Hundreds of thousands of motorbike taxi drivers in Rwanda will be able to change petrol motorbikes into electric cars Bloomberg reported that the Rwandan government has partnered with a local company, Rwandan Electric Mobility, to deploy electric scooters in the country’s capital, Kigali. Rwanda has a population of more than 12.6 million people living in an area of ​​26,338 square kilometers, and is the most densely populated country in Africa. The motorbike taxi industry, motorbike taxi service, or delivery is a popular method of transportation and delivery in this country, thanks to its affordable prices and access to all corners of the country. Therefore, the initiative to convert gasoline-powered motorbikes that are nearing the end of their service life to electric ones, will help about 100,000 current motorbike owners to have new and zero-emission vehicles. This move not only reduces the overall carbon footprint but also effectively extends the life of these vehicles. It also greatly reduces maintenance costs, car owners don’t need to worry about oil changes and refueling their vehicles. To launch the project, the Rwanda Environmental Management Agency (REMA) signed a contract with Rwandan Electric Mobility, and technical and financial support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was also secured to promote the project. project progress. The trial phase, which is expected to last for 6 months, will convert about 30,000 motorbike taxis currently using gasoline engines to electric motorbikes.

Processing pangasius for export. Photo: VNA Among the three groups of business practices with responsibility for labor, environment and governance, the labor aspect is most positively responded by enterprises, while the environmental and governance aspects have not received much attention. . Less than 64% of enterprises participating in the survey fully comply with responsibilities related to environmental impacts in their business operations; Less than 68% of enterprises fully comply with legal regulations on corporate governance such as transparent procurement policy, consumer protection … A study to assess corporate perceptions and implementation of responsible business practices in Vietnam by 2020 is part of the regional project “Promoting responsible business practices through regional partnerships in Asia ”. Research in 2020 is the UNDP Vietnam’s effort to create the basis and basis for the design and implementation of responsible business promotion activities, thereby enhancing sustainable development for businesses. In the coming years, the aim of the study is to assist Vietnam in developing a national responsible business action plan by 2022. This plan will contribute to helping Vietnam achieve its sustainable development goals. firmly, bringing Vietnam’s legal framework closer to international standards.

Climate change is described as increasingly severe. Billionaire, philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates has published his latest book titled “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”. Not only rich, considered the owner of a great brain, Bill Gates is also known for his predictions about the future, like a global pandemic Covid-19 that he saw six years ago. During a presentation at the TED Talk 2015, Gates urged nations to work together to prepare for a pandemic that could come at any moment. At this point, when the Covid -19 translation was on the verge of being controlled, the billionaire turned a new interest. He said that the world should prepare for a possible climate disaster, and we should best work together to find ways to prevent it. Here are some excerpts from the book “How to avoid a climate disaster” by billionaire Bill Gates. Billionaire Bill Gates. “Letter” of billionaire Bill Gates “As of February 2021, Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 2.2 million people worldwide. The pandemic has changed the way we work, the way we live and the way we communicate in society. But at the same time, 2020 is also a pivotal year for us to have new hopes on climate change … In 2021, the United Nations will gather in Scotland for a summit. Another big peak on climate change. Of course, there is no guarantee that we will make any progress in addressing climate change. But opportunities still open from there. Bill Gates continues: I plan to spend much of my time in 2021 talking to world leaders on both climate change and Covid-19. I will make it clear to them that many lessons from the pandemic can also be applied to climate change. Let’s say our values ​​and principles guide us to a pandemic. First, we need international cooperation. The phrase “we have to work together” is easy to be seen as cliché, but it’s true. As governments, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies work together during the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has made remarkable progress, including that the development and testing of vaccines are already in place. show in record time. And when we don’t learn from each other, we prolong our own misery. The same is true of climate change. If rich countries work hard to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions without thinking of sharing clean technologies with everyone, then we will never reach zero carbon emissions. . In another passage, billionaire Bill Gates writes: We need science – indeed, interdisciplinary science – to guide our efforts. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we looked to biology, virology and pharmacology, as well as political science and economics – after all. And just as epidemiology tells us about the risks of Covid-19 but does not say how we must stop it, climate science also tells us why we need to change. changing course but not telling how we should do it. To do this, we have to rely on engineering, physics, environmental science, economics … And our solutions must meet the needs of the group of people most severely affected. With Covid-19, the people who suffer the most are the ones with the fewest options – for example, they cannot work from home or take time to care for themselves or their loved ones. And most of them are people of color, people on low incomes. Among those hospitalized for treatment, the death rate from Covid-19 was four times higher than among the poor. Globally, Covid-19 has erased many progress after decades of efforts to reduce poverty and disease. It took us 25 years of progress in just about 25 weeks. Therefore, we need to plan a precise transition into a zero-emission future. People in poor countries need help adapting to a warmer world. Ultimately, we can do things that both help rescue economies from the Covid-19 catastrophe and spark innovation to avoid a climate catastrophe. By investing in clean energy research and development. Do not let the “war” be forgotten The impacts of climate change are visible globally, but reality shows that vulnerable people in developing countries suffer most of the extreme weather events such as storms, floods and periods of extreme heat, while the impact of climate change is visible globally. At the 2021 Climate Change Adaptation Summit hosted by the Netherlands in an online format, people had access to the issues raised by Germanwatch Environmental Consultation Organization. This organization has emphasized the “fate” of poor countries in the climate change process. The organization also said that the $ 100 billion a year that industrialized countries committed to contribute to climate change will not come true, because only a small portion of this amount is used because climate change adaptation goals. Germanwatch Foundation’s David Eckstein also said that eight of the 10 countries most affected between 2000 and 2019 were developing countries with low or even low per capita incomes. “Poorer countries are hit hardest because they are more vulnerable to the effects of a hazard and are less able to cope.” Over the past 20 years, globally nearly 480,000 deaths are directly related to more than 11,000 extreme weather events. Economic loss amounted to about 2.56 trillion USD (in purchasing power parity terms. “The global Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us of the fact that vulnerable countries are exposed to various risks – climate, geophysical, economic, health and holes. That gap is systematic and all linked together ”- Ms. Laura Schaefer of Germanwatch Foundation said. Fortunately, besides the urgent fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, the fight against climate change has not been completely forgotten. A recent survey shows that nearly two-thirds of people polled around the world currently consider climate change a threat to humanity. However, the same number of respondents said that national governments are not interested in the “hook-up” to combat climate change. The survey, titled “Survey on the people’s climate” organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in conjunction with Oxford University, covers over 50 countries. About 1.22 million people of all genders, ages and education levels participated in the survey, in which young people participated in a significant number (about 550,000 people aged 14-18 years old participated). Cassie Flynn – UNDP Strategic Advisor Cassie Flynn said: “People are frightened, they are seeing wildfires in Australia and California, they are seeing acute storms. years and in the Caribbean, they are witnessing floods in Southeast Asia. We have to do something about it. ” Environmental protection organizations have agreed to put in place the top 4 policies, including: 1 / Forest and land conservation (54%) 2 / Use solar, wind and renewable energy (53%) 3 / Climate-friendly farming techniques (52%) 4 / Invest more money in green businesses and jobs (50%). The least favored options for dealing with climate change are plant-based diets, with only 30% of respondents believing it to be the best approach. To date, the question of what the world has done in the fight against climate change, is considered to be still “hanging”. Nearly six years ago, the international community gathered in Paris to develop a joint approach with the aim of combating climate change and reaching the Paris Agreement. Countries have agreed to set a goal to increase their capacity to respond to global climate change by limiting the increase in the Earth’s surface temperature to no more than 2 degrees Celsius and trying to be 1.5 degrees C lower than with the pre-industrial stage. However, in July 2019, the global temperature exceeded 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, equal to or even surpass the record of the hottest month since the start of the temperature statistics. . The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has repeatedly stressed that our planet is on its way to experiencing the hottest years in its history. Mr. Guterres said that in order to win the war in climate change, the most important thing is the voluntary contribution of the countries. Here, very important are the rich countries. The UN Secretary-General also said that the international community is still not acting fast enough given the rising global emissions and the rising temperatures. “If we continue to act late, there will be a catastrophe that will raise global temperatures by 3 degrees C or more in this century,” Guterres said, emphasizing that, there is a need to change the head from a gray and dirty economy to a green one. “We have technology and now we have to make it available to all people in all countries. And must act now! Every factor that leads to global warming is likely to exist, and the longer we wait, the greater the negative impact will inevitably be. ” And, it is extremely important that even though the war against the Covid-19 epidemic is not over, it is impossible to neglect the global fight against climate change.

The scene of the Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) in 2020. Photo: Hien Chi

2 content indexes change positively

Ms. Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam said: “The study of PAPI 2020 report is the performance of the local government in two terms (2011-2016 and 2016-2021), properly published. at a time when the Government begins a new term. This helps to provide in-depth data on people’s experiences in interacting with the government apparatus at all levels in 63 provinces and cities. Not only that, PAPI is also an important measure for provinces and cities to review and further improve their performance in eight areas of governance and public administration ”.

According to the published results, 2 content indexes changed positively, including: “Control of corruption in the public sector”, “public administrative procedures”. Specifically, in the content index of “controlling corruption in the public sector”, 18 provinces and cities have made significant progress compared to the results in 2019 (6 provinces and cities significantly decreased compared to 2019). .

Out of 16 provinces and cities with the highest score, there are 7 provinces in the South, 5 provinces in the Central and 4 provinces in the North. The remarkable point is that the people’s perceptions of some manifestations of corruption tend to be good when many people think that it is not “paved the way” to apply to work in state agencies. “The content sector index score for” controlling corruption in the public sector “in 2020 reached its highest level in 10 years. This result partly reflects the impact of the anti-corruption campaign in Vietnam from 2016 to present ”, said Dr. Dang Hoang Giang (PAPI Research Group).

As for the content index “public administrative procedures”, among the 16 leading provinces and cities, there are 9 localities in the North. Most localities improve communal administrative services compared to previous years. In addition, the scores of the 3 content indicators: “People’s participation at the grassroots level”, “public service provision”, and “environmental governance” decreased slightly compared to the results in 2019. Meanwhile , 2 content indicators tended to slow down, including: “Openness, transparency”, “accountability to the people”.

In 2020, PAPI was surveyed from 14,732 Vietnamese citizens randomly selected across all 63 provinces and cities. PAPI 2020 continues to include 8 content indicators: People’s participation at grassroots level; transparency; accountability to people; control of corruption in the public sector; public administrative procedures; providing public services; environmental governance; electronic management.

Hanoi achieves the target of 5-step increase

The total number of PAPI scores in 2020 of Hanoi City is 41,629 / 80 points. In which, the index “participation of people at the grassroots level” reached 5.059 / 10 points; “Openness and transparency in decision making” reached 5,244 / 10 points; “Accountability to the people” reached 4,812 / 10 points; “Control of corruption in the public sector” reached 6,598 / 10 points. In addition, the indexes: “Public administrative procedures” reached 7,169 / 10 points; “Public service provision” reaches 6.87 / 10 points; “Environmental governance” reached 2,959 / 10 points; “Electronic management” reached 2,918 / 10 points.

Among the 7 out of 8 content indexes that the PAPI study compared with 2019, Hanoi has 4 content indexes that have improved, 3 content indexes “stalled” and no content indexes decreased. reducing and improving 5 levels compared to 2019 – achieving the target of increasing at least 5 steps set out in the Plan No. 122 / KH-UBND dated 11-6-2020 of the Hanoi People’s Committee on “ , improving the Hanoi City’s Public Administration and Public Administration Performance Index by 2020 ”.

It is the result of the city’s determination and concrete work to improve the PAPI Index. Typically, in 2020, the city organized a seminar “Solutions to improve PAPI Index of Hanoi” to share information on PAPI Index to communes, wards and towns. Although the total score of Hanoi increased compared to 2019, but still in the group of provinces and cities with the lowest PAPI composite score, ranked 48/63 provinces and cities.

From an expert perspective, UNDP Viet Nam public policy expert Do Thanh Huyen highly appreciated the interest and practice of Hanoi city in recent times. Analyzing more closely, Ms. Do Thanh Huyen said that Hanoi also has its own “burdens” (large population; many immigrants; many central agencies located in the area …), so there will be many higher demands. on public administrative services. Therefore, the city governments at all levels need to look at the weaknesses, evaluate each specific criterion where to improve, not necessarily how much to rank.