Japan continues to accompany the improvement of livelihoods for ethnic minority communities in Son La province

On October 17, the signing ceremony of the aid contract for the project "Improving livelihoods for ethnic minority communities in Son La province through agriculture and improving nutrition (year 3)" took place within the framework of the Japanese government's non-refundable aid program for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in fiscal year 2025.

The contract signing ceremony took place in Hanoi on October 17. (Source: Embassy of Japan in Vietnam)

At the signing ceremony, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Ito Naoki and Save the Children Japan's Director of Cooperation and Aid Nagino Kosuke signed the aid contract between the Embassy and the organization.

The project will support the enhancement of agricultural production capacity and improve the livelihoods of ethnic minority households with difficult lives living in the former Bac Yen district and the former Sop Cop district of Son La province, an area in the northern mountainous region, to ensure food stability and smooth agricultural trade.

The total budget for the 3-year project implementation from March 2023 to October 2026 is approximately 234,936,281 Yen, of which the budget for the 3rd year of implementation funded through this signing is 62,985,037 Yen.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ambassador Ito Naoki said that in 3 years of implementation, the project will support more than 45,000 people, focusing on vulnerable groups such as women and children. The project's support activities include improving agricultural production and distribution techniques, organizing training on cultivation techniques, livestock breeding techniques, vaccination to prevent livestock diseases and building infrastructure to serve production. In addition, nutrition counseling activities, experience exchange, and promotion of breastfeeding are very effective, contributing to raising people's awareness of health care.

Save the Children Japan and its partners will evaluate, synthesize and disseminate project results. This will help central and local governments and communities understand the value and effectiveness of the project and learn from its results.

Ambassador Ito Naoki hopes that local authorities will continue to improve their management and operational capacity in the agriculture and health sectors, and allocate appropriate budgets for agricultural extension, education promotion and community nutrition to sustain long-term nutrition improvement activities after the project ends.

"I believe that this project will be a model so that the excellent results can be replicated in other mountainous regions of Vietnam, where the socio-economic situation and population structure are similar," Ambassador Ito Naoki shared.

The Japanese Government's NGO-linked Grant Aid Cooperation provides official development assistance (ODA) to Japanese international non-governmental organizations to implement socio-economic development projects at the grassroots level, where support from local governments or international organizations is difficult to access, through practical activities that meet the socio-economic development needs of local people in developing countries.

Since 2002, the Japanese government has implemented 97 NGO-linked grant aid projects in Vietnam with a total value of approximately 2.45 billion yen (today's signing ceremony is the 98th project, bringing the total aid value to 2.52 billion yen).

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/nhat-ban-tiep-tuc-dong-hanh-cai-thien-sinh-ke-cho-cong-dong-dan-toc-thieu-so-tai-tinh-son-la-331595.html