The Final Meeting of the Project “Strengthening the Voice and Capacity of Vulnerable Ethnic Minority Farmers in Climate Resilience in Northwest Vietnam (VOF)”
After more than 3 years of the beginning of the project in the provinces of Lai Chau and Son La, facing not only the already known challenges of smallholder’s farmers, the project also faced the effects caused by the covid 19 pandemic, and after that period, the VOF project was completed with remarkable success.
The VOF project was supported by CISU and aimed to strengthen “The resilience of vulnerable ethnic minorities to climate change in Northwest Vietnam through the promotion of climate-smart agriculture and their participation in the decision-making process.”
On the 19th and 20th of September, the closing activities of the VOF Project were promoted, in the Moc Chau city of Son La province, with the presence of the entire ADDA-Vietnam team and ADDA’s Chairman, Mr. Søren Thorndal Jørgensen, the Project partners PanNature, Son La and Lai Chau FU, local facilitators, heads of FRGs and their members from target areas.
Final Meeting Activities
During the evening of the 19th, there was a special dinner with all the participants involved in the project. A good opportunity for an introduction to what has been accomplished, the challenges faced over the years and the perspectives and expectations, especially of farmers, with the objectives achieved.
On the 20th, the Final Meeting was held. The content of the meeting consisted in the presentation of the project implementation report, presented by the representatives of the Lai Chau and Son La FU. FRG representatives from Lai Chau shared their experiences in the Nà Cà village (Tam Duong district) and Hợp 1 village (Phong Tho district), as well as FRG representatives from Son La, shared the experiences from the Thín village (Xuân Nha district), Sặp Vạt village (Yên Châu district), Nà Si village (Mai Sơn district) and Phé A village (Thuận Châu district). PanNature presented the discussion on results, impacts and lessons learned during the implementation, in addition to the Report on implementation of communication and advocacy activities. And then, with the participation of all those present, there was the speech and discussion on the implementation of local adaptive agricultural village models. Representative of Evaluation Team, Mr. Nguyen Anh Dung also gave summarized of their reports with holistic assessment.
After the final meeting, all the participants visited the project model in the Thín village (Xuân Nha commune), where participants could meet the FRG’s members, visit interesting agro-forestry models and visit the Truong An Cooperative to understand the production and sales process. In this way, it was possible to have an overview of the implemented project, which has directly contributed to improvement the livelihood of the families involved. The visit ended with a delicious dinner in the village, with fresh products provided by the community and a special exchange of energy and knowledge between all partners participating in the project.
The results presented at the meeting, as well as the visit to the project areas were inspiring for projects like this to continue contributing and strengthening smallholder farmers and their communities in climate change adaption.
