Vietnam Acute Joint Response (Programme) SUMMARY
7.7 million people in Vietnam were affected by the typhoon and tropical storms in Vietnam in October 2020. This project is a collaboration between the Dutch Relief Alliance partners to ensure the deliverance of immediate, lifesaving assistance to people in need, as well as focusing on early recovery and rehabilitation and re-establishing critical services. The Joint Response will ensure access to shelter solutions in the direct aftermath of the flooding, food security by restoring lost food stock, livestock and agricultural lands and the provision of cash assistance, as well as ensure access to drinking water, hygiene supplies and access to basic public services. Protection of women and children is mainstreamed throughout the response. A total of 116.324 people in the four provinces among the most affected by the flooding and typhoon Molave, including Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Ha Tinh and Quang Nam will benefit from lifesaving goods and services. Since 6 October 2020, the Central region of Viet Nam has been experiencing prolonged heavy rainfall as a result of a combination of numerous weather systems; Tropical Storm LINFA, Tropical Storm NANGKA, and the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone combined with cold air.

Besides the existing flooding and ongoing rainfall, Typhoon Molave hit Viet Nam in the morning of October 28th. Molave made landfall between Quang Ngai and Quang Nam provinces (central Viet Nam) as a typhoon before dissipating on 29 October. According to UNOCHA, landslides triggered by heavy rain in Quang Nam Province resulted in at least 68 fatalities. In total, due to the typhoon and the flooding, more than 374.631 people have been evacuated. Millions were left without electricity and an additional 56,000 houses damaged.

According to the UN FRP an estimated 7.7 million people live in areas affected by flooding caused by the multiple storms and typhoon, with some 1.5 million people in nine provinces directly affected. Of those people directly affected by the current disaster, some 753,000 are women and girls, 134,000 are children under five, and 143,000 are over 65 years old. A rapid needs assessment conducted by UNICEF, identified 1,5 million children at risk. The JR proposes a multi-sectoral response to the typhoon and flooding, taking into account immediate relief as well as early recovery in a phased approach, in line with the UN Floods Response Plan which puts forward this phased approach (see UN Sector Analysis). The JR will be implemented in the four provinces among the most affected by the flooding and typhoon Molave, including Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Ha Tinh and Quang Nam.

The VNMJR commits itself to 2 of the 4 objectives set out in the Viet Nam Flood HRP:
1. Deliver immediate, lifesaving assistance to those with the most urgent needs, in support of the Government response and in line with Government requests for assistance.
2. Ensure access to multi sectoral assistance and reestablish critical services. Promote the repair of key public service infrastructure in affected provinces, ensure food security, by restoring lost food stock, livestock and livelihoods, ensure access to sustainable drinking water, sanitation facilities and hygiene supplies, housing, replacement of productive assets and household items, and access to basic medical, social and public services to support the affected population transition to recovery and rebuild their lives and livelihoods. The JR will be implemented by four DRA-members, Plan International, CARE, Oxfam Novib and World Vision, in coordination and partnership with local partners in Viet Nam. All four members have an existing humanitarian portfolio in Viet Nam and have been responding to the flooding since the beginning of October. Partners have engaged in a Rapid Needs Assessment jointly in the second half of October, which has informed the JR. All partners have offices and/or local partner offices in the response areas and humanitarian staff in-country, including fully operational Emergency Response Teams. Partners have been responding to the typhoon, mainly in the immediate response phase through the distribution of NFIs, including hygiene kits and household items. All partners have a solid track-record in the sectors, particularly FSL, WASH and Protection, both in humanitarian and development contexts. In-country, partners engage in the Working Groups and UN coordination mechanisms to ensure programming is well-coordinated and in line with sector-wide standards. The target group for the response includes those affected by flooding and heavy rainfall. Priority is given to vulnerable families with pre-existing vulnerabilities before the disaster, taking into account the Minimum Expenditure Basket, and who have suffered human loss, loss of house, assets or livelihoods. The response uses a multi-sector approach with holistic Shelter/NFIs, WASH, Food Security and Livelihoods (FSL), Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) and Protection programs. Core activities are:

Food Security & Livelihoods (FSL):
The JR works to ensure people are able to meet their basic food needs (FSC-I2) and are provided with resources to protect and start rebuilding their livelihoods (FSC-I1). This includes the following activities:
- Provision of food baskets to the families with vulnerable children and other poor, vulnerable groups such as the elderly, People with Disability (PwD), lactating women; female-headed families. Noting that immediate food needs are met by other partners and the government of Viet Nam, this will be a small component and this JR mainly focuses on medium-term FSL support and cash grants, as described below.
- Execution of a livelihoods/market assessment to determine the agricultural needs and the feasibility of cash grants.
- Provision of technical training to support livelihood recovery activities.
- Provision of conditional cash grants for agricultural support and production inputs for small-holders farms and households to support short crops recovery.

Shelter/Non-Food Items (NFI):
The JR focuses on individual household shelters and non-food items to ensure people in the direct aftermath of the floods have access to dignified and safe shelter solutions (SHL-I1) and NFIs (SHL-I4), including:
- Provision of household kits in response to the destruction of assets in the households, taking into account winterization, ensuring particularly children have warm clothing for when temperatures decrease to less than 15 degrees.
- Provision of constructions materials for repair for vulnerable families whose houses have been damaged.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH):
The JR WASH response focuses around ensuring access to safe and sufficient water (WSH-I4), hygiene promotion and provision of soaps (WSH-I1) and hygiene promotion (WSH-I6) through reaching people with awareness programming. This includes the following activities:
- Improving access to clean water through water testing, distribution of household-led water treatment solutions and provision of water containers and water taps to people and communities without access to clean water.
- Reparation and installment of damaged small-scale water supply facilities.
- Distribution of gender-sensitive hygiene kits, including soap and cleaning materials and taking into account Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM), particularly for girls and women in evacuation centers.
- Organization of information campaigns to promote hygiene measures, also taking into account the risks of COVID-19.

Multi-purpose cash (MPC):
The JR provides both unconditional (CSH-I1) and conditional (CSH-I2) unrestricted cash assistance to beneficiaries based on their situations and identified needs:
- Distribution of unconditional multi-purpose cash grants in line with Viet Nam’s CWG’s Minimum Expenditure Basket guidance, as the markets are mostly functioning, and people have suffered significant loss of livelihoods due to the floods and exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdown.
- Provision of conditional cash grants/Cash for Work (C4W) opportunities to selected households. Partners will work with affected populations to identify livelihood opportunities, including basic repair and public work in the early recovery phase.

Protection:
The JR mainstreams protection throughout the response is in line with HRP objectives, and also ensures specific programming to ensure people receive an appropriate response to protection risks (PRO-I2), are provided with information (PRO-I5) and children receive support specific to their needs (PRO-I15). This includes:
- Organization of psychosocial support (PSS) groups and other group activities for affected children in Child-Friendly Spaces inside primary schools.
- Awareness-raising and training on Protection issues.