WASHINGTON, D.C., February 27, 2015—The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved $100 million in additional financing for an ongoing project to help improve living standards for poor people in six provinces in Vietnam’s Northwest, the nation’s poorest region.

The increased financing bolsters poverty reduction efforts by the Vietnamese government in the provinces of Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Yen Bai.

“We are very pleased to see this additional financing approved by our Board of Directors,” said Victoria Kwakwa, the World Bank’s Country Director in Vietnam. “The project areas have some of the highest rates of poverty, and most of the project beneficiaries are poor ethnic minority communities. We share the government of Vietnam’s strong desire to reduce poverty through the community-driven development approach embedded in this project, and we stand ready to work with the government to scale up the project’s successes.”

The additional financing will contribute further to the government’s poverty reduction efforts by improving the capacity of local governments and communities, increasing access to investments that boost productivity, strengthening commune investment planning, and bolstering community links to markets and business innovations.

In particular, the project focuses on expanding support for poverty reduction efforts in the six provinces where it started, as well as additional districts and communes.

It also seeks to improve local development planning and help make a participatory approach part of the government’s national poverty reduction programs, with a focus on strengthening of partnerships between farmer groups and agro-businesses.

The government of Vietnam is providing $10 million in financing in addition to the $100 million from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s concessional lending arm.

27 Feb 2015