Viet Nam

COVID-19 impact on Vietnamese apparel and footwear workers: Workers’ Perspective

In April 2020, the Public Private Partnerships Cooperation Group for sustainable apparel and footwear sector in Vietnam, consisting of over 40 members from the Ministries of Industry and Trade Natural Resources and Environment, Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and VITAS, LEFASO, brands, development partners and domestic and international NGOs, conducted a comprehensive assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the apparel and footwear sector. The aim of the assessment was to seek solutions from policy perspectives, social security, sustainable economic development, environmental protection and the role of stakeholders in the supply chain to mitigate impacts of the pandemic. One of the key components of the assessment is this analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on AFS workers’ lives conducted by CARE and sponsored by TARGET and the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions in
the Netherlands (CNV). This report also references findings from the qualitative research conducted by the Center for Development and Integration (CDI).
Purposes of the assessment of COVID-19 impacts on apparel and footwear sector workers:
1. To analyze the impact of COVID-19 on workers’ lives in the apparel and footwear industry across three major areas: economic, health, and society with a focus on gendered impacts and employment relation.
2. To identify the needs of AFS workers, especially female workers, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. To provide recommendations to businesses, brands, associations, unions, governments and development organizations on supporting workers to recover from the impact of COVID-19.
The information and data included in this report represent the key findings of the COVID-19 impact
assessment study with specific policy implications for enterprises, trade unions and government. Read More...

A Social Impact Analysis of CARE’s ‘Enhancing Women’s Voice to STOP Sexual Harassment ’ Project

The Enhancing Women’s Voice to Stop Sexual Harassment project (STOP), an initiative of CARE Australia, has been working since 2017 to prevent and address the under-reported problem of sexual harassment in mainland Southeast Asia’s garment sector. At the time of writing, STOP is the only initiative that addresses this issue on a multi-country scale within the sub-region. Operating across a pool of garment factories in four Mekong countries—Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam—STOP aims to enhance women’s voice and economic rights at both the national and factory levels. Based on a socio-ecological model of violence prevention, CARE Country Offices (COs) are working with participating factories to create workplaces where female workers feel safe and experience less SH through the implementation of standardised SH reporting mechanisms and rigorous training programs. Supported by CARE Regional staff, each CARE CO engages with relevant country, regional and international stakeholders to strengthen the national regulatory environment to promote laws, policies and mechanisms to address SH in the workplace.

In 2018, CARE Australia commissioned a consortium of researchers from UNSW Sydney and UNSW Canberra to undertake an independent evaluation the STOP project and provide a separate Social Impact Assessment (SIA) focused on Cambodia STOP as the particular case study. The SIA is intended to complement the findings of the Final Evaluation (FE) of the STOP, as implemented in the other three project sites. The SIA and the Final Evaluation should be read as two parts of a single whole. The UNSW team drew upon a range of evaluative sources including factory surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews with factory workers, middle management and government officials. A conceptual framework is also advanced in order to better capture the nuances of social impact and gender transformation, and to provide a rigorous basis on which to evaluate STOP’s development and implementation in Cambodia. [94 pages]. Read More...

Informed to Influence: Increasing ethnic minority women’s access to information for improved governance and development

“Informed to influence: Increasing ethnic minority women’s access to information for improved governance and development” in Vietnam which supported a Network of Civil Society Organisations to represent the interests of ethnic minorities in Northern Vietnam, strengthened the voice of ethnic minority women through livelihood and rights clubs and contributed to the implementation of the Law on access to information. Read More...

Regional Mekong Rapid Gender Analysis COVID-19

COVID-19 has created unprecedented health, economic, and social impacts all over the world. As of 31 August 2020, there have been 25,405,845 confirmed cases globally, and a total of 849,389 deaths. In the Mekong region, there have been 5,612 cases, with 274 in Cambodia, 22 in Lao PDR, 882 in Myanmar, 3,390 in Thailand and 1,044 in Viet Nam. In addition to health effects and deaths caused by the virus, the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 and prevention measures taken by governments are far reaching and long-lasting, especially in the context of climate change and natural disasters in the region.
For the Mekong region, COVID-19 presents special challenges for high-risk populations, including the many migrant workers, garment industry workers, indigenous and ethnic minorities, refugees, internally displaced peoples, migrants, urban slum-dwellers, and people working in the informal sector, such as female sex workers. As with all crises, women and children are disproportionately affected. COVID-19 exacerbates the challenges at-risk populations face and makes it even harder for women to access the support services they need in times of crisis.

This brief summarises the Mekong RGA, written by Athena Nguyen, Jordan Hoffmann, Laura Baines, Ratha Ra, Rebecca Elias, and Christina Haneef in September 2020. This Rapid Gender Analysis draws from 301 interviews (including 126 women), secondary data sources, and CARE’s research to understand women’s specific challenges in the Mekong region during the pandemic. Read More...

Ethnic Minority Women’s Empowerment in Vietnam

Women in remote ethnic communities in Vietnam are not equally benefiting from the remarkable economic growth over the past decade. They experience high levels of poverty, unequal participation in economic opportunities, limited options to adapt to changes in the climate, and have a limited voice in decisions that affect them. CARE’s Ethnic Minority Women’s Empowerment project (EMWE), supported by Australian Aid, works with ethnic minority women to overcome these challenges. Read More...

Vietnam Rapid Gender Analysis May 2020

Vietnam reported its first known case of COVID-19 on 23 January 2020. As of 19 May, the country had 324 confirmed cases, with 263 recoveries and no deaths.
In Vietnam, COVID-19 presents a range of contextual challenges including high numbers of migrant workers, high numbers of employees in the garment industry, many people working in the informal sector, and linguistically and culturally diverse ethnic minorities. The impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable groups, such as migrant workers, informal workers, garment factory workers, and ethnic minorities are further marginalising these groups, exacerbating poverty and inequality and increasing their exposure to other social, economic and protection risks.
Women in Vietnam have historically been underrepresented in public decision-making processes, a trend that is reflected in high-level decision-making structures on COVID-19. This means that even as women are disproportionately affected by the crisis, they have less say in how their country should respond to it. Read More...

Technologically Enhanced Agricultural Livelihoods Mid Term Review

Launched on 1 July 2017, the Technologically Enhanced Agricultural Livelihoods project (TEAL) in Vietnam is a four-year project funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) Australian NGO Cooperation (ANCP) initiative. The project has been implemented in four communes, two in Dien Bien province and two in Son La province.

TEAL is focused on supporting ethnic minority women coffee farmers to improve coffee production, processing, and market linkages to increase their income, and to shift gender norms that are preventing women from having a visible, respective and productive role in the coffee market system and broader society.

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Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement in the Community

Overall, P.A.C.E project has empowered all participating female migrant in terms of agency and created solidarity and platforms for them to speak out about their interests.
Firstly, the project has enhanced 412 female urban migrants’ personal agency through 280 training sessions on life-skills with three previous core P.A.C.E. modules – 1) communication; 2) problem solving and decision making; and 3) time and stress management and one new module on financial literacy to support women to save and manage their finances. This module also supports the implementation of two village savings and loans (VSLAs) in the target locations.
Secondly, the project has successfully established two VSLA groups in 2 locations and improved female urban migrants’ financial inclusion by increasing their access to savings and loans. While it took time for the targeted groups to build their trust within the group and with the model, hence, the process of forming VSLA group only happened near the end of the project; they have all acknowledged that VSLA is an effective tool for financial management.
Thirdly, the project has created useful platform and increased opportunities for female urban migrants’ to come together to discuss issues that collectively affect them and raise their voice, not only through the training sessions but also with the VSLA meeting, which will continue to be held monthly. Many participants who were not used to speak up have shown remarkable changes with their newly equipped skills. They have successfully applied their new knowledge and skills in their daily life for better life, work and relationship management. Read More...

BASELINE SURVEY AND GENDER ANALYSIS FOR “STAND UP, SPEAK OUT: BREAKING THE SILENCE AROUND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE AMONG ETHNIC MINORITY COMMUNITIES IN NORTHERN VIETNAM”

CARE Vietnam (CVN) in coordination with stakeholders is implementing the Project titled Stand Up, Speak Out: Breaking the silence around gender based violence among ethnic minority communities in Northern Vietnam, which is a part CARE’s Remote Ethnic Minority Women’s Program. In CVN’s programming, Gender based violence (GBV) is considered as one of the three focus thematic areas. Within the REMW Program, GBV will be addressed through three dimensions: a) Protection (legal protection, literacy, reform), b) Prevention and Response (engaging with initiatives of others, promoting access to services), and c) expanding the scope of the national agenda to focus on GBV. ”Stand Up, Speak Out” project (SUSO) aims to promote all of the three dimensions for addressing GBV: Protection (legal protection, literacy, reform), through Prevention and Response (engaging with initiatives of others, promoting access to services) and through expanding the scope of the national agenda to focus on GBV.
Proposed actions will challenge the harmful gender norms that accept and normalize GBV in ethnic minority communities, by taking a multi-level, multi-sectoral approach. The project will tackle the taboo nature of GBV by increasing the awareness and understanding about GBV among ethnic minority community members, authorities and service providers. It will work with service providers to improve the support services available for ethnic minority survivors of GBV. At the policy level the project will strengthen implementation of the National Action Plan on GBV through the development of tools and processes that align with the National Action Plan’s priorities and by undertaking advocacy in partnership with an alliance of Vietnamese civil society organisations (CSOs). The project will use a rights based approach to tackle intersectional discrimination by targeting ethnic minority groups in remote and rural areas and being sensitive to GBV survivors with disabilities.
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Informed to Influence’: Increasing ethnic minority women’s access to information for improved

Objectives:
I) To examine information access context in ethnic minority (EM) community including available information sources, information channels, communication and information accessibility among EM population, EM women particularly.
ii) To access impacts of information shortage on EM communities, as well as identify associated factors with information accessibility of EM population, EM women particularly. Read More...

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