(MCD) From April 1^st to 5^th, 2013, in Nam Dinh province, the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) and the province of Nam Dinh’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment co-organized a training course for provincial trainers,  which aimed to raise awareness of climate change adaptation,  community-based disaster risk management, co-management, and gender issues. Advanced training methods were included, attracting participants and also providing skills for their re-training process.

Thirty-five trainees were provincial  authorities, including representatives from the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment, Departments of Agriculture, National Parks and Natural Conservation zones, MCD and other social and political organizations in the project areas of Nam Dinh, Hai Phong and Thai Binh. Course trainers were elite experts from related organizations, including Mrs. Hai Vu Minh, a specialist of Oxfam; Mrs. Hien Nguyen Thuy, a trainer from Ministry of Science and Technology; Mrs. Hoa Tran Thi, Manager of MCD’s Coastal Resources Management Department; and Ms. Trang Nguyen Thu, Manager of Project Management Unit and other experts from MCD.

Mrs. Dinh Tran Thi, the Head of the Economy Department, Nam Dinh Women’s Union, shared her thought on participating the course: “We have gained much useful and essential knowledge in the course. We are more aware of climate change and disaster risks, so we can include them in our plans and projects.We can also train our staff to deal with these problems and make them more proactive to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.”

“Trainees coming from many organizations had the precious chance to learn from trainers as well as other trainees. Besides, presentations at end of the course helped us improve and practice skills to become future provincial trainers for local authority staff” said Mr. Chieu Ngo Van, a technical engineer of Xuan Thuy National Park.

On behalf of all trainers, Mrs Hai Vu Minh summarized: “Rehearsal presentations  at the end of the course helped most trainees to apply successfully the participatory training methods which draw attention and bring knowledge in an interesting way to their local staff. In my opinion, the course was successful.”

At the end of the training course, all trainees were given certificates endorsing them as trainers.

The training course is part of a project called “Co-operation to improve the adaptive capacity to climate change for coastal communities in Vietnam”. This project is sponsored by AusAID and co-implemented by MCD, Oxfam, and local partners in Red River Delta (Nam Dinh, Hai Phong, and Thai Binh), and the Mekong River Delta (Tien Giang and Tra Vinh) in the period of time from 2012 to 2014.