The Mekong Delta provinces of Tra Vinh and Ben Tre have undertakengreat efforts to push forward the “Adaptation in the Mekong Delta” (AMD)project, said Henning Pedersen, Country Director of the InternationalFund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

He made the statementat a meeting to review the results of the AMD project implementation intwo localities held on March 26 in Tra Vinh province.

Aninspection group from the IFAD conducted its first project supervisionfrom March 9-26 to evaluate its initial efficiency and orient itssubsequent activities in line with the project’s sustainable developmentgoals.

Pedersen highlighted that Ben Tre needs to integratepoverty reduction into the project’s strategies alongside its climateadaptation goal.

Meanwhile, he said that the project coordinatingboard in Tra Vinh province should enhance the capacity of the localwomen development fund for prudent capital management.

The AMDprogramme in Ben Tre and Tra Vinh is being implemented in 30 communes ineach province between 2014 and 2020.

Thetotal budget is over 1 trillion VND (approximately 48 million USD),including a 426 billion VND (over 20 million USD) loan from IFAD, a 252billion VND (nearly 12 million USD) grant from IFAD and 159 billion VND(7.4 million USD) from the State budget.

Its mainobjective is to develop sustainable livelihoods for the rural poor inthe face of a changing climate and to enhance the target communities’capacities to adapt to climate change.-VNA