Vietnam has made significant progress in gender equality demonstrating the political will and drive towards gender equality. The country has improved global ranking on gender equality from 83rd to 72nd out of 146 countries since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Enactment of Gender Equality Law (2006) and the National Strategy on Gender Equality (2021-2030), and the Domestic Violence and Protection Law (2022) are some of the other steps taken by Vietnam towards women empowerment.
Vietnam undertook a major step in terms of gender equality and women empowerment through the launch of the National Action Programme (NAP) on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) on August 8, 2024. The NAP was announced by Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a two-day workshop in the central city of Da Nang, an event co-organized by the ministry UN Women. Vietnam’s first NAP WPS is built based on the four pillars of the WPS agenda, namely participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. It also has a section on international cooperation, emphasizing Vietnam’s dedication to collaborate with the global community to advance the WPS agenda. The NAP also identifies five groups of actions, spanning from reviewing and complementing existing policies and regulations, improving the effectiveness of WPS-related measures, building the capacity of women participating in the maintenance of peace and security, actively promoting and participating in bilateral, regional and international cooperation initiatives on WPS.
The general objective of the Plan is to ensure and further promote gender equality; enhance the role, status, voice, rights, and responsibilities of women in participating in the fields of peace, security, contributing to the maintenance of peace, stability, and sustainable development of the nation and internationally. Vietnam’s NAP on WPS also contains the following specific objectives to be achieved by 2030: 1) Enhancing the full, equal, and meaningful participation of Vietnamese women in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, defence, security, and dealing with, responding to the country’s non-traditional security challenges, as well as in international peace and security maintenance; 2) Better prevent and respond to gender-based violence in the context of incidents, disasters, and responding to non-traditional security challenges; 3) Strengthen gender mainstreaming in relief and recovery activities, including addressing the consequences of war, prevention, control, handling, response to incidents, disasters, and non-traditional security challenges; and 4) Strengthen international cooperation in the field of Women, Peace, and Security.
While launching Vietnam’s NAP on WPS, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet highlighted the significant contributions of Vietnamese women throughout history, from their roles in the resistance wars to their substantial efforts in the national reconstruction and development. Vietnam always attaches importance to protecting and upholding women’s roles in building and consolidating national peace and security, he said, adding that on the international stage, Vietnam has been an active advocate for the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, notably leading the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 1889 focused on post-conflict peacebuilding, and in particular calls for the development of indicators to measure the implementation of SCR 1325 both within the UN system and by the Member States and the Secretary-General to submit a report on women’s participation and inclusion in peacebuilding, and prompting the adoption of the 2020 Hanoi Commitment to Action co-sponsored by 75 countries.
UN Women has also welcomed the launch of Vietnam’s NAP on WPS. Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women remarked, “the launch of Vietnam’s National Action Plan comes at a critical juncture with global challenges impacting us all. Women and girls all around the world continue to face disproportionate vulnerabilities and discrimination making this national action plan more crucial than ever. UN Women stands ready to support the government of Viet Nam to extend partnership, leverage resources to ensure that no woman or girl is left behind.”
