Applying seasonal climate forecasting to support climate risk management in Vietnam

Vietnam is severely affected by adverse climate change impacts and variability with significant losses to GDP, which is posing a great challenge to achieving the country’s sustainable development goals. Strengthening climate services networks in Vietnam could catalyze the adaptation process by strategically using climate knowledge and information for more climate-smart policy planning and implementation, enabling agricultural livelihoods to improve the transition towards climate resilience. This is exactly the entry point of the “DeRISK Southeast Asia” IKI-funded project, commonly known as “Applying seasonal climate forecasting and innovative insurance solutions to climate risk management in the agriculture sector in SE Asia” project. The project aims to develop climate risk management systems, best practices, and insurance products that will shield smallholder farmers and businesses from the physical and financial disasters associated with climate change. It is implemented by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in partnership with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). The project’s partners in Vietnam include MARD and the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF).

Initial activities during 2019 focused on two complementary processes. One aimed at assessing demand for climate services across diverse agricultural livelihoods in Vietnam covering all agro-ecological zones. The second aimed at assessing the institutional network supporting the flow of information from national to local levels. The Red River Delta, Central Highlands, and Southeast agro-ecological zones were covered in 2019 providing detailed information on the type of weather-based information needed to support management responses to mitigate the impacts of climate across cropping systems and on the functions performed by the supporting institutional network. These outputs will contribute to activities towards mainstreaming climate services at the policy level, developing climate service functions to support MARD planning processes, and piloting the delivery of actionable weather-based advisories at the local level. DeRISK Southeast Asia is following a similar approach in Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

For additional information, visit the project website.