The 2022 WEPs Awards were supported by the Australian Government, a long-time supporter of equality activities in Vietnam, including UN Women’s work.

The WEPs Awards recognize the efforts of the private sector to promote practices, programs and actions and create more gender-inclusive business cultures by embracing gender equality and women’s empowerment through the WEPs.

The WEPs Awards includes 7 categories:  Leadership Commitment, Gender-inclusive Workplace, Gender-responsive Marketplace, Community Engagement and Partnerships, Transparency & Reporting, Youth Leadership for Generation Equality and SMEs Champion.

Representative of UN Women in Vietnam, Ms. Elisa Fernandez Saenz said: “As the engine of economic development, private sector plays a significant part in the socio-economic recovery post-COVID19 and beyond and has become vital in advancing gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community to close the gender gap. We hope that the WEPs Awards will inspire more companies to be more active in adopting policies and practices that promote gender equality”.

Chairwoman of the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC), Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh, highlighted: “Women’s contribution to society and enterprises have confirmed the leading role of changes for doing decent business and sustainable development. WEPs Awards will spread and motivate enterprises to have more initiatives in advancing gender equality, women’s economic empowerment at all levels in enterprises”.

The event was attended by leaders of ministries, organizations, business associations, enterprises, UN Agencies and other international organizations. In the panel discussion, participants shared and discussed the barriers and challenges that women-owned businesses face in accessing markets in Vietnam and evaluated entry points for facilitating more equal market opportunities for women by promoting supplier diversity and gender-responsive procurement.

During the event, UN Women and the Embassy of Australia in Vietnam introduced the new program “WE RISE Together: creating equal market opportunities for women by advancing Supplier Diversity through Gender-Responsive Procurement”. This program is supported by the Australian Government’s Mekong-Australia Partnership.

“In the Asia-Pacific region, an estimated 60 per cent of micro-, small and medium enterprises are owned by women but currently, in the global procurement market, women-owned businesses secure only one per cent of spending. WE RISE Together will address this inequality and encourage the public and private sector in Vietnam to evolve their procurement policies” noted Ms Cherie Russell, Development Counsellor, Australian Embassy./.