Mr Phan Anh Son - member of the VUFO Standing Committee cum Chief of People's Aid Coordinating Committee (PACCOM) and Mr Nguyen Ngoc Hung - Vice Chief of PACCOM co-chaired the meeting with the participation of representatives of focal points of INGO issues in localities, leaders of some southern provinces’ Union of Friendship Organizations, INGOs, Consulate Generals, donors and businesses.
The conference aimed at reviewing the activities of INGOs in the past 10 months of 2014, the implementation of the National Programme on aids mobilization in 2014, advantages and difficulties in mobilizing aids in 2014 and directions for 2015, discussing INGO’s aid trends and measures to promote and strengthen aid mobilzation in the new situation ...
An overview of the INGO activities in 2014 was presented at the conference. More than 500 organizations maintained activities in 63 provinces and cities of Vietnam with total aid value of 2014 estimated at 250-300 million USD. The cooperation with INGOs has recently entered a new phase. The authorities of Vietnam have actively supported the activities of INGOs in terms of legislation and resources. Some localities have worked closely with the Central agencies and INGOs in the receipt, management and use of aid. However, a number of difficulties have still remained, such as: for INGOs, lack of law understanding, working without registration and out of registered areas, small-scale or scattering activities, high administrative costs, insufficient reporting; for Vietnamese agencies, the gap between regulations and implementation in reality, inconsistent procedures among different localities, inactive in both aid mobilization and information sharing with INGOs and limitation of human resources.
Several measures to implement the National Program of INGO aid mobilization for the period of 2013 - 2017 were put forward as follows: simplifying a number of related legal documents, providing more specific guidance for localities, supporting localities in developing programs, projects calling for INGO aid, building a set of guidance for INGOs, establishing INGO data center, enhancing the supervision to improve the effectiveness of aid use, improving human resources, strengthening central and local organizational system related to INGO work.
At the conference, the participants also shared information about INGO aid trends in the new situation, advantages and disadvantages during implementing programs and projects in localities as well as solutions for the coming time. Mr. Marko Lovrekovic - Co-director of INGO Data Center (the Center ) said the Center had monthly meetings with PACCOM to exchange information about INGO issues and recommended PACCOM, related ministries and localities to support and invite more donors for consultation and dialogue. INGO data should be soon completed and put into use.
To conclude, Mr. Phan Anh Son emphasized it was the first conference of various sectors, PACCOM would try to solve the problems of administrative procedures, share information for related parties. He also would like to welcome more new members in the southern provinces and hoped that all INGOs would work closely with PACCOM to provide more effective support for localities in need.