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MDGF-1694: Viet Nam Joint Programme on Gender Equality

PLEASE NOTE THIS CONCEPT NOTE IS THE ORIGINAL SUBMISSION TO THE FUND. IN MANY CASES INDICATIVE BUDGET AMOUNTS APPROVED BY THE STEERING COMMITTEE ARE CONSIDERABLY LOWER THAN THAT REQUESTED AND INDICATED HERE-IN. FINAL BUDGET AMOUNTS WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE AFTER APPROVAL OF THE FINALIZED DETAILED JOINT PROGRAMME DOCUMENT.
Fri, 2007/06/08 - 12:53am — nguyen.thi.ngoc...
Fri, 2007/06/08 - 6:55am
Thu, 2007/06/14 - 11:32am
nguyen.thi.ngoc.van@undp.org
English  (current)

ID: MDGF-1694

Gender equality and women's empowerment
Round 1
(26/04/2007 - 31/12/2009)
Vietnam
$4,562,712
36 Months
Viet Nam Joint Programme on Gender Equality

Attached Documents:

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A. Applicant Information

Asia and Pacific
  • Low Income Country
  • Medium HDI, according to UNDP's 2006 Human Development Report
  • John HENDRA
  • john.hendra@undp.org
  • Joaquin Gonzalez-Aleman
  • joaquin.gonzalez-aleman@undp.org
  • Ian Howie
  • UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund
  • Representative
  • howie@unfpa.org.vn
  • Titta Marjo-RiittaTervonen
  • UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
  • Gender Specialist
  • marjo-riitta.tervonen@undp.org
  • UNDP - United Nations Development Programme ($488,000)
  • UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund ($197,950)
  • UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund ($1,155,000)
  • UNIFEM - United Nations Development Fund for Women ($408,598)
  • UNAIDS - Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS ($1)
  • UNODC - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ($218,066)
  • WHO - World Health Organization ($430,000)
  • UNESCO - United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization ($640,000)
  • FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ($100,000)
  • UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization ($136,425)
  • ILO - International Labour Organization ($650,000)
  • IOM - International Organization for Migration ($138,672)
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B. Concept Note

The following twelve UN agencies and programmes: FAO, ILO, IOM, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIDO, UNIFEM, UNODC and WHO; in partnership with the Government of Vietnam, will provide strategic, coordinated and multi-sectoral technical assistance to build the capacity of national and provincial duty bearers so that they can better implement the Law on Gender Equality and Law on Domestic Violence from 2007-2010. With 12 UN agencies forming a critical mass and speaking with one voice, we are better placed to bring about change at the highest level towards gender equality in Vietnam.

In November 2006 Vietnam passed the Law on Gender Equality and this year is expected to pass a Law on Domestic Violence. These two laws codify the State’s accountability for gender equality and pave the way for achieving gender equality in public and private life. That being said, using the laws as a transformative vehicle for achieving gender equality will still be mandatory. The Government’s commitment to gender equality is evident in its policies and at the institutional and structural level. Vietnam is a signatory to human rights conventions which guarantee the equality between men and women (such as the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Convention on the Rights of the Child, Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and ILO conventions on equality and non-discrimination). Vietnam has a Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women (POA) (2000-2010) and has mainstreamed gender equality considerations into its Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy and Socio-Economic Development Plan. Further, State and Communist Party networks such as the Committee for the Advancement of Women (CFAW) which acts as the national machinery for women and the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU), a mass organisation with representation at national and local levels exist in the administration and the executive. More recently, local non-government organizations and academic institutions have formed a partnership for gender equality known as the Gender and Community Development Network (GENCOMNET). Development agencies and Government also belong to a forum the Gender Action Partnership (GAP) however, since 2004 this group has lost momentum. Together this structure, comprised of agencies, systems and people working on gender equality in Vietnam forms the gender architecture. A number of key assessments of gender equality in Vietnam plus the concluding comments from the CEDAW Committee (CEDAW concluding comments on the fifth and sixth periodic reports (CEDAW/C/VNM/5-6)) highlight that despite a sound policy and legal framework, institutional capacities in the area of reporting, gender analysis, data collection and monitoring remain weak and unsystematic (see Vietnam Gender Assessment (2006) World Bank, DFID, Asian Development Bank. 2. Review of the Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women (2000-2005) (2006) NCFAW and Ministry for Planning and Investment. 3. Vietnam Situation Analysis (2005) Asian Development Bank. 4. Preparing for the Future: forward looking strategies to promote gender equity in Vietnam (2005) UNDP and World Bank). Where institutional weakness is particularly evident is in the area of data. Some baseline data is available but it requires strengthening. Other data is not available, for example statistics are missing on the prevalence of domestic violence, budget allocations for gender equality issues, women’s participation in leadership and decision making, sex selective abortions and women’s work in the care economy. Before the Law on Gender Equality was passed, no national agency was accountable for gender equality results. NCFAW was tasked with implementing the POA, however, with an annual State budget allocation of US$63, 000 and few staff they only achieved 40% of targets in the plan. With such limited resources, NCFAW has not been able to institutionalise reporting, analysis and monitoring systems within the government. NCFAW’s low status as a Committee also makes it difficult to coordinate effectively across line ministries, even with those ministries tasked with implementing the POA. Further, there is also a lack of cohesion between donors and Government leading to missed opportunities and synergies. The Law on Gender Equality codifies the State’s accountability on gender equality and calls for the establishment of a new State Management Agency for Gender Equality (SMA) in July 2007. This agency will have the authority NCFAW does not. Ongoing public administration reforms are expected to spur further revisions to the gender architecture. The Vietnam Committee for Population, Family and Children (VCPFC), the National Committee for the Advancement of Women (NCFAW) and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) will merge and form a new ministry, which will house the SMA. This change along with the establishment of the SMA, provide an opportunity for the Government to more effectively mainstream gender at the executive level and to uphold gender equality, and an opportunity for donors to forge partnerships around efforts to promote gender equality in Vietnam. The JP will target the SMA and other duty bearers newly tasked with the responsibility to implement and monitor the laws. Secondary beneficiaries will therefore include key government ministries, specifically, the Government Statistics Office, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and training, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. The Communist Party and elected bodies, the VWU and GENCOMNET will also be involved. Vietnam’s status as a pilot country for UN reform has seen Government and donors request the UN to take a leadership role in addressing systemic problems related to gender equality in Vietnam. It is recognised that when the UNCT works together it adds value by working across sectors but also as an established impartial partner of Government. A UN–NCFAW multi-stakeholder workshop held in February 2007, with over 100 participants, highlighted the need to support the SMA to implement and monitor the new laws on gender equality and domestic violence. Subsequent consultations with Government, GENCOMNET and donors highlighted the following priority areas: 1) capacity building for duty bearers, 2) improving coordination and partnerships within and between government, development agencies, NGOs and mass organizations and 3) strengthening research, data and information on gender equality for monitoring. This JP fosters the rights-based UNDAF 2006-2010 and builds on the UN’s comparative strengths as an honest broker with the requisite technical expertise, global experiences, good practices, and a legitimate mandate rooted in Vietnam’s international commitments. Through the provision of comprehensive technical assistance on the implementation of two key pieces of legislation the JP supports the implementation of UNDAF Outcome 3 – “Laws, policies and governance structures are in place that support and promote a rights-based development process in line with the principles of the Millennium Declaration including the MDGs”. The JP will complement ongoing gender equality initiatives in Vietnam by UN agencies with the same national partners by providing a framework upon which to work. The results of the JP will directly contribute to the achievement of MDG3, gender equality and women’s empowerment in Vietnam across sectors such as health, education and economics by bringing about much needed systemic and institutional changes, which were identified by the Government for Vietnam report on the MDGs (see Vietnam Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (2005) Government of Vietnam).

The overall goal of the JP is that national, provincial and local institutions and duty bearers will have the capacity by 2010 to effectively implement and monitor the Law on Gender Equality and the Law on Domestic Violence (See Annex A. for Results and Resources Framework). Three outcomes contribute to achieving this strategic result: Outcome 1. Improved skills, knowledge and practices for the implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of the Law on Gender Equality and Law on Domestic Violence. Outcome 2. Enhanced partnerships around women's rights within and outside of government. Outcome 3. Reliable and accurate data and information available on gender equality. Outputs under each area are designed to respond holistically to the needs of the target group and to reflect the results of the capacity assessments conducted at the beginning of the project, however some activities have already been identified based on the laws, draft implementation decrees and the Prime Minister’s Directive on the Law on Gender Equality (May 03, 2007). To maximise synergies and results, some outputs are contingent on activities in other outcome areas and UN agencies working together to deliver expertise across sectors.

Joint Programme Design and activities The Law on Gender Equality and Law on Domestic Violence highlight the need to the clarify roles, responsibilities and procedures of those Government agencies mandated to work on gender equality in Vietnam. The JP can coordinate reporting systems and procedures to ensure training, tools and guidelines are complementary and systematically developed across sectors in a comprehensive way. Existing tools such as the Vietnam Gender Mainstreaming Guidelines developed by the UNDP-RNE-NCFAW project will provide a basis for further capacity building in this area. The JP will also strengthen existing networks such as GAP and GENCOMNET while also assisting the SMA to build sustainable partnerships within Government and across Party networks. This approach aims to more accurately map, coordinate and monitor the effectiveness of gender equality initiatives, in particular, the implementation of the laws. The JP will generate new data on priority gender equality issues identified for Vietnam through case studies and research initiatives. Five priority gender equality issues have already been jointly identified by development partners working with the government. These issues include, 1) gender based violence, 2) women’s unequal access to preferred jobs, 3) women’s unequal wages and unequal access to opportunities for education and skills development; 4) women’s low levels of participation in public institutions in leadership and decision making; and 5) sexual and reproductive health issues including the impact of HIV and AIDS on men and women. These research initiatives will provide a baseline for reviewing policy and monitoring gender equality issues. Systems and standards will be developed within agencies to ensure that sex disaggregated data is collected, analyzed and disseminated in a consistent way. Specific tools used to collect and manage sex disaggregated data and gender statistics, such as demographic surveys / the 2009 census, population based surveys, data from the judiciary on incidences of domestic violence and breeches to the gender equality law, will be strengthened. Building and utilizing national capacities Capacity building of duty bearers within Government, mass organisations and existing gender networks is a key component of this JP. Under an earlier UNDP-RNE-NCFAW project 3000 government officers were trained on gender mainstreaming. These individuals still working within the Government will be identified and tapped as a resource for the JP during project inception. The JP will also train a substantial number of newly assigned government-staff, who will in turn have the opportunity to work together towards the implementation of the laws. By supporting research on priority gender equality issues Government-staff will be trained how to use their newly acquired skills and knowledge. The JP then foresees that line-ministries will work together with the SMA, so that continuity and coherence is ensured. This will be made possible through a full time project coordinator based within the SMA and working in partnership with Government and UN agencies. Coordination with national partners and donors Donors have actively participated in the formulation of the JP concept and expressed interest in co-funding this initiative. The JP has established links with the Spanish aid agency (AECI) funded project implemented by Paz y Desarollo. The JP complements the AECI project by focusing on capacity building for Government, in particular the SMA, while the AECI project focuses on the VWU. These two projects will work together to produce complementary guidelines, reporting and monitoring systems. This is made possible through formal mechanisms such as the participation of AECI, and the VWU in the Joint Programme Management Group (JP MG) and through the GAP. Additionally, the SMA will be involved in each sectoral activity to ensure sustainability and coherence between initiatives. Sustainability of Results The JP promotes sustainability through the ongoing participation of stakeholders in project development and planning. In accordance with the Law on Gender Equality, the JP will build capacity of the SMA and key ministries to institutionalize gender mainstreaming into government processes and systems, thereby, enabling agencies to fulfil their role within the gender equality architecture. Activities under Outcome 1 ensure sustainability by working with the SMA and key ministries to develop a core of tools that can be replicated for future workshops, publications and initiatives. Outcome 2 coordination and partnerships will ensure the participation of civil society groups into gender equality initiatives. This component will also establish and maintain a pool of gender expertise within government, development agencies and groups from civil society. This outcome enables synergies and good practices to be shared and replicated throughout government. Outcome 3 will develop and strengthen existing research and data that can be adapted and expanded for use across line ministries and at the sub-national level. In addition the JP will establish systems for data collection and management which will form a baseline and facilitate future monitoring and evaluation of gender equality commitments. A solid research component will be used for policy recommendations and dialogue as well as strengthening or establishing the capacity and role of civil society organizations, particularly research institutes to provide oversight and to contribute to the implementation of the Law on Gender Equality and Law on Domestic Violence as recommended by the CEDAW concluding observations.

The JP will be reviewed on an annual basis by the Steering Committee. A sub-group, the JP Management Group (JP MG) will meet quarterly to discuss progress in the implementation and take management decisions. An assessment of the capacity building strategy will take place in the second year of implementation, with a view to reviewing the relevance, effectiveness and sustainability and to document lessons learned. Activities in capacity building will necessitate the development of indicators for the measurement of changes in a) individuals’ knowledge, skills or attitudes; b) effects of these on their organizations, and c) effects on policies. A number of stakeholder meetings will also provide opportunity for the JP to discuss progress and advocate for key findings. The Consultative Group meeting in December and the annual GAP meeting will benefit from such presentations.

UNCT in Vietnam’s experience of working jointly Through the UNGTG, the UNCT Vietnam has forged strong links between UN agencies and programmes and with donors and national partners. At present, the UNGTG provides technical assistance to the Parliamentary Committee for Social Affairs on the development of the Law on Domestic Violence. In the past the UN GTG provided technical comments on UN publications related to gender equality and worked on awareness raising initiatives such as training on gender equality, and an advocacy initiative for International Women’s Day. UN agencies and programmes have demonstrated experience working on gender equality and domestic violence in Vietnam. Through the UNDP-Royal Netherlands Embassy-NCFAW Gender in Public Policy project (2002-2005), a capacity building initiative, the UN took initial steps to raise awareness on gender equality issues and did develop national Gender Mainstreaming Guidelines, which are still used today. More recently, UNDP in partnership with the World Bank published a report outlining future strategic directions for gender equality. UNFPA is also taking the lead working on the development of the Law on Domestic Violence via a three year pilot project focussed on prevention and intervention models in two provinces. UNFPA has had 30 years of experience working with VCPFC, one of the government agencies that will become the SMA for gender equality and domestic violence. UNIFEM, as well, is engaged in a multi-sectoral project to facilitate the implementation of CEDAW (CEDAW Southeast Asia programme) and is well placed to bring lessons learned from the region and its global network of offices. Other specialized UN agencies and programmes will also bring their specific expertise as they draw on global good practices and methodologies. Coordination, Government arrangements and oversight of the JP at the country level The JP will establish a Steering Committee comprised of participating UN agencies, donors, government partners and technical experts. A smaller JP MG comprised of a number of members (to be determined), will be established, meet quarterly and make on-going technical and management decisions. The JP MG will oversee project implementation and will include representatives from management within the Government (at the Deputy Director level to enable decision making). At the agency level there will be activity implementation technical backstopping and reporting. UNFPA will provide overall project management and coordination by working closely with personnel located in the SMA. Coordination with GAP and the UNGTG The JP will become a focal point for the GAP, which acts as a forum where information, good practices and monitoring of gender equality work are discussed. The UNGTG will continue to provide technical support to the implementation of activities under the joint programme and through the participation of individuals in the JP MG. The UNGTG will also play a key role in facilitating coordination and partnerships between donors, Government and civil society groups.

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C. MDG-Related Indicators

  • Goal 0: Millennium Declaration: an enabling environment (human rights, democracy and good governance)
  • Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
  • 12. Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
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D. Formulation Advance

Yes
$20,000
UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund
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E. Resident Coordinator's Undertakings

  • The Concept Note has been reviewed by the national government and the UN Country Team.
  • If approved by the MDG-F Steering Committee, the UN Participating Organizations undertake to submit a draft Joint Programme Document within eight weeks of notification.
  • All UN Participating Organizations have or will sign the global Memorandum of Understanding with the Multi-Donor Trust Fund Office.