AWEEV – Vietnam

The situation

Although Vietnam is considered to have achieved high human development by the United Nations, the country continues to experience high levels of poverty and inequality. This is especially the case among ethnic minorities who still comprise 86% of those living in poverty in Vietnam. This makes rural, and Ethnic Minorities, particularly women, among the most vulnerable people in Vietnam.

More specifically, ethnic minority women over 30 years old are particularly vulnerable given their limited education and Vietnamese language skills, which prevent them from equitably accessing government and market information and participating in agricultural training. This is a direct result from son preference and boys getting better access to education and other opportunities in the community. This practice has had enduring consequences in terms of women’s limited understanding of their economic rights and their participation in paid economic activities. Furthermore, recent studies in Vietnam also found that women do most of the housework and caregiving. The time used for domestic work and caregiving limit women’s participation in economic, social and political activities.

Furthermore, as ethnic minorities live in mostly rural, mountainous areas, they are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change including extreme weather events, and the increased presence of pests and diseases. This negatively impacts the livelihood and paid economic opportunities that are available-especially for women-because there is limited knowledge and capacity to deal with the shocks and stresses caused by climate change.

What we are doing

Funded by the Government of Canada, AWEEV ultimately seeks to partner with local civil society organizations to contribute to the increased economic wellbeing of rural and ethnic minority women in Vietnam by:

1. Enhancing the promotion of economic rights of women in Vietnam.

• Action 1: Increase the capacity of Civil Society Organizations, including women’s rights and media organizations, to promote the economic rights of women through learning events, roundtables, documentation of good practices.
• Action 2: Enhance the knowledge and skills of village and communal officers to support women to exercise their economic rights through gender responsive dialogues and technical assistance
• Action 3: Increase the willingness and ability of women and men to address the unequal caregiving burden through community level dialogues and events, and improved cook stoves and childcare options.

2. Increasing the participation of rural and ethnic minority women in paid economic activities.

• Action 1: Increase the capacity of women to earn income from on-farm and off-farm livelihoods through technical assistance
• Action 2: Increase the capacity of women to save and borrow money through financial literacy and management training and technical assistance
• Action 3: Increase the entrepreneurship capacity of women-led grassroots social enterprises through technical assistance and the promotion of successful women entrepreneurs.
• Action 4: Increasing the capacity of tea producers and farmers who engage in on-farm and off-farm livelihoods to identify climate change and environmental risks to their livelihoods and implement climate-smart practices to protect their livelihoods from negative impacts of climate-related shocks and stresses.

Learn more

• AWEEV Project Brief [PDF]
• Report on Unpaid Care and Domestic Work: Project on Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment in Vietnam [PDF], Dec 2021

• Reducing Gender Inequality in Unpaid Care and Domestic Work in Vietnam: The Case of Ethnic Minorities [PDF], May 2022

Project targets

• Increase the economic wellbeing of 4,885 ethnic minority women and men from 1,550 households living in remote areas of Ha Giang and Lai Chau provinces
• 1,550 ethnic minority women supported with capacity building to equitably participate in paid economic activities and exercise their economic rights
• 1,085 ethnic minority men participating in agricultural production trainings, gender-responsive dialogues and community events
• 1120 women and 847 men with the increased capacity to identify climate change and environmental risks to their livelihoods

Partners

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