English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
Law on Gender Equality, in Article 12(2)(b), states that female workers in rural areas
will be given credit aid and encouraged to expand their work in agriculture, forestry
and fisheries.
There are also several provisions on land, property and inheritance rights that affect
significantly women’s access to credit. See Part V.12.3, Indicator 105 for the provisions,
discussion and recommendations.
However, in reality, women have less access to credit, loans and funds; for example,
although one third of all loans are obtained from banks, women have access these banks less
frequently than men. 635 Loans accessed by men from banks (other than Bank for the Poor, now
VBSP 636 ) account for 33 percent, while the figure for women is only 18 percent. 637
Additionally, there are also sources that provide preferential credit for the poor and
farmers, such as: (a) heavily subsidized credit under the Hunger Eradication and Poverty
Reduction Programme (HEPR) (for poor households); (b) VBSP (for poor households); (c) Viet
Nam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (VBARD) (for farmers); (d) commune-level
savings-and-loan schemes, usually with help from NGOs; (e) mass organizations, such as
Viet Nam Women’s Union. 638 However, an assessment showed that 6 percent of poor
households have accessed credit under the HEPR, while 30 percent if non-poor households
benefited from it. The VHLSS 2002 indicates that loans were only given to 25 percent of poor
female-headed households compared with 35 percent of poor male-headed households.
Hence, similarly, poor women also have lower access to credit than men do.
Women unions at various levels are also allowed by the Government to act as credit
guarantors for member loans. 639 Every year, 30 percent of the total small projects in the country
are funded by loans of this kind. In 2000, VBARD and the Viet Nam Women’s Union signed a
Joint Resolution on Granting Loans for Women. Hence, if the applicant is sponsored by the
Viet Nam Women’s Union or Viet Nam Farmer’s Union, loans of up to VND 10 million do not
require collateral. 640 After three years of implementation, VBARD had provided credit loans to
1.3 million women with the total value of VND 5.134 billion, 641 which is a significant
improvement of women’s access to credit.
NGOs and mass organizations provide significant role in extending credit to the poor,
women, and ethnic minorities through microcredit. Total loans of this nature amount to about
5 percent. 642 In this area, the Viet Nam Women’s Union provides both access to small-scale
credit and training in financial management, such as the Saving Day for Poor Women scheme
and TYM Credit Fund.
281
635
FAO Report, p. 7
636
See, for example, Decision 131/2002/QD-TTG of October 4, 2002 on the Establishment of the Social Policy Bank, and
Directive No. 05/2003/CT-TTG of March 18, 2003 Directing the Operation of the Bank for Social Policies (Directive on
Social Policies Bank)
637
FAO Report, p. 7
638
Wells, op. cit., p. 27
639
Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Report, p. 35
640
Wells, op. cit., p. 27
641
Combined Fifth and Sixth Periodic Report, p. 41
642
Wells, op. cit., p. 28
Economic and social life (Article 13 of CEDAW)