Launching the "Men and Gender Equality" movement in EVN: Take action today, gender equality is within our reach

On the morning of February 28th in Hanoi, the Committee for the Advancement of Women (CAW) of Vietnam Electricity (EVN) cooperated with the Vietnam Electricity Labor Union to organize a conference launching the "Men and Gender Equality" movement within EVN. This is one of the components of the cooperation program between EVN and the International Council of Swedish Industry on Gender Equality, with the aim of promoting gender equity and equality within EVN in particular, and society in general.

The conference was held in a combined format of in-person and online participation. Nearly 170 conferencing points at EVN's member units were connected to the event.

Attending the program was Mr. Ola Karlman, First Secretary, Head of Trade Promotion, Economic and Political Affairs of the Swedish Embassy in Vietnam.

Representing the Swedish Workplace Program under the International Council of Swedish Industry were: Ms. Nguyen Thu Hien, Regional Coordinator; and Mr. Michael Ong, Consulting Expert.

On EVN's side and the EVN's Committee for the Advancement of Women were: Mr. Vo Quang Lam, EVN’s Vice President and Head of EVN's CAW; Mr. Do Duc Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Electricity Labor Union and Deputy Head of EVN's CAW; Mr. Tran Viet Anh, Head of EVN's Organization and Human Resource Department and Standing Deputy Head of EVN's CAW; Mr. Trinh Mai Phuong, Head of EVN's Communication Department and a CAW member; Mr. Nguyen Tan Loc, former EVN’s Vice President and former Head of EVN's CAW.

In the opening remarks, Mr. Vo Quang Lam – EVN’s Vice President and Head of EVN's Committee for the Advancement of Women, affirmed that promoting gender equality benefits not only women but also men; promoting gender equality does not mean leveling gender differences, but aims to harness the strengths of each gender, contributing to building a better life.

"With that meaning, in 2023, EVN implemented a pilot training program "Men and Gender Equality - Guys Talk" in the North, Central, and South regions for Chairman of labor union and members of the Committee for the Advancement of Women of various units, with a total of 117 registered participants. The training program was highly appreciated by the learners, who recognized that gender issues are not only for women, but that we, men also need it for work and daily life. They proposed to further deploy it extensively to the units. Based on the results of the pilot implementation and to successfully implement the Gender Equality Plan in Vietnam Electricity for the period 2021-2025, EVN’s Committee for the Advancement of Women coordinated with the Vietnam Electricity Labor Union to launch the "Men and Gender Equality" movement within the Vietnam Electricity with messages about the importance of gender equality for everyone and the goals that EVN pursues," the EVN’s Vice President emphasized.

Introducing the "Men and Gender Equality" movement, Mr. Do Duc Hung - Chairman of the Vietnam Electricity Labor Union said that the "Men and Gender Equality" program has initially trained 117 staff members from various units. The Chairman of the Vietnam Electricity Labor Union hopes that these members will be the core seeds to spread the program to male managers and colleagues in their units through various forms such as seminars, training sessions, or organizing "Tea talk" discussions on topics guided by "GUYS TALK"... to promote gender equality work.

At the program, delegates attending the conference exchanged with consultants about the "Men and Gender Equality - Guys Talk" program. Accordingly, the "Men and Gender Equality" movement within the Vietnam Electricity was launched under the plan No. 1005/KHLT-EVN-CDDVN dated February 27^th  2024 between EVN’s Committee for the Advancement of Women and the Vietnam Electricity Labor Union.

The movement focuses on implementing 3 specific tasks, including: (1) Continuing to disseminate and propagate EVN's information on the vision, journey to promote gender equality in the 2021-2025 period and specific solutions to all EVN employees; (2) Organizing the effective and practical implementation of the "Men and Gender Equality" movement, closely following the guiding content in the journey to promote gender equality. Organizing at least one sharing, discussion or talk session at the unit on the topic of "Men and Gender Equality" using the set of materials and topics from Guys Talk in March 2024; (3) Focusing on detecting, commending, fostering and replicating exemplary male managers on gender equality in order to spread and replicate good practices to build a more diverse and inclusive working environment and culture.

Within the framework of the program, the delegates also sent messages on "Men and Gender Equality" and congratulations on International Women's Day from the leaders of Vietnam Electricity.

Messages from delegates at the Conference to launch the "Men and Gender Equality" movement within EVN: