Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

Overview

UNFPA works to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in Viet Nam, while supporting the implementation of  the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, the International Conference on Women Platform of Action in Beijing (1995), the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Millennium Development Goal #3, to promote  gender equality and empower women.

1. UNFPA support in the areas of Gender/Domestic Violence Prevention (DVP)

• Gender mainstreaming in population and RH

Gender mainstreaming aims to make women’s, as well as men’s, concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and social spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated.

Our gender mainstreaming efforts operate at both informal and formal levels, and are applied to all programming areas, from census work and demographic and health surveys (DHS) to reproductive health service delivery and reproductive health commodity security (condom supply, for example). UNFPA’s approach also implies working with men and women of all ages and from diverse backgrounds in transforming discriminatory attitudes, behaviours and policies.

• DV prevention interventions – A focus on Phu Tho and Ben Tre provinces

In the framework of the Seventh Country Programme, UNFPA has proposed a pilot model for DVP in Phu Tho and Ben Tre provinces that applies multiple approaches. These include: (1) raising people’s awareness of gender equality, most importantly, men’s participation, women’s empowerment, and the negative impacts of domestic violence, (2) increasing support for victims of domestic violence through reasonable distribution of appropriate services such as health care, legal assistance, and social protection and (3) strengthening cooperation among agencies from the central to the grassroots level.

Support goes chiefly to raising awareness of domestic violence as a human rights issue. UNFPA is working with the health sector in these provinces, for example, providing counselling at district hospitals where victims may receive screening and referral to other services including reconciliation teams, police, justice and the Women’s Union. Target groups are local authorities, police officers and the courts, health care providers, women, men, young people, and perpetrators and victims of violence. Target policymaking bodies include the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism (MOCST), MOH, the National Assembly, the Vietnam Communist Party and the General Statistics Office (GSO).

UNFPA is also working to set up a steering committee at the provincial, district and lower levels to integrate police, the People’s Committee and the justice sector. This is a multi-agency collaboration where UNFPA trains local counterparts in how to deal effectively with gender-based violence.

• Policy advocacy for gender equality and women’s empowerment

Through all of its programmes, UNFPA applies a rights-based approach to programming. Target groups are chiefly policymakers and recent passage of the Law on Domestic Violence prevention control on November 21st, 2007 by the National Assembly stands as an example of the potential that UNFPA advocacy has to effect change in advancing the rights of Vietnamese women.

In 2006, the Viet Nam National Assembly formulated an initiative to develop a law on domestic violence. UNFPA then joined to assist in the process, working through a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. This led to a UN sub-working group on domestic violence, which provided comments to the National Assembly’s Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs (PCSA). This ‘Gender PCG Sub-working Group on Domestic Violence’ included UNICEF, WHO, IOM, UNODC and UNAIDS. UNFPA considers it a great achievement that the law was passed. One article of the law includes development of the Trusted Addresses programme, which is a model taken directly from a UNFPA pilot on domestic violence.

UNFPA contributed directly to this process, conducting research and providing comments through its partnerships with the General Office for Population and Family Planning (formerly the Vietnamese Commission for Population, Families and Children - VCPFC), the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Women’s Union and others.

Now that the DV Law has been passed UNFPA continues to provide support to the government as it prepares for implementation. UNFPA is currently providing comments to MOCST on two new decrees, one on “administrative punishments” (fines) for perpetrators of domestic violence and one guiding implementation of the Law on Domestic Violence. The team is also currently supporting development of the ministerial plan of action for MOCST by providing comments. This will be incorporated into the national plan of action for the Law on Domestic Violence.

2. The UN Joint Programme on Gender Equality

As part of the UN reform initiative to bring UN agencies together to work on a single issue, the UN Joint Programme on Gender Equality supports implementation of two new laws in Viet Nam, the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control and the Law on Gender Equality. Under this initiative, 11 UN agencies are providing technical assistance to the Government of Viet Nam and to civil society.

3. Operational research

Needs assessment in Phu Tho and Ben Tre
‘Domestic Violence Prevention: Status, Needs and Priorities for Interventions in
Phu Tho and Ben Tre Provinces’ (2006)

This study reviews the current situation of domestic violence and the needs and priorities for prevention of domestic violence in 16 communes in Doan Hung District, Phu Tho Province, and Binh Dai District, Ben Tre Province. The study assesses (1) community awareness of domestic violence issues and laws, (2) the extent and the seriousness of domestic violence in the study sites and the barriers to victims seeking services and support and (3) the availability and quality of domestic violence prevention programs and collaboration among authorities. Additionally, the study identifies needs and priorities and recommends appropriate interventions and means of coordination between different sectors in domestic violence prevention.

Qualitative assessment on GBV programming
‘Gender-Based Violence: Programming Review’ (2006)

This review identifies successful programming preventing and addressing GBV in Viet Nam, challenges and future areas of action. This information is being used by UNFPA to develop recommendations for a model to address GBV in its programming in Phu Tho and Ben Tre provinces, and was used for advocacy with its partners who were involved in the development of the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control.

4. Approval of the DV law

Through the UN Gender PCG, the UNFPA Gender Team has been involved in providing strategic, coordinated and multi-sectoral capacity building and technical assistance to build the capacity of national and provincial duty bearers so that they can better implement the Law on Gender Equality and the Law on Domestic Violence (DVL) from 2008 to 2010.

5. A list of gender publications

Published

• ‘Domestic Violence: The Vietnamese Shift. Findings and Recommendations from the UNFPA/SDC project’ ( 2006)
• Gender Based Violence: Programming Review (2007)

Soon to be published

• Domestic Violence Prevention: Status, Needs, and Priorities for Interventions in Phu Tho and Ben Tre Provinces (2007)

Posters to create awareness about violence: 

            "Stop!"                                "Speak out, don't suffer in silence"  "Gender equality leads to

                                                                                                   family wellbeing and a good

                                                                                                        social foundation"       

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