Country gender assessment of agriculture and the rural sector in Viet Nam

Book excerpt: The Country Gender Assessment (CGA) was commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from October 2017 to February 2018 as a way to gauge Viet Nam’s progress in achieving gender equality in agriculture and the rural sector and as a mechanism to guide FAO’s strategic mission in Viet Nam. Its objective is to inform FAO country-level planning and programming in line with national development priorities and FAO’s mandate and strategic framework. The Assessment is also aimed at facilitating FAO’s contribution to the UN Country Team report on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) with up-to date and objective information on the situation of rural women in the country. The methodology of the CGA included a desk review of policies and programmes on agriculture, food and nutrition security and gender equality, a quantitative analysis of national statistics, in-depth interviews with FAO Viet Nam partners and qualitative surveys and focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted in two provinces (Ninh Thuan and Lao Cai).