Hanoi, Viet Nam. FAO, with financial support from the Republic of Ireland, today finalized a key initiative to enhance agricultural livelihood support for women in northern Viet Nam with a range of activities to be implemented until 31 December 2023.

The goal of the “Pilot Programme on Resilient Livelihoods for Rural Women in Viet Nam Northern Mountainous Region” project – to be delivered in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Viet Nam Women’s Union, businesses, women’s and farmers groups – is to increase ethnic minority women’s access to sustainable and resilient agricultural livelihoods in natural resources management.

The project was high on the agenda of a meeting today between Ireland’s Minister for State Agriculture Mr. Martin Heydon, who is visiting Viet Nam as part of an Irish trade delegation, and FAO Representative in Viet Nam, Mr. Rémi Nono Womdim. Both parties also discussed future opportunities for Irish support to sustainable agri-food systems and vulnerable communities in Viet Nam.

The direct beneficiaries of the pilot project are agriculture extension service providers – with at least half being ethnic minority women and their families. They will benefit from increased incomes from rural activities and resilience to natural and climate-induced disasters.

As a result of the combined downstream and upstream support from the project, a major contribution will be made to strengthening capacity for value-addition and income generation related to agri-food systems, directly providing an impetus to northern mountainous provinces’ capacities to fund and provide social and economic services to their citizens and thereby make a major contribution to enhanced prosperity in the region.

The project will contribute to the National Strategy for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development 2021-2030 with vision to 2050, as well as to FAO’s strategic framework that seeks to support the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems for Better production, Better nutrition, a Better environment, and a Better life to leave no one behind.