Strengthening land rights of ethnic minorities in northwest mountainous province

	Unique traditional New Year of the Ha Nhi ethnic in the upstream of the Da River
	A beauty queen urges girls to go to schools
	Policies provide leverage for ethnic people to escape poverty

At the project launching ceremony. Photo Courtesy of Hoa Binh newspaper

On November 24, the project "Strengthening Land Rights of Ethnic Minorities" (L4A), which aims to contribute to the effective promotion and protection of land and forest resource rights of ethnic minorities, held a launching conference in northwest mountainous province of Hoa Binh.

Rapid industrialization and economic development along with population growth put high pressure on land and natural resources in Vietnam. Land becomes increasingly more valuable and is often a source of conflicts. With this project Helvetas contributes to the effective promotion and protection of land and forest resource rights of ethnic minorities.

The project focuses on building the capacity of all parties, especially the grassroots mediation team to effectively support land and forest resource rights of ethnic minorities, develop and supervise land law policy implementation; provide information on the rights of people to access land and resources.

According to local representatives, Hoa Binh is a poor province with the area of hills and mountains accounting for 65%, so there is always a shortage of residential and productive land for people. Land disputes account for over 90% of the annual complaints, while grassroots mediation teams are weak due to lack of proper training, documentation and support. Moreover, the province has a very high proportion of ethnic minorities (more than 70%) while people's understanding of Land Law is also very limited.

Therefore, the implementation of the L4A project in Hoa Binh is expected to contribute positively to improving the efficiency of solving problems in the community through capacity building activities for the conciliators, propagating and disseminating land law to local people, contributing to the development, monitoring and implementation of policies related to land and forest use rights in the locality./.

NGO promotes school readiness and learning outcomes among ethnic minority children Children in the project schools demonstrated a improvement in both early literacy learning and math skills.

KOICA partners with World Vision to reduce COVID-19 impact on ethnic minority groups The Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) funds VND 10.7 billion (USD 464,158) to reduce COVID-19 impact on ethnic minority groups in Vietnam.

Ethnic minority female students supported by non-profit organizations for remaining in schools The Brighter Path Girls’ Club, jointly implemented by the VinaCapital Foundation and Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund, has officially been launched in Thai Nguyen province ...