Vietnam and the 'Demographic Bonus'

One of the joys of volunteering is the ability to get involved with activities and events that would not be available to you in the UK, take for example a consultation workshop on Vietnam’s Population and Reproductive Health strategy for the next 10 years.

Chaired by the leadership of the Ministry of Health and supported by UNFPA , the workshop provided an opportunity to share experience from around the region and opened up a whole new subject area for me…the interesting area of demographics!

Here is a brief summary of some of the key questions, drawn from my notes and publicly available material….

Vietnam, like many countries in Asia and S.E.Asia is at an advanced stage of its demographic transition, that is, there is a marked decline in mortality and fertility from the high rates characteristic of low-income countries to the low rates characteristic of high income societies. In short people are living longer and having less children.

Currently Vietnam is entering a period of ‘demographic dividend’ this means that for around 30 years there will be two or more persons of working age (15- 60 years) for every person of dependent age (under 15 or over 60 years old).

In contrast developed economies such as those in Europe and Japan have moved beyond this stage in their transition, the UK left it around the year 2000. The ‘baby boom’ generation, born at a time of declining mortality but high fertility, are passing through their working years and the old-age dependency ratio has begun to increase….did anyone hear me mention the words ‘pension crisis’ or ‘increased retirement age’?

For Vietnam though the demographic bonus means that, for the next few decades, the working population will increase by 1 million people each year. Provided this workforce is healthy, educated and employment opportunities are available this bonus will give significant impetus to Vietnam’s growth, indeed some studies have indicated that as much as one third of growth in the ‘East Asia miracles’, such as South Korea and Singapore, can be attributed to the demographic bonus.

This presents significant opportunities, but also challenges and Vietnam’s Population and Reproductive Health Strategy for 2011 -2020 is attempting to address these by asking the following questions:

How can Vietnam maintain balanced fertility rates?

Currently Vietnam has achieved a replacement level of 2.11 children per woman, in demographic terms an optimum level. However fertility rates are continuing to fall, due to better education and higher participation of women in the labour market, meaning they are having less children and later…If fertility rates fall to ultra-low levels ie. 1.35 this would result in 30 % of Vietnam’s population being over 60 by 2035. A situation that Japan is already struggling with!

Further, evidence suggests that once fertility rates fall to such levels it is very difficult if not impossible to reverse, it is not just a simple question of telling people to have more children, policies need to be put in place to ensure women can have children and continue to having meaningful employment within the labour market. How can this be achieved?

How can Vietnam accommodate further Population Growth?

Even with below-replacement fertility rates, Vietnam’s population will grow by a further 10 million between 2011-2020, due to the high number of women of entering reproductive age, not because women are having more babies. This is known as population momentum. How can policy makers ensure that this population growth is accommodated in a positive way, rather than exasperating poverty and putting a strain on services?

How can Vietnam manage rapid urbanization and migration?

Most of this population growth will occur in large cities and this will be further exasperated by large scale rural to urban migration that is already taking place. How will this impact urban planning? If services and other amenities in cities deteriorate because of increased population this will significantly affect development, if you think the traffic is bad in Hanoi now then wonder what they will be like in 2020? How will Vietnam respond, for example the building of a new metro in Hanoi?

How can Vietnam best promote reproductive health?

The fact that fertility rates are now down to replacement levels does not mean that sexual and reproductive health programmes can be ignored. Weaknesses need to be addressed in addressing issues such as STI’s and in particular HIV/AIDS, which has greatest impact upon young people of working age, have the potential to diminish the demographic bonus. How should policy makers address unmet needs for sexual and reproductive health services, particularly amongst marginalized and disadavantaged groups such as gay men and other males who have sex with males (MSM) and ethnic minorities?

How can Vietnam resolve the imbalance in Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB)?

The imbalance in the sex ratio at birth has emerged as a major gender issue in recent years, currently it is at 112 male births to 100 female births, (the norm is 105). If this trend continues then it may significantly affect Vietnams demographic and sex structure in the next two decades. Scarcity of women could increase pressure on men to marry at younger age and cause a rising demand for sex work, with a subsequent increase in trafficking to respond to this imbalance. How should policy makers address this issue which is deeply embedded in cultural norms, such as a preference for sons, and which is itself rooted in gender inequality?

How can Vietnam adjust to population ageing?

Whilst ageing is not an urgent problem at the present time it needs to be considered now, if Vietnam is to avoid the issues that have arisen in other countries with low fertility rates and ageing populations. Policies that have encouraged smaller families, need to be reconciled with policies aimed at encouraging adults to assume responsibility for the welfare of their elderly parents. How can policy makers address such contradictions?

Thinking about such questions helps us all to recognize that there are no simple answers in policy formation, but workshops such as this one help to share experiences, learn from others and provide an opportunity to participate in the development of sound policies and strategies.

The Kitchen God Day

The most important event in the Vietnamese year is soon to happen, TET, or the lunar New Year. On Feb 14th the Year of the Tiger will be ushered in and family celebrations shall abound. Preperations are already underway, houses are being painted, new furniture is being bought, the streets are being adorned with orange trees and flowers from around Vietnam, the Vietnamese flag is proudly flying from dwellings. Travel is difficult as flights and trains are booked as people move around to be with their families.

The year of the tiger symbolises bravery and protects the household from misfortune such as theft, fire, and the haunting of hungry ghosts, the lost souls that have no one who makes offerings to them, so must scavenge the land of the living for food, and tomorrow is very important day in the preparations for Tet, the appeasement of the Kitchen Gods, here is their story.

There is a popular belief in Vietnam that Tao Quan, the Three Kitchen Gods, are present in the kitchen of every home. These gods observe everything that takes place there. At the end of the lunar year, on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, they depart to Heaven to inform Ngoc Hoang, the Jade Emperor, supreme divinity of the Taoist Heaven, of their owner's affairs during the year round. On that day Tao Ouan are offered the best of food and spices and are presented with gifts of money and clothing.

Long, long ago, when Earth and Sky met in the Valley of Whispers, in the dense, green forest there lived a woodcutter and his wife. They were very poor and oftentimes the man was unable to earn enough to buy their food. Frustration and worry drove him to drink, and took the beating on his wife. She couldn't endure it any longer. One night, she fled the cottage and was never seen there again.

For days and weeks, the woman wandered in the forest. She was hungry and her feet were torn and bleeding. Finally, she came to a hunter's cabin. The owner was an honest man, who gave her food and permitted her to rest in his home. She kept house for him then, and after some time they were married. They lived together in great happiness, and it seemed that the woman had forgotten the terrors of her previous marriage. One day while they were burning paper money and clothes to their ancestors in the yard, a beggar came in. The woman realized that the beggar was her former husband. Felt sorry for his fate, she gave him money and rice, not wanting her new husband to know. Later, the new husband was told about this and he suspected the woman's virtue.

The woman, to prove her righteousness, committed suicide by jumping in to the fire. Seeing this heart-rending sight, the former husband also jumped into the fire. The new husband, regretting for what he has thought of his wife, did the same as the other two did. The Jade Emperor was so moved by their faithfulness, offered them the title of the Gods of the Kitchen.Based on that legend, on 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, every household buys to male hats for two men and one female hat for woman, together with three fresh carps (acting as horses for the Kings). After the offering ceremony, the household owner releases the carps to the lakes or ponds nearby.

Although the Kitchen Gods fly to Heaven on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, they will return sharply on the 30th day of the same month before the last moment of the old year comes. You may wonder why there are three Kitchen Gods instead of just one? Well, the reason for having 3 Kitchen Gods is because the Vietnamese traditional clay stove (bê'p, lò) provides three support posts for the pots and pans. Thus we have 3 posts that are bound together at the base - a tri-deity? It is not known which started first, the legend or the stove.

I shan't be realeasing any carps to the Jade Emperor because with the time I spend in the kitchen, virtually none, I can't imagine the news they would bring to him will be particularly flattering...I have tried to find the legend associated with the Bia Hoi Gods but can't seem to find one....

In the meantime Happy New Year to you all

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

"Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence — yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned." — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, 8 March 2007

Hello, it has been a little while since I updated my blog, such has been the sheer amount of activities that I have been involved with both as part of my assignment at work and a very busy social life in Hanoi.

So to address the gap I thought I would I would try and write a series of articles about some of the issues that the Centre for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP), the organisation that I work for, tackle here in Vietnam. The first of which is about violence against women.

It is a sobering thought that around the world as many as 1 in 3 women will at some point in their lives suffer some form of violence or abuse, often by a husband or intimidate partner. Among women aged between 15- 44 years, the risk of disablement or death from violence is higher than that from cancer, motor vehicle accidents and malaria. Such is the extent of the problem that it has been described “as the most pervasive yet least recognized human rights abuse in the world."

Such human rights abuses are varied and can occur at any point in woman’s life, they include pre-natal sex selection, female genital mutilation, bride burning or dowry related crimes, physical or emotional violence by an intimate partner, trafficking of women and children, exploitation of domestic workers, honour based murders and the brutal use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Lets just for a moment look at just of the hidden, often unreported statistics about this issue.

In the Russian Federation half of all murder victims are women killed by their male partners, to put this figure into perspective each and every year more women are killed as a result of domestic violence in Russia, than the entire number of Russian fatalities resulting from the 10 year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Recent studies estimate that each year two million girls between the ages of 5 and 15 enter the sex industry.

In Asia, approximately 60 million women are ‘missing’ killed through infanticide and selective abortion or deliberate under-nutrition.

It is estimated that 500,000 women are trafficked into Western Europe each year often for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Globally trafficking is the third fastest growing crime.

Based on recent studies, more than 130 million women and girls in Africa, Middle East and Asia, have undergone female genital mutilation and an estimated 2 million girls are at risk for undergoing the procedure each year.

In France, 95% of the victims of violence are women, 51% of them at the hands of intimate partners, in the UK 1 to 2 women are murdered by their male partners each week.

The costs of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceeds US$5.8 billion per year.

But these statistics do not tell the individual stories of women who have been abused. Take the story of just one victim, in just one country, a married women from a small coastal town in Vietnam…

“Some day, when I was supposed to eat my meal, he asked me to go to the pigsty to eat there; he did not permit me to eat inside our house. Another day, I brought a pig-leg to make soup. When I went out for a second, he poured the liquid from the dead fish’s viscera that was used for making pig’s meal into my soup. He was very cruel […] he often hit me.

One time, he poured boiled water over my body. It was lucky that I wore the conical straw hat so that only half my body was burned. I had to go to the hospital and stay in my parents’ house for one and a half months and lie on banana leaves and be covered with the fine cloth used for making mosquito nets”.

The Government of Vietnam determined to ensure that such abuses do not continue brought together various laws and regulations into one single framework in 2007. The Law on Gender-based Violence makes it clear that such abuses are unacceptable and will be severely punished, but in a society where such violence is too often seen as private matter, either to be resolved within the family or endured by the woman as a ‘normal’ part of marriage, its implementation can be problematic.

Fortunately the work of CCIHP is helping to ensure that women are able to access services and exercise their rights under the law. Through careful research and interventions, CCIHP has worked with victims as well supporting services to ensure that women are aware of their rights, that counseling services are responsive to their needs and that the police and justice systems recognize that violence against women needs to be treated seriously and addressed promptly.

Working together with other NGOs, government institutions and mass organizations, CCIHP has tried to ensure that other women do not have to endure the violence described above. But with only 2 shelters nationwide for victims of violence, and where deeply entrenched social norms and attitudes can tacitly condone such abuses it is clear that still more needs to be done not only to ensure the safety of victims but also to prevent such violence from occurring in the first place.

This can only be achieved by tackling the gender inequalities that result in women being viewed as fundamentally of lesser value than men. Tackling such attitudes involves working with men and boys, as well as women and girls, for it is only by changing such attitudes that violence against women will come to be seen as a brutal violation of a woman’s right to live a life free from violence and abuse rather than an accepted and invisible norm

Attached is a short video campaign against domestic violence in Vietnam that draws upon the specific cultural context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKVBRGCx59E