Denmark supports women’s equal access to land in Vietnam

 The fund, which is issued through the Danish Embassy in Hanoi, will assist the Vietnamese Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MONRE) to issue the so-called modified land use right certificates (LCs). The LCs will include the names of the both spouses in a household, giving the women the same level of legal rights as the men should any problems arise concerning the access and ownership of the land.

Starting from November 2006, the aid project will run through a period of 30 months. The seven provinces selected for this project are Dien Bien, Lao Cai, and Nghe An in the North, Dak Lak and Dak Nong in the Central Highlands, and Tra Vinh and Ca Mau in Southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

“Each province has been selected based o­n Danida’s development priorities, because they have 1) a high percentage of poor people; 2) a high percentage of ethnic minorities; 3) a high percentage of o­ne-name LCs; and 4) a willingness and interest from the local authorities to participate in the project,” the Danish Embassy stated in an announcement about the project.

Boosting gender equality

Prior to the issuing of modified LCs, the project will carry out awareness raising campaigns o­n gender equality and the importance of having two-name LCs.

“This activity is very important because, in poor areas, people – including women as well – do not fully recognize the importance of having two-name LCs,” the Danish embassy’s announcement said.

The campaigns would not o­nly facilitate the issuing of modified LCs, but also help raise awareness among the people – including men, women, and the local authority people – o­n gender equality in general and its impacts, the embassy said.

The embassy expects the project to provide modified LCs for “hundreds of thousands of households” in the seven selected provinces and that it will thereby “increase the women’s role and decision-making power in production and family.”

Land and houses are valuable assets in Vietnam, where agricultural production is still o­ne of the main incomes for a majority of the population.

However, according to the Land Law, LCs were o­nly issued in the name of the household head, who – in practice – are predominantly men.

This has created a lot of legal problems for the women, who cannot use the LCs as assets to mortgage, thus being unable to borrow money from the official credit institutions.

The set-up with o­ne-name LCs is also o­ne of the reasons why many women accept being subjected to domestic violence rather than getting divorced.

The fear of being driven out of the house and having no assets and land for production seem more scary to them than staying with a violent husband.

In addition, when the husband dies, the land of his household may be claimed by his family, because it is issued in their son’s name.