Gender and Development

	Table of Contents
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Viet Nam

Gender Strategy and Implementation Plan for Agriculture and Rural Development

TA No. AOTA 3831 VIE - February 2002

The TA project will assist the Government institutionalize gender-responsive policy development, planning, program design and implementation in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in accordance with the National Plan of Action. Specifically, the TA will assist the MARD in formulating a gender mainstreaming strategy and sustainable implementation plan for mainstreaming gender into its strategies, policies and programs.

The TA is divided into two parts:

Part A - Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

Using a participatory process that involves MARD's Technical Working Group on Gender, senior MARD leaders, planning and technical staff from various MARD subsectors, gender gaps in MARD's policies and programs will be identified, and a gender strategy and implementation plan developed to address these gaps and promote more gender-inclusive program and projects within MARD. Capacity to mainstream gender will be done through sector-specific gender capacity building workshops and seminars for various subsectors of MARD, District Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and other technical staff at the provincial level.

The TA will assist in 3 main areas:

• Formulating an appropriate gender strategy that addresses the structural constraints to equal access to agricultural and rural development
• Developing a sustainable implementation plan to implement the gender strategy
• Building MARD capacity to mainstream gender

Part B - Vietnam Women's Union

The second part of the TA will help the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) conduct participatory action research at the national, provincial, district and commune levels, and with civil society at the grassroots level. Through these workshops the needs, concerns and aspirations of women in the sector will be identified. Information gathered through the workshops will be submitted to MARD as critical inputs for developing MARDs Gender Strategy and Implementation Plan.

VWU will also be assisted with the preparation and pilot-testing of gender training materials for the agriculture and rural development sector. Training programs will be conducted for national, provincial and district level VWU personnel. Case studies of on-going projects in the sector will be utilized as learning tools to implement a practical learning-by-doing approach. The training will include:

• analysis to identify gender gaps in agriculture and rural development
• planning and formulating gender-inclusive projects in the sector
• implementing gender mainstreaming
• monitoring and evaluation

Implementation Progress - 2003

TA No. 3831 VIE: Gender Mainstreaming for Agriculture and Rural Development

Part A - Gender Strategy and Action Plan

A Working Group for drafting the gender strategy and plan of action was formed in early 2003, and the work is progressing. Individual members completed drafting the relevant sections of the Gender Strategy. The entire draft was discussed at the workshop on 19 April 2003 wherein objectives were prioritized for development of the action plan. The draft strategy illustrates the achievements and challenges in gender equality in agriculture and rural development, identifying practical and strategic gender needs.

1. Increase rural women's access to and control of resources, skills and information.
2. Integrate gender indicators, sex-disaggregated M&E tools and systems in MARD policies and plans.
3. Achieve gender sensitive practices and gender equity in agricultural research, extension programs and services, and training.
4. Increase women's empowerment and access to decision-making in MARD, DARDs, People's Committees of all levels, Agricultural Universities, Private Corporations and SMEs in the sector.
5. Increase awareness and knowledge of gender issues in the industrialization and commercialization of agriculture and the shift to a socialist-oriented market economy.

Subsequently, the Gender Plan Working Group of MARD met in Hoi An for a 4-day Planning Workshop in May. The major workshop objective was to draft the MARD Plan of Action for implementing the ARD sector's Gender strategy within MARD. This was the most significant piece of work undertaken by the group within this TA. The Workshop was designed as a skills building exercise concurrently with development and refinement of the action plan. The planning process designed for the group drew directly from the draft strategy for the ARD sector. The linkage was made by developing a set of Ministry objectives which cascaded from, and would contribute to, the draft sector objectives. Outputs, indicators, activities and inputs were then progressively developed by the working group. The Plan of Action will serve as a guiding document to carry out specific actions to achieve the five objectives of the strategy.

The strategy and plan of action will be finalized through a series of working sessions and consultative process hereafter. Large-scale workshops are being planned in July 2003, one in north and one in south, to discuss and finalize the strategy and plan of action plan.

Part B - Vietnam Women's Union

During the second half of the technical assistance (TA) project, Viet Nam Women's Union is conducting a series of gender training in several provinces, namely, Kon Tum, Quang Tri, Quang Binh and Hue. The field-level training focuses on raising awareness of gender equality issues, developing gender analysis skills, practicing using gender analysis tools adapted for local agriculture and rural development activities and developing M&E systems with sex disaggregated data and gender indicators. Through the training, the concepts of mainstreaming gender into public services are being introduced. The feasibility of involving local People's Committees, district extension agents, Viet Nam Bank for Agriculture is also being explored. The TA Team is coordinating field level activities with selected ongoing TA in the central region, in particular, the Capacity Building for Central Region Poverty Reduction (TA No. 3772 VIE) with regard to mainstreaming gender.

Activities Completed

• The gender strategy working group held a series of workshops to develop a gender strategy through consultations with key stakeholders in agriculture and rural development (ARD) sector. The final draft gender strategy was produced in May 2003, which encompasses and addresses the following issues: (i) current status of gender equality in agriculture and rural development in Viet Nam; (ii) vision and strategic objectives; and (iii) conditions and implementing organizations. Strategic objectives include: (a) increasing awareness; (b) increasing access to and control of key resources and services (land, credit, water resources, infrastructure, and public services); (c) integrating gender indicators, sex-disaggregated M&E tools and systems in national plans and policies and those in the relevant ministries; (d) achieving gender-sensitive practices and gender equality in agricultural research and extension services and training; and (e) empowering rural women and increasing their access to decision making in key institutions. The strategy addresses both practical and strategic gender needs in the time frame up to 2020 for sectoral development goals and 2010 for strategic objectives.
• Based on the strategic objectives, the MARD Gender Plan of Action (POA) was developed in May 2003 by the MARD working group. Key outputs of POA include (i) institutional set up for gender mainstreaming with the MARD Committee for the Advancement of Women (CFAW); (ii) gender training of MARD officials and employees of its affiliated organizations; (iii) issuance of regulations for gender mainstreaming and collection of gender-disaggregated indicators; (iv) capacity building for the trainers on gender; (v) development of gender-integrated and sensitive communication materials; (vi) increasing in female participation and strengthening their decision making processes in MARD and MARD-related agencies. While the gender strategy encompasses the agriculture and rural development sector as a whole, POA addresses the areas that MARD and its affiliated organizations are directly in charge, as implementation of POA entails commitment and accountability. It is envisaged that POA will be approved and sanctioned by the Minister or Vice Minister of MARD.
• A workshop was held to solicit comments and feedback on the draft gender strategy and POA from MARD key personnel. The participants were divided into five groups and discussed the five guiding issues identified by the TA Team, namely (i) the timeframe of POA; (ii) an institutional set up to implement the strategy and execute POA; (iii) the role of other stakeholders and an effective collaborative mechanism between MARD and these institutions; (iv) the role of public service providers at the local levels; and (v) inclusion of the actions of other stakeholders as part of POA.
• VWU has been conducting a series of training, including training of trainers and training at the central level, as well as field-level training in Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, and Kon Tum. The four provinces in the central region have been selected in view of the ADB's operational priority and its ongoing and planned projects in the ARD sector. Following the training in Don Hoi (the provincial capital), two district-level trainings will be conducted in Niah Hoa and Tuyen Hoa, the project areas of the Central Region Livelihood Improvement Project. Participants included local VWU officials and representatives from other mass organizations, such as the Farmers' Union and Fatherland Front. The training adopted the participatory approach and included subjects such as (i) gender awareness; (ii) gender analysis; and (iii) project management. There were a great deal of interactions and exchanges among the participants as well as between the trainers and participants. These trained human resources would become a driving force for gender mainstreaming at the grassroots level.

Agreement Between MARD and VWU

1. Gender Strategy will be published as a general government document with the forwards of the Minister, MARD and Chairperson, the National Committee for the Advancement of Women (NCFAW) in both Vietnamese (main document) and English (for external use);
2. POA will be published as an official MARD document approved by the Minister or Vice Minister in Vietnamese and English;
3. VWU Training Materials will be published in Vietnamese with a summary version in English; and
4. Consultants' final report will include a report on stakeholder consultations (summary) and a report on VWU training activities.

Activities Planned

• Final workshops to consult broad stakeholders in the ARD sector in HCMC (11 July 2003)
• Final workshop to consult broad stakeholders in Hanoi (Week of 21 July 2003)
• Final national dissemination workshop (November 2003)
• Submission of the TA consultants' final report (December 2003)

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