Gender Mainstreaming Guidelines

GENDER MAINSTREAMING GUIDELINES IN NATIONAL POLICY FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY THROUGH GENDER-RESPONSIVE NATIONAL POLICY AND PLANNING

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LEADER’S FOREWORDS

On behalf of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women I am extremely pleased to release this guide to Gender Mainstreaming in Viet Nam. This guide represents an important shift in our approach to achieving gender equality, economic development and poverty reduction. There is no doubt that we have made great achievements in this area already. However, there is always room for improvement. Until recently we have tended to focus mainly only on women’s and girl’s needs. We now recognise that gender equality benefits everyone and cannot be achieved unless it involves everyone – women, men, girls and boys. Gender mainstreaming is currently considered the most effective approach towards achieving gender equality. It is an approach to the way we think, work and relate that makes women's and men's concerns, experiences and priorities an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, projects and programs in all sectors, and at all levels of society.

Mme Ha Thi Khiet

NCFAW Chairperson

The United Nations Development Program in Viet Nam is proud to be associated with the production of these innovative guidelines through our support to the NCFAW-UNDP-Netherlands Project VIE 01-015-01 Gender in Public Policy. During the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, world leaders from Viet Nam and 188 other nations committed to “promote gender equality and empower women”, as one of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Achieving the MDG will require that we create an environment where efforts towards gender equality is no longer a daily struggle pursued by a select few, but a natural and automatic part of everyone’s daily work. Gender mainstreaming means considering and addressing the needs and priorities of both women and... [continues]

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