The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Viet Nam Fund for Promoting Education on February 5 officially launched a crowd funding campaign entitled “Safe Houses Save Lives” with the aim of building 100 new storm- and flood-resilient houses for poor and near-poor families in the coastal province of Quang Binh.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) helps
build flood-resilient houses in Quang Binh Province.
 

The two-year campaign is part of a broader UNDP effort to support government response and recovery work in central Viet Nam. In the first phase from now to April 2021, the campaign is focused on helping vulnerable families living in Quang Binh province.

In her opening remarks, Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam, stressed the importance of ensuring that society’s most vulnerable are not left behind as the central region recovers from the impacts of floods and storms.

“We believe that the more resilient houses are built, the less people will suffer from loss and damages when storms and floods strike, and the more quickly they will be able to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.”

Critically, with safe homes and protected property, the less people will need emergency support in the future. It is estimated that 100,000 resilient houses are needed to meet the demand of vulnerable households in typhoon-prone coastal areas. “With joined up action, we believe the goal can be achieved. We invite all partners to join with us to build more storm-resilient houses to ensure that no one is left behind,” said Wiesen.

So far, more than 3,400 low cost ‘resilient houses’ have already been built by a joint Green Climate Fund (GCF)-UNDP-Government of Vietnam project since 2018 including more than 700 in Quang Binh.

During the launching event, the Republic of Korea's non-governmental organisation World Share committed a financial donation to UNDP to build 39 homes in Quang Binh province as the first contribution towards the campaign.