Speeches Shim
Limited physical access to public buildings as well as lower access to health care, education, employment, and transportation prevents persons with disabilities from economic and social inclusion. Since 2019, USAID’s Raising Voices, Creating Opportunities project, implemented by the Action for Community Development Center (ACDC) - a disability rights advocacy organization, has been working to improve persons with disabilities’ physical access to public buildings.
Last month, during a biodiversity inventory exercise at the Elephant HSCA in Quang Nam province, the USAID Green Annamites team spotted a healthy 9-12 month old elephant calf with four adult elephants. This is the first baby elephant identified since the biodiversity inventory recording in 2017 when USAID supported Quang Nam province to open the Elephant HSCA to conserve critical habitat for one of the last groups of endangered Asian elephants.
USAID’s Raising Voices, Creating Opportunities project aims to improve public attitude towards the rights of persons with disabilities and their access to transportation and health facilities in Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, and Quang Nam provinces. Persons with disabilities have limited information about the pandemic because they are often isolated and/or cannot read or hear the news. In addition, many persons with disabilities have extremely low paying jobs, such as selling lottery tickets. While the COVID-19 social distancing policy has protected the health of some persons with disabilities, it has also taken away their income. For these reasons, they are one of the most vulnerable groups during the pandemic. Hence, on April 16, USAID's Raising Voices, Creating Opportunities project and the Vietnamese Federation on Disabilities co-organized a virtual conference to map support for persons with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last few weeks, there has been an ARV shortage in Vietnam. Hence, in order to avoid a stock-out of ARVs during the current COVID-19 pandemic, USAID’s Global Health Supply Chain, Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project helped the Government of Vietnam to facilitate a shipment of ARVs from India. GHSC-PSM worked with counterparts in India to ensure that these ARVs were released after the COVID-19 lockdown limited all transportation.
From the beginning of the drafting process, USAID has provided technical assistance to Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment, the National Assembly, and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) to help develop the country’s first PPP Law. USAID assistance focuses on introducing international standards and best practices in PPP to the Government of Vietnam and helps raise the voice of the private sector in this matter. Over the next few weeks, USAID’s Learning Evaluation Analysis Project (LEAP) III will co-organize a series of online policy discussions in partnership with VCCI and the Institute of Policy Studies and Media Development.
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