Learning center established to promote social sustainability

Learning center established to promote social sustainability

(VOV) – The Asian Institute of Technology and international development partners established a Vietnam Learning Center on Environmental and Social Sustainability on April 2 to foster knowledge exchange and capacity building relating to environmental and social safeguards and standards in Vietnam.

The center is being established with initial funding support from the Australian Government and other development partners.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on April 2 to this effect. This was the result of efforts by different development partners, including the World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Asian Institute of Technology Center in Vietnam.

“Vietnam’s SEDS seeks more environmentally and socially sustainable development. This requires attention to environmental and social safeguards in executing the country’s huge infrastructure development program,” said Victoria Kwakwa, the World Bank Country Director for Vietnam. “The mission of this center is to help fill the gap in Vietnam’s social and environmental safeguards capacity.”

The learning center, housed at the Asian Institute of Technology Center in Vietnam, will offer capacity building to project management units, district and provincial authorities, consultants and other stakeholders in social and environmental issues.

“Vietnam has taken great strides in recent years in introducing legislation dealing with social and environmental safeguards, and is rightly seen as leading the way in Asia in areas such as payment for forest ecosystem services,” said Tomoyuki Kimura, Country Director for the Asian Development Bank. “The challenge now is to ensure that the country develops the necessary technical skills and capacity to effectively implement its safeguard requirements.

ADB is delighted to be supporting the learning center and believes it has a major role to play in developing highly skilled safeguard professionals in Vietnam, and so contributing to the country’s move towards a path of environmentally sustainable growth, Kimura said.

Given the surge of investments in infrastructure sector and Vietnam’s challenges on environmental pollution and climate change related vulnerability, the center is expected to play a critical role, in building long-term capacity on environmental and social aspects of development projects and programs in Vietnam on a sustained basis.

Learning center established to promote social sustainability Related image(s)