The creation of a Vietnam Women’s (Em)Powerment Index grounded in international women’s rights norms: Measuring progress on the advancement of Vietnamese women’s participation in government and public institutions

Project Member(s): Vijeyarasa, R.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Coffey International (DFAT - Coffey)
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dept Foreign Affairs and Trade)

Start year: 2023

Summary: The Government of Vietnam (GoV) has made important commitments to advancing gender equality at all levels. This includes the advancement of women’s active participation, voice and influence in government and public institutions at all levels. However, the country currently lacks a systematic means to measure progress nationally, and in all of Vietnam’s 62 provinces. In response, we have brought together gender expertise from Vietnam and Australia, and specific expertise on the creation of indices grounded in international women’s rights. Our collective skill-set will enable the piloting of a new gender index to measure both the enabling factors that are necessary to enhance women’s participation in government and public institutions, at all levels, as well as the outcomes of these efforts i.e. the number of women who have risen to the highest ranks within the government and public institutions. Over a 10-month period, we will develop and pilot an index, test it nationally and in two selected provinces, across 3 different ministries. Our end-oal is to have an index that has the potential to be scaled-up to all 62 provinces and if desired, can be used to collect data at a chosen interval (e.g. every three years) to measure the GoV’s progress on its stated goals.

FOR Codes: International humanitarian and human rights law, Women's studies (incl. girls' studies), Data models, storage and indexing, Work and labour market, Social class and inequalities