Letter from VUSTA
Director’s note "We must work together to create positive change and build a prosperous and sustainable future for rural communities." Building on our impressive record of achievement over the past three years, I am pleased to announce that SRD has again achieved remarkable results providing long-term sustainable agriculture and livelihood projects in rural Vietnam. Now in the second term of our five-year strategic plan we have made significant progress by successfully establishing additional projects and implementing more efficient and innovative approaches to our work. While we continue to work on sustainable agricultural development we have incorporated new priorities in our strategic direction that enhance our focus on climate change by implementing proactive projects that meet the growing demand for adaptation and mitigation projects at
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Annual Report 2008- 2009
grassroots level. It is our great honor that SRD is selected as the lead agency for a three-year capacity building project on climate change. The project, which is funded by the Embassy of Finland, is designed to improve the capacity of Vietnamese civil society organisations to develop and implement climate change mitigation and adaptation activities that meet the needs of vulnerable communities in Vietnam. Over the past year we have been invited to participate in more than thirty major national and international conferences and workshops including the United Nations Framework on Climate Change's Conference of Parties (UNFCCC's COP 15) to be held in Bonn (June 2009), Bangkok (October 2009) and Copenhagen (December 2009).
Finally, I would like to thank our employees, partners and donors for their unwavering support for our life changing work and VUSTA for their valuable support since SRD began as a Vietnamese NGO in March 2006. I hope you enjoy reading our annual report. Yours sincerely,
Vu Thi Bich Hop Executive Director
The Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Association (VUSTA) is committed to a large range of activities that effectively contribute to the promotion of social development, environmental protection as well as actively collaborating with the government to identify and resolve specific issues in sustainable socio-economic development in rural areas. Rural Vietnam is home to the poorest living conditions in the country. Roughly 90 percent of Vietnam's poor live in rural regions and 45 percent of the rural population live under the poverty line. Having low education levels and endless economic, social and environmental problems, support for rural development is important to us and our members. The Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) formed under the Presidential Committee of VUSTA - has actively engaged in poverty
alleviation, sustainable agricultural and rural development. With enthusiastic, experienced and highlycommitted leadership and staff, SRD projects consistently achieve outstanding results contributing to sustainable agricultural and livelihood development. SRD's work creating sustainable futures for marginalised communities also actively encourages local participation through the establishment of strong, supportive, gender balanced community based organisations. SRD is also successfully administering new projects designed to help communities adapt to changing climate conditions Over the years we have witnessed SRD's significant growth and increased recognition within the rural development sector. This increase is largely due to SRD's enthusiastic participation in the formation and operation of local
and international NGO networks. This networking has been increasingly significant in strengthening the coordination and improvement of the capacity of NGOs in Vietnam. SRD has a professional organisational structure with highly effective operations. SRD's vision, values, principles and objectives are thoroughly compatible with our guiding principles and general objectives and diversify our activities to sustain effective, poverty alleviation and rural development activities. On behalf of the Presidential Committee of VUSTA, I wish that with the achievements in the past years, SRD will continue to move forward and contribute even more to rural sustainable development. Your sincerely,
Ho Uy Liem Vice-President
Annual Report 2008- 2009
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