During April 2022, the ADPC held a series of stakeholder engagement sessions in Hanoi, Viet Nam with key national government agencies under the Urban Resilience for Climate Extremes (URCE) Program. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, this was the first opportunity for the stakeholder engagement to occur in person. Prior to this, all stakeholder engagement was undertaken via online platforms.
One critical meeting was held between senior officials in the ADPC and the Viet Nam National Disaster Management Authority (VNDMA). During these discussions, the VNDMA pledged continuous support and collaboration for the implementation of the URCE Program in Viet Nam. Further, both agencies discussed exploring other program opportunities for collaboration in the future. Both Mr. Pham Duc Luan – Deputy Director-General, Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority (VNDMA), and Mr. Hans Guttman – Executive Director ADPC participated in the meeting.
During the meeting, Mr. Hans Guttman (Executive Director – ADPC) highlighted that this program would be a good platform to explore initiatives in enhancing urban climate resilience in My Tho and Nam Dinh cities.
Several additional meetings were held with other key national level agencies during this stakeholder engagement period. This included meetings with the Viet Nam Meteorological and Hydrological Administration (VNMHA), Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change (IMHEN), Ministry of Health (MoH), Urban Development Agency (UDA), Department of Climate Change (DCC), and Center for Environmental Fluid Dynamics (CEFD). In the meeting with the CEFD, flood hazard assessments and mapping for the two program cities was presented. This is an important input into the URCE Program. Discussions were also held with the VNDMA on Viet Nam Disaster Management System (VNDMS), which is currently used by disaster prevention workers, exploring how it introduced to My Tho and Nam Dinh cities.
These engagement sessions were important in strengthening the agencies’ understanding of the URCE Program and in strengthening the relationships between the ADPC and the national level agencies.
