Promoting women land rights in Vietnam

Results of the assessment of the Vietnam Land Access for Women Program Hung Yen Long An

ICRW's mission is to empower women, advance gender equality, and fight poverty ICRW is helping to build the evidence base through its research on the most pressing issues facing women and girls today. ICRW has worked with local, national and international partners to conduct original research, build capacity and advocate for evidence-based solutions. ICRW works with advocates, policymakers and thought leaders to ensure sustainable solutions are backed by solid evidence.

Methods Quantitative assessment of outcomes of the LAW project after 1.5 years of implementation based on baseline and endline survey data from 847 households Monitoring data External qualitative evaluation

Objective: to assess the state of LAW program participants Awareness of existing land rights under current legislation (farmers, civil society, women, men, community leaders) Barriers to female and male farmers’ ability to access land rights Gendered dimensions of the current law Attitudes toward women’s land rights at the community level

Where are we coming from Land rights that improve women’s access to resources are as important as creating a context that promotes the implementation of the law. The case of Vietnam is important in terms of the studies of barriers for women’s access to land because there are still gaps between men and women in terms of their access to land despite the progressive chapters in the land laws.

Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (2013) What the law says Citizens are equally entitled to the same rights and obligations without discrimination based on gender, religion, or wealth. Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (2013) Law on Gender Equality (2006) The Land Law (2013) Law on Domestic Violence Prevention (2007) Civil Code (2005)

The intervention Attitudes about women land rights Knowledge about women land rights Behavioral change: more women with names in LURCS, girls inheriting land, conflicts resolved More access to justice for all, women in particular The intervention

The intervention: main actors

OBJECTIVE 1: Increase farmers’ awareness of existing land rights under current legislation, especially women. Knowledge At endline, men’s average 9% higher than the baseline; women 16% higher than the baseline. P>.001 Attitude: similar change. “After attending one of the workshops, it came to me, if all that is different between a man and a woman is that she has a vagina and we have a penis, then why can’t a woman have her name in a Land Use Certificate” Two outcome-level targets were set under this objective: to increase the score of the knowledge scale obtained by men and women during baseline by 50%; and to increase the score of commune authorities and mass organization members. To report on the progress towards these targets, we used the results of the midline and baseline quantitative assessments and the midline qualitative report. In terms of the first target, during baseline, men obtained an average score of 5.91 and women a score of 5.38, on a scale of 8 questions in which each correct answer was given 1 point. The 50% increase target was already unrealistic because it set the targets to 8.86 and 8.07 on a scale of 8 points. However, the program team kept this target because there was no background information to guide the calculation of a more realistic target. The program team assumed that the new scores produced at midline would serve as evidence for future effect size calculations for this or similar interventions. The average score obtained by men during midline was 6.45 – 9% higher than the baseline; the average score obtained by women was 6.27 -16% higher than the baseline. The differences between men and women were statistically significant.

OBJECTIVE 2: Facilitate female farmers’ ability to access their land rights 62 Community Volunteers (61% women) 5,698 clients (56% women) 1,100 land cases (51% brought by women) 689 cases solved 62 CVGEAs, who are available to work with farmers, 61% of whom were women. At the close of FY 2016, 5,698 clients (56% of whom were women) received legal advice from the project CVGEAs, exceeding the target by 43% (5,698/3,960=143); and 689 cases were resolved, exceeding the program’s target by 43% (689/480=143). Of these cases, 1,100 were directly linked to land rights problems such as transferring LURCs and writing wills to bequeath land rights, among others. 564 cases were brought up by women and 536 were brought up by men.

OBJECTIVE 3: Generate evidence about gender specific barriers to realizing land rights in rural areas. Data collected Monitoring data systematically collected by Community Volunteers Coordinators will have laptops this year Coordinators will be able to conduct basic analysis to produce the evidence that will lead the advocacy discussions Until last year, analysis was conducted by ICRW and ISDS

Large problem with son preference and inheritance “A daughter is the member of other’s family (Con gai la con nguoi ta)” is a proverb that means once the daughter gets married, she is no longer considered a member of her birth family. “My daughter has had a hard life. She is unfortunate. Her husband did not treat her well so she could not live with him anymore. Now she raises her daughter on her own. He [the ex-husband] does not offer any help. I wanted to divide the land and give my daughter her own Red book, but my husband and son did not agree. They wanted my son to be the only one who inherits our land,” Han recalled. Son preference in inheritance practice remains dominant in Vietnam, particularly in rural areas where most people still hold a perception that a woman should not be entitled to possess property. Therefore, when Han’s daughter got divorced and returned to her hometown, she could not persuade her husband and son to allocate a plot of land for her daughter.

Lawyers, union representatives, NGO OBJECTIVE 4: Increase the capacity of civil society organizations and mass organizations to advocate for gender equality and women’s land rights. Building networks under the LANDA initiative and ad-hoc commune level committees Lawyers, union representatives, NGO Local authorities Community Volunteers

Conclusions Recognize local networks of volunteers: This is a key success factor for our program: no duplication but strengthening the capacity of participants in Unions of the Fatherland front to do what they already see as duty: helping their fellow citizens to get justice. Having men and women, of different generations as community volunteers is key for a broad outreach

Conclusions: Food for Thought Some of the problems that affect women are not gender-specific. They affect both men and women, although the number of women affected by these problems may be higher than the number of men because of women’s lower status in the communes. Community mobilization to discuss land use change and political participation The amount of cases that seemed to require GIS adoption is not stricking

Thank you Galvarado@icrw.org http://www.icrw.org/