Nestlé Vietnam and Vietnam Women's Union toast first year of programme to empower women

The seminar on Women’s Empowerment Journey: Complete Life – Own the Future by Vietnam Women’s Union and Nestlé Vietnam

The programme has brought practical and meaningful activities, creating value, and helping many women improve their and their families' lives during the pandemic.

The Women's Booth initiative has created more opportunities to increase the incomes and improve the family economy for women. Training activities on nutrition and family health received enthusiastic responses from women all over the country. The online cooking contest attracted 40,000 entries, providing a connected and shared experience for women during social distancing. The promotion of digitalisation has also been implemented in the programme to help women access and master digital tools, contributing to increasing their incomes.

Tran Thi Huong, vice chairwoman of Vietnam Women's Union said that Vietnamese women are suffering negative impacts from the pandemic with risks of unemployment, reduced income, and heavy burden on taking care of children and families.

The seminar summarised the first year of the cooperation programme between Nestlé and Vietnam Women's Union

Nestlé's programme to accompany women has received the support of leaders of the Vietnam Women's Union and high praise from local authorities. “Communication and training activities to support women to improve their capacity, knowledge, and skills, as well as new livelihood models, have helped gradually improve women members' lives, create sustainable livelihoods for them, and promote the construction of new rural areas and civilised cities," Huong said.

Training activities on nutrition knowledge and sales implemented within the framework of the programme

As an active partner of Vietnam Women's Union in women's empowerment, Nestlé Vietnam has demonstrated a strong commitment to gender equality in Vietnam over the past 25 years.

Binu Jacob, managing director of Nestlé Vietnam, shared: “Gender equality and women's empowerment is one of Nestlé's global strategies. In Vietnam, we make continuous efforts to actualise this strategy. The programme with Vietnam Women's Union is a typical activity, contributing to a change in the lives of women in rural areas, helping them to complete their lives and own their future. Looking back on the past journey, we are happy to see the positive impacts that the programme has exerted, and it is also the motivation for us to work even harder with our commitment to gender equality and increasing the awareness of empowering women at work and in the community.”

The results from the cooperation programme between the Vietnam Women's Union and Nestlé Vietnam have been showing the role of cooperation between organisations and businesses in the journey of women's empowerment and promoting gender equality in Vietnam. When such models are spread and replicated, more and more Vietnamese women will have access to opportunities to learn from each other, promote values, and become important contributors to the common development of society.

Nestlé Vietnam and the Vietnam Women's Union signed a cooperation agreement for 2020-2022, aiming to enhance the quality of life and empowerment for women, especially in rural areas, with a view for extension to all provinces in the country afterwards.

With activities on nutrition communication as well as building a model for the economic empowerment of women, after just over a year of implementation, the programme has attracted 4,000 members in 700 communes in 10 provinces and cities, creating a positive impact on many women’s lives in the programme areas.