A number of products made by ethnic minority people on display at the launch of a project aimed at accelerating multi-dimensional poverty reduction among ethnic minorities. Photo baotintuc.vn

HÀ NỘI – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs (CEMA) on Monday launched a project to help partners from central to local level promote their roles and strengths in designing and experimenting innovative solutions to accelerate poverty reduction among ethnic minorities.

With support from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the project will provide policy advice and technical assistance to CEMA and participating provinces to realise the objective of the National Target Programme in reducing the number of the communes with extreme hardship by 50 per cent by 2025 and bring the number to zero by 2030.

Đỗ Văn Chiến, Minister, chairman of CEMA said  this was the first time Việt Nam has a National Target Programme dedicated to ethnic minorities and mountainous areas.

The total estimated budget for the first phase (2021-2025) which has been approved by the National Assembly is more than VNĐ137 billion (US$5.9 million) – the largest ever capital in ethnic affairs work, he said.

Chiến said the CEMA would make every effort, committing to use the finance resources reasonably and effectively to achieve the project’s objective.

Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Việt Nam said high level and persistence of poverty among Ethnic Minority (EM) groups presented a key challenge for Việt Nam to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensure no one is left behind. The COVID-19 pandemic, as highlighted in UNDP-UN Women rapid assessment of COVID-19 socio-economic impact on the vulnerable households and businesses, disproportionally impacting vulnerable ethnic minority households and micro/small enterprises adds significantly to the challenge.       

The Government of Việt Nam has identified acceleration of multidimensional poverty reduction and social economic development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous areas as a key priority in the country’s Socio-Economic Development Plan.

At national level, the project “Accelerating socio-economic development and multi-dimensional poverty reduction among Ethnic Minorities in Việt Nam in the 2020-2025 period” will support the creation of spaces for innovation and a system providing incentives and holding accountability for the achievement of the Programme’s outcomes, which is expected to be a significant shift from the current system where compliance to rigid rules and delivery of outputs are emphasised, she said.

She said: “At the local level, Sơn La and Lào Cai provinces will support ethnic minority women and men, local governments and private enterprises in identifying and experimenting innovative solutions and implementing the successfully tested solutions to accelerate multidimensional poverty reduction.”

She also said the project would build on the success of the UNDP's work in Bắc Kạn and Đắk Nông provinces through which ethnic minority women-led cooperatives successfully applied e-commerce, e-marketing and e-payment tools and advantages of the local traditional and organic products to expand their businesses during the pandemic.

“I strongly believe that the shared development vision, the committed and innovation nurturing government, innovative ethnic minority people will make the NTP [National Target Programme] a powerful tool for accelerating socio-economic development of EM areas and communities, and leaving no one behind,” said Wiesen.

Robyn Mudie, Ambassador of Australia to Việt Nam, said Australia is committed to working with partners to support sustainable and inclusive growth of Việt Nam.

She said: “The UNDP- CEMA partnership that we support and kick-off today is part of this long term commitment to make sure that new and innovative solutions in poverty reduction are embedded into and scaled up by Government’s programme and policies for the benefit of poor and disadvantaged people, including women and men from ethnic minority groups.”

At the event, ethnic minority women from Bắc Kạn, Đắk Nông, Lào Cai and Sơn La provinces shared lessons on how their inter strengths have been mobilised, how concrete innovative solutions have been generated and helped them escape poverty. – VNS