Project News

The third Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting was organized in Dien Bien Phu City on 29 January 2013. The JCC meeting is organized annually in order to report the project's progress in the previous year and approve the plan for the year, attended by the people's committees and key government departments and offices at different levels as well as JICA representatives, the project experts, and observers.

The JCC meeting this year was the third one, following 2010 and 2011, and attended by around 50 participants including the project mid-term review team. Apart from standard agenda such as activity review for 2012 and plan presentation for 2013, the JCC meeting this year had two important subjects on the table. They were (1) the results of the mid-term review mission, which was being organized from 20 January to 1 February, and (2) the integration of the outputs of the Dien Bien REDD+* Pilot Project into SUSFORM-NOW after its termination in this September.

After the report on the project progress in 2012 by Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ky, the Vice Project Director (Vice Director of Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, DARD), the mid-term review team presented the summary results of the review including a set of key recommendations for the latter half of the project as well as the revised Project Design Matrix (PDM) and Plan of Operation (PO). Ms. Dang Thi Thu Hien, the Project Manager (Vice Head of Provincial Sub-Department of Forestry), then proposed a draft Annual Plan of Operation for 2013 (APO2013).

The changes to the PDM were necessary in anticipation of the REDD+ Pilot Project's merger into SUSFORM-NOW, which would require the project's additional support for the implementation of Provincial REDD+ Action Plan (PRAP) at provincial and field levels. Two new sites were also selected as additional pilot sites, namely Muong Phang Commune (Dien Bien District) and Muong Muon Commune (Muong Cha District).

Upon the lively discussion among the participants chaired by Mr. Pham Duc Hien, the Project Director (Director of DARD), the revised PDM, PO, and APO2013 were finally approved by the JCC meeting. The joint evaluation report by the mid-term review team was also signed by Mr. Lo Quan Chieu and Mr. Hiroki Miyazono, the leaders of Vietnamese and Japanese sides in the mid-term review team. The revised PDM will be effective from 1 February 2013.

* REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries.