Pham Ngoc Tien, Director of Gender Equality Department, MOLISA (Photo:qdnd.vn)Hanoi (VNA) – More than 80experts from governmental agencies, domestic and international organizations, andacademia attended “The launching workshop on the review of the NationalStrategy on Gender Equality and the development of the new National Strategy onGender Equality 2021-2030” in Hanoi on December 6.
The workshop was jointly held by the Vietnamese Ministryof Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the United Nations Entity forGender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the AustralianEmbassy in Vietnam.
Vietnam is one of the countries which has strong commitmentin implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Action and SustainableDevelopment Goals SDGs.
Ten years ago, it was the first time Vietnamprepared and developed its first remarkable National Strategy on GenderEquality (NSGE) that defined the direction and priorities to promote genderequality 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 lotof changes and progress on gender equality in many socio-economic fields.
At the same time, the country faces new challengesfor gender equality due to the impact of the global economy, the strongdevelopment of the 4.0 technology revolution, natural disasters and climatechange, and the demographic changes. These challenges require the country todevelop specific policies and actions to maintain achievements andsimultaneously address existing gender issues as well as arising gender issuesin the upcoming period. This effort continues to demonstrate Vietnam’s strongcommitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equalityand women empowerment.
Opening the workshop, Pham Ngoc Tien, Director of MOLISA’sGender Equality Department, said: “In order to remain the sustainability of theachievements on gender equality as well as to better response to gender-basedchallenges and issues in the coming period, it is necessary to develop andsubmit the new NSGE for the period 2021-2030 to the Prime Minister. We believethat with the commitment of cooperation and technical assistance fromdevelopment organizations, United Nations agencies, the participation ofrelevant organizations and individuals at the central and local level will beadvantageous conditions to establish a 2021-2030 Strategy to achieve highquality and feasibility”
Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie said: “Icongratulate the Government of Vietnam for its commitment to developing aNational Gender Equality Strategy that not only materially contributes toclosing gender gaps, but is also practical and has realistic targets.”
Speaking at the workshop, Elisa Fernandez, Head ofOffice UN Women Vietnam, highlighted that "Gender equality and womenempowerment is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and indispensablefor all aspects of socio-economic life. Gender equality is not only a basichuman-right, but also a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous,inclusive and sustainable Vietnam”.
Fernandez also emphasized the importance of advocacyto develop mechanism to ensure the financing for gender equality commitments; andthe principle of Leaving no one behind is included and applied in the NationalStrategy on gender equality for the period 2021-2030.
At the workshop, participants shared their plans tosupport the review of the National Strategy on Gender Equality implementationin the period of 2011-2020 and the development of the new National Strategy onGender Equality 2021-2030./.
