Australia supports Vietnam to enhance women’s leadership role

Vietnam and Australia issued a joint statement on elevating their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) on March 7, 2024, committing to working together to support Viet Nam’s human resource development and exploring opportunities to increase education and training cooperation through dialogues, cooperation mechanisms and institutional linkages.

The sixth Women in Leadership Journey (WILJ6) short course, one of many activities aimed to help execute this joint statement, commenced in Hanoi on April 21, 2024 by the Vietnam Australia Centre (VAC), in collaboration with Curtin University and the Gender and Leadership Research Centre (GELEAD) at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics.

Participants of the Women in Leadership Journey 6

WILJ6 is carefully designed and implemented to include exchanging expertise knowledge of Vietnamese and Australian experts, creative experiential activities in Vietnam and Australia to help participants acquire new knowledge and skills, thereby gaining confidence to actively engage in decision-making processes within their organisations and agencies for their future action plans.

Participants will have the opportunity to meet inspirational figures to enhance leadership skills, expand networks, and improve knowledge and awareness of gender equality and leadership skills, contributing to increasing the proportion of women in leadership positions and decision-making at all levels.

Through the successes of the previous five journeys, the Women in Leadership Journey short course has become one of the pioneering initiatives of the VAC. It is aimed to promote gender equality and empower and support women in leadership, contributing to enhancing the capacities and skills of Vietnam’s human resources. WILJ’s alumnae have applied the knowledge and skills acquired to successfully implement projects beneficial to society, positively impacting their organisations and communities.

These projects include mainstreaming gender in the development of country-wide policies and regulations, promoting the role of ethnic women and empowering economic access of ethnic women through cultural tourism and sustainable farming and production models, raising awareness of gender-based violence against women with disabilities and Increasing opportunities for students with disabilities, and building networks of women experts and industry practitioners. These projects have had positive impacts on organisations and communities, contributing to raising the role of women in society.