ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the neglected nexus of gender, ethnicity and age in Vietnamese policy and programming. It notes that while the country is a regional leader in terms of policies aimed at fostering gender equality – especially in the public sphere – and has, for decades, devoted considerable resources to reducing ethnic minority poverty, until recently there has been almost no attention paid to the way in which gender, ethnicity and age combine to constrain ethnic minority adolescent girls’ life opportunities and broader well-being. Indeed, these girls are so invisible that disaggregated data that speaks to their needs is all but unavailable. Drawing on three years of research in Ha Giang province in northern Viet Nam with the Hmong community – the most disadvantaged and marginalised of Viet Nam’s diverse ethnic minority groups – we explore how policy and programming is shifting the gender norms that constrain Hmong girls’ lives. We also examine three programmes targeting Hmong adolescents to explore some of the complex inter-linkages between policies and their implementation, programming and social norm change processes. Our research underscores the need to prioritise longer-term investments in social norm change that focus on incentivising parents and adolescent girls, and are developed through engaging in dialogue with the Hmong community.
