On 11^th October, 2013, in Hai Phong, the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) co-organized a workshop named “Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation into the Planning Process for Local Socio-economic Development” with Oxfam, the Department of Sea and Islands, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Hai Phong, and the support of Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

The workshop participants consisted of delegates from Oxfam and 70 local authority delegates from commune, district, and provincial levels of Hai Phong, Nam Dinh, and Thai Binh. The workshop was also attended by representatives of the Department of Sea and Islands and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Hai Phong.

The workshop worked as an open platform to introduce the importance and the legal base of integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into local socio-economic development plans. It simultaneously allowed sharing and discussion between three levels of Hai Phong, Nam Dinh and Thai Binh authorities about objectives, benefits, regulation, and methods of integration.

The forum divided the workshop into small groups at each level of authority to discuss and share ideas for planning stages of socio-economic development, experiences, the integration of the plan across authority levels, and the results of the Participatory Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment.

With the support of the representative of Oxfam and the enthusiastic opinion sharing of delegates from all three provinces’ governmental levels and the Department of Sea and Islands, the workshop “Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation into the Planning Process of Local Socio-economic Development ” was a great success. MCD received many useful recommendations for projects from local authorities and related organizations, and the delegates discussed and agreed upon a plan using the methods proposed in the forum.