Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam Paul Jansen visits a kindergarten in Kon Plong District, Kon Tum Province - PHOTO: COURTESY OF EMBASSY OF BELGIUM

Over the past four decades, the Belgian Development Cooperation has supported Vietnam in a number of areas, from infrastructure to poverty reduction, social development, education, public health, water and sanitation.

Kon Tum is the first locality in the Central Highlands selected by the Belgian Development Cooperation for support via different channels, including both governmental and non-governmental.

Ambassador Paul Jansen and the delegation visited Kon Plong District, one of the areas benefiting from the program. They had a meeting with the provincial authorities and relevant agencies.

Ambassador Paul Jansen was informed of the positive changes brought about by the Belgian-funded projects, especially the “Support for Responsive Accountable Local Governance” project. He welcomed the close and effective cooperation of the local authorities at all levels in implementing the projects.

The “Support for Responsive Accountable Local Governance” project included a joint program with Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces, with a budget of 3 million euros equally divided for the three provinces. 

The shared objective is the strengthening of citizen-government engagement as a means of promoting more transparent, accountable and responsive local governance, improved service delivery and increased levels of citizen satisfaction, while conducting mutual learning and cross-fertilization between the three provincial interventions and with other national institutions.

This project, under the framework of the last Vietnam-Belgium Cooperation Program of 58 million euros focusing on the areas of governance, water management and urban planning in the context of climate change and green growth, had been completed by the end of June 2019. It was implemented by the Belgian Development Agency and the Kon Tum provincial government.

The Belgian Government also funds two education projects that are currently implemented by two international non-governmental organizations, including Plan International and Education for Development. 

The “We strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls” project is implemented from 2017 until 2021 by Plan in nine communes in Kon Plong and Sin Ho districts of Kon Tum and Lai Chau provinces in partnership with the Vietnam’s Women Union and Live and Learn with the total budget of 2.5 million euros.

The project, based on the “child-centric development” approach, focuses on young children to assert their right to high-quality education and care to ensure a smooth transition to primary school.

Another Belgian-funded education project is the “Mitigating Preschool Children’s Barriers to Learning in Disadvantaged and Ethnically Diverse Districts” program, which is implemented from 2017 to 2021 with the total budget of over 4 million euros.

The program focuses on improving the quality of early childhood education in poor ethnic minority districts in three provinces in central Vietnam, including Kon Tum, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.

The project strengthens the competence of preschool teachers on process-oriented child monitoring and enables them to address gender, environment and ethnic diversity barriers to learning. SGT