More than 80 experts from governmental agencies, domestic and international organizations, and academia attended “The launching workshop on the review of the National Strategy on Gender Equality and the development of the new National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030” in Hanoi on December 6.

The workshop was jointly held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the Australian Embassy in Vietnam.

Vietnam is one of the countries which has strong commitment in implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Action and Sustainable Development Goals SDGs.

Ten years ago, it was the first time Vietnam prepared and developed its first remarkable National Strategy on Gender Equality (NSGE) that defined the direction and priorities to promote gender equality in the period 2011-2020. During the years of implementation of the NSGE, Vietnam has been one of the countries in the Asia-Pacific that has made a lot of changes and progress on gender equality in many socio-economic fields.

Opening the workshop, Pham Ngoc Tien, Director of MOLISA’s Gender Equality Department, said, “In order to remain the sustainability of the achievements on gender equality as well as to better response to gender-based challenges and issues in the coming period, it is necessary to develop and submit the new NSGE for the period 2021-2030 to the Prime Minister. We believe that with the commitment of cooperation and technical assistance from development organizations, United Nations agencies, the participation of relevant organizations and individuals at the central and local level will be advantageous conditions to establish a 2021-2030 Strategy to achieve high quality and feasibility.”At the same time, the country faces new challenges for gender equality due to the impact of the global economy, the strong development of the 4.0 technology revolution, natural disasters and climate change, and the demographic changes. These challenges require the country to develop specific policies and actions to maintain achievements and simultaneously address existing gender issues as well as arising gender issues in the upcoming period. This effort continues to demonstrate Vietnam’s strong commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality and women empowerment.

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Robyn Mudie said, “I congratulate the Government of Vietnam for its commitment to developing a National Gender Equality Strategy that not only materially contributes to closing gender gaps, but is also practical and has realistic targets.”

Speaking at the workshop, Elisa Fernandez, Head of Office UN Women Vietnam, highlighted that "Gender equality and women empowerment is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and indispensable for all aspects of socio-economic life. Gender equality is not only a basic human-right, but also a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, inclusive and sustainable Vietnam.”

Fernandez also emphasized the importance of advocacy to develop mechanism to ensure the financing for gender equality commitments; and the principle of Leaving no one behind is included and applied in the National Strategy on gender equality for the period 2021-2030.

At the workshop, participants shared their plans to support the review of the National Strategy on Gender Equality implementation in the period of 2011-2020 and the development of the new National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030.

While opening a newspaper or watching a TV program we are every day made aware of the plights of irregular migrants. Some recent examples among many – on 24 October, 39 Chinese nationals were found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex. They had apparently frozen to death within a refrigerator container with temperatures as low as -25C (-13F). This while tragedies occur almost daily on the Mediterranean Sea. On 26 November, a rescue vessel found a boat almost completely sunken. It had three dead bodies aboard. Fifty-five migrants were saved. Three of them were in a critical condition, and one died after reaching Melilla in Spain, where the migrants were brought in. Three children were among the survivors, though a further ten individuals were reported missing. Nowadays, such news items pass by almost imperceptibly. Every day, thousands of unfortunate human beings are trafficked all over the world to suffer underpaid, hazardous work, or prostitution.

The general image of global migration tends to be gloomy. Populist parties convey the impression of an avalanche of unwanted foreigners inundating our beloved homelands. If I discuss policy issues with colleagues, friends, and relatives, negative perceptions of immigration tend to make their appearance. Polarized political and media debates on migration seldom allow much space for evidence, knowledge, strategic implications and historical insights.

It is easy to ignore that international migration is a complex phenomenon touching on a multiplicity of economic, social and security aspects. It is associated with geopolitics, trade and cultural exchange. Accordingly, migration provides opportunities for businesses and communities. In countries of origin and destination migration has improved people's lives. However, acknowledging this does not imply that all migration takes place under positive circumstances. In recent years an increase in displacement has occurred, due to conflict, persecution, environmental degradation, and lack of human security and opportunity. The UN refugee agency UNHCR currently estimates that there are 25.9 million refugees worldwide, of which 80 percent live in places neigbouring their countries of origin.¹

In 2019, the global number of international migrants reached an estimated 272 million, comprising 3.5 percent of the global population. ² Actually a small minority since an overwhelming majority of people remain within their country of birth.

It cannot be denied that migration may generate benefits for migrants, their families, and countries of origin. Wages earned abroad tend to be considerably higher than those for similar jobs at home and migration tends to have a positive impact on human development, particularly in areas such as education and health. According to a World Bank report from 2016 migrants from the poorest countries, on average, experienced a 15-fold increase in income, a doubling of school enrolment rates, and a 16-fold reduction in child mortality after moving to a developed country.³

Globally, remittances are now more than three times the amount of official development assistance, at the same time as migration result in the transfer of skills, knowledge, and technology and thus foster economic and social development in origin countries.

Migration also generates economic and other benefits for destination countries. Among other results, immigration can have positive effects through an increased labour supply in sectors and occupations suffering from shortages of workers, not only evident in high-skilled sectors, but also in lower-skilled occupations. The immigration of young workers might also ease pressure on pension systems of high-income countries with rapidly aging populations.⁴ Contrary to popular perceptions, an OECD study found that the difference between the taxes migrants pay and the benefits and government services they receive generally is quite small and in most of the analyzed OECD countries immigrants paid more in taxes than they received through benefits.⁵

Accordingly, stories about hapless or deceitful migrants, ruthless human traffickers, and constant tragedies are not constituting the entire truth about international migration. Trafficking is a crime that has to be deterred and penalized. The United Nations defines human traficking as:

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.⁶

I recently obtained an insight into immigration when I in Rome met a successful migrant who told me his life story. A tale of hard toil, stubborn determination and lifelong planning, with a happy ending.

Through a good friend of mine I had ended up as dinner guest with a man of a Bangladeshi origin and his family. He was proud owner of a car repair workshop. A steady income made it possible for him to support his family, invest in his business, afford a nice apartment and a car. He was even able to invest some of his income and support relatives back in Bangladesh. Over a sumptuous meal in a modern apartment, my generous host told me his life story.

He had been born to poor parents in Dhaka and orphaned already at the age of seven. His wife was also an orphan from a poor background. They married very early and had stayed true to one another ever since. Early on he judged that the only possible advance in life for a poor boy like him was to join the army. For twenty years he served in the armed forces and learned to be a driver and car mechanic. Experiences he later used after having been recruited as a migrant worker to the Gulf States, and most successfully in Singapore, where he finally had been able to save the money needed for realizing his ultimate goal – to migrate to Europe, make a living there and bring his family over for a better, more secure life.

In the neighbourhood of his home in Dhaka he had for many years been in contact with a "travel- and job organizer" who had told him he would be able to bring him to Italy and that it would cost him approximately 30,000 euros. This became the driving force for all of my host´s endeavours. He experienced many setbacks, but never lost hope. Several years ago he was finally prepared to leave for Europe, putting all his trust in the men working for the "travel organizer". I asked him:

– How could you bring your entire life´s savings into the hands of this man? You could easily have been lost or killed along the perilous trail through Asia and Europe. What was the guarantee that you would be able to make a living in Europe? And … who was this guy? A human trafficker?

– No, he was not a Mafiosi. He was a businessman, well known by his clients. I knew he could not afford taking the risk of losing a client like me. If he had been a crook. If he had fooled his clients on their way to Europe and pocketed their money. If he had not planned and paid for every step of the journey and guaranteed the safe transfer of a client of his, he would have been lost. Everyone in my neighbourhood knew him and his business. He could neither overcharge me, nor lose me. It is an extremely risky business.

– Nevertheless, many are fooled, lost and killed.

– Quite true, but such unfortunate victims are generally desperate people. They have not planned and worked for the venture during so many years as I had. They had not inquired enough, neither about the risks involved, nor about the men they put their trust in.

It took more than half a year to reach Rome. We traveled by busses, lorries and on foot. Through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Slovenia. It was worrisome and I was often scared, nervous and impatient. We were captured in Ukraine and it took almost three months to get us out of that country and we also encountered problems in Moldova. However, these mishaps had been taken into consideration beforehand and true to our original agreement the travel arranger succeeded in keeping his word.

I did not know anyone in Rome. The arrangement was that I began selling things in the street. Gradually, I advanced to selling fruits and finally found work in an auto repair shop. I am a skilled mechanic, my work was appreciated and words about my expertise spread among the customers. After some years I could open my own business. From then on life changed for the better. I could bring over my family. We found suitable husbands for my two daughters and finally a son was born to me. I´m a fortunate man.

It may be stated that my Bangladeshi acquaintance had been "trafficked" since he migrated to Italy through irregular means provided by people who made a profit. However, he denied that he had been exploited. He assured me that he had made a carefully calculated business deal with people who guaranteed him passage to Italy and to a certain degree acclimatization to that country. It had been a win-win deal for the people who took him to Italy, for himself, his family, his country of origin and Italy as well.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) on December 5 launched an initiative aiming to provide one million white canes for the blind and visually-impaired people in Vietnam.

Priority will be given to the most vulnerable groups among the blind, said MPI Minister Nguyen Chi Dung at the launch ceremony in Hanoi.

He added that the white canes will be provided to the blind along with instructions on how to use the device safely to support their mobility. Communication campaigns will also be held to raise public awareness.

National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Tong Thi Phong said the programme is among various measures taken by the Vietnamese government so that no one is left behind in the process of social development.

Minister Dung said his ministry will incorporate the desires and wishes of people with disabilities into the process of policy consultation and formulation, placing people at the centre of social development.

After the ceremony, over 1,000 white canes will be handed over to blind and visually-impaired people.

Vietnam currently has 24 million people part of vulnerable groups, with 6 million people with disabilities, including 3 million blind and visually-impaired people./.

A Vietnamese delegation is taking part in the 22nd General Assembly of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) that opened in Geneva, Switzerland, on December 5.

The delegation is being led by President of the Vietnam Red Cross Society Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu.

The event is looking at the IRFC Secretariat’s plan and budget for 2015-2020 and has already approved three new important programmes, namely the use of cash transfer in livelihoods programmes; integrating protection, gender and education in the IRFC’s programmes; and increasing communication about humanitarian values.

Participants shared the view that humanitarian activities have become an inevitable trend. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have been growing, and the federation has established itself as a prestigious organisation in global humanitarian activities.

Addressing the event, IFRC President Francesco Rocca stressed that: “The message from our members and from our millions of volunteers couldn’t be clearer: climate change is an existential threat that is already completely altering the work we do, and the lives of the people we support.”

The general assembly highly valued the effective contributions of over 14 million Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers around the world to disaster response, health care, social assistance, and support for vulnerable groups.

The meeting is set to adopt the IFRC’s Strategy 2030 and discuss the One Billion Coalition, along with issues relevant to migration, urbanisation, and support for civilians in armed conflicts and disasters.

Also at this session, the Marshall Islands and Bhutan red cross societies were admitted to the federation, raising the IRFC’s membership to 192./.

The number of people accessing the State’s and community’s priority policies and programmes is increasing, said Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung.

Minister Dung was speaking at the anniversary to mark the International Day for Persons with Disability on December 3.

Vietnam has around 6.2 million people over the age of two with disabilities, making up 7.06 percent of the country’s population.

Of those, 28 percent are severely disabled, 58 percent female, 28 percent children and 10 percent living in poverty.

Most live in rural areas and many are victims of Agent Orange.

Minister Dung said the State, the Party and Vietnamese people have paid much care to persons with disability.

Vietnam ratified the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability in 2014.

In March this year, the country ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 159 about jobs for persons with disability.

It strongly confirmed Vietnam’s commitment to ensuring the disabled would not be discriminated at work.

In November, the Secretariat Committee issued Instruction 39 about the Party’s leadership of affairs related to people with disability. The National Assembly later ratified the amended Law on Labour with many adjustments relating to disabled people.

Minister Dung said that every year, millions of disabled people receive an allowance from the State and all of provinces and cities have rehabilitation centres.

Organisations for them have also been expanded.

This year, more than 17 trillion VND (735.4 million USD) from the State budget was allocated to provinces and cities to implement policies for people with disability, according to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs./.

Delegates from 18 countries and many international organisations are gathering in Hanoi for the 4th Gender Focal Point Conference, which is jointly held by the Colombo Plan Gender Affairs Programme and the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU).

The event, held annually since 2016 to garner global support to address main challenges to women and children, takes the theme “Gender Empowerment, Sustainability and Resource Mobilisation” this year.

Addressing the conference, Chairwoman of the VWU Nguyen Thi Thu Ha affirmed that Vietnam always supports and actively participates in multi-lateral mechanisms for women, including the Colombo Plan.

She urged participants to share their experiences and good practice in promoting gender equality, and join hands to strive for the cause of gender equality, development and peace in the region and the world.

Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Tan Dung stressed that gender equality has always been among the strongest commitments and top priorities of the Vietnamese Government.

He noted that the country’s Gender Inequality Index is 0.304, ranking 67th out of 160 countries. The ratio of women in the country’s parliament, at 27.06 percent, is among the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. Vietnam also has the first Chairwoman of the National Assembly. In addition, Vietnam has one of the highest female labour-force participation rates at 71.2 percent, and 26.54 percent of the country’s enterprises are run by women.

At the same time, the country still faces numerous challenges from traditional to newly-emerging ones, such as violence against women and girls, the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s impacts on women’s jobs and economic positions, among others, according to the Deputy Minister.

He said the Vietnamese Government is taking many measures to address those challenges.

The 4th Gender Focal Point Conference is the venue to participants to discuss urgent global and regional issues facing women and children, with a focus on sustainability and resource mobilization to ensure the sustainability of established networks and organisations./.

It is time Việt Nam mastered technologies to make sure local businesses, organisations and people are protected from cyber-attacks. The way an organisation reacted to cyber-attacks showed how prepared it was and how well it was protected, the minister told attendees at the Vietnam Information Security Day 2019 in Hà Nội.

We used to prioritise the use and development of IT applications, but now, cyber security must be a component in every IT project. Though the Government sets the minimum required spending for cyber security at 10 per cent of the IT project capital, the actual spending accounts for only 5 per cent.

We used to keep the attacks away from public. But the more we share, the better the world is protected. The quality of human resources now comes first, then solutions and equipment. There must be a balance between the three factors.

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the authorities will assign detailed tasks for leading enterprises to develop a safe ecosystem for e-government systems, smart cities and national information storage.

It was the 12th event for Vietnam Information Security Day and this year, the event was themed ‘Enhancing national cyber security in the digital area’.

More than 700 participants from ministries, sectors, government agencies, and local and international businesses and research institutions attended the event.

Featured at the event were Viettel Cybersecurity and CMC Cyber Security, who are providing solutions for organisations and businesses to improve their protection against cyber-attacks.

“Digital information will foster the growth of cyber security in Việt Nam as digital transformation is inevitable, therefore, information and data will become a big resource, which lures attention from many sides," Vũ Lâm Bằng, Head of Research and Development at CMC Cyber Security – a member of IT group CMC Corporation, told Việt Nam News.

The Government had paid much attention to the sector by issuing new policies and rules to guide its development. Việt Nam’s cyber security industry was still young compared to other developed economies.

But the quality of Vietnamese technicians is good enough for the economy and local firms to tap in up-to-date technologies and applications around the world. Cyber security is a knowledge-based industry, which would narrow the gap between Việt Nam and the world and help us master modern technologies faster.

“We want to develop a better, safer cyber security sector in Việt Nam with Vietnamese firms and organisations,” Lê Quang Hà, Product Director at Viettel Cyber Security told.

“Today’s event features many Vietnamese companies and ‘made-in-Vietnam’ products, which prove Việt Nam is now able to master modern technologies,” he said.

There had been improvement in the Vietnamese cyber security sector, though the nation remained one of the top targets for hackers. Many Vietnamese specialists and technicians are now considered world-class and they understand what problems are going on in Việt Nam.

Therefore, they are able to provide solutions and products that can work properly for local firms and organisations while some imported products cannot./.

Maintaining the replacement fertility level, making the sex ratio at birth equal to the natural range, taking advantages of the golden population structure, adaption to aged population context, stabilizing a reasonable population structure and improving the quality of population are among tasks of the recently-approved Viet Nam Population Strategy till 2030. 

The Strategy sets out eight specific tasks till 2030. The first one aims to maintain the replacement fertility level (1-2 births per woman), reach the population scale of 104 million people and narrow the gap in birth rate between different regions and subjects, including the reduction of 50% of the gap in birth rate between urban and rural areas and the mountainous and plains areas and 50% of localities reaching the replacement fertility level. 

It figures out measures to protect and develop ethnic minority groups with the population under 10,000 people each.

The Strategy heads to bring the sex ratio at birth equal to the natural range, with the birth ratio between boys and girls as 109 boys per 100 girls; the proportion of children under 15 attaining 22%; the proportion of elderly people aged 65 and over obtaining 11% and the dependency ratios of 49%. 

Other tasks will be focused on such as the ratio of couples provided with health care and counseling services before marriage reaching 90%; reducing child marriage by 50%, lessening kinship marriage by 60%, 70% of pregnant women screened for at least four of the most common diseases, 90% of new-born babies screened for at least five of the most common diseases, the life expectancy of 75 years old, the average height for male and female of 168.5 cm and 157.5 cm, respectively and the nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) ranking among top 4 in ASEAN. 

The Strategy enhances urbanization and raises the proportion of people living in urban areas to 45% in line with arranging population reasonably at border areas, islands and disadvantaged areas, ensuring that all migrants get access to fundamental social services fully and equally. 

Regarding the establishment and operation of the national database on population, 100% of population are registered and monitored in the national database on population. 

The Strategy also upholds the advantages of the golden age population in accordance with adapting to the aged population context. 100% of the elderly have health insurance cards and are taken care at families, community and health care centers.