Viet Nam

UN Women�s comprehensive technical and financial support in establishing Viet Nam as a regional leader in the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda has the potential to transform lives of women and girls in Viet Nam and world-wide. Viet Nam�s first National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS, adopted in 2024 shall be the key platform to enhance Vietnamese women and girls� participation in decision-making, strengthened the country�s legal frameworks to protect their rights and address gender-based violence in crises, disasters, pandemics, and armed conflicts, promoting women�s leadership and participation in peacebuilding and community resilience with essential skills in conflict resolution, crisis management, including in security and defense sectors which are currently absent. Viet Nam�s leadership and action on WPS will also drive cultural shifts that challenge traditional gender norms, normalize women�s leadership, and establish supportive systems for women affected by conflict, crisis and disaster. Women affected by conflicts and crises will benefit from economic reintegration programs, vocational training, and financial inclusion initiatives, allowing them to recover and rebuild their lives with dignity. Viet Nam�s NAP WPS aligns with the four pillars of the WPS agenda and supports SDG 5 by promoting women�s leadership, legal protections, and access to education and economic opportunities. It advances SDG 16 by enhancing women�s roles in peacebuilding, governance, and justice systems while integrating gender-responsive policies into security institutions. Additionally, it contributes to SDG 13 through gender-sensitive disaster risk management and SDG 17 by fostering international cooperation, resource mobilization, and knowledge-sharing for gender-responsive peace and security policies. Viet Nam�s NAP WPS exemplifies the development-humanitarian-peace nexus and provides a comprehensive framework ensuring no woman or girl is left behind. The NAP brings into one national plan, the mandates of 6 key ministries and the Fatherland Front who has its grassroot networks at all levels to address barriers to women�s participation in diplomacy, leadership, in gender responsive disaster and pandemic management, in cybersecurity and the protection from violence both offline and online. The capacity-building and consultative process for NAP development has empowered its penholders to conduct participatory consultations with national and provincial government agencies, academia, civil society, and development partners, enabled them to learn from various NAP models worldwide and gain insights from global frameworks, such as those of Jordan, the United Kingdom (UK), and the USA, as well as the WPS Focal Point Network Meetings. A Like-Minded Donors Group met reguarly to follow up with planning for the implementation process. UN Women has been an active interlocutor, facilitating a coordinated support to government on this WPS NAP, and to stand-by for supports.

In 2023, UN Women continued to collaborate with the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health and Viet Nam Women�s Union under the overall leadership of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to enhance the capacity and coordination among multi-stakeholders in responding to violence against women especially among the most vulnerable ones contributing to improved quality and access to services for victims of gender-based violence (GBV). This work, which to date, has encompassed all important frontline service providers, directly contributes to SDG5.2 on Elimination of all forms of violence against all women and girls in public and private spheres and UNSDCF Outcome 4 on Governance and Access to Justice. This achievement is particularly important for Viet Nam wherein two-thirds of women still experience one or more forms of violence. Furthermore, only one in ten women report such violence (General Statistics Office, 2019). Specifically, UN Women supported an inclusive consultation process towards building an effective system that is responsive to the needs and dignity of victims of violence, leading to the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in providing coordinated services for survivors of violence/human trafficking by,public security officials, hotline staff and women�s union carders. The SOP encompasses guidelines for the concrete steps and actions to be undertaken by these frontline service providers in order to facilitate access to essential services by victims when they are located either in or outside of Viet Nam. By following international standards and best practice in providing support services and protection for survivors of violence/human trafficking, the SOP has contributed to addressing systematic institutional gaps in GBV prevention and response particularly with regards to the absence of an effective mechanism for the coordination and referral to essential services for victims of gender- based violence. The SOP has therefore promoted an integrated and survivor centre approach, shifting away from working in silo toward a coordinated manner in dealing with cases of GBV/human trafficking. In addition to support for line ministries, for the first time, the SOP guiding inter-sectoral coordination and referral to essential services at sub-national level was developed and introduced amongst important service providers from 14 provinces with a higher level of commitment to improve the quality of, and access to, essential services among GBV victims. The application of SOP among line ministries and across all sectors at sub-national levels will be critical to UN Women advocacy on inclusion of a holistic GBV definition as well as establishment and operationalization of a formal coordination mechanism on GBV prevention and response in the upcoming amendment of the Law on Gender Equality in Viet Nam. SOPs are saved at this link: SOP - All Documents (sharepoint.com).