Date:     25th November 2019
Event:     Award Ceremony of "Designing Houses and Sustainable Communities Resilient to Climate Change in Coastal Areas” competition
Venue:    GOUNH, 304 Kim Ma, Ba Dinh, Hanoi

Ms. Doan Thi Tuyet Nga, Director of Department of Technology and International Cooperation, Viet Nam Disaster Management Authority, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Prof. Nguyen Quoc Thong – Vice Chairman, Vietnam Architecture Association

Mr. Nguyen Manh Khoi, Deputy Director of Housing Management and Real Estate Market Department/Ministry of Construction; Housing component Director.

Colleagues from the Government agencies, UN agencies, Architectures and Students.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Xin chao!

I am delighted to welcome all of you to this award ceremony for the “Designing Houses and Sustainable Communities Resilient to Climate Change in Coastal Areas” competition in GOUNH.

Today we are pleased to host this event which is part of the Government-UNDP-GCF Coastal Resilience project, titled “Improving the Resilience of Vulnerable Coastal Communities to Climate Change Related Impacts in Viet Nam”. With strong partnership and cooperation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Construction and participating provinces, the project has constructed and handed over more than 2,400 resilient houses to poor and women-headed households since the end of 2017, and we will build another 1,600 houses in next two years.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As we all know, a house is widely considered a person’s most valuable asset, but it is also a vulnerable object in the context of increasing natural disasters and climate change. In 2018 alone, more than 31,000 houses in Vietnam were impacted by flooding and damaged by natural disasters.

The competition is organized by VNDMA (MARD), MOC and UNDP aims to bring people residing in the coastal areas a SAFE - HAPPY - SUSTAINABLE life.

• Safe life – Low cost resilient: Designing a low-cost house suitable for the local natural conditions and customs and resistant to storms and floods for a safe life for people.
• Happy life – Environment friendly: Designing environment-friendly coastal houses (green, resilient to climate change and capable of emission reduction) for a happy and stable life for people in accordance with the local conditions and livelihood patterns.
• Sustainable life – Community green life: Designing a hamlet-level residential area for the community’s green life to promote resilience to negative climate changes and to create a sustainable future life.

This competition is the first in a series of similar events which aim to explore viable designs for safe homes, neighbourhoods, and communities that can better withstand floods and storms, and which incorporate smart/innovative solutions that are culturally appropriate. This competition is especially important in: (i) helping raise awareness of the importance of storm resilient housing, and (ii) motivating architects, students, and development practitioners to innovate and meaningfully contribute to resilient housing designs in the coastal provinces.

Through social media, more than 250,000 people and 48,000 engagements have been raised awareness of the principles of designing resilient housing to climate change, affordable and capable of helping the local people with self-recovery in the aftermath of natural disasters.

This competition has drawn the participation of individuals, 33 companies/agencies (Research Institutes, Universities, Consulting companies…), and 600 students from 14 participating universities nationwide, some of which are located in the Central region of Vietnam, an area that is deeply affected by floods and storms. Many housing designs with unique ideas, practical and innovative solutions have been proposed.

And today, we are delighted to showcase and present awards to the top designs of which:

• 02 First Prizes for environment-friendly coastal houses from students and hamlet-level residential area for the community’s green life from architectures.
• 02 second prizes for low cost resilient houses and hamlet-level residential area for the community’s green life from architectures.
• 02 third prizes for low cost resilient houses
• 04 encouraging prizes for innovative solutions and 01 voted prize based on the on the competition fan page.

On this occasion, I would like to like to express our appreciation to the Government of Viet Nam for their support and cooperation in this competition. Our great thanks to the universities, professors, teachers, and students for their active participation and contribution to the success of the competition.

I am hoping that the selected designs will contribute to the Government’s upcoming resilient housing programmes for 28 coastal provinces, which can have long-term impacts such as lifting families out of poverty and ensuring safety and security in light of the more intense and frequent weather events associated with climate change. Moreover, it will be valuable if the universities can have specific topics on the resilient housing for educating students in the education program and students will choose this issue in their graduation thesis and in their practices that will help community having more and more useful design models to respond to the climate changes.

UNDP looks forward to collaborating with MARD, VNDMA and MOC to continue this initiative to bring about many more good practices to implement in Viet Nam.

Finally, I would like to offer my congratulations on the success of this competition and especially to those who received prizes today. I wish you a great day of celebration.

Xin Cam On!