Ninh Thuan (VNA) – A consultation conference was held in thecentral province of Ninh Thuan on March 22, focusing on measures to enhancecooperation between the locality and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) infighting and adapting to natural disasters targeting children.
As part of the project on child-centred disasterrisk reduction, the event was joined by Vietnamese experts,those from UNICEF and other international organisations.
Participants reviewed the implementation of theproject and share experience in deploying emergency relief programmes in areashit by drought and saline intrusion, and mitigating natural disasters.
They agreed to build the child-centred disasterrisk mitigation programme in 2017-2021, focusing on building a bettercoordination mechanism among involved parties to reduce natural disasters’effects on children, and improve the capacity of relevant agencies, childrenand families and social organisations in the work.
Vice Chief Representative of UNICEF in VietnamJesper Moller said the programme will help promote cooperation among parties inthe disaster adaptation scheme, towards creating positive changes inprotecting, caring and educating children.
He affirmed that UNICEF will continue workingwith Ninh Thuan to help the province address difficulties caused by climatechange and mitigate disaster risks in the coming time.
Praising efforts made by UNICEF in recent time,Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Van Binh pledged to promoteprogrammes including children-related issues in the province’s developmentplans, and support the child education.
Ninh Thuan has been one of localities hardesthit by climate change, which caused prolonged drought and saline intrusion.
The prolonged drought from 2015 to the end of2016 in Ninh Thuan pushed about 54,000 locals to shortage of food and water. Atotal of 1,050 children suffered from severe acute malnutrition, while 11,000others aged between 6 to 23 months old were deficient in micronutrients.
UNICEF has deployed many activities to helpthe locality deal with the situation, including providing clean water andmulti-micronutrient products and treating severe acute malnutrition for womenand children who are the most vulnerable to climate change.-VNA