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A three-day Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference was held in Bangkok, Thailand from November 19-21 to evaluate the 30-year implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

A ministerial-level meeting of Asia-Pacific countries to evaluate the 30-year implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

The conference brought together 1,200 delegates from 51 countries and territories across the Asia-Pacific region, including ministers, government officials, leaders of international organizations, representatives of civil society, and gender experts. The Vietnamese delegation was headed by Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. Also in attendance were representatives from the Department of Gender Equality and the Department of International Cooperation, as well as Vietnam's Permanent Representative to the UN ESCAP.

The conference was held to assess the progress of implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in the Asia-Pacific region over the past five years, to learn from experiences, best practices, as well as difficulties, challenges, and priority actions needed to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment, and to share information on policies for gender equality and women's empowerment. This is also an opportunity to promote regional consensus on priority actions to accelerate the implementation of commitments in the Declaration and prepare content for the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2025.

The conference will take place over three days with various events organized around priority themes: Promoting women's economic empowerment; Strengthening women's participation and leadership in the Asia-Pacific region; Sustainable strategies to respond to and prevent violence against women and girls; and Promoting gender equality through actions to improve gender relations.

Speaking at the plenary session of the conference, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Ha said that over the past 30 years, especially from 2019 to 2024, Vietnam has been determined to realize the goals of the Beijing Platform for Action and other international commitments on gender equality, notably through the development and consolidation of national laws and policies.

Accordingly, Vietnam has seriously integrated gender equality into law and policy development to eliminate discriminatory provisions against women and men. The National Gender Equality Strategy for the period 2021-2030 has been issued with many goals, targets, and solutions to narrow the gender gap, create conditions and opportunities for women and men to participate and benefit equally in all aspects of social life, contributing to the country's sustainable development.

In addition, communication programs to promote gender equality in various fields have been issued by the Government for nationwide implementation. The active participation of government, political, and social organizations from central to local levels in the implementation of laws and policies has yielded significant results.

These efforts and determination have significantly improved the role and status of Vietnamese women. The gender gap at all educational levels has been narrowed, and the healthcare system for ethnic minority women and rural-to-urban migrant women has been strengthened. The system of support services for victims of gender-based violence has been expanded and improved in quality.

Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Ha spoke at the Conference.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha, to achieve progress in gender equality, it is important to have a common understanding. That is, economic development must go hand in hand with social progress, poverty reduction, and attention to vulnerable groups, especially women and children. It is necessary to further strengthen the state management system on gender equality and integrate gender equality into programs and initiatives at all levels and in all sectors.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha affirmed that Vietnam will continue to participate and contribute actively to the content, documents, and joint reports of the Conference. At the same time, Vietnam continues to strengthen partnerships between the Government and relevant stakeholders, including UN agencies, to maximize support for results on gender equality and women's progress.

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