During the reporting period, The Foundation supported VCCI to deliver 18 business Disaster Risk Management (DRM) courses to more than 520 people from 370 businesses in seven provinces in the Central region: Nghe An, Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Tri, Binh Dinh and Khanh Hoa. The Foundation also worked closely with VCCI and CED to support ten companies to finalize their DRM plans. To measure the impact of the DRM training program in the last quarter of 2012, the Foundation sponsored an independent evaluation of training carried out under the program since 2011. The evaluation provided evidence of businesses interest in the training, implementation of training content in business practice and case study examples of where those DRM measures had been tested by disaster and found to reduce disaster risk. The program has established an effective course, a cadre of trainers, and with its increasing profile has made an important contribution to improved awareness and action on DRM among local businesses in the central region.
In summer 2013, the program began an expansion to the South and Mekong regions. In preparation, the Foundation supported VCCI and CED to conduct a rapid assessment survey of business awareness on DRM. The assessment found low levels of awareness among businesses about DRM and the benefits of DRM training, similar to the Central provinces previously surveyed. The program design has been adapted to local disaster risks and business culture, increasing the emphasis on awareness raising with the business community in the Mekong and Southern regions before delivery of the training.
During the reporting period, the Foundation also worked closely with VCCI to further pursue policy advocacy, public-private collaboration and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives on DRM among the Vietnamese business community. Activities included regional and national public-private dialogues, business recommendations on the content of the DRM law, and local initiatives to support models of CSR on DRM. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) remain a new concept in Vietnam, but in each of the areas cited above, the program made significant steps to establish dialogue mechanisms, explore local examples of PPPs and support businesses to have a voice on policy development in a vital area. This foundation for cross sector collaboration will work to support more extensive and sophisticated partnerships in the future.
Awareness raising and media activities have become an increasingly important and sophisticated element of the program. In addition to convening national policy workshops, the www.ungphothientai.com project website has become a hub for Vietnamese businesses interested in disaster management issues, with access to publications, business training manuals, and a variety of multimedia on DRM. The program has also worked with Vietnam Television to broadcast seven news clips and two documentary films on DRM and CSR for DRM in Vietnam to a broad national audience.
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