The running race 'Run for Zero Violence against Women and Girls in Vietnam'. (Source: UNFPA)

The running race calls for shared responsibilities to tackle domestic and gender-based violence against women and girls.

The Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender - Family - Women and Adolescent (CSAGA) has been contracted by UNFPA Vietnam in partnership with the government of Australia to organize the race, which is planned to attract the participation of some hundreds university students in Hanoi to voice the role and shared responsibilities of the young generation in ending violence against women and girls. They include the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, the Academy of Journalism and Communication, and the Hanoi Medical University among others.

The running race is part of Vietnam’s National Action Month for Gender Equality and Gender-based violence prevention and response for the year 2022.

The race is also opened for people from all walks of life in Hanoi including the Government, the international community, and the UN system agencies. Participants are invited to register at this link before 15 November 2022.

Under the Government’s Resolution on the National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs is responsible for organizing the annual “Month of Action for Gender Equality, and Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence” from November 15 to December 15.

According to the 2019 National Survey on Violence against Women in Viet Nam, which was conducted by the General Statistics Office and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs with technical and financial support from UNFPA and the Government of Australia, two out of three women (62,9%) experienced one or more forms of physical, sexual, psychological, or economic violence by their husbands in their lifetime.

In addition, most women (90.4 percent) who experienced violence did not seek any help from formal services or authorities, and nearly half of them never told anyone about their experience. It was estimated that gender-based violence was costing Vietnam 1.81 percent of GDP in 2018.