Promoting the contribution of female diplomats to the Vietnamese women’s movement and activities of the Vietnam Women’s Union

 VWU President Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa, Vice-Presidents Tran Thi Huong and Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, and several leaders of VWU departments and units warmly welcomed the guests, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Phuong Nga and 11 female Directors General, Ambassadors and Consul Generals of Vietnam in foreign countries.

At the meeting, VWU President Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa expressed her warm congratulations to 5 female diplomats who have just been brevetted to Ambassadorial levels.

President Thanh Hoa briefly summarized the current outstanding activities of the VWU. She confirmed that during the innovation period, VWU has implemented many practical activities to contribute to the development of the country and improve the living quality of the Vietnamese women.

The major activities of VWU include the support to women’s economic empowerment with a focus o­n credit provision; vocational training and job creation aiming at poverty reduction and economic development; participation in building the new rural areas with the campaign “Building the family of 5 without-s and 3 clean-s”; participation in developing laws and policies o­n gender equality, giving social counter arguments for such laws, and monitoring their enforcement; introducing female cadres for election and promotion, proposing the retirement age, studying and proposing the national machinery of women, family and children affairs…

The President also emphasized the importance of mobilizing and gathering Vietnamese women living abroad, encouraging their participation in the women’s organizations in host countries, and promoting their potentials to develop the country, to contribute to the women’s movements, preserve and promote Vietnamese cultural identity.

The VWU President hoped that female diplomats would keep close connection with VWU to mobilize international resources including finance, knowledge and experience, to improve the capacity of VWU and strive for the development of Vietnamese women.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Phuong Nga o­n behalf of female diplomats expressed her appreciation of the attention and support extended by VWU to MOFA in general and female diplomats in particular. She also shared the information o­n the current development and improvement of female cadres of MOFA with such impressive figures as: female employees making 49% of the Ministry’s total workforce, holding equal number of master and PhD degrees as men, and having the highest number of female ambassadors up to now.

The project “Women’s leadership: Empowerment of women in the period of international integration” of MOFA funded by UNDP has achieved much success in Phrase I and is continuing Phrase II. Diplomats benefited remarkably from this project, especially from training courses. Mrs. Phuong Nga confirmed that MOFA female cadres would take the advantages o­n their current position to connect and stand side by side with the Vietnam Women’s Union to support women in economic development, poverty reduction as well as improving quality of human resource and increasing the rate of women’s participation in politics.

Speaking at the event, the MOFA Director General of Multilateral Economic Cooperation Nguyen Thi Nguyet Nga confirmed the irreplaceable role of the Vietnam Women’s Union in many fields including international relations. She is proud that the Vietnamese women are setting good image of Vietnam in the eyes of international friends. Mrs. Nguyet Nga also recommended all female diplomats and cadres of MOFA enhance study of international experiences in promoting gender equality and women’s development. Then, they can share and support the VWU in advising and proposing policies and programs in order to improve women’s participation in politics in Vietnam.

The meeting is an opportunity for the VWU to introduce current women’s movements and VWU’s activities to female diplomats and through them introduce the image of the Vietnamese women in the integration period to the international friends and seek international cooperation opportunities.

VWU and MOFA participants at the meeting