UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam Ramla Khalidi. (Photo: UNDP) UNDP ResidentRepresentative in Vietnam Ramla Khalidi wrote the comment in her article entitled “The path toward gender parityin politics in Vietnam” on the occasion of Vietnamese Women’s Day. Thefollowing is the full text of the article.
This week, the streets of Hanoi have been adorned with flowers, signalingthe upcoming Vietnamese Women’s Day, a day celebrated every year in Vietnam onOctober 20. The day provides a goodopportunity for UNDP in Vietnam to reflect about the importance of achievinggender equality, especially in women’s political participation and leadership andconsider progress against this goal.
This imperative is ever more urgent giventhe multiple crises affecting the world today, including the climate crisis,COVID-19, and other humanitarian and developmental challenges which threaten toreverse development gains and which affect women disproportionately. Thefallout from these crises have indeed highlighted the importance of ensuring women’sfull participation in making public policies that recognise the needs andrights of all women and girls. Women’s empowerment and participation inpolitics is critical in building representative, just and effectiveinstitutions that play a crucial role in an inclusive recovery from the variousnew security risks and coping with arising development challenges.
When it comes towomen in political decision-making, Vietnamhas in place an adequate legal framework to ensure gender equality in politicaland public life. Article 26 of the Constitution clearly recognises that men and women enjoy equal rightsin all fields. This has been reinforced in Article 11 of the Gender EqualityLaw (2006). Vietnam has achieved commendable progress comparedwith other countries in the region. Accordingto the 2022 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report, Vietnam scores 0.705 on ascale from 0 to 1 in terms of gender gap index, ranking 83 out of 146 countries,improving its position from 87 in 2021.
Red Dao ethnic women in traditional costumes. (Photo: qdnd.vn) Let’s review where we are today againstthese targets. In the recent 2021 elections, the proportion of women NationalAssembly deputies increased to 30.26%, the first time that Vietnam crossed thecritical threshold identified as necessary for women to have a visible impacton decision-making process. However, women’s participation at the highestechelons of leadership in the Party and Government fell significantly. Only onewoman remained in the Politburo, and women were no longer present in the topfour highest leadership positions of the country. Women’s representation inexecutive government remains very low, with only two of 22 ministries andministerial-level agencies, headed by a woman. According to the initial findingsof our research on gender equality in public administration in Vietnam, duringthe last 10 years (2012-2022), although women account for 40% of ministerialstaff on average, they only hold about 21% of key leadership positions, often concentratedat the deputy or vice positions. Moreover,the Review of the National Strategy of Gender Equality 2011-2020 conducted bythe Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) found that allthree targets on women’s political leadership were not achieved duringthe last 10 years.
Wemust reflect on the underlying reasons for the gaps between ambitious targetsand the reality and how to translate all the national targets on genderequality in politics into a reality.
Accordingto the publication “2020 Human Development Perspectives: Tackling Social Norms - A Game Changer for Gender Inequalities” released by the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) on March 5, 2020,one of the identified reasons for gender inequalities is the deeply rootedbias that has challenged the achievement of genuine equality. These findings are corroborated by researchwe conducted in Vietnam. UNDP (PAPI)reports in 2019, 2020 and 2021 consistently indicate that social and cultural beliefs remain one of the majorobstacles to expand women's participation at village and provincial levelswhere voters still prefer men candidates with families, over women candidateswith families. In addition, according to the research “Roles, performance, and contributions of Vietnamese womenrepresentatives during the 2016-2021 period” womendelegates are being siloed into certain areas of public policy such aseducation, health care and employment while their engagement in other importantareas such as public finance, national security, security, economic policy,among others remains limited. Accordingto the 2022 Gender Social Norms of the 2022 Human Development Index Report, in Vietnam,93.75% of people still have at least one bias against gender equality andwomen’s empowerment and 65.08% of the people still hold biases about the politicalrole of men and women.
Inthis context, UNDP in Vietnam stands ready to support the country in deliveringits commitments and targets toward gender equality in the public sector. Oursupport in the coming years will be guided by the UNDP’s 2022-2026 Gender EqualityStrategy which includes the following main focus areas: Strengthening womencollective mobilisation, voice, and influence; advancing gender-responsive publicpolicies and services; strengthening women leadership and participation inpeace and recovery; changing negative social norms; and facilitating betterdata and analysis for policy making.
In2022, the year that marks the 45th anniversary since the accession of Vietnam to theUnited Nations, UNDP in Vietnam has embarked strongly on strengtheningwomen’s collective mobilisation, voice, and influence through severalinitiatives. As a matter of fact, moreefforts are needed to grow and nurture the pipeline of future female leaderswithin the party and government by supporting and promoting young womenofficials in leadership roles. We collaborated with the Vietnam’s Women Unionto establish 3 women’s leadership networks in Nghe An, Thai Binh and Kon Tum. These local camaraderie are meant topromote women in leadership positions through training, peer-learning, andnetworking opportunities. With thanks to the partnership with the Ho Chi MinhNational Academy of Politics, we co-organiseda special training program entitled “Young Women Ready to Lead” providing mentoring activitieswith the aim of building the capacity of 30 promising young women leaders.
Vietnamese People's Army officers participate in peacekeeping operations in South Sudan. (Photo: qdnd.vn)
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