With funding assistance from the Australian Agency for International Development through the International Women's Development Agency in Australia (IWDA), a three-year project "Beijing and Beyond: Strengthening Women's Policy" has been carried out to train key staff of the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU).
The project was implemented from 1995 to 1997. The time "Beijing and Beyond" referred to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and NGO Forum in Beijing, September 1995. The project was based on Vietnam's participation in this ten-yearly event as a catalyst for strengthening women's policy.
The objective of the project was to strengthen the capacity of the Vietnam Women's Union to work for women's needs to be addressed in Government policies and plans.
The project purposes were:
- To provide training for key staff of VWU and NCFAW to enhance their capacity to effectively participate in Vietnam delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women and the NGO Forum in Beijing.
- To assist the VWU to establish strategic planning capacity and systems in order to review and prioritise its activities, develop and implement strategic directions in its program and its liaison with Ministries on gender issues.
The main project activities were a series of six training courses for twenty key staff selected by the VWU, two press conferences in Hanoi before and after the Beijing, two pilot provincial training workshops for 100 key staff from 50 selected provinces in the North, Central and South of Vietnam and other publications on policy advocacy and development, promoting and persuading other Ministries and Authorities for actions.
Vietnamese trainees were provided the knowledge and skills on critical analysis, gender sensitive, strategic planning, effective communication, lobbying negotiation, networking and consultation. The project helps to improve a range of skills using the pre-Beijing and post-Beijing programs for the VWU as a basis for skill development.
