Attending the workshop was Ms Atsuko Toda, IFAD Country Programme Manager in Vietnam; leaders of relevant ministers and agencies together with representatives of Ha Tinh, Ben Tre, Ninh Thuan, Bac Can and Ha Giang provinces. On the side of Quang Binh province, there were Mr. Tran Van Tuan, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee, Head of the Quang Binh Decentralised Programme for Rural Poverty Reduction (Quang Binh DPPR) Project together with representatives of relevant agencies and localities in the province.

The goal of the Quang Binh DPPR Project is to improve the socio-economic status of the poorest households in the Project Area, with particular emphasis on the use of highly decentralized, community-driven development approaches.

Over six years of implementing, the project obtained acknowledgeable results. Concretely, rate of poor households in the project area reduced 43.5% in 2006 to 18.6% in 2011; underfed households reduced 48.7% to 26%; ill-nourished children reduced 44% to 33%; rate of households applying new technology into cultivation was 46.7%; into breeding husbandry was 47.8% and into fishery was 11.4%. In addition, 11,511 households were approached to fresh water and 108 enterprises, which are supported by the project, still put into operation after three years of establishment. Until the end of February of 2012, rate of capital reimbursement of the project reached over 96%.

At the workshop, delegates spent much time to exchange and share experience in the implementation of the project and discuss solutions to improve the capacity and supply human resources for the project.

On this occasion, the provincial People’s Committee awarded Certificate of Merit to 10 individuals for their excellent achievements in poverty-alleviation movement in the period of 2005-2011.

Reported by Ngoc Ha