As many as 13 non-agricultural livelihood models will be carried out in the southern provinces of Tra Vinh and Ben Tre to adapt to climate change under the “Adaptation in the Mekong Delta” (AMD) project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The information was given by the project’s coordination board and the provincial Department of Industry and Trade on December 1. 

The selected models will focus on recycling plastic and other materials, and producing food and handicrafts. 

Organisations and individuals joining the models will be considered to receive financial assistance from the climate change adaptation co-sponsoring fund (CCA) and the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) fund under IFAD for their cooperation, said the AMD project’s coordination board director, Huynh Nghia Tho. 

Units or individuals financed by CCA will be given non-refundable aid equivalent to 50 percent of the total cost of their production and business plans, and those supported by the PPP will get maximum assistance of 49 percent of their total investment in a project. 

The AMD programme in Ben Tre and Tra Vinh is being implemented in 30 communes in each province between 2014 and 2020, benefiting around 15,000 poor and near-poor households. 

The total budget is 521 billion VND (23.1 million USD), including a 233.5 billion VND (around 10.3 million USD) loan from IFAD, a 126.5 billion VND (over 5.6 million USD) non-refundable grant from IFAD, 79.5 billion VND (over 3.5 million USD) from the State budget and 81.5 billion VND (3.6 million USD) from beneficiaries. 

Its main objective is to develop sustainable livelihoods for the rural poor in the face of a changing climate and to enhance the target communities’ capacities to adapt to climate change.

Source: VNA