World Bank continues fuelling poverty reduction in Vietnam

Country director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa said at a workshop on August 4 that the World Bank would provide an additional financing of $100 million, sourced from the International Development Association (IDA), to extend the Second Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project (NMPRP-2) till June 2018, as it is due to expire in late-August, 2015.

The additional financing was the result of an agreement signed between the World Bank and the State Bank of Vietnam in early July 2015 as part of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's visit to the US, she added.

Victoria Kwakwa shared with VIR that the World Bank would continue fuelling the country's poverty reduction efforts in the coming years, provided the project is carried out in a more effective manner.

The extended project will benefit 259 communes in 29 districts of the six northern mountainous provinces of Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien and Lai Chau. It would focus on increasing transparency in poverty reduction financing, scaling-up and strengthening participatory local development planning, institutionalising this approach in the government’s overall national poverty reduction programmes, and promoting market linkages and business innovations to boost farmers’ income.

The extension aims to increase income per capita rates among beneficiaries by at least 15 per cent and help at least 60 per cent of the common interest groups (CIGs) to raise their asset value to serve production and livelihood development, and promote the inclusion of women and ethnic groups in planning and decision making processes by introducing an at least 60 per cent involvement rate.

Launched in September 2010, the five-year Second Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project, worth $165 million in total, with $150 million sourced from the World Bank, has helped 232 communes in 27 districts of these provinces. At the beginning of the project, the region was home to more than 67,000 poor households, which has been reduced by 3 per cent a year. So far, locals have seen the completion of 800 infrastructure projects, and the improvement of a sustainable livelihood approach.

NMPRP-2 is the successor of the First Northern Mountains Poverty Reduction Project worth $150 million, which was also funded by the World Bank and benefited Phu Tho, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Son La, Hoa Binh and Bac Giang provinces between 2002-2007.