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GENDER AND DEVELOPMENTCENTRE (GDC)

Gender equality is an essential human right and crucial for economic growth. Recognition of the need to improve the status of women and to promote their potential roles in development is no longer seen solely as an issue of human rights or social justice. While the pursuit of gender equity remains strongly embedded within the framework of fundamental human rights and gender justice, investment in women is also recognised as crucial to achieving sustainable development. GDC understands that low levels of education and training, poor health and nutritional status, and limited access to resources not only depress women’s quality of life, but also limit productivity and hinder economic efficiency and growth. Hence, promoting and improving the status of women needs to be pursued, for reasons of equity and social justice and also because it makes economic sense and is good development practice.

GDC’s major activities include:

Research and Publications: GDC conducts fundamental research into the problems of gender and the family and both the social and natural environment in terms of a development perspective, while taking into account the interaction of these issues through the application of an inter-disciplinary method. The target groups of the research are women and men at all ages in rural areas of Vietnam. GDC also publish research and intervention results to disseminate information on issues related to gender and development.

Capacity Building and Training: GDC supports the conducting of a series of capacity building and training activities in matters related to gender and development, including the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Domestic violence against women, gender mainstreaming and sexual harassment, and gender issues in the health care system. GDC also organises events, workshops and seminars at different levels for various participants, especially for people at a local community level to raise awareness of gender issues in relation to development.

Intervention: Based on its research findings, GDC carries out various intervention activities to mainstream gender equality, to promote institutional accountability to gender responsive governance and equitable development, to lobby and advocate for rights and empowerment of women, to promote gender responsive capacity building and institutional development in planning, programming, management, monitoring and evaluation. GDC is also very strong at creating better economic positions for women through the involvement of rural industries.