Vietnam builds new national strategy on gender equality

More than 80 experts from governmental agencies, domestic and international organizations, and academia attended “The launching workshop on the review of the National Strategy on Gender Equality and the development of the new National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030” in Hanoi on December 6.

The workshop was jointly held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the Australian Embassy in Vietnam.

Vietnam is one of the countries which has strong commitment in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Action and Sustainable Development Goals SDGs.

Ten years ago, it was the first time Vietnam prepared and developed its first remarkable National Strategy on Gender Equality (NSGE) that defined the direction and priorities to promote gender equality in the period 2011-2020. During the years of implementation of the NSGE, Vietnam has been one of the countries in the Asia-Pacific that has made a lot of changes and progress on gender equality in many socio-economic fields.

At the same time, the country faces new challenges for gender equality due to the impact of the global economy, the strong development of the 4.0 technology revolution, natural disasters and climate change, and the demographic changes. These challenges require the country to develop specific policies and actions to maintain achievements and simultaneously address existing gender issues as well as arising gender issues in the upcoming period. This effort continues to demonstrate Vietnam’s strong commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality and women empowerment.

Opening the workshop, Pham Ngoc Tien, Director of MOLISA’s Gender Equality Department, said: “In order to remain the sustainability of the achievements on gender equality as well as to better response to gender-based challenges and issues in the coming period, it is necessary to develop and submit the new NSGE for the period 2021-2030 to the Prime Minister. We believe that with the commitment of cooperation and technical assistance from development organizations, United Nations agencies, the participation of relevant organizations and individuals at the central and local level will be advantageous conditions to establish a 2021-2030 Strategy to achieve high quality and feasibility”

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie said: “I congratulate the Government of Vietnam for its commitment to developing a National Gender Equality Strategy that not only materially contributes to closing gender gaps, but is also practical and has realistic targets.”

Speaking at the workshop, Elisa Fernandez, Head of Office UN Women Vietnam, highlighted that "Gender equality and women empowerment is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and indispensable for all aspects of socio-economic life. Gender equality is not only a basic human-right, but also a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, inclusive and sustainable Vietnam”.

Fernandez also emphasized the importance of advocacy to develop mechanism to ensure the financing for gender equality commitments; and the principle of Leaving no one behind is included and applied in the National Strategy on gender equality for the period 2021-2030.

At the workshop, participants shared their plans to support the review of the National Strategy on Gender Equality implementation in the period of 2011-2020 and the development of the new National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030.