General view of the signing ceremony for the new joint project “Elimination of Violence against Women and Children in Vietnam 2021-2025”. (Photo: UNFPA)   

NDO – The Vietnamese Government, the Government of Australia, and several United Nations agencies (UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women) are committed to working together and calling for more joint efforts to end violence against women and children.

This was underlined at a ceremony held in Hanoi on May 24 to close the joint project “Supporting Interventions to Eliminate Violence against Women and Children in Vietnam under COVID 19 Emergency Context” and to sign the new joint one “Elimination of Violence against Women and Children in Vietnam 2021-2025”.

The outgoing project was co-implemented from May 2020 to May 2021 by the UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women, in coordination with the relevant Vietnamese agencies. It aimed to strengthen national prevention and response mechanisms to address violence against women and children in the context of COVID-19.

After one year of implementation, the project has achieved a number of significant results. Innovative communication approaches were introduced in more than 100 supermarkets, mini-marts, and pharmacies, the best locations to reach women at risk of violence, while digital technology and social media were fully utilised to increase the public’s understanding of the risk of gender-based violence amid the pandemic.

Building on the project’s success, the Government of Australia is now providing AUD9.5 million to support the new project “Elimination of Violence against Women and Children in Vietnam”, which will be implemented from June 2021 to July 2025. This new project has the goal of all women and children in Vietnam, including those most vulnerable, being able to live a life free of violence through strengthened prevention strategies and multisectoral responses.