Vietnam: Viet Nam Joint Programme on Gender Equality

One in three ever married Vietnamese women reports having suffered physical or sexual violence at the hands of her spouse. This Joint Programme worked with the government to build gender equality and combat gender-based violence by strengthening capacity for reporting, gender analysis, sex disaggregated data collection and monitoring.

Despite a sound policy and legal framework supporting gender equality, Vietnam's institutional capacities in the area of reporting, gender analysis, data collection and monitoring remain weak and unsystematic. 

The Joint Programme sought to address these weaknesses through strategic, coordinated and multi-sectoral technical assistance. Specifically, the programme aimed to:

1. Improve skills, knowledge and practices for the implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of the Law on Gender Equality and the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control;

2. Enhance partnerships and coordination around gender equality within and outside of government; and

• Revitalization of the Gender Action Partnership (GAP), a quadripartite policy forum promoting gender equality and addressing gender-based violence (GBV).
• The Voice of Vietnam, a national radio station, broadcast short radio plays to raise awareness and advocate for the Gender Equality Law.
• The joint programme assisted in carrying out a capacity assessment of government counterparts in the area of reporting, gender analysis, data collection and monitoring. Support was provided to improve the skills, knowledge and practices of duty-bearers at the central, provincial and local levels. Thus, capacity for implementing, monitoring and evaluating and reporting processes relating to the Law on Gender Equality and the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention were all strengthened. 
• The programme contributed significantly to raising awareness and disseminating knowledge on GBV. The National Study on Domestic Violence provided for the first time robust data on the problem and helped to clarify misconceptions about GBV as occurring mainly among marginalized groups and the poor. The study raised the issue to a new level of discussion and the evidence influenced a national policy dialogue on this subject. Consequently, some persistent discriminatory attitudes and behavior against women -- such as son preference as evidenced by the rising sex ratio at birth -- can now be more openly addressed in Vietnam.
• Another notable result was the increased availability of evidence-based gender data and strengthened data systems. The Set of National Statistical Indicators on Gender Development, developed with support from the joint programme and approved by the Prime Minister in 2011, provides a legal framework for the regular collection of gender data in various sectors, including economy, labour, education, culture, family, population and health. The first-ever national study on domestic violence against women provides data on the prevalence of GBV in the country, which is now acknowledged to be a serious problem.

Click for more detailed results from the Joint Programmes in Vietnam.