Speeches Shim
Many vulnerable populations in Vietnam, particularly women and children, do not have adequate access to justice and legal services for various types of civil and criminal cases. To address this challenge, on June 12-13, USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth Program organized a training program in Hanoi to improve the knowledge and skills of 50 legal counselors from various social organizations.
On June 13-14, USAID’s Vietnam Low Emission Energy Program (V-LEEP) collaborated with USAID Clean Power Asia to organize a workshop on the fundamentals of financing solar power projects in Vietnam. The workshop attracted 50 participants from 10 large commercial banks including Vietcombank, BIDV, SHB, and Techcombank as well as solar power project investors and developers.
On June 14, USAID/Vietnam Mission Director Michael Greene led a coastal clean-up event in Ha Long Bay with more than 80 volunteers, including representatives from Vietnam’s tourism and hospitality sector, NGOs, USAID, and the Government of Vietnam. Participants learned about plastics alternatives, such as biodegradable products made of bamboo, cornstarch, or cassava. They also acquired knowledge on zero-waste applications for cruises and hotels which would lead to generating no garbage/trash, and saw first hand the negative environmental impact of plastic as they picked up and sorted over 1600 pounds of plastic and other trash from two beaches in Ha Long Bay.
In the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 report, Vietnam’s ranking jumped from 82 to 68 out of 190 economies, the highest increase in the past decade. However, non-enforcement and long delays in civil judgments reduce Vietnam’s ranking in the Enforcing Contracts and Resolving Insolvency category of the World Bank’s Doing Business report. To improve this, USAID’s Governance for Inclusive Growth program is working with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to reform the legal framework and administrative procedures of civil judgements to expedite and improve enforcement.
The HIV prevalence rate among men who have sex with men (MSM) has increased rapidly in Vietnam over the last few years. In late March, USAID’s Sustainable HIV Response From Technical Assistance Project (SHIFT) activity partnered with Hanoi Medical University and Hanoi Preventive Medicine Center to launch postal delivery of HIV self-testing kits.
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