National Strategy on Gender Equality for the 2011-2020 period
 

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on December 24, 2012 signed Decision 2351/QD-TTg, approving the National Strategy on Gender Equality for the 2011-2020 period.

The following is the translation of the Strategy for reference

1. Viewpoints:

a) The National Strategy on Gender Equality is an important part of the national socio-economic development strategy and serves as foundation of the human resource development strategy of the Party and State. Gender equality work is one of the basic elements to improve the quality of life of every person, every family and the whole society.

b) To enhance the leadership and direction of party committees and authorities at all levels, coordination of socio-political organizations, social organizations, and socio-political-professional, economic organizations, non-business units, the participation of every individual, every family and the whole community in gender equality work. To mobilize to the utmost resources for effective realization of gender equality work.

2. Objectives of the Strategy.

a) General objective:

By 2020, substantive equality between men and women shall be basically ensured in opportunity, participation and benefits in the political, economic, cultural and social domains, contributing to fast and sustainable national development.

b) Specific objectives:

* Objective 1: To intensify women’s participation in managerial and leading positions in order to gradually narrow gender gap in the political field.

- Norm 1: To strive for the percentage of 25% or higher of women participating in Party committees in the 2016-2020 tenure; the rate of 30% or higher of female deputies elected to the National Assembly and People’s Councils at all levels in the 2011-2015 term and over 35% in the 2016-2020 term.

- Norm 2: To strive for the targets that by 2015, 80% and by 2020, over 95% of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government-attached agencies and People’s Committees at all levels will have female leaders.

- Norm 3: To strive for the targets that by 2015, 70% and by 2020, 100% of Party and State agencies and socio-political organizations with the number of female cadres, civil servants and public employees making up 30% or higher will have women holding key leading positions.

* Objective 2: To narrow gender gap in the economic, labor and employment domains; to increase access of rural poor women and ethnic minority women to economic resources and labor market

- Norm 1: Annually, at least 40% of the total number of people given new jobs will be assured for each sex (male and female).

- Norm 2: The rate of female entrepreneurs will reach 30% by 2015 and 35% or higher by 2020.

- Norm 3: The rate of female rural laborers who are aged under 45 and vocationally trained will reach 25% by 2015 and 50% by 2020.

- Norm 4: The rate of poor female laborers in rural areas or ethnic minority regions who wish to borrow preferential capital from employment or poverty reduction programs and official credit sources will reach 80% by 2015 and 100% by 2020.

* Objective 3: To raise the quality of female human resources, gradually ensure equal participation in the education and training between men and women.

- Norm 1: The rate of literate men and women aged between 15 and 40 in remote, ethnic minority and extreme difficulty-hit regions will reach 90% by 2015 and 95% by 2020.

- Norm 2: The percentage of women holding master degree will reach 40% by 2015 and 50% by 2020. The percentage of women holding doctorate degree will reach 20% by 2015 and 25% by 2020.

* Objective 4: To ensure gender equality in access to and benefit from healthcare services

- Norm 1: The gender ratio at birth will not exceed 113 male infants/100 female infants by 2015 and 115) 100 by 2020.

- Norm 2: To reduce the maternal mortality rate to 58.3/100,000 live births by 2015 and below 52/100,000 live births by 2020.

- Norm 3: To raise the percentage of pregnant women having access to services of medical care and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission to 40% by 2015 and 50% by 2020 as compared to 2010.

- Norm 4: To reduce the abortion rate to 27/100 live births by 2015 and below 25/100 by 2020.

* Objective 5: To ensure gender equality in the cultural and information domain

- Norm 1: Cultural and information products with gender prejudice will be reduced by 60% by 2015 and 80% by 2020. To increase the broadcasting time volume of specialized programs and sections and the volume of products on gender equality propaganda and education.

- Norm 2: 90% by 2015 and 100% by 2020 of central and local radio and television stations will have specialized programs and sections to raise public awareness about gender equality.

* Objective 6: To ensure gender equality in family life, gradually eliminating gender-based violence

- Norm 1: To curtail women’s time of involvement in household duties by two times by 2015 and 1.5 times by 2020 as compared to men’s.

- Norm 2: The rate of detected domestic violence victims rendered with legal and health counseling, support and care at domestic violence victim-assisting establishments is expected to reach 40% by 2015 and 50% by 2020. The rate of detected domestic violence perpetrator counseling at domestic violence counseling establishments will reach 70% by 2015 and 85% by 2020.

- Norm 3: By 2015, 100% of human trafficking victims will return through handover and rescue, and 100% of such victims who return by themselves and are detected will be entitled to support and community integration services.

* Objective 7: To enhance capacity of gender equality state management

- Norm 1: 80% by 2015 and 100% by 2020 of legal drafts will be determined as having contents related to gender equality or gender inequality or discrimination.

- Norm 2: By 2015, 100% of members of the committees for drafting or teams for editing legal documents with contents related to gender equality or gender inequality or discrimination will be trained in gender knowledge, analysis and incorporation.

- Norm 3: By 2015, provinces and centrally-governed cities will have adequate gender equality cadres; and establish a line-up of collaborators and volunteers participating in gender-equality and women’s advancement activities.

- Norm 4: By 2015, 100% of gender equality and women’s advancement cadres at all levels and in all sectors will be professionally trained at least once.

3. Major solutions to realize the strategy

a) General solutions:

- To enhance the leadership, direction and inspection of gender equality work by Party committees and authorities at all levels. To raise capacity of State management over gender equality. To perfect the system of policies and laws on gender equality. To integrate gender equality into legal drafts with contents in relation to gender equality or gender inequality or discrimination. To incorporate gender equality in the formulation and implementation of action programs or plans of ministries or sectors as well as socio-economic development strategies, planning and plans of localities. To increase the inspection and evaluation of the implementation of the law on gender equality. To build an inter-sector coordination mechanism for the effective realization of gender equality.

- To strongly accelerate information, popularization and education in order to raise the awareness of cadres, civil servants, public employees, laborers and people about gender equality.

- To design and implement the national program on gender equality in the 2011-2015 and 2016-2020 periods to assist ministries, sectors and localities in dealing with key matters of gender equality.

- To develop systems of quality services in order to advocate women-men equality in opportunity, participation and benefits in various aspects of the social life. To intensify the socialization and inter-sectoral coordination in organizing gender equality-related activities.

- To mobilize and efficiently use financial resources for gender equality work; to spend State budget for gender equality work according to current State budget decentralization; to prioritize resources for sectors, regions and areas with gender inequality or high risk of gender inequality, rural areas, poor regions and mountainous areas where backward customs and practices still exist, as well as ethnic minority regions.

- To promote research into gender equality in various aspects. To build a database of gender equality to serve gender equality research and policy-making. To formulate a set of indicators to supervise and evaluate the implementation of the Gender Equality Law.

- To boost multilateral and bilateral international cooperation on gender equality.

b) Specific solutions:

* Solutions for achieving Objective 1:

- To review the Party and the State’s regulations on training, retraining, promotion, appointment and retirement age ranges. To determine shortcomings and disadvantages against women when these regulations are implemented for further amendment and supplementation in line with the Gender Equality Law.

- To devise long-term planning on female managers and leaders with specific criteria and solutions for implementation.

- To enhance propagation on gender equality in the mass media so as to raise the awareness of women-related work, contributing to eliminating prejudices and improper perceptions of the roles of men and women in family and society. To diversify images of women with different roles and occupations.

- To strengthen the inspection and examination of the implementation of legal regulations on gender equality, primarily those on age ranges for training, retraining, promotion and appointment.

- Ministries, sectors and localities will continue piloting examinations for recruitment of leading titles, then drawing experiences and initiatives in relation to lifting up the rate of female leaders and managers.

- To support the improvement of capacity for young female leaders through capacity building programs and projects.

* Solutions for achieving Objective 2:

- To lower employment access expenses and job-seeking time for laborers through building a system of information on labor market, employment counselling and investment opportunities. To build gender-based databases on labor market and vocational training. To introduce specific measures to promote investment in providing truthful and updated information on labor market, investment market, financial market, etc.

- To continue improving policies and broaden types of social insurance beneficiaries, particularly  new laborers; to implement measures to meet women and men’s aspirations to participate in voluntary insurance and unemployment insurance, paying attention to vulnerable groups (migrant laborers, poor laborers in rural areas and ethnic minority regions).

- To ensure conditions for women to fully and equally access to economic resources (such as cultivation land, credit sources, market information, law and policy information) and enjoy equality in opportunity to participate in production and business.

- Vocational training policies and programs need to focus on rural areas and ethnic minority regions; attract more female laborers; improve job skills, ways of managing and developing handicraft and cottage industries, agricultural product processing, consumer goods production as well as developing production and daily-life services for rural residents. To design policies to support establishments providing vocational training for rural labor, especially those attracting many female laborers.

- To ensure that State-funded agricultural, fishery and forestry extension activities attract female trainees. To determine and achieve the targets on females in training for people in rural and outlying areas, ethnic minority regions, assisting them in technical applications in order to raise the quality and competitiveness of their agricultural and processed products.

- To enhance the implementation of policies towards female laborers with a view to ensuring efficiency and fairness in policies of vocational training, social insurance, labor protection and retirement regimes.

* Solutions for achieving Objective 3:

- To incorporate gender equality content in the curricula of the national education system, especially at primary, junior and secondary education levels; in programs on State management training and advanced political theory training, aiming to raise the awareness of key leaders.

- To adopt peculiar policies for a number of target groups: Policies and programs on scholarships for girls and women pursuing study to improve their skills, especially policies to encourage girls and women in rural areas as well as ethnic minority areas; peculiar policies on preschool education in remote and disadvantaged regions; policies to attract male preschool and primary school teachers.

- To review and eliminate messages and images bearing gender prejudice in the current system of textbooks.

- To include gender matters in policies, programs and plans of the education sector; to develop gender- and nationality-based databases at all educational levels and grades.

* Solutions for achieving Objective 4:

- To further provide reproductive and sexual healthcare services for women and men. Especially to provide flexible, accessible and free-of-charge reproductive healthcare services for women and men in ethnic minority areas.

- To expand networks of reproductive healthcare counseling for men. To step up the training of andrologists at provincial-level general hospitals.

- To intensify communication activities to raise the awareness of reproductive health and sexual health for women and men. To enhance men’s participation in the implementation of family planning measures. To expand communication activities for minors about sexual health and safe contraception.

- To incorporate gender issues in policies, programs and plans of the health sector.

* Solutions for achieving objective 5:

- To raise manufacturers’ gender awareness of cultural and information products. To abolish gender bias messages and images in cultural and information products.

- To enhance sex education through mass media in diverse and flexible forms suitable to each targeted group and each region.

- To regularly monitor and inspect cultural and information activities and products from the gender perspective.

* Solutions for achieving objective 6:

- To step up the building of families of culture (families meeting cultural standards), focusing on criteria of gender equality in families.

- To attach importance to building models of clubs of happy, equal and violence-free families, luring men’s active participation in such activities.

- To build and experiment gender-based violence and human trafficking prevention and control counseling and support models; to multiply successful models.

* Solutions for achieving objective 7:

- To arrange sufficient gender equality cadres at all levels; to form a contingent of collaborators and volunteers participating in gender equality and women’s advancement activities, especially in villages, hamlets and street quarters. To build up networks of gender experts in all domains of the social life.

- To foster gender analysis, assessment and incorporation skills for cadres and civil servants participating in making socio-economic development policies and plans.  To organize training in gender, gender analysis and incorporation for members of committees and teams drafting legal documents in relation to gender equality or gender inequality or gender discrimination.

4. Strategy implementation stages:

a) Stage I (2011-2015):

- To increase the efficiency of State management over gender equality.

- To intensify popularization and education activities in order to raise awareness of gender equality.

- To organize activities of supporting and promoting the incorporation of gender issues in the formulation and implementation of policies, laws, programs and projects of ministries, sectors and localities.

- To organize activities in support of gender equality in a number of domains and regions having big gaps in gender equality.

- To build a number of exemplary gender equality models. To establish gender equality database; to formulate the set of indicators for supervising and evaluating the implementation of the Law on Gender Equality.

- To organize preliminary review and mid-term evaluation of the strategy implementation.

b) Stage II (2016-2020):

- On the basis of preliminary review and mid-term evaluation of the strategy implementation at Stage I (2011-2015), policies shall be modified and comprehensive measures shall be deployed to successfully achieve the objectives of the strategy. Resources shall be concentrated on hard activities in the implementation of the Stage I.

- To widely develop good models and continue building new gender equality models.

- To efficiently tap and use databases on gender equality in policy-making.

- To strengthen the sharing of information, experiences, interesting innovations and effective models on gender equality.

- To conduct final review and evaluation of the Strategy implementation.

5. Projects under the strategy:

- Project on communication to raise the awareness of gender equality and and change gender equality behaviors.

- Project on raising capacity and effectiveness of State management over gender equality.

- Project on raising capacity for female deputies of the National Assembly and People’s Councils all levels, managers and leaders at all levels; female candidates to the National Assembly or People’s Councils at all levels in the 2016-2020 tenure, and potential female cadres expected for future promotion.

- Project to support the realization of gender equality in domains, sectors, regions and localities having inequality or high risk of gender inequality.

- Project to support the formulation and development of gender equality advisory and assistance services.

* Organization of the strategy implementation

Under Decision 2351/QD-TTg, the following ministries and agencies shall be responsible for deploying the Strategy:

1. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs shall be responsible for, in coordination with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, relevant ministries and sectors, the Women’s Union Central Committee and socio-political organizations and provincial-level People’s Committees in, organizing the strategy implementation nationwide, ensuring close association with relevant strategies implemented by other ministries or sectors; formulate and submit to the Prime Minister for approval the national program on gender equality in the 2011-2015 and 2016-2020 periods; formulate and organize the implementation of annual plans on gender equality in line with this Strategy and the 2011-2020 Strategy on socio-economic development; review for amendment or supplementation according to competence or proposal on amendment or supplementation to competent agencies laws and policies in accordance with the gender equality principles; guide, inspect and review the deployment of the Strategy and periodically report it to the Prime Minister; conduct a preliminary review at the end of 2015 and the final review of the Strategy realization at the end of 2020.

2. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall be responsible for, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and relevant ministries and sectors in, mobilizing official development assistance (ODA) sources for gender equality programs and projects; incorporate gender equality objectives and targets into annual and five-year socio-economic development plans at the national level; guide the inclusion of gender equality objectives and targets in the formulation and evaluation of results of achievement of objectives and targets in socio-economic development strategies, planning and plans of sectors or localities.

3. The Ministry of Finance shall be responsible for, in coordination with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in, allocating budget funds, based on the State budget capacity, for implementation of gender equality programs and projects after they are approved; guide, inspect and examine the use of funds for the implementation of the approved programs and projects in accordance with the Law on  the State Budget and relevant laws.

4. The Ministry of Justice shall be responsible for, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs as well as relevant ministries and sectors in, assessing the inclusion of gender equality issues in the making of legal documents related to gender equality or gender inequality or discrimination within the scope of regulation of such documents.

5. The Ministry of Home Affairs shall be responsible for, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Women’s Union Central Committee and relevant bodies in, formulating and submitting to the Government for promulgation, guidance and implementation of regulations on planning and creation of female cadre sources and female percentages for appointment to positions in State agencies; review and propose competent bodies to amend, supplement, guide, and organize the implementation of, regulations on age ranges for appointment, training and retraining of female cadres, civil servants and public employees; guide ministries, sectors, provinces and centrally-governed cities in desiging annual plans on the payroll of civil servants for gender equality activities; assign the gender equality civil servant payroll after it is approved by the Prime Minister; and include gender  and gender equality knowledge into the training of cadres, civil servants and public employees.

6. The Ministry of Health shall be responsible for, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, relevant ministries and sectors, Women’s Union Central Committee and provincial-level People’s Committees in, organizing the implementation of the 2011-2020 Strategy on population and reproductive health after it is approved; and step up propagation on warning and active control and removal of profound causes of gender imbalance among infants.

7. The Ministry of Education and Training shall be responsible for, in collaboration with relevant ministries and sectors in, organizing the implementation of the 2011-2020 educational development Strategy after it is approved; implement the contents of gender, sex, reproductive health and gender equality education for pupils and students; train teachers and lecturers in gender, sex, reproductive health and gender equality; and incorporate gender equality issues in sectoral development planning and plans.

8. The Ministry of Information and Communications shall be responsible for, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in, further guiding and directing mass media agencies in boosting and renewing activities of communication and education in the Party’s guideline and the State’s laws on gender equality; strengthen inspections and examinations of activities of information, press and publication (including publishing, printing, distribution of publications), Internet information on gender equality and related to gender equality; and strictly handle acts of publishing publications and information products with gender bias contents.

9. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism shall be responsible for, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, relevant ministries and sectors, Women’s Union Central Committee and provincial-level People’s Committees in, organizing the implementation of the 2011-2020 Strategy on Vietnamese family development after it is approved; work out and conduct intervention activities to prevent and control domestic violence; include gender equality content into cultural institutions towards abundant, equal, progressive, happy and sustainable families with few children.

10. The Ministry of Public Security shall be responsible for, in collaboration with relevant ministries and sectors in, figuring out and conducting activities to prevent and control human trafficking.

11. The Ministry of Science and Technology shall be responsible for, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in, outlining and directing scientific research into gender equality.

12. The Nationality Committee shall be responsible for, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and relevant ministries and sectors in, organizing the propagation, dissemination, education and mobilization for the implementation of gender equality policy and law for ethnic minority people; formulate and submit to competent agencies for promulgation, guidance and implementation of peculiar policies in support of gender equality activities in remote, ethnic minority areas and regions with exceptional socio-economic difficulties; and mobilize ethnic minority people to promote their fine traditions, customs and practices for achieving the gender equality objectives.

13. The Viet Nam News Agency, the Voice of Viet Nam, Viet Nam Television and other mass media agencies shall increase the broadcasting time volumes or number of articles on, and raise the quality of propagation on gender equality in their programs, special pages or columns.

14. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and Governmental bodies shall, within the scope of their assigned functions and tasks, participate in the Strategy implementation; formulate and organize the implementation of annual and five-year action plans for the Strategy implementation; accelerate inter-sector coordination, especially in the inclusion of gender equality issues into planning and policymaking work; and inspect and evaluate the Strategy implementation in their ministries or agencies.

15. Provincial-level People’s Committees shall organize the implementation of the Strategy in their localities under the guidance of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs as well as functional ministries and sectors; formulate and realize annual and five-year action plans on gender equality in line with the 2011-2020 national Strategy on gender equality and local socio-economic development plans in the same period; promote the creativeness and activeness in mobilizing resources for the Strategy implementation; incorporate the effective implementation of this Strategy into other relevant strategies in localities; arrange adequate gender equality cadres, civil servants and public employees in localities; boost inter-sector coordination, especially in the incorporation of gender equality issues into the formulation of local socio-economic development policies; regularly inspect the strategy implementation in localities; implement the regime of annual reporting on the strategy implementation in localities in line with the current regulations.

16. The Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee, Viet Nam Women’s Union Central Committee and their respective member organizations shall organize the implementation of the Strategy within the scope of their respective functions and tasks; to step up propagation and education in order to raise the awareness about gender equality in their respective organizations; to participate in the formulation of policies and laws on, and in the State management of, gender equality; to participate in supervising the implementation of law on gender equality; to study and arrange Women’s Union members to work as gender equality collaborators and propagators at the grassroots level./.