Nghe An province is a complex mountainous terrain that includes 10 alpine areas with districts where ethnic minorities like the Thai and Hmong people reside. The lack of productive land and the traditional and outdated farming practices have led to circumstances that require the mountainous people to cultivate their crops on steep sloping lands. This cultivation on steep sloping lands is associated with the increasing deforestation and forest degradation from climate change.
Moreover, this kind of cultivation causes frequent soil erosion and degradation. In consequence, the production efficiency is lower. To provide solutions for the problems surrounding deforestation and forest degradation and to further address climate change, SRD teamed up with the “Vietnam Forests and Deltas” (VFD) project and held a training session on behavior change communications in cultivating on sloping agricultural lands in order to improve and develop local forests, to increase the adaptation capacity to climate change in the region and to boost the locals’ income.
Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha, a gender and capacity specialist from Winrock Internationl, was one of trainers
The training took place in the three days from July 13th to 15th 2015 in Vinh city of Nghe An province. Participants included 40 people that were representatives of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, of the Women’s Union, of the Agricultural Extension Center. In addition to this were representatives on behalf of the leaders and cadres of agencies at the village, commune and district level and participants from the 19 households involved in the model for growing corn on sloping land in Tien Phong and Yen Thang communes of the Que Phong and Tuong Duong districts in Nghe Anh province.
On the first day of the session, attendees were given an overview of a climate change adaption model that is being implemented in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces. A group discussion was conducted to fully analyze the strengths, weaknesses, advantages and challenges of conducting the model before them.
Group discussion
In mountainous districts like Ky Son, Tuong Duong and Que Phong situated in Nghe An province, women are highly involved in cultivating on sloping land. Therefore, the training focused on analyzing and assessing the role of women in implementing the models for local climate change adaption. In the meantime, it also helped participants understand basic factors in gender sensitivity by undertaking behavior change communications activities.
Following the aforementioned basic knowledge transfer, the next two days of the training equipped attendees with general knowledge of communications and behavior change communication skills, essential skills to identify target audiences and the purposes of communications. These include, building key messages, determining communications channels and drawing ideas for communications tools and materials. In addition, within the scope of the training, participants had a chance to practice producing communications materials and developed implementation plans after the training.
A communications product of participants
This is a capacity building activity for commune and district staff that falls within the framework of the Vietnam Forests and Deltas” (VFD) project funded by USAID through Winrock International and that is being implemented by SRD, SNV and ARC over the course of five years from 2013 to 2017.
-SRD-
Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD)
No.31, Alley 19 Kim Dong Street, Hoang Mai District, Ha Noi
Phone: +84 24 3943 6676/78 | Fax: +84 24 3943 6449
