17 January 2019: Viet Nam’s coastal provinces affirmed their commitment to build more than 1,300 storm-resilient houses and plant or regenerate more than 1,300 hectares of coastal mangroves in 2019 through a project, supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and other partners. These efforts are expected to advance implementation of the SDGs, including SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 1 (no poverty), SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 15 (life on land).

The five-year project, ‘Improving the Resilience of Vulnerable Coastal Communities to Climate Change in Viet Nam,’ which is being implemented from 2017-2022, seeks to help to protect vulnerable coastal communities from flooding and storms, boost livelihoods, nurture biodiversity, and support a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. By 2022, when the project ends, an estimated 1.9 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions will have been avoided. The project also aims to increase access to enhanced climate risk information and loss and damage data to guide climate-resilient and risk-informed planning in all 28 coastal provinces in Viet Nam, by both the private and public sectors.

During a meeting on 17 January, the project steering committee reviewed the project’s 2018 achievements, including the construction of 1,098 resilient homes, the planting and regeneration of nearly 200 hectares of mangroves, and the implementation of training courses on community-based disaster risk management (DRM) for more than 15,000 people.

The project is the first GCF-supported project in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, and has innovated in such areas as monitoring and evaluation and ensuring adherence to gender and social safeguard requirements. The project relies on a USD 29.5 million GCF grant, as well as USD 9.4 million from the Government of Viet Nam and USD 1.6 million from UNDP. [UNDP Press Release] [Project Website]