THE PRIME MINISTER

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To ratify the national strategy for advancement of Vietnamese women till 2010 with the following major contents:

1. The strategy�s objectives:

a/ General objectives:

To raise the quality of women�s material and spiritual life. To create all conditions for the effective exercise of women�s fundamental rights as well as for the promotion of their role in all political, economic, cultural and social domains.

b/ Specific objectives:

- Objective 1: To exercise women�s rights to equality in the field of labor and employment.

+ Target 1: Annually, of the total number of new job-receivers, the percentage of female laborers shall increase gradually to reach 40% by 2005 and 50% by 2010.

+ Target 2: To increase the laboring time-use rate of female laborers in rural areas to 75% by 2005 and 80% by 2010.

+ Target 3: To reduce the unemployment rate of female laborers in urban areas to about 5-6% by 2005 and under 5% by 2010.

+ Target 4: To have 80% of poor households with female heads be lent with capital from hunger elimination and poverty alleviation program and 50% of credit capital borrowers be females by 2005.

- Objective 2: To exercise women�s rights to equality in education.

+ Target 1: To strive to eradicate illiteracy for 95% of illiterate women under 40 years of age by 2005 and for 100% of them by 2010.

+ Target 2: To strive to increase the percentage of female postgraduates to over 30% of the total by 2005 and over 35% by 2010.

+ Target 3: To increase the percentage of trained female laborers to 30% (20% of whom will receive job- training) by 2005 and 40% (26% of whom will receive job- training) by 2010.

+ Target 4: To have 30% or more of female officials and public servants fostered in terms of politics, administration, informatics and foreign language skills by 2005; to raise the percentage of women participating in domestic and overseas professional fostering and/or training courses to the level equal to that of women engaged in professional activities in the corresponding domains by 2010.

- Objective 3: To exercise women�s rights to equality in health care

+ Target 1: To increase women�s average life expectancy to 71 by 2005 and 73 by 2010.

+ Target 2: To increase the percentage of pregnant women undergoing 3 antenatal examinations to 55% by 2005 and 60% by 2010.

+ Target 3: To reduce the pregnancy-related mortality rate of pregnant women to 80/100,000 by 2005 and 70/100,000 by 2010.

+ Target 4: To increase the percentage of women who can access healthcare services to 90% by 2005 and 95% by 2010.

+ Target 5: All medical stations will have midwives, of whom the graduates of intermediate schools will account for 50% by 2005 and 80% by 2010.

- Objective 4: To raise the quality and effectiveness of women�s activities in political, economic, cultural and social domains in order to increase the number of women recommended and elected to the leadership of different levels and branches.

- Objective 5: To enhance the capacity of activities for advancement of women

+ Target 1: To have 100% of personnel engaged in activities for advancement of women at all levels and branches trained in operational skills by 2005.

+ Target 2: To have 100% of leaders of the ministries, committees, centrally-run branches and mass organizations with fuller consciousness of gender equality by 2005.

2. Major solutions

a/ To enhance the leadership of the Party Committees and the direction of administrations at all levels in the cause for the advancement of women and gender equality, especially in rural, ethnic minority, mountainous and island areas as well as areas meeting with socio-economic difficulties or exceptional ones.

b/ To continue building and perfecting the system of laws and policies on gender equality, including the policy on raising the quality of female human resources; to promulgate policies on priority health care and education for girls and women in poor families, deep-lying, remote, mountainous and island areas as well as areas meeting with socio-economic difficulties or exceptional ones. To raise the management effect and effectiveness of the exercise of the rights to gender equality by the relevant State agencies.

c/ To fruitfully incorporate the contents of gender equality into the contents of annual and five-year socio-economic development plans of the whole country as well as of each ministry, branch and locality.

To associate the implementation of this strategy with the implementation of other relevant strategies and national target programs as well as Vietnam�s regional and international commitments on gender equality, and with the implementation of the United Nations� Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in order to achieve the gender equality objective.

d/ To enhance the work of propagation, education and social campaigns with contents and forms suited to each area, each region and each group of subjects, thus contributing to raising the awareness and responsibility of the State agencies, organizations, families and every citizens in the work of gender equality.

e/ To build a mechanism for close and effective coordination among the State agencies, between the State agencies and political organizations, socio-political organizations or other social organizations at the central and local levels in organizing, inspecting, urging and evaluating the exercise of women�s fundamental rights as well as the implementation of the strategy�s objectives.

f/ To step up international cooperative activities so as to learn and share experiences and mobilize resources in support of the implementation of this strategy.

g/ To raise the capacity of gathering, analyzing, processing and supplying information and data on gender equality, thereby meeting the requirements for evaluation of the results of exercising the rights to gender equality as well as the implementation of the strategy�s objectives.

h/ To develop women�s movements and raise the quality of activities of women�s associations at all levels.

i/ The funding for implementation of this strategy shall be channeled through the relevant strategies and national target programs and included in the annual budget expenditure estimates of the ministries, committees, branches and mass organizations at the central and local levels. In addition to the State budget sources, the ministries, branches, mass organizations and localities shall take initiative in creating all conditions for the mobilization of financial supports from organizations and individuals inside and outside the country.

Article 2.- Organization of implementation

In order to well achieve the strategy�s objectives, responsibilities are assigned to the ministries, branches and localities as follows:

1. The Ministry of Planning and Investment:

a/ To assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the National Committee for Advancement of Vietnamese Women, the Ministries of: Health; Education and Training; Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; Agriculture and Rural Development; Justice, and Finance, the Government Commission for Organization and Personnel, the other relevant agencies and the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities in organizing the implementation of this strategy.

b/ To assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the National Committee for Advancement of Vietnamese Women, the relevant ministries, branches and localities in incorporating the gender equality objective into annual and five-year national-level socio-economic development plans of the ministries, branches and localities; guide, inspect, evaluate and sum up the situation on implementation of the strategy�s objectives and tasks and annually report to the Prime Minister thereon; organize the preliminary review of the implementation of the strategy by 2005 and final review thereof by 2010.

2. The Ministries of: Health, Education and Training; Agriculture and Rural Development; Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, and Justice, the Government Commission for Organization and Personnel as well as the other relevant agencies shall, basing themselves on this strategy, elaborate and organize the implementation of annual and five-year plans of action aiming to attain the objectives of this strategy, and send such plans to the Ministry of Planning and Investment; include the gender equality objectives in short-term and long-term plans of their respective ministries and branches; incorporate activities of this strategy into activities of other strategies, national target programs and related programs along the direction of prioritizing the investment for girls and women being ethnic minority people, members of poor families or those infected with HIV/AIDS; and annually report thereon to the Minister of Planning and Investment and the Chairperson of the National Committee for Advancement of Vietnamese Women.

3. The Finance Ministry shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the National Committee for Advancement of Vietnamese Women, the relevant ministries and branches as well as the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities in working out annual financial plans to achieve the strategy�s objectives and fulfill its tasks; guide the concerned ministries, branches and localities to use funding sources for implementation of this strategy.

4. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the concerned ministries and branches in propagating the strategy among and mobilizing supports from, foreign governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as the UN organizations for the implementation thereof.

5. The General Department of Statistics shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the concerned ministries and branches in conducting annual and five-year evaluations and analyses of the situation on the achievement of this strategy�s objectives and send reports thereon to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the National Committee for Advancement of Vietnamese Women for summing up and further reporting to the Prime Minister.

6. The National Committee for Advancement of Vietnamese Women shall act as the main body in international cooperation on gender equality and advancement of women; coordinate with the relevant agencies in proposing the Prime Minister to elaborate the State�s laws and policies related to gender equality; oversee, urge and inspect the implementation of the State�s laws and policies on women; propagate and disseminate the State�s laws and policies on women as well as the CEDAW and encourage the implementation thereof.

7. The People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall base themselves on this strategy to incorporate the gender equality objectives into the socio-economic development plans of their respective localities; elaborate and organize the implementation of annual and five-year plans of action for the attainment of the strategy�s objectives; incorporate activities of this strategy into activities of other strategies, national target programs as well as relevant socio-economic development programs and plans in the same locality; and annually report thereon to the Minister of Planning and Investment and the chairperson of the National Committee for Advancement of Vietnamese Women.

8. To request Vietnam Fatherland Front, Vietnam Women�s Union, the Front�s member organizations and other social organizations to participate in the implementation of this strategy within the scope of their respective activities.

Article 3.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

Article 4.- The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government, the presidents of the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities and the chairperson of the National Committee for Advancement of Vietnamese Women shall have to implement this Decision.

For the Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister
PHAM GIA KHIEM