Promoting gender equality in ethnic minority and mountainous areas: Issues raised by Project 8: Changing approaches and long-term roadmap (Final article)

Community Media Team's operating models are contributing to promoting gender equality and solving urgent problems for women and children.

Gender mainstreaming goals not yet met

According to the report of the Vietnam Women's Union, by the end of October 2024, 4/9 core targets of Project 8 had exceeded the plan set in phase 1, such as "Community communication team", "Consolidating/establishing new Trusted Addresses", "Enhancing capacity for ethnic minority female cadres to participate in leadership in the political system", "Leader of Change" Club;

15/40 provinces achieved and exceeded a number of targets, such as: Ha Giang, Bac Giang, Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, Thanh Hoa ... contributing to significantly improving awareness of gender inequality issues, thereby affecting the actions of relevant levels, sectors and people in the Project areas.

Although many of the core goals and targets of Project 8 have been achieved, with just over a year left until the end of Phase 1, many aspects of the Project are still stuck, and promoting implementation to achieve the goal of gender equality still faces many challenges.

According to Ms. Lo Thi Thu Thuy, Head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee (Vietnam Women's Union), the implementation of the Project still faces certain difficulties, which need to be overcome and promoted in the coming time, such as: project staff are still confused in managing and implementing the Project; the capacity to maintain and operate the model of the Management Board/Management Board is still limited; the support for maintaining the activities of the Community Communication Team and the "Leader of Change" Club is facing difficulties due to the lack of funding from the local budget...

Dr. Duong Kim Anh, Deputy Director of Vietnam Women's Academy, proposed to add gender mainstreaming monitoring index in National Target Program 1719.

In addition, a number of barriers and challenges still persist in ethnic minority and mountainous areas such as: employment, livelihoods and career orientation; limited access to public services, social services such as health care, education, access to information, capital; social issues such as early marriage, consanguineous marriage, multiple births, frequent births and home births, illiteracy, re-illiteracy, domestic violence; challenges in digital transformation...

Sharing the results of the review of gender mainstreaming and urgent social issues for women and children in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in phase 1, Associate Professor, Dr. Duong Kim Anh, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Women's Academy, said: The research results also show that women's awareness of gender equality is better than men's. Notably, there is a clear difference between the level of agreement between ethnic minority women and ethnic minority men in the statement "Men have full authority to decide on major family issues" (average score = 2.69 compared to 3.08).

According to Ms. Duong Kim Anh, from the analysis and review of gender mainstreaming in central to provincial project documents, from the results of qualitative research at provincial workshops and in-depth interviews with leaders of departments, branches and divisions of the surveyed areas, it was found that there are still many obstacles and constraints, many indicators of the projects are not gender-separated and do not have an orientation to solve gender issues.

Ms. Duong Kim Anh said that it is necessary to propose adding a gender mainstreaming monitoring index in the National Target Program for Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas, Phase 1: 2021-2025 to ensure a more comprehensive and complete gender mainstreaming assessment.

Need a synchronized solution

Discussing at the "Workshop to review and identify urgent social issues for women and children in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; recommending content and solutions to mobilize and support ethnic minority women in the next phase" on November 15, Dr. Pham Thai Hung, Policy Consultant, said: Project 8 is only a component project of the National Target Program 1719. Project 8 is designed to only address some aspects of gender equality and gender equality, and is limited to the "core poor" areas of ethnic minority and mountainous areas. The ability to achieve the gender equality goals of the National Target Program 1719 and the overall Project does not depend on the implementation results of Project 8.

Dr. Pham Thai Hung proposed that there needs to be fundamental changes in the approach to gender equality, expanding the scope, and having a mechanism to integrate gender into projects.

According to Mr. Pham Thai Hung, to solve the urgent problems of women and children in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the next period, there must be fundamental changes in the approach to gender equality, expansion of the area, and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in other projects and sub-projects to effectively promote gender equality. Only then can the gender equality goals according to Resolution 88 of the National Assembly be achieved by 2030.

To promote gender equality in the National Target Program 1719 for the 2026-2030 period, Mr. Pham Thai Hung commented that, basically, the focus of phase 2 must still ensure the goals and framework of component projects approved in Resolution 88/2019 of the National Assembly. At the same time, the content of the Program in phase 2 must ensure the resolution of the most basic challenges, including infrastructure issues, production development, human resource development, solving difficulties of ethnic minority groups, and some other urgent contents.

According to Mr. Ha Viet Quan, Chief of Office of National Target Program 1719, in the coming time, the Vietnam Women's Union needs to participate in evaluating and integrating the effectiveness of other projects and sub-projects to contribute to solving urgent problems of women and children. At the same time, he suggested that the Vietnam Women's Union should strengthen the investigation and supervision of the implementation of the Project more effectively.

Promoting gender equality in ethnic minority and mountainous areas requires a long-term roadmap.

From the implementation of Project 8, it can be seen that achieving the gender equality goals set out in Resolution 88 requires time, resources and a gender equality approach.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education, to ensure gender equality goals and targets, the most important thing is to change the approach in the implementation process. At the same time, ethnic minorities must be the subjects to achieve their own goals. Pioneering examples in promoting gender equality will create a spillover effect to achieve gender equality, as well as the socio-economic development goals of ethnic minority areas.

At the same time, the Government needs to continue reviewing, adjusting, amending and supplementing policies to improve the system of policies related to ethnic minority areas and gender equality. Thereby, there will be timely impacts to bring the books into practice.

Promoting gender equality in ethnic minority and mountainous areas – Issues raised from Project 8: Strengthening inspection and supervision (Part 3)

Source: https://baodantoc.vn/thuc-day-binh-dang-gioi-vung-dtts-va-mien-nui-nhung-van-de-dat-ra-tu-du-an-8-thay-doi-cach-tiep-can-cung-lo-trinh-dai-hoi-bai-cuoi-1731849922016.htm