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Canada’s Commitment
Results
Country Profile
Canada’s Commitment
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has contributed $318 million in development assistance to Vietnam since the program began in 1990. This amount includes almost $38 million contributed in 2004-2005. In Vietnam, CIDA works within a framework of development goals identified by the Vietnamese government. CIDA uses a mix of approaches that range from technical assistance to multi-donor cooperation and financing.
In Soc Trang Province, a SOCODEVI-led
CIDA project provides assistance
to milk producers and contributes
to poverty reduction in the region.
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In April 2004, CIDA approved a Country Development Programming Framework for Vietnam (2004-2009) that responds to the Government of Vietnam’s poverty-reduction priorities and focuses on the core sectors of governance, rural and private-sector development, and basic education, with gender equity as a crosscutting theme.
Major program objectives include:
- more equitable economic growth, supported by more transparent governance;
- improved rural livelihoods through support for agriculture; improved viability of rural small- and medium enterprises; and increased national capacity to meet international food-quality standards, develop domestic markets, and gain access to international markets; and
- better access to quality basic education.
Vietnam is one of Canada's 25 development partner countries, in which the Canadian International Development Agency will concentrate the major part of its bilateral (country to country) assistance.
This country is a member of La Francophonie.
 Results
To contribute to establishing an enabling environment for growth and poverty reduction, CIDA-supported programs operate on national and policy levels while focusing on generating results in the poorest provinces. For example:
- Canada’s technical assistance to support the reforms necessary for the transition towards a market economy, particularly legal and financial reforms, contribute to maintaining high levels of economic growth and poverty reduction.
- Access to a new Agricultural Market Information System allows Vietnamese farmers to make better business and production decisions and, in turn, increase productivity and earning potential.
- Canada’s support to tackle the remaining access and quality concerns in Vietnam’s basic education system helps ethnic minority and other disadvantaged children, especially girls, to better integrate into society and to develop to their full human potential.
Country Profile
Gender equality and education are some
of the priorities CIDA and Vietnam focus
on in their programs.
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Vietnam has made tremendous development progress over the past decade. It has increasingly integrated into the world economy. The government has taken ownership of its development agenda and has demonstrated an effective use of development assistance. As well, the number of Vietnamese living under the poverty line has decreased from over 70 percent in 1990 to 22 percent in 2004. Gross domestic product grew by an estimated 8.4 percent in 2005, despite the outbreak of avian flu and the introduction of export barriers.
Even so, Vietnam remains a relatively poor country, with a Human Development Index of 108 out of 177 countries in 2005. Some sectors of the population, such as the rural poor and ethnic minorities, have not benefited equally from this progress. Gender equality, however, is a beacon of progress in the country. Vietnam is Asia’s leading country in terms of women’s representation in the National Assembly, and has achieved gender parity in access to primary education.
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