percentage of households with septic tank to 50%;
Education: 90% of primary pupils and 75% of secondary pupils in the school age;
Legal support: 100% of communes exercise legal support; 95% of people in extremely difficult communes have access to legal services;
Standardized training provided for key managers at grassroots level. The training target groups include: local key Party’s and Government’s leaders (People Council, People Committee), mass organizations, professional officials at the commune level, heads of villages, commune supervisory board and community people.

Funding Donors: AusAID, DFID, Irish Aid, IFAD, Finland, World Bank

Vietnamese Counterparts:

Leading Agency: Committee for Ethnic Minorities (CEM)

Coordinating Agencies: MPI, MOF, MARD, MOC, MOHA

Contact Officer:
Dr Tran Van Thuat,
Director of CEM's Policy Department
Tel. 84 4 8230500
Mob. 091 323 6602
Email: tranvanthuat@cema.gov.vn

AusAID Contact:
Mr Nguyen Quoc Viet
Senior Program Manager, Rural Development Sector
No. 8 Dao Tan, Ba Dinh, Hanoi
Tel.: 84 4 8317754/ 55 ext 180
Fax: 84 4 8317706
Email: quoc-viet.nguyen@dfat.gov.au

2008