Through the Voice and Rights for ethnic minority women in Vietnam project, CARE contributes to securing the rights of women from Tay, Nung, Dao, and Hmong communities by enhancing their voice, and ensuring that both government agencies and civil society value, respect and respond to it.

Background

Ethnic minority communities as a whole have less opportunity to make choices; women across Vietnam are often subject to inequalities as a result of gender roles, and women in ethnic minority communities often experience even greater gender inequality. Ethnic minority women are therefore especially likely to have less access to land, markets, and education, and are often excluded from decision-making within their households and communities.

Objective of Voice and Rights

Through the Voice and Rights project, CARE contributes to securing the rights of women from Tay, Nung, Dao, and H’Mong communities by enhancing their voice, and ensuring that both government agencies and civil society value, respect, and respond to it.

  • By developing a co-research approach and presenting their findings to civil society and policymakers, ethnic minority women have an enhanced capacity to identify, articulate, and advocate on issues that affect them.
  • The Ethnic Minority Working Group (EMWG) and the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA), both within the National Assembly, have increased respect for and sensitivity to the rights of ethnic minority women and enhanced their capacity to recognize and respond to their needs.

How does Voice and Rights work?

Voice and Rights supports ethnic minority women at the grassroots level to define and advocate for their development agenda.

  • ETHNIC MINORITY WOMEN BECOME RESEARCHERS: CARE and iSEE work with the Bac Kan Women’s Union to support Livelihoods and Rights Club (LARC) members from CARE’s Ethnic Minority Women’s Empowerment project in developing a co-research approach. Seventy ethnic minority women, all of them LARC members, conduct research in their communities. They set the research questions and investigate key challenges in their local communities.
  • EVIDENCE COLLECTED BY THE RESEARCHERS IS PRESENTED TO LOCAL AND NATIONAL AUTHORITIES: The researchers are supported with advocacy and presentation skills training to present their evidence to stakeholders such as local authorities (like the Women’s Union and People’s Committees) and, at the national level, the Ethnic Minority Working Group (EMWG) and the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA). This will be achieved through meetings, workshops, media engagement, and the publication of policy papers.
  • EMWG AND CEMA BECOME MORE RESPONSIVE ON ETHNIC MINORITY COMMUNITIES’ NEEDS: Through consultation, publication of policy briefs, advocacy efforts, and training, national-level stakeholders become better able to react to the evidence produced by the local researchers and to formulate policies and plans which work in the interests of ethnic minority communities.
  • EVIDENCE IS USED TO INFLUENCE POLICIES AND PROGRAMS THAT BETTER RESPOND TO ETHNIC MINORITY WOMEN’S NEEDS.

Participants of Voice and Rights

70
70 women from the Tay, Nung, Dao, and H’Mong
ethnic minority communities are serving as co-researchers		 10.000
More than 10,000 people, including
Women’s Union members, community members
and members of the EMWG and the CEMA

Location

Ba Be district, Bac Kan province, and national-level advocacy and policy dialogues

Time

7/2015 – 6/2018

Donor