Regional Environmental Technical Assistance 5771
Poverty Reduction & Environmental Management in Remote Greater
in Mekong Subregion (GMS) Watersheds (Phase I)

Gender Issues

Viet Nam

By

Dr Leena M Kirjavainen

Gender Specialist

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

The Gender Specialist has collected numerous data on women and gender issues in Viet Nam – during two visits to both the Central Highlands and Hanoi. Extensive documentation is retained in the reference library of the project. A list of major References is included as an attachment. In this summary report some of the national gender and social issues are addressed and the main focus is in the Central Highland communities. These include: food insecurity; sanitation and environmental degradation; health and family planning; illiteracy and lack of education; overburdening farm and household work; lack of technologies and extension services; diminishing access to natural resources; poor services and infrastructures (roads, energy, communication).

Additional boarder areas concerns include: spread of HIV/AIDS; internal and cross-boarder trafficking of migrants - women, children and elderly - for labour exploitation (prostitution, entertainment industries, begging); and other cross-boarder movements related to logging, trading and smuggling. In this summary report, several of these critical issues are highlighted by providing examples from Kon Tum province.

2. Demographic and Social Context

In 1996 Viet Nam’s population reached appr. 75 Million, of which approximately 84 % are ethnic Vietnamese, 2 % ethnic Chinese, and the rest Khmers, Chams and members of some 54 distinct ethno-linguistic groups. The ethnic minorities visited in the Central Highlands include the Sedang and the Bahnar.

Box 1. Central Highland Minorities Visited

The great majority of the population lives in the lowlands and the population density is one of the highest in agricultural country. The population is also relatively young, with an average of 35% under 15 years of age. Only 7 percent of the population is over 65 years old. With the youthful age structure and high birth rates the population is projected to grow to 22 million by 2050. Data show that 51.5% of the population is female and 48.5% is male. The long period of warfare and economic migration has produced a dearth of adult men, and the sex ratio compiled into the following table is 0.95 in 1996.

Table 1. Selected Population Data in Viet Nam – 1994 (000)

The task of reducing population growth in Viet Nam is daunting. As elsewhere in the Third World, low education and low incomes tend to encourage large families. Regarding family planning program the Government policy of a two-child family has succeeded in urban areas – like in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city a two-child-family is the norm. Fertility has fallen rapidly ( to 3.1 in 1993) but the increase in abortions reflects the fact that there is need for wider coverage in reproductive health and family planning services for both men and women (GSO, 1996). The birth rates in the rural areas and particularly in the highlands are still high and form a major reproductive burden in the lives of women.

Because of the excess of male mortality related to a series of wars the sex ratio of males to females is low and one result is that nearly women head one third of households.

The average percentage of female-headed households in Viet Nam is 32%, and nearly 23% of the population live in female-headed households. The above graph shows the distribution of male and female-headed households. An almost 50-50 percentage is evident in urban areas such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, and there are 28% female headed households in rural areas.

Among women heading their households, 42% are still married to their husbands who are either present or are working as migrant labourers away from the village. 41% are widows, and a small group is separated or divorced. Contrary to the situation in many countries, rural female-headed households are less vulnerable to poverty than rural male-headed households. Remittances from male migrant labourers seem to improve the economic position of many female-headed households in rural areas.

Adult literacy rate (women and men 15 years and above) is 88.7% for women, and 95.8% for men. However, the literacy rate for women above 25 years old is 15% lower than for men, as can be concluded from the graph below.

The economically active population in labour force consists of 48 per cent men and 52 per cent women. Women represent 48.5% of the employees in state owned enterprises, 54% in collective enterprises and 49% in private enterprises. Agriculture employs the largest proportion of the labour force (71%), followed by industry (12%), with the remaining labour force employed in trade and education (FAO, 1997).

As seen in the following table, the mortality rate figures are not as alarming as in some other GMS countries like Cambodia and Lao PDR, but one has to remember that the figures for the highland groups are extremely high due to their socio-cultural, economic and even linguistic isolation and due to the lack of basic services and infrastructure. For example, a survey in Lao Cai (conducted by the RETA 5771 project) has revealed that child mortality rates are much higher and that maternal mortality rates can reach up to 350 per 1,000.

Table 2. Mortality Rates in Viet Nam

Human Development Index (HDI) rank of Viet Nam is 122 of 174 countries, indicating a medium human development, defined by medium life expectancy at birth, high educational attainment and medium levels of income. The Gender-related Development Index (GDI) rank for Viet Nam is 108 of 174 countries. The difference between the HDI and the GDI is +14. This means that although Viet Nam has succeeded in building basic human capacities of both women and men, without substantial gender disparities, huge gaps still exist. Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) was not yet available for Viet Nam for the year of reporting, in 1995 (UNDP, 1998).

To summarise, the quick national overview of the situation of women based on the demographic and social data sources available, shows that there are relatively few gender differences on a number of indicators, which would suggest that Vietnamese women have a strong position in education, health, employment etc. Nevertheless, the critical gender issues of highland populations need a special attention and remarkable improvement.

3. Women and Food Security

Of all households in Viet Nam, appr. 70% earn their livelihood from agricultural production. Rice and fish cultivation dominate as main sources of livelihood. In Viet Nam, 53% of the farming population is female and their employment in the agricultural sector is 73%. In addition, women are involved in trading the agricultural produce in local markets and marketing co-operatives. The predominant crop is paddy rice, which is grown in the Red river delta, the Mekong delta and coastal zones. In the highland areas different varieties of dryland rice are cultivated.

Table 3. Gender Division of Labor in Rice Farming - Viet Nam

Traditionally, the first stages of rice cultivation are male designated and the latter stages female designated. However, the traditional task division has changed due to lack of male labour. Women are thus increasingly involved in all stages of rice production. Apart from rice, rural households produce a variety of vegetables and fruits in their home gardens. In upland areas, 80% of the land area, farmers produce perennial crops, such as tea, coffee, rubber, pineapple and fruit trees.

A process of deforestation has become critical in the highland areas, where population pressure and shifting cultivation have caused environmental deterioration, and "barren hills". Forest areas are state owned, and 65% of the forestry workers are women. Recently, Viet Nam has been experimenting with a programme that allocates forestlands to individual household management. In this scheme, the households are responsible for reforestation, protection and management.

In the Kon Tum Province, central Highlands, also a large-scale forest sector project has been planned, as can be seen from the Box 1. For the time being he feasibility study has been shelved, awaiting for feedback from the Vietnamese Government.

Box 2. Bamboo Pulp-Mill Pipeline Project – Kon Tum Province

Regarding fisheries in Viet Nam, the country has around 1.4 million ha of inland waters for aquaculture purposes, majority paddy fields and further reservoirs, tidal flats, lagoons and small lakes and ponds. One third of this water surface is already used for aquaculture purposes; 61% for fish culture and 39% for shrimp culture. Aquaculture is often included in the integrated farming system approach. In addition, Viet Nam has marine fisheries along the coast (FAO, 1997).

Both men and women are actively involved in aquaculture. Men are involved in decisions of fish species to be raised, timing for stocking, buying fingerlings, netting and harvesting. Women are often involved in daily feeding such as gathering grass and manure and feeding fish by rice bran. Mainly women are involved in small-scale processing, fish sauce production and trading of fish.

In Viet Nam livestock play an important role in the farming system. Larger livestock like cows and buffaloes are rarely consumed for meat or milked, but used as draught animals in the fields. For this reason they are most common in the lowlands, but increasing introduced also to the highlands, particularly, together with paddy rice cultivation practices. In many areas there is a shortage of draught animals, reflecting the shortage of straw and grazing land. Pig and poultry rearing is an important source of additional income for women. Recently, in the uplands women are generating income through sale of milk, and cheese products, from local cattle and improved goats, and they are also moving to traditionally male professions, such as butchering.

Regarding rural production, off-farm activities are undertaken by both women and men. Women earn a regular cash income mostly through processing, production and sale of food, trade activities, wage labour and handicrafts. Men derive income from wage labour, especially as non-agricultural and migrant labourers, and transportation and construction workers.

4. Women and the Environment

A number of environmental trends have an impact on rural livelihood in general and on women’s lives in particular. Women are usually disproportionately affected because they are more dependent on natural resources in order to carry out their food provisioning and farm and household activities.

In many provinces of Viet Nam a process of soil degradation is apparent due to intensive use of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and weed killers. Soils in upland areas have grown thinner: 50% of soils in hilly and mountainous areas are degraded. Due to deforestation the living conditions of highland people and the ecological environment of the entire country are becoming seriously impacted. The process of deforestation reduces forest resources available to the household use as well as leading to soil degradation.

In regard to the living environment clean water is especially important for the household use, for women and children. The lack of clean water in Viet Nam is a very severe problem in both urban and rural areas, and more than 50 % in urban and 30 % of the rural population have insufficient water meeting health standards for use. In the highland villages lack of clean water leads to many diseases, and untreated manure, waste and garbage are major factors in polluting the environment and water source. The percentage of households having latrines is very low. Even in Hanoi, according to 1992 Ministry of Health care survey, only 46.3 5 of households had hygienic latrines, and 57 % of garbage still is dumped in city bonds and canals (Women and Doi Moi in Viet Nam, 1997).

Urbanisation and industrialisation have brought about some positive changes. Improved infrastructure, new roads, and more electricity and water, However, as these efforts have been made inconsistently, instead of improving the living conditions of the people, they have caused increased pollution in inhabited areas, and severe congestion. In short, pollution in Viet Nam’s living environment affects the health of everybody, but that of women and children most of all.

5. Women and Land Use Rights

One of the most serious obstacles to increase agricultural productivity and the income of rural women is their lack of security of land tenure. Historically rural women’s access to land has based to her status in the family and cultural rights in matrilineal societies (like several ethnic groups in Lao PDR, Cambodia and Viet Nam), but recently the introductions of new Land Titling Laws and regulations have favoured male over female inheritance – often according to the Western models.

However, in Viet Nam, several projects have recently addressed the question of Land Law and its implications, and requested the inclusion of wife’s name in the "red book", which is signed as the ownership certificate to land titling (Oxfam, 1998). This is increasingly important as growing urban male migration leaves often women as de facto household heads. Besides the fact that they would need management authority over the farm land areas, they in the reality work as the farmers in their own right, and need the land to obtain access to secondary benefits such as credit, extension services, and access to irrigation and other infrastructure.

Land reform programs should always be accompanied by legal literacy training of both men and women as well as authorities implementing and counselling and advising on land ownership questions. Efforts need to be made to actively include women as participants on the project and policy formulation to consider women’s access to land and secondary benefits.

6. Trafficking migrants

Trafficking of women and children has only recently become an issue in the public discussion agenda – as the UN Beijing Platform for action included the question of women’s rights and violence against women in the international fora. Trafficking of women and children in the Northern, Central and Southern provinces of Viet Nam is often associated with illegal entry and exit, employment and marriage intermediation (for example in the Chinese Boarder area), making friends with foreigners, adoption services, prostitution for sexual and labour exploitation of women and children.

According to the International Office of Migration and the Viet Nam Women’s Union, most of the traffickers are women, accounting for 70-75 % of all. They consist of persons who have travelled abroad for business or prostitution, networking with overseas brokers to set up links and organisations in order to lure, cheat, or even force or kidnap women and girls. Among the many causes leading to transboarder trafficking, the following main causes of trafficking women and children can be cited:

• Promising a high-income job, then selling them to foreign countries for prostitution or other purposes;
• Enticing them into taking part in business or in a tour, and then selling them;
• Promising a marriage or disguise marriage, then taking them out of the country to sell them;
• Taking advantage of available circumstances to force women and their families into dependence to threat and compel them.

Among the many causes leading to transboarder trafficking are the underestimation and ignorance of families’ education of children into human dignity; lower level education, especially in rural areas and lack of basic education; difficult economic conditions; unemployment and insufficient income; unhappy family life; inadequate and narrow-based information and education on prevention of trafficking; oversoft-handed and unstrict legal treatment and punishment, thus ineffective in prevention.

7. Women’s Reproductive and Sexual Health

The proportion of women who have knowledge of birth spacing methods and practice are low. Due to a low level of knowledge of birth-spacing and low supply of contraceptives, women have high pregnancy rates. Maternal mortality rate is extremely high in the highlands. The HIV/AIDS prevalence in Viet Nam as in most of the GMS countries is alarming.

Spread of HIV/AIDS is a serious concern for both men and women in The predominant mode of transmission is heterosexual with men frequent commercial sex workers and passing it on to their permanent partners.

According to the UNAIDS data, women have contracted the virus at an alarming rate. This development is largely due to women’s low economic and social status in the society, and their dependence on men. Also lack of knowledge on the nature of the disease, transmission and prevention methods among the general population contribute to the spread of HIV virus. There is need for (1) increasing the level of understanding of women’s reproductive and sexual health through community-based counselling and deferral services, (2) media campaigns targeting general public, decision makers and opinion leaders, (3) improving access to reproductive health services nation-wide, particularly in the rural areas.

Public awareness building, and addressing the immediate needs of women and children are critically needed. Appropriate interventions need to be built into community-based services at schools and health centres.

8. Viet Nam Women’s Union - Kon Tum Province

The Viet Nam Women’s Union (VWU) is an active mass women’s organisation in Viet Nam. The VWU is a quasi-governmental body functioning at national, provincial, district and commune levels. It is the second key player in Viet Nam’s rural financial market, organising and training women groups for income generation, as well as for savings and credit activities.

Discussion with the leaders of the Kon Tum Women’s Union, revealed clearly that infrastructure development (roads, electricity, tourism etc.) are critical for women’s development and empowerment. They see that the only way is to try to increase public awareness, influence attitudinal change, disseminate education and information, and promote mitigation and negotiation skills among women is if the necessary infrastructures are in place. When discussing the social problems which may be a consequence e.g. from road building and cross-boarder movements, their view was, that these societal changes will happen in any case. Therefore, the earlier women can become partners in the change management, the sooner there will be an opportunity to make it move into positive direction.

They further stressed that for any improvement of health facilities, medical care, technology, communication and education, infrastructure (electricity, water, roads) in the highland areas, to serve the development for people, should be promoted and not prevented.

Some of the priority areas for programming were discussed and these included: vocational technical training in agriculture and home economics. There are already Vocational Training Centres at the District level for carpentry, computer use etc, but his is just the beginning. UNICEF has been supporting a project for VNDong 400 Million, and the Belgium Government is supporting vocational training (traditional weaving and tailoring) from their bilateral allocations.

Box 3. Critical Development Issues – Van Lem and Dakto Koh Communes:

(Personal Communication, Van Lem Women’s Union, 1998)

According to the Chair of the Women’s Union, one of the most effective programs in Kon Tum Province has been the World Food Program/UNICEF program to bring pregnant women to the clinics, for preventive care. Union’s key program priorities are:

Box 4. Program Priorities of the Women’s Union, Kon Tum Province.

(Source: Kon Tum Women’s Union, 1998)

Women’s Union plays a key role in empowering and programming for women’s issues at levels of the country. Further discussions with the union leaders revealed information, which could not be obtained from official records or sources:

Box 5. Critical Health Facts and Figures in Kon Tum Province

(Source: Personal Communication, KonTum Women’s Union, 1998)

9. Policy and Planning Focus in Rural Development

In the following Box, a "shopping list" or a collection of the summary points and observations collected during the team visits to the KonTum villages are presented. They reflect the views of the villagers interviewed, discussions and dialogues held with the government officers and party members accompanying the team, and can thus be considered as a reflection of a true field-feedback.

Box 6. Summary Points From the Village Visits to Dak To District, Kon Tum Province, 1998

(Source: Verbal Report by Mr. Hung to the Chairman, Kon Tum Province, 1998)

On the other hand, the long-term development plan of the Government of Viet Nam – has the goal to promote equitable development and social justice through sustainable economic growth, human resource development and sustainable use of the country’s natural resources. Therefore, in order to achieve the above in the context of agricultural and rural production, policy-makers and planners need to:

• collect gender-desegregated local data and conduct gender sensitive agricultural censuses and formulate gender-sensitive policies and plans based on needs assessment;
• train field staff in gender sensitive and participatory planning and programme implementation;
• acknowledge women as farmers, instead as merely wives of male farmers and to improve the extension system to reach women farmers;
• identify and respond to agricultural and household technology needs of women, in close collaboration among agricultural researchers, implementing agencies and Viet Nam Women’s Union members;
• identify strategies to expand women’s opportunities to benefit from the transitional economy;
• support women in their marketing activities, by providing local marketing information, improving transportation and provision of credit;
• conduct adult education to increase literacy among ethnic women in order that they can understand food and nutrition information and adopt household sanitation and farming technologies;
• provide legal education and support to women in order to improve their access to and control over resources;
• pay attention to health issues of the population including HIV/AIDS, and the control of water-born diseases and safe pesticide handling methods.

10. Closing Note and Appreciation

This Summary Country Report summarises in varying details some of the key points discussed with the informants not only on gender issues but several other social concerns and dimensions. The information reported is a mix, which can be used as a learning reference by he readers about the wide variety of gender issues. It provides background information for prioritising activity areas and working on the feasibility studies during Phase II, particularly in the Se San watershed area, in Kon Tum Province, and when developing project ideas and approaches for Phase III.

The Gender Specialist wants to express sincere appreciation to all the Colleagues, Gender Focal Points and Staff Assistants in numerous offices in Hanoi (MARD, IUCN, FAO, UNDP, OXFAM, NGO Centre, Finnish Embassy, Red Cross and others) as well as to the Government Officers in Kon Tum Province, for their co-operation and hospitality. Also many past and present FAO-colleagues and friends in the Region, who have given their time and shared their resources and networks and collected and sent documents and data, are thankfully recognised.

24.4.99/LMK

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