Hanoi, 25 May 2023: Appropriate policies and guidelines are needed to facilitate the development and replication of the UNFPA-supported One Stop Service Centers, which are known in Viet Nam as Anh Duong House, to other provinces and cities across the country. It is to reach out more and more women and girls, who are experiencing and/or at risk of gender-based and domestic violence.
This is one of the conclusions of the workshop co-chair by the Vice Minister of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha and the UNFPA Representative for Vietnam, Ms. Naomi Kitahara. The workshop, which was held in Hanoi today, discussed mechanism to replicate and sustain the Anh Duong House nationwide.
The workshop was part of the UNFPA Bridge Phase Project “The Follow-up Activities of Building a Model to Respond to Violence against Women and Girls in Viet Nam, July 2022-June 2023,” which is funded by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The Project aims to ensure the sustainability of the innovative One Stop Service Center model or the “Anh Duong House” in Viet Nam.
In her opening remarks, Vice Minister Nguyen Thi Ha highly valued the effective operation of the OSSC model introduced by UNFPA. Madame Nguyen Thi Ha stressed: “Over the past years, Vietnam has always been determined to apply any possible solutions to promote gender equality and to prevent and control gender-based violence against women and girls. Today’s discussion on the replication of the UNFPA-supported One Stop Service Centre model to other localities is a manifestation of the Government’s efforts to support GBV survivors by providing essential and integrated support services, taking GBV survivor-centred approach, thus contributing to addressing GBV in Vietnam. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to develop a multi-sectoral coordination mechanism.”
The first ever Anh Duong House was established in Quang Ninh in April 2020 through the KOICA-funded project “Building a model to respond to violence against women and girls in Vietnam,” for the period of 2017 – 2021 with the total budget of USD 2.5 million.
In 2022, three more Anh Duong Houses were opened in Thanh Hoa province, Danang city and HCM City with financial support from the Government of Japan. The operatonal costs are thereafter covered through funding from the Government of Australia.
The Anh Duong House provides essential, comprehensive, and integrated services to women and girls who are experiencing and/or at risk of gender-based and domestic violence. It provides a wide range of services, meeting international standards, including health care, psychological support, counselling, social welfare services, emergency shelters, police protection, legal and justice services, and referrals. All services provided at the OSSC are based on the survivor-centred principle, in which survivors are treated with respect and dignity, and assured of privacy and confidentiality.
Mr. Cho Han Deog, Country Director of KOICA Viet Nam expressed KOICA’s appreciation of the effective operations of the OSSC model in Vietnam and thanked UNFPA for its technical and financial support to ensure the availability and accessibility of the support services provided by Anh Duong Houses. Mr. Cho Han Deog said: “KOICA sees gender equality as an integrated component of its ODA programmes and projects. KOICA, UNFPA and the Vietnamese Government implemented and successfully completed a project for building a model to respond to violence against women and girls in Vietnam from 2016 to 2020. Under the framework of the project, the first one stop service centre - Anh Duong House was set up in Quang Ninh province in 2020 to deliver the integrated support to GBV victims in Vietnam. Since the model has been effectively contributing to bringing hope to the GBV victims, KOICA is willing to invest 5 million USD more to replicate the model in Ha Tinh and Khanh Hoa provinces in the coming years.”
Representatives from the four Anh Duong Houses reported that service providers at the OSSCs have to work very hard in order to meet the high demands of local people, especially women and girls. As of now, four Anh Duong Houses have directly supported over 60 GBV survivors at the houses and nearly 1,100 GBV survivors in the community. Particularly, the hotline of these houses has received and provided consultations and support to more than 20,000 calls from survivors of violence.
UNFPA Representative for Vietnam, Ms Naomi Kitahara, told the workshop that the introduction of the OSSC model aims to detect, prevent, and support survivors of violence. Ms. Naomi Kitahara confirmed that: “Despite the efficient operation of the four Anh Duong Houses, the demands are so high in terms of supporting GBV survivors. UNFPA, therefore, calls for the expansion and the replication of this safe and reliable facility to other provinces and cities in the country. In Vietnam, UNFPA wants to ensure that all women and girls in Viet Nam, including those most vulnerable, have the right to live a life free of violence and with dignity. We are not leaving women and girls behind in the efforts of achieving SDGs by 2030.”
Participants to the workshop highlighted that to replicate the Anh Duong House to other localities, it is necessary to develop policies and detailed guidelines on the standards of the OSSC model and ensure the quality of support services provided. Such policies and guidelines also aim to further enhance the multi-sectoral coordination mechaniems among relevant departments and agencies at both national and local levels.
More support from the State management agencies and a regular allocation of budgets from the Government and from local authorities are also important to ensure the sustainability of the OSSC model. However, other organisations, individuals and the private sector have to be mobilsied for financial, technical, and human resources in providing essential services to support GBV survivors.
The workshop agreed that the replication of the OSSC model is entirely in line with Vietnam’s National Programme on GBV Prevention and Response 2021-2025 and the amended Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control, which was adopted by the National Assembly in November 2022, which highlight the need to establish effective models and facilities to prevent domestic violence and to support GBV survivors.
Note to editor:
Gender-based violence is a manifestation of gender inequality which is deeply rooted in Viet Nam. According to the UNFPA-supported national study conducted in 2019 on violence against women, nearly 2 in 3 women aged 15 – 64 experienced at least one form of physical, sexual, psychological and/or economic violence in their life time. Gender-based violence is very much hidden in society, when more than 90% did not seek any help from public services, and half of the women who experienced violence told no one about it. It is costing Viet Nam 1.81% of GDP, which is significant.
For further information, contact:
Ms Dinh Thu Huong, UNFPA National Communications Consultant
Email: dhuong@unfpa.org; Mobile: 0913301539
