The house of Chung Thi Bich Ngoc in the southern province of Soc Trang stands out with a red shelf neatly displaying Nestlé products such as NESCAFÉ, MILO, cereals, soy sauce and spices.

Participating in the Chi Nest (Sister Nest) Program for 3 years, Ngoc now confidently introduces Nestlé products clearly.

She shared: “Becoming Chi Nest helps me increase my income and have a better family life. Besides, I contribute to strengthening the connection between women in the commune, helping them learn more about quality and nutritious products for children and family. I am very happy when people call me Chi Nest.”

Ngoc is a rural woman growing rice in Soc Trang Province. Farming is hard and unstable as it is significantly subjected to weather. Thus, she and her husband had to struggle to raise their two children.

In 2020, she learned about the “Nestlé accompanies women” program – a partnership between Vietnam Women’s Union and Nestlé Vietnam. At first, she was attracted by interesting activities of the program such as role play which help her gain nutrition and health knowledge naturally and efficiently.

Ngoc told VietnamPlus that in the past she also used a few Nestlé products, but since joining the program and becoming a “Chi Nest” she and other members in the commune have been able to know many other quality brands and products from Nestlé.

Thanks to various nutrition and health trainings from the program, Ngoc managed to take care her family with delicious and nutritious meals. During the process of introducing Nestlé products to households in the commune, Ngoc also had many opportunities to interact and spread her knowledge to other members and families in addition to improving her income.

“Every month I earn an additional VND 2 million from the Nestlé store. In rural areas, such extra income is very good. I have better conditions to take care of my children,” said Ngoc.

Starting from the same objectives of women’s empowerment and gender equility of Vietnam Women’s Union and Nestlé Vietnam, the bilateral cooperation program focuses on the three key pillars: equipping nutrition and health knowledge for women, helping the capability building for the Vietnamese women of the new era; creating sustainable livelihoods for women; and accelerating the digital transformation for women, especially those in rural areas.

Sharing the same opinion, Nguyen Thi Nhai, Tan Dan Commune, Khoai Chau District, the northern province of Hung Yen said: “Since its implementation in 2020, the ‘Nestlé accompanies women’ program has created more opportunities for many women in different regions to increase their income, take control of their lives and develop family economy.

Nhai is both a member of the communal Women’s Union and “Chi Nest.” She is both active in her daily work at the Women’s Union and fully takes care of her family.

“In our family, husband and wife earn money equally, share daily housework and strive to be an example for children to live a positive, useful life,” she said.

Nhai acknowledged that the women’s stalls with the criteria “Safety-Happy-Convenience” along with various training programs on nutrition, soft skill, especially digital skills and health care, helped women improve their quality of life, increase income, and build happy families.

Officially started in December 2020 at 9 provinces, the “Nestlé accompanies women” program has expanded to 21 provinces nationwide by November 2023.

With many activities and initiatives, the program has helped thousands of women, especially rural women, improve their knowledge and skills, gradually keep pace with the digital transformation process and create sustainable livelihoods.

On November 24-25, the Vietnam Women’s Union and Nestlé Vietnam organized a conference to summarize the implementation of the joint program in 2023 and a field trip to Hung Yen to visit Nestlé Bong Sen factory.

In addition to representatives of the 21 provincial women’s unions participating in the project and that of the women’s unions at all level and individuals members with excellent achievements, the conference also had the participation of representatives of 13 provincial women’s unions and relevant representatives of the state agency.

2023 is the first year of implementing the strategic cooperation program in the period of 2022-2027 between the Vietnam Women’s Union and Nestlé Vietnam

From 2021 until now, the program has trained 13,000 members for nutritional knowledge and skills and healthy living. Among them, 4,000 members have been trained about communication skills and family financial management, and 5,000 members have been trained on digital technology knowledge skills.

In training activities on knowledge and use of digital applications, 100% of members participated. Thanks to that, women, especially rural women – the main beneficiaries of the program, have gradually become confident in taking control of their lives, especially updating and leveraging the strengths of digital technology.

By the end of September 2023, the program has created and maintained sustainable livelihood models and promoted digital applications in 790 communes, with 1,840 models nationwide.

In addition to improving nutritional knowledge, equipping soft skills and creating sustainable livelihood models, one of the program’s focus activities in 2023 and in the coming time is to promote digital transformation to partly help realize the Government’s goal that by 2025, Vietnam’s digital economy will account for 20% of GDP and increase to 30% by 2030.

Binu Jacob, CEO of Nestlé Vietnam shared his pride and happiness to see thousands of women becoming more confident in taking control of their own lives and contributing to the economic development of families and localities thanks to the “Nestlé accompanies women” program.

“At Nestlé, promoting gender equality and empowering women is one of our key global commitments as well as our top priorities. In Vietnam, from the very first day of our operation, alongside promoting sustainable development, we also put the enhancement of women empowerment and the promotion of gender equality in the workplace and throughout the value chain as a top priority for Nestlé,” said Binu Jacob.

That’s the reason why Nestlé Vietnam collaborated with the Vietnam Women’s Union to implement the long-term strategic cooperation program “Nestlé accompanies women” to contribute to the improvement of health, nutrition, and safety of women and children in Vietnam.

“We aim to support Vietnam women, especially those in rural areas, to be equipped with the necessary capacity and skills in the new era,” he said.

The results achieved by the “Nestlé accompanies women” program show the role of effective multi-stakeholder cooperation patterns in realizing commitments and policies on enhancing women’s empowerment and promoting gender equality.

In 2024, the Vietnam Women’s Union and Nestlé Vietnam will continue to implement and expand the cooperation program with various activities and initiatives under the 3 main pillars of the program.

“I believe that in the coming years of the cooperation program, we will achieve more positive results, approach and support more women nationwide, contributing to the goal of promoting women empowerment, gender equality, improving the quality of life, which subsequently will contribute to the realization of the country’s digital transformation and new rural development,” said Binu.

Ton Ngoc Hanh, Vice President of the Vietnam Women’s Union said: “With affection, responsibility and enthusiasm to deliver Vietnam Women’s Union’s missions, we believe that in the following years, we will increasingly develop with new approaches with the greater determination. We expect and believe that the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement to contribute to empowering women and building Vietnam Women’s Union will become more professional and effective.”

Mai Thuy Ngan, Acting Director of the Center for Digital Government, Ministry of Information and Communications believed that the results of the program have proved that digital transformation is the process of changing thinking and business models to create new values. Digital transformation is a topic that has been talked about a lot in recent years, but it’s still difficult to figure how to achieve and where to start.

“The program’s endeavour to bring digital transformation skills to thousands of women in 21 provinces is a huge success, affirming the core role of Women’s Unions at all levels. Thanks to programs like this, rural women will not be left behind in the digital transformation process,” said Ngan.

According to Le Bui Thi Mai Uyen, Food Business Unit Director of Nestlé Vietnam, this year’s statistics show that “Safety-Happy-Convenience” stall models helped women increase their income by an average of about 30% compared to 2022.

Besides, thanks to joining trainings provided by the program, many women already know how to use the mobile application to manage goods sources, store information as well as grasp customer habits.

Chi Nest Chung Thi Bich Ngoc from Soc Trang Province agreed, saying that now she’s no longer embarrassed to use social networks to promote products, transact with customers and deliver goods in the commune.

Thanks to the program, she feels more confident and happier. She wishes the program would reach more women in the country./.