Policy Dialogue on Gender Equality 2014
During the forum, the participants showed high appreciation of Vietnam’s distinctive progress in carrying out the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) such as reducing poverty and eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education, and also identified the challenges facing Vietnam in promoting women and girls’ rights. Gender equality is not only a matter of fair treatment and respect for basic human rights but also the progress of society and affects numerous areas such as economic growth, health, education, anti-discrimination and child care.
In her opening speech, Ms. Pham Thi Hai Chuyen, Minister of Labour- Invalids and Social Affairs, President of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women in Vietnam affirmed “This forum is important to help Vietnam build a plan to further promote the achievements of the national goal on gender equality and contributing to the agenda of 58th session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women this year”.
Speaking at the Policy Dialogue, Mr. Arthur Erken, Acting UN Resident Coordinator in Vietnam emphasized: "We stand at a critical point in time for women and girls. We can not afford to lose any ground on gender equality and women's rights. Equality for women and girls is not just a dream. It is a duty of governments, the United Nations and everyone around us".
At the dialogue, the UN in Vietnam representative presented the UN assessment of the MDGs implementation by Vietnam including the gender challenges facing the country in the MDG implementation and proposed to put gender equality at the heart of policy formulation process and post 2015 development agenda. MOLISA representative also made a presentation on "Strengthening the implementation of gender equality towards achieving the MDGs in Vietnam".
At this event, representative of the Vietnam Women’s Union shared the findings of research on women with disabilities and put forward effective solutions for the health care, vocational training and employment creation for this target group, encouraging the development of vocational training models for disabled women at production facilities in order to link training with using trained employees with disabilities and strengthening legal support for disabled women.
The Policy Dialogue was successfully held with the commitments and recommendations to promote gender equality from the concerned actors. MOLISA and the UN in Vietnam have pledged to continue cooperation in the implementation of the National Strategy on Gender Equality (2011-2020), the National Programme on Gender Equality (2011-2015), and jointly preparing for the post 2015 development agenda as well as the regional and global review of 20-year implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.
