The official partner in MCNV’s CMHLD program in Khanh Vinh district, Khanh Hoa province, is the District People’s Committee. Under this authority, all related local services such as the Health Center, the Division for Agriculture Development and the Ethnic Minority Board are represented. According to activities, the District Women’s Union, the Farmer’s Union and the Red Cross are also involved.
This partner arrangement is important for coordinating and integrating program activities with the mainstream governmental programs, so that successful pilots initiated by the program can quickly be adopted into governmental policies and interventions. In addition, for many years now, the provincial government has added 25-30% to the budget of the program.
For health aspects such as malnutrition the village health workers are key partners, and for livelihood development, we collaborate with the Network of Village Agriculture Extension Workers that was created by the CMH&LD program in 2008. Still, true to its basic principles, the CMH&LD program develops most plans directly with people in the villages. The villagers are also the main implementers of the activities and continue to manage their own Village Development Funds from which people can obtain micro-credits for livelihood development.