ILO/Japan Multi-bilateral Programme

Viet Nam Chapter

The ILO/Japan Asian Regional Programme for Expansion of Employment Opportunities for Women (EEOW) Viet Nam Chapter aims to contribute to the national efforts to alleviate poverty and promote opportunities and conducive environment for quality employment for rural women, as well as to elevate the social and economic standing of women workers and their families in society in general.

It has 3 inter-related strategies of institutional capacity building of relevant national and local government and mass organisations, direct assistance to rural women in poverty to improve their socio-economic status alongside men in communities, and policy advocacy concerning women’s employment promotion and empowerment based on the experiences of the community-based direct assistance schemes. Project activities include providing gender awareness and skills training, improving vocational and business management skills and supporting women in setting up women’s community-support groups.

The project is funded by Japan from 2001 until 2006. A twin project operates in Cambodia. The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) is the lead Government agency. Other concerned Ministries, mass-organisations, employer and union representatives participate in the EEOW Project Advisory Committee (PAC) which helps to identify, formulate and initiate policy reforms on women's employment promotion at national and local levels. The project is part of the follow-up to the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

Project Targeted Areas & Implementing Partners

Activities

At policy level

• Study on Gender Sensitiveness of Existing Policies, Programmes and Projects on Employment Promotion
• Regular meetings with government officials and other stakeholders to share good practices and lessons learned from the community-based activities

At institutional capacity building

• Project Design and Proposal Development Workshop
• Gender Mainstreaming and Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation
• Training of Trainers Workshops on GET Ahead: Gender and Entrepreneurship Together for Women in Enterprise
• Training of Trainers Workshop on Gender and Participatory Training Methods
• Training of Trainers Workshop on Life Skills, Gender Equality and Workers’ Rights

At community level

• Formation of women’s clubs
• Gender awareness training for local women, men and authorities
• Life Skills, Gender Equality and Workers’ Rights training
• GET Ahead training
• Training on Participatory Project Design, Monitoring and Evaluation for local authorities
• Training on various skills – handicraft, agriculture, husbandry, etc.