Vietnam Women’s Union: Overcoming poverty by empowering women

13/05/2009
Vietnamese women account for 51% the country’s population and over half of the labor force in Vietnam, 80% of whom are living in the rural areas. Being hardworking and innovative, women in Vietnam have made significant contribution to the national socio-economic development. In the economic field, women participate in most of business sectors: manufacturing. production, trade and services.

However, their participation in economic development remains limited, particularly in sub-sectors which offer good income but require good knowledge and high professional skills. Low level of education, limited access to vocational training and resources, housework burden and poor health status are the major challenges which pose high risks for women, particularly those living in remote areas, single women and disadvantaged women as target group of social support policies. Women are likely to be the first to fall in the poverty circle and the last to escape from it. In employment, the common practice shows that women are the first to be laid off and the last to be employed.

 

As a mass organization “striving for women’s equality and development, protecting legal rights and legitimate interests of women”, in its history of existence, particularly in the recent years, the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU) has been active in helping women in poverty alleviation and economic empowerment, thus making contribution to improving women’s status in general.

 

The primary causes of poverty are the lacks of capital and knowledge, which could be considered as the major indicators when looking at economic position of women. Therefore, the VWU’s activities in supporting women to overcome poverty and enhance their economic status in the past few years are aimed at addressing women’s needs in these two aspects (capital and knowledge).

 

  • Assistance inaccess to credits:


Most of the poor lack of capital for investment in production. VWU has provided support to women in getting better access to micro-finance for income generating activities or/and business start-up, thus contributing to the household income and improving the economic status of women. WUs of all levels have actively raised fund from various sources, both domestic and international and provided loans to women in the forms of:

 

-Establishing women’s credit & savings groups and using the group’s reputation as guarantee for the bank loans to women. By this way, poor women, who have no collateral and no access to bank loans can now access to bank loans as instructed by VWU in terms of loan procedures. Acting as a bridge between the banks and the poor women, VWU has signed a joint agreement with the Social Policies Bank to provide non collateral loans to women.

 

-Social mobilization. Through the movements like “Women’s mutual assistance for household economic development and practising savings for the country development”, “Savings day for poor women”…, especially through the replication of the model of credit & savings groups, VWU has mobilized an important source of loan fund to partly meet the demand of capital of needy. As a result, the total loan fund has been increased and so as the number of turns of women-borrowers.

 

-Raising fund from international donors/ partners. With its sound experiences in managing credit & savings activities, VWU has mobilized and managed a significant amount of capital from different international organizations in Belgium, Germany, Spain, ect… Through the internationally financed projects, local women are provided loans for production to improve their income, thus enhance their economic position in the society.

 

The loans, either released by the bank or directly managed by VWU, share certain features: being provided via women’s credit & savings groups as a guarantee, combining the components of credit and savings in which savings is deposited in small amounts o­n a regular basis which is affordable for the poor, being provided in small to larger amounts, credit is integrated with other activities such as training o­n credit management, technical transferring, Information – Education – Communication (IEC) o­n laws and policies, health care/family planning ect… This is the difference between the credit schemes run by VWU and those by other credit institutes which has made the VWU’s credit & savings programs successful with an average high rate of repayment (over 98%) and contributed to realizing the objective of poverty alleviation and employment creation. Many poor women, starting with a loan size of VND 200,000 (equivalent to USD 13), then VND 300,000-500,000 (equivalent to USD 17.5 - 29), now can access to a larger amount of VND 5,000,000 to VND 10,000,000 (equivalent to USD 290 to USD 588). They have effectively invested their loans in production and their livelihood has been remarkably improved. Many women bank clients borrowed bigger size loans. Thanks to the participation in credit savings activities, poor women can manage their household finance, have opportunities to discuss production and business plans and get access to information and “know-how” o­n market, and business ect…. The increased income and the improved livelihood as a result of effective loan use have made positive changes in the status of women in the family and the society as well.

 

  • Training for women borrowers

 

Besides providing loans, VWU also provides training for the local women o­n production techniques to enable them to increase the loan use effectiveness, increasing the productivity. Women’s unions of different levels in cooperation with other functional sectors have organized training workshops for technical transferring in agriculture, forestry and fishery, set-up demonstration models, organized study tours and exchange programs. Clubs in different areas of activities have been set-up and contests o­n various relevant topics (agricultural extension, health care, Integrated Pest Management/IPM…) have been organized in many localities of the country, which have brought about practical benefits for women, thus enabling them to use their loans in an effective way.

 

Women entrepreneurship promotion is a new area of support of the VWU. The WU’s of different levels have conducted basic training for women having potentials for business start-up (business concept/idea, marketing, business planning, record keeping, business regulations…) and women entrepreneurs o­n business management with specific topics (marketing, financial management, human resources management, branding, WTO accession,…). Besides training activities, the women’s unions in different localities, in their own capacity or in cooperation with other actors, have provided support to women in business in different forms such as policy advocacy (in order to create a more enabling environment for women entrepreneurs), business counseling/advice, assistance to market access, facilitating access to credit/financial resources, information, network development, social support…

 

The efforts of the VWU in women entrepreneurship promotion have helped business women increase business competitiveness, improving their business performance, thus making greater contribution to the national socio-economic development.

 

  • Vocational training and job promotion

 

The vocational training is conducted by the VWU both in the community and at the vocational training centers (VTCs) run by the WUs. Vocational training in the community is mainly aimed at restoring and developing traditional occupations which are suitable for female laborers such as knitting, embroidery, seafood and agro-processing ect... Training o­n IT/computer, industrial and civil tailoring… is conducted at WU’s VTCs addressing high demand in the labor market… Partly subsidized vocational training is offered to the children of the disadvantaged families as target group of the social support policies. The vocational training has been closely integrated with employment creation/ promotion through the cooperation between the VTCs and the locally based businesses.

 

Currently, there exist 36 VTCs and dozens of vocational training establishments in the VWU’s system. Most of the VTCs have been upgraded in terms of infrastructure, equipment and facilities and their operation have been increasingly effective. Many provincial WUs show their creativity and dynamism in providing training for rural women, handicapped women, those who are re-integrating in the community, in integrating vocational training and supplying female laborers for industrial zones, enterprises and exporting labor, in making contribution in restoring traditional occupations in different localities, particularly those of minority ethnic groups. In the period of 2002 – 2007, WUs of provincial level have conducted vocational training for over 600,000 turns of women, provided jobs/ employment counseling for over 700,000 turns of women, offered stable jobs for over 300,000 women, which has made contribution in reaching the national target of vocational training and employment creation.

 

Poverty alleviation and hunger eradication to economically empower women in Vietnam requires the joint efforts from different sectors, not o­nly the VWU. The Gender Equality Law adopted by the National Assembly of Vietnam in late 2006 creates a legal basis for ensuring the equality for women in all fields, offering greater opportunities for empowering women which has been proved to be an effective tool for escaping from poverty.

 

 

Int’l Relations Dept.

NEWS

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