UN Women will continue to support the people and the government of Vietnam to further promote gender equality, Elisa Fernandez, Head of Office of UN Women Vietnam has said during a recent interview granted to VOV.

Elisa Fernandez, Head of Office of UN Women Vietnam

VOV: Gender imbalance remains worrisome in Vietnam. The sex ratio at birth hit high imbalance of 111.5 boys to 100 girls in 2019. As a global organization to protect gender equality for women, what does UN Women Vietnam think of this situation in Vietnam?

Gender inequality and discrimination against women and girls remains an overwhelming injustice across the globe. Today, not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality.

The imbalance of sex ratio at birth is a result of preconceptions and persistence of gender biases that diminish women and accord a sense of superiority to men.

The skewed SRB in Vietnam was first identified in 2004 and since 2005, the imbalance towards more boys has rapidly increased and reached 111.5 boys per 100 girls in 2019 as indicated in the 2019 Census, against the biologically “normal” SRB of 105. It is estimated that 40,800 female births to be missing every year by the World Population Report 2020.

The high imbalance SRB causes Vietnam  serious demographic, socio-economic and political problems including severe disruption in the marriage system due to surplus of men, increased pressure for women to marry at a younger age, rising demand for sex work and an expansion of trafficking networks that will increase the risk of gender-based violence. Sex selection practices can bring about harmful impacts on women’s sexual and reproductive health, mental health and rights.

The imbalance of sex ratio at birth also reflects and reinforces gender inequality in society.

VOV: What are your recommendations to address gender inequality in Vietnam?

Addressing gender inequality in Vietnam requires many layers of intervention, from passing new laws and eliminating discriminatory provisions in other ones, to designing policies and programmes and allocating appropriate resources to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in all areas of society, at central, provincial and local levels is needed.

Yet, tackling entrenched social norms and gender stereotypes that sustain gender imbalances in all societies, including in Vietnam, is of paramount importance.  These stereotypes that are rooted in culture, religion and societal norms and therefore, are hard to change in the short time. 

To change these norms, we need:

To address the persistent and discriminatory social and cultural norms through effective communications campaigns and behavioral change interventions that engage all society at all levels in this movement.

To empower women both economically and socially including inheritance and asset ownership, microfinance plus gender and empowerment training interventions, creating safe spaces, and mentoring to build skills in self-efficacy, assertiveness, negotiation, and self-confidence.

To promote women’s participation in leadership and decision-making roles in all sectors: government, private sector and social organizations.

To invest in social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure to support the increased productivity and economic viability of women’s work.

To end all forms of violence against women and girls.

For lasting change, we also need to allocate state budget gender-responsively and create new mechanisms for focused collective action, with accountability and clear monitoring and evaluation framework for the national commitment on gender equality.  

VOV:  What is UN Women doing in Vietnam to promote gender equality, especially in changing social norms?

UN Women will continue to support the people and the government of Vietnam to further promote gender equality by enhancing women’s economic empowerment, strengthening women’s voices and capacity in climate activities, ending violence against women and girls and improving women’s access to justice, and making gender equality a key part of the national legal framework, policies and plans.

On social norms change, we have organized communications campaigns (HeForShe, UNiTe campaign and behavior change interventions with adolescents, youth, women and mento promote respectful, equal and non-violent relationships and behaviors.

We organized speak-up competition, comics and writing new fairy tales contests to challenge and inspire the young generation to take action against gender stereotypes and harmful norm that hinder the development of all genders and individuals in society.