While UNDP has a comparative advantage in providing policy advice based on good international practices, the initiation plans related to productivity, competitiveness and inclusive growth have not been expanded, due to limited funding during the current programme cycle. In the face of resource constraints, the country office used funding from Japan for COVID-19 to support in-depth research and policy advice on the productivity and competitiveness of Vietnamese firms. Furthermore, support for inclusive growth, productivity and competitiveness has been continued through policy research and advice on inclusive innovation, inclusive IR4.0 and AAA governance, and work on MSMEs. While these initiatives have shored up the UNDP comparative advantage as a policy adviser, the lack of resources has affected prospects for the sustainability of the UNDP role as a thought leader in this area.
2.3 Climate change and adaptation CPD Outcome 2: By 2021, Viet Nam has accelerated its transition to low-carbon and green development and enhanced its adaptation and resilience to climate change and natural disasters, with a focus on empowering the poor and vulnerable groups.
The UNDP focus within this outcome revolved around reducing greenhouse gas emissions in key sectors and cities in Viet Nam through low-emission and green development; building the resilience and adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities to climate change and disasters through community
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actions and up-scaling; and supporting policies, systems and technologies to enable people to benefit from the sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems and reduced environmental and health risks. Of the $61,965,010 budgeted for this outcome, UNDP had spent $44,091,086 (about 71 percent) at the time of this ICPE in November 2020. Finding 13. UNDP has made notable contributions to reducing GHG emissions in Viet Nam by promoting low-emission activities and green development. Initiatives with a sharp focus on specific energy efficient technologies and products have been more successful compared to carbon sequestration initiatives addressing forest management and green growth. Most of the UNDP-supported initiatives within this outcome have had a sharp focus on technology and specific products that consume less energy or burn less fossil fuel (energy efficient lights, energy efficiency in buildings, use of non-fired bricks, etc.) with a very high volume of potential end users, which has contributed to reductions in GHG emissions and thereby to the outcome goals.116 Projects have been quite effective at meeting targets, with measurable reductions in GHG emissions. For example, UNDP work in promoting non-fired brick production and utilization has contributed to increasing the demand for non-fired bricks in construction and thus their production, despite them being slightly more expensive and labour intensive. This is evidenced by the increasing loan volume provided by banks to support non-fired brick production lines.117 The reduced use of coal for firing bricks is contributing significantly to reducing GHG emissions and carbon sequestration, and also freeing up land which was used by brick kilns for
UNDP is not working in the energy sector, which contributes about 66 percent of Viet Nam’s GHG emissions, so overall reductions due to UNDP programming are quite small relative to the problem (GHG Emissions Factsheet: Viet Nam, www.climatelinks.org). Government control over the energy sector is a key hurdle in this regard. Specific consumer products are much more workable in programming. UNDP reports indicate that 2,115 buildings in Viet Nam have used non-fired bricks. The loan volume provided by financial institutions (including commercial banks) for non-fired brick investments has been $26.4 million (for 33 enterprises; 53 new non-fired brick production lines have investment plans approved). The market share of non-fired bricks (28.5%) is calculated based on the consumption of non-fired bricks against the total consumption of bricks estimated for 2019. The project supported 18 non-fired brick plants with feasibility studies (target of 22; 4 demonstrations and 18 replications).
CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS
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