On Monday March 23 the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) awarded IDH country manager Flavio Corsin the medal for contribution to the Vietnamese agriculture sector.
Flavio: I must say I am quite proud!’. Flavio Corsin oversees six IDH agro-commodity programs in Vietnam: coffee, cocoa, spices, tea, aquaculture and the ISLA landscape program.
The Sustainable Trade Initiative IDH (Initiatief Duurzame Handel) was set up in 2008 as a multi-stakeholder initiative of private companies, NGOs, trade unions and the Dutch government with the aim of improving the sustainability of commodity production and trade in developing countries.
Flavio Corsin: ‘Although the medal covers my contribution since 1997, I think this is a shared achievement with IDH, which made possible my continued and broader contribution to the sector. So, congratulations to all of IDH!’
Find here an overview of the programs and activities of IDH in Vietnam.
Dr Flavio Corsin has contributed a lot to the agriculture of Vietnam. Firstly, in fishery, Dr. Flavio supported first the Ministry of Fisheries (MOFI) and then MARD to formulate strategies for sustainable aquaculture.
He supported the sector to manage aquatic animal health, especially using epidemiological methods and building capacity among government institutions and academia on aquatic animal health management. He contributed to establishing of the first PCR laboratory in an aquaculture institution in Vietnam.
He coordinated the development of sustainability standards for the pangasius sector listening to the experiences of the sector as to make them practical.
He helped promote Better Management Practices (BMP) among Vietnamese producers. When working for WWF, he managed the aquaculture program for WWF Vietnam and helped Vietnam the 2nd largest office in the WWF network on aquaculture (after WWF US).
Since 2012, in the role of Vietnam Country Manager of IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative in Vietnam, Dr. Flavio has supported sustainable development of Vietnam’s agriculture with strong support and and promotion of public-private partnership.
He is an active member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) PPP Vietnam Task Force (chaired by H.E. Dr Cao Duc Phat) especially in coffee, tea, fisheries, spices and agri-finance.
IDH with his representativeness also joins and contributes to the establishment and operation of the PPP Secretariat in MARD. In addition, Dr. Flavio is the member of the Vietnam Coffee Coordinating Board under MARD as elected representative of foreign enterprises.
At the same time, he is the co-chair of the VCCB sub-committee of policy and sustainability. He is member of the Sustainable Tea Steering Committee, member of the cocoa Public-private partnership under MARD.
Particularly in the coffee sector, Dr. Flavio has worked closely with MARD and IPSARD to manage the Coffee Sustainable Program in Vietnam which promotes institutional reform and sustainable production.
With his support, the Vietnam Coffee Coordinating Board was established.
This is the first commodity board in Vietnam with fair representatives of both public and private sector (including farmers), setting a good model for other commodity boards in the coming time.
He is also supporting the establishment of Coffee Farmer Associations in the Dak Lak and Lam Dong. In addition, with his active role, the 2020 MARD sustainable coffee program was approved and issued. At the field level, many efforts have been made to harmonize sustainable practices through the National Sustainable Curriculum, TOTs and TOFs.
At present, besides the Coffee Sustainable Program, Dr. Flavio continues to work with IPSARD in the Initiative for Sustainable Landscape for the Central Highlands, which focuses on dealing with cross-cutting issues for sustainbale commodity development such as water, land and forestry.
In short, supervising over 20 projects through-out Vietnam and continuously seeking new projects to support Vietnamese agriculture, Dr. Flavio, together with IDH, is playing an important role in convening and accelerating sustainable production of different agricultural commodities in Vietnam.
