The Government of Viet Nam has pledged its commitment to gender equality in international conventions, and national legislation and development strategies. The Law on Gender Equality (2006), the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control (2007), the National Strategy on Gender Equality (2011-2020) and the National Programme on Gender Equality (2011-2015) outline the duties of different sectors, including the communication and information sector, for promoting gender equality and the advancement of women.

In line with these national priorities and UNESCO’s Global Priority Gender Equality, UNESCO Viet Nam is supporting the Ministry of Information and Communication to conduct the following activities with the aim of mainstreaming gender equality in the field of communication and information:

• Translating and contextualizing ‘Broadcasting for All: Focus on Gender’, a guideline for gender-sensitive broadcasting developed by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD)
• Gender training programme for media professionals, based on the FES-AIBD guideline
• Training a number of media professionals on gender sensitive broadcasting

These activities are being implemented with the help of national experts and AIBD and they are part of UNESCO’s contribution to the Government of Viet Nam/UN Joint Programme on Gender Equality (JPGE). UNESCO is one of twelve UN agencies participating in the Joint Programme which seeks to enhance the capacities of line ministries and other stakeholders to implement the Law on Gender Equality and the Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control. UNESCO has also supported two activities in the Education sector.