Facilitating women to explore their potential and grasp development opportunities in all life aspects is not only the focus of many countries around the world but also embedded in the sustainability initiatives of many businesses on their journeys towards sustainable development.
Opportunities to accelerate sustainable development through women's empowerment
Supporting women with employment and livelihood opportunities is one of the efforts to promote economic growth and social justice. However, according to the latest updates by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, at the current rate of investments, more than 340 million women and girls globally will still live in extreme poverty by 2030. Thus, advancing women's economic empowerment has never been more urgent.
Elected to the Executive Board of UN Women for the 2025-2027 term, Viet Nam will have many opportunities to realise these goals.
In Viet Nam, BAT has many initiatives to improve gender equality for women and support Viet Nam’s sustainable development goal
Accordingly, from January 2025 to the end of 2027, Viet Nam will participate in co-ordinating the development and implementing UN Women's major orientations, ensuring that this organisation’s strategies and activities are consistently aligned with the UN's goals of promoting gender equality and empowering women.
According to Caroline Nyamayamombe, chief representative of UN Women in Viet Nam, the Vietnamese Government has maintained the momentum of promoting gender equality for many years. Since implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, Viet Nam’s world ranking in gender equality has increased from 83rd to 72nd out of 146 countries (according to the Global Gender Gap Report announced by the World Economic Forum in 2023).
Viet Nam is considered one of the countries with the world's highest female labor force participation rates. This rate is almost as high as that of men (72 per cent for women and 82 per cent for men). Viet Nam has recently for the first time passed the National Action Programme on Women, Peace and Security in January 2024. The country has exceeded the goal of strengthening women's role and participation in peacekeeping operations.
Efforts of enterprises in improving gender equality
Joining hands with the Government in realising the goal of gender equality, many businesses in Viet Nam have been implementing livelihood support programmes for women to achieve economic autonomy and improve their family lives. In particular, BAT Vietnam consistently implements such activities to promote its ESG strategy, while driving sustainable development goal No. 5 (SDG 5) on United Nations Gender Equality.
Continuing the success of the “Women’s Empowerment” programme over the past many years, BAT Vietnam launched this programme for 2024 on a larger scale.
On May 23, 2024, BAT Vietnam organised an event to disburse interest-free loans to 40 women from underprivileged households in My Quy Dong and My Thanh Tay communes in Duc Hue District and 30 more women in Nhon Hoa Lap Commune, Tan Thanh District in Long An Province.
BAT Vietnam launches Women’s empowerment programme 2024 with an expanded scale.
This is an initiative through which BAT Vietnam desires to accompany underrepresented women to bolster their incomes sustainably and enhance their living conditions.
Vo Thi Bich Thuy, vice president of the Women’s Union of Duc Hue District, Long An Province, said: "In recent years, the ‘Women’s Empowerment’ programme from BAT Vietnam has helped many women in rural households in border communes of Duc Hue District. In general, women supported by the programme have effectively used the loans for the right purpose, creating opportunities for them to earn more income through maintaining and developing their family's livestock farming and trading. This has enabled them to escape from poverty, develop the household economy, and enrich their families legitimately.”
Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nhung, chairwoman of the Women's Union of Tan Thanh District, Long An Province, also shared that this is the first time local women have the access to the “Women's Empowerment” programme of BAT Vietnam: “I appreciate the significance of the programme. The interest-free financial support model for women has a simple but extremely practical approach, helping families gradually stabilise their lives, as well as joining hands with local authorities to improve the livelihoods and incomes for women in particular and people in general.”
Previously in 2023, 40 households in Duc Hue District were offered interest-free loans from the programme for legal and business purposes. Among them, 11 households engaged in small businesses, two households provided catering services for events, and 27 households raised livestock and poultry. All of the loan-receiving households have been using the funds for their intended legal purposes.