Updates

The “From Village to Markets: Empowering Ethnic Minority Women” event held in Hanoi on December 6th highlighted both the challenges and opportunities to improve the economic empowerment of women in North West Vietnam. The event is organized by the Australian supported program called Gender Responsive Equitable Agriculture and Tourism (GREAT) which aims to empower local

Mountainous Van Ban in Lao Cai Province is home to significant plantation of bode trees, or more correctly Styrax tonkinensis. The tree has often been exploited by local people for its timber but there are more sustainable uses. The tree produces benzoin, a fragrant resin, that is used internationally in medicines perfumes and incense. There

Originally from Ninh Binh, a lowland province in north Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Tram moved to Van Ban to be a teacher and now considers it her second home. Over the past two decades, she has witnessed the economic difficulty experienced by people in Van Ban and the entrenched disadvantages of ethnic minority women in particular.

On 20 August 2019, the Project “Transforming livelihoods & enabling market access for ethnic minority women farmers in the tea sector” (T-LEAF) was launched in Moc Chau, Son La. Forty representatives from governmental and private sectors and the villages where the project will take place participated in the event. The workshop’s main objective is to introduce the

Driving with the windows down into the mountainous village of Nam Det 1 in Bac Ha District, Lao Cai, the sweet smell of cinnamon is in the air. This village is dependent on cinnamon with few other livelihood options. Cinnamon, or more precisely, Cinnamomum Cassia, is indigenous to Vietnam and brings economic benefit to many

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on empowering women in diplomacy between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Under the MOU, Australian and Vietnamese leaders, policy makers and diplomats will come together in

May 30-31, 2019. Australia’s Ambassador to Vietnam, HE Craig Chittick and colleagues from the Australian Embassy in Vietnam visited partners of the Aus4Quality|GREAT Program in Van Ban, Bac Ha and Sa Pa districts in Lao Cai. The visit to Lao Cai was an opportunity for the Australian Ambassador to see first-hand how GREAT is creating economic

16 April 2019- There is a large market for counter-season vegetables in Hanoi’s summertime and the good roads from Son La now make it easier for transportation to the Capital. Son La has the ideal climate for counter-season growth.

19 March 2019- The GREAT Program has just signed two new community-based tourism projects in Son La and Lao Cai, Northwest Vietnam with the objective to economically empower ethnic minority women.