Memorandum of Cooperation signed between Vietnam Women’s Union and JICA

According to MOC, VWU and JICA will promote exchanging of information and experiences in topics related to women’s development, the role of women in coping with climate change and natural disasters mitigation, caring for and promoting the role of elder persons, health care, food safety, community development etc. The two sides also cooperate in formulating and implementing programs and projects in the field of promoting women's leadership, economic empowerment for women etc.

Currently, there is any big project o­n technical cooperation for the promotion of gender-sensitive inclusive finance in Vietnam targeting to poor and low income people, especially women.Also, JICA is fullfilling procedures with the Japanese Government to grant a technical cooperation project for capacity development of Women's Union in supporting women to access to gender-sensitive inclusive finance in Vietnam.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, VWU’s President Nguyen Thi Thu Ha sincerely thanked the Japanese government and JICA for having supported VWU in responding to human trafficking, developing community development manuals, and sending Japan’s overseas volunteers to VWU’s affiliated organizations etc.

VWU’s President also informed of VWU’s economic empowerment activities for women. VWU was the first socio- political organization to work o­n microfinance and currently has the largest microfinance coverage in Vietnam. In the past 5 years, VWU has supported about $ 3.3 billion for nearly 5.4 million poor households.

Speaking highly of the new project o­n supporting women’s access to gender-sensitive inclusive finance to be supported by JICA, President Nguyen Thi Thu Ha expressed her desire and confidence that the cooperative relations between VWU and JICA will be further developed.

Mr. Yasuo Fujita, Chief Representative of JICA Vietnam Office in his remarks mentioned the tenacious existence of gender inequality despite many efforts by the international community, such as girls’ higher illiteracy rate, women's lower income, high percentage of women experiencing violence and high mother mortality at birth, etc. These challenges require continuous efforts by all stakeholders to solve.

Mr. Fujita Yasuo affirmed that promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is o­ne of the key tasks to achieve JICA’s goal. In Vietnam, JICA has implemented several projects and activities in close cooperation with Vietnam Women's Union.

With knowledge and experience of an expert in microfinance, Mr. Fujita Yasuo expressed his special interest to cooperate with VWU in this field. He promised to take an active part in the upcoming project o­n supporting women’s access to gender-sensitive inclusive finance.

Delegates at the signing ceremony