The URCE program team in the month of December 2022, selected the most vulnerable communes/wards in My Tho and Nam Dinh cities in consultation with the government officials and other stakeholders at the city level for piloting activities on building urban resilience at the commune/ward level.
Around thirty officials representing the Peoples’ Committee of My Tho and Nam Dinh cities and the Provincial Steering Committees (Tien Giang & Nam Dinh province) for Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue participated in the selection process. The Senior Adviser, Department for Climate and Environment, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), Mr. Trond Heyerdahl Augdal, attended the vulnerable commune/ward selection workshop conducted in My Tho city. Mr. Trond interacted with the stakeholders in the workshop and provided his insights to the selection process.
The vulnerable communes/wards were selected based on the quantitative and qualitative indicators reflecting aspects such as: flood risk, climate disaster risk, socio-economic status, health issues, needs of the communities, willingness of the community to collaborate with the URCE program, and the role of community in achieving the city’s vision for resilience.
Tan My Chanh and Thoi Son Communes from My Tho city and Van Mieu Ward from Nam Dinh city were selected as the most vulnerable.
The URCE program team will initiate pilot activities in those selected areas to enhance the urban resilience of the vulnerable communities to climate extremes. As the first steps, community stakeholders will be identified in order to constitute a working group in each of the communes/wards. Community Capacity Needs Assessment (CCNA) will be carried out to identify the required areas for implementing capacity building programs in Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM). The URCE team expects that these pilot activities will serve as good case studies in demonstrating the methods adopted in enhancing urban resilience to climate extremes at the commune/ward level in Viet Nam.
