The United States Agency for International Development (USAIDS) and Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen the management of disaster response on February 2.

By building capacity at the ministry to implement what is called an Incident Command System (ICS), USAIDS supports Vietnam’s efforts to continuously improve response and coordination systems to more effectively respond to all kinds of incidents and disasters.

“The ICS training programme will be an important step towards helping Vietnam address disaster risks brought about by a changing climate,” said Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia, Jason Foley, who is visiting Vietnam from Washington.

“The US believes that adopting and localisation of the internationally-proven ICS systems will both strengthen coordination systems and better prepare Vietnam to work more closely with its ASEAN partners on disaster response.”-VNA