SRD’s Partner Meeting 2012 – The closing milestone of SRD’s successful second Strategic Plan

On 6^th November 2012, the Partner Meeting of the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) was held at íits headquarter office in Hanoi with the full participation of the Management Board, Advisory Board, representatives from Caritas Australia, Winrock International, other partners and all of SRD staff.

In the cozy and open atmosphere of the event, Ms. Vu Thi Bich Hop, Executive Director made the opening remark: “We are very proud of the cooperation with our donors and partners and what we have been doing for the communities since the establishment of the organization. The year of 2012 is a huge milestone of the organization that we finished our second Strategic Plan successfully. Our project budget and cover has been significantly increased and expanded.”

During the meeting, representatives from SRD’s departments gave brief presentations on organization overview, human resources, finance and SRD’s themes – sustainable agriculture, climate change, communications, research and advocacy to the partners and donors. Over the past few years, SRD has been growing in the number of projects, which is currently 12 different projects over 9 provinces, of which Quang Tri and Ha Tinh are two new project areas. The number of direct and in-direct beneficiaries has likewise been increased that are mostly poor farmers, the disabled, women, children and ethnic minorities. The approved budget for 2012 reached 1,072,000 million US dollars, which is an increase of 11.5% compared to 2011. The year of 2012 is also the closing milestone of the organization’s second Strategic Plan (2008-2012) with the significant achievements in the community’s development works and contribution to the poverty reduction in Vietnam. Within the meeting, SRD consulted with its donors and partners about the development of the organization’s third Strategic Plan (2013-2017) in order to seek for the right direction for the organizational development in the changing context of NGOs.

The donors and partners of SRD applauded the organization’s efforts and achievements that it has earned in 2012 in particular and in the second Strategic Plan in general. They likewise commited to extending their operation and support to SRD in the forthcoming future. “It’s fortunate that I have privileges to work with SRD in the last auditing activity and I highly value the organization’s financial system. All financial issues raised by SRD’s partners were responded promptly. The system has proven its transparency, credibility and efficiency.” said Mr. Chanthea Nou, Caritas Australia’s representative.

The contributions and comments collected from the meeting are the evidence of the strong committment and support of SRD’s donors and partners that encourage all SRD staff to continue putting their utmost efforts to the development of communities as well as the organizational development. They are likewise the constructive inputs for the development of the third Strategic Plan which would be the direction for the organizational development in the forthcoming period.

SRD’s third Strategic Plan (2013-2017) is scheduled to be officially launched in January 2013.

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