Viet Nam

Agriculture, including forestry and fisheries, is an important sector of Viet Nam's economy, accounting for 18 percent of GDP. About 71 percent of the people live in rural areas, and 62 percent depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Viet Nam is making good progress towards reaching both the targets of the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals. About 9.6 million people (11 percent of the population) remain undernourished, down from 13.3 million in 2002.

Video: FAO in Viet Nam

FAO's main in-country programmes

Special Programme for Food Security
Under the South-South Cooperation initiative of the Special Programme for Food Security, Viet Nam is providing experts and field technicians to Senegal, Benin, Madagascar, People's Democratic Republic of Lao, the Republic of Congo and Mali.

EMPRES animal health component
The Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) is focusing on highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and several livestock diseases in Viet Nam.

Viet Nam has been recognized as infected with HPAI since January 2004. Since then, five waves of infection have hit the country affecting domestic poultry and wild birds. Recent outbreaks were reported in March 2009. The situation is considered as enzootic. Since 2004, 109 human cases have been reported, 54 of them fatal. Viet Nam is a beneficiary country of four ongoing FAO HPAI projects at global, regional and national levels. Earlier assistance included support from 13 FAO projects at various levels.

Viet Nam will host the next International Conference on Avian and Human Influenza in early 2010.

Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease are reported to have affected large areas of the country. FAO has provided technical advice but has not identified funding resources for disease control action.

When a series of unusual pig deaths were reported in August 2007, the Crisis Management Centre - Animal Health (CMC-AH) fielded a team of animal health experts to investigate the situation rapidly. Mission findings indicated that the mortality rates were the result of an interaction between multiple swine diseases, including a recent Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome outbreak. Following up on CMC-AH efforts, FAO and the Government of Viet Nam have called on the international community to support future disease investigation and laboratory work.

National Medium Term Priority Framework
The National Medium Term Priority Framework 2006-2010 is being implemented in close partnership with and great support from the Vietnamese government, donors and all other related bodies, international and domestic alike.

The framework aims to promote equitable sustainable sector growth through improved productivity, competitiveness and enhanced product quality. To this end, FAO has launched extensive programmes covering a broad spectrum of agriculture including crops, fisheries, forestry, post harvest technology and food safety and quality.

The framework also aims to improve the quality of life and living conditions for the rural poor and vulnerable through more equitable access to food, social services and empowerment. FAO is focusing on:

• reducing the proportion of poor, hungry and vulnerable rural households;
• reducing adverse impacts in vulnerable regions;
• enhancing crop/livestock disease control; and
• encouraging the equal participation and involvement of all rural stakeholders.

With the aim to ensure environmental and natural resource sustainability, FAO has implemented projects in the areas of:

• conservation of biodiversity and environmentally critical areas and endangered environmental resources;
• improving participatory systems for sustainable natural resources management; and
• enhancing environmental management capacity by rural service providers and rural infrastructure.

The development goal of enhancing institutional capacity for effective and dynamic sector management will be realized by implementing projects that improve public service delivery management and enhance decentralized units and private sector involvement.

One UN - One Programme
Viet Nam has been one of the eight self-selected Delivering as One pilot countries since 2007.
The One Plan (2006-2010) was signed between the Government of Viet Nam and representatives of 14 UN organizations in Viet Nam. FAO is actively participating in the pilot initiative. Programme Coordination Groups have been established to deliver results in a coherent way. FAO participates in six of these groups and is co-chair of two of them. The groups are:

• Trade, Employment and Enterprise Development
• Gender
• Health and Reproductive Rights
• Sustainable Development (FAO co-chair with UNESCO)
• Natural Disasters and Emergencies
• Communicable Diseases and Animal Diseases (FAO co-chair with WHO)

last updated: 2 August 2011