Social policy credit enhances economic empowerment for women

Over the years, the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) has closely coordinated with the Vietnam Women's Union to support capital for women to develop the economy , enhance their economic empowerment, thereby enhancing the position of women in the family and society, contributing to gender equality.

Coming to Tan Chau commune, Khoai Chau district (Hung Yen province) on the first day of spring of the new year of Giap Thin 2024, the light rain awakened the trees to sprout, adding more green to the alluvial land. Looking at the vast green of fruit trees and seedlings, few people know that in Tan Chau commune - this fertile and fertile land commune, in the years before the renovation, up to 70% of families were short of food when the whole commune only had 200 hectares of seasonal rice, the rest of the alluvial land was on high ground, so there was often a lack of water for agricultural production in the spring and winter crops, the lowest agricultural land area per capita in the district was less than 300m²/person. Even more than ten years ago, with the cultivation of vegetables and corn, the story of making a living was full of hardship and difficulty. Many people had to leave their farms and hometowns to make a living.

But now many families can rest assured to stay in their hometown to develop when the locality converts crops and livestock to effective crops such as peanuts, beans, bananas, other fruit trees, and seedlings. Supporting this journey is the companionship of the VBSP in utilizing all capital sources to support the poor, especially policy beneficiaries, especially women, to develop production and business.

The family has only 4 sao of land, of which 3 sao is rented land, but every year, Ms. Do Thi Hoa in Man Hoa village also saves hundreds of millions of dong from growing seedlings. She said that in previous years, the family had only 1 sao of corn, which was not enough to feed themselves, let alone send their children to school. Therefore, after learning and understanding the increasing demand for seedlings in the market, her family decided to change crops. Experience in production is not a big deal when the women in the village are willing to share their experiences and help each other in production.

Seedling nursery model of Ms. Do Thi Hoa

The problem seemed difficult, but when they learned that she wanted to change her production, the Women's Union of Tan Chau commune and the People's Credit Fund of Khoai Chau district created conditions for her family to borrow capital to solve employment problems, buy more land, improve the land, and buy seedlings. From the first loan of 20 million VND, then additional capital rounds of 30 million VND, 40 million VND and now 50 million VND, up to now she has a nursery with 30,000 diverse trees from fruit trees (sapodilla, guava, longan, grapefruit) to ornamental trees (peach blossom, areca). Each month, she sells about 4,000 trees. The income from this small piece of land, combined with the loan from the People's Credit Fund of the district for students with difficult circumstances, up to now, her 2 children have graduated from Hanoi Medical University, one of whom has opened a private clinic, the other is a doctor at a hospital in Hanoi.

Chairwoman of Tan Chau Commune Women's Union Do Thi Xoan said: Currently, the union is managing 500 members with loans, with outstanding debt of 22 billion VND.

Policy capital has become an important resource to support women in increasing their ownership, contributing to the development of the family economy. If previously, the whole commune had up to 100 poor households, now there are only 30 poor households, and mainly poor households that are no longer able to work. Women have risen up to develop the economy and become rich, becoming an important resource to help Tan Chau move closer to the goal of becoming a model new rural commune.

Improving the quality and effectiveness of policy credit associated with enhancing women's economic empowerment

To improve the effectiveness of the implementation of the capital entrustment work of the VBSP to support women in economic development, the Party Delegation of the Vietnam Women's Union has led the Executive Committee and the Central Presidium of the Union to disseminate and thoroughly grasp Directive No. 40-CT/TW, Conclusion No. 06-KL/TW and key solutions and tasks related to improving the quality and effectiveness of policy credit associated with enhancing economic empowerment for women in the documents of the 12th National Women's Congress (term 2017 - 2022), the 13th National Women's Congress (term 2022 - 2027) and the Resolutions of the Executive Committee, orienting the key activities of the Union every year. At the Central level alone, since Directive No. 40-CT/TW, the Presidium of the Vietnam Women's Union has issued 18 directives directly related to policy credit and the entrustment activities of the VBSP.

In addition to promoting propaganda and dissemination of the Party and State's policies and guidelines on social credit policies to contribute to raising awareness among members, women and people, the Association also integrates resources and synchronizes many support solutions, builds capacity for economic development, and sustainably reduces poverty for member households borrowing capital; promotes financial education, improves financial management capacity to help borrowers have knowledge of effective financial management, and at the same time contributes to implementing the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.

Over the past 21 years of operation, the VBSP has supported millions of households to access and effectively use preferential capital from the Government, contributing to improving the quality of life of people, including women members.

In order to effectively promote capital resources, the Association at all levels always focuses on integrating the implementation of social policy credit with activities to support economic empowerment, national target programs, projects, and plans, especially 02 projects of the Government: Project "Supporting women to start businesses in the period 2017 - 2025" (Project 939) and Project "Supporting cooperatives managed by women, creating jobs for female workers by 2030" (Project 01).

At the same time, from the implementation of Project 939, through the consultation and proposal of the Women's Union, the capital entrusted by the People's Committee of Hung Yen province through the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to support women in starting a business has increased. In particular, in some localities, the People's Committee of the province has prioritized allocating capital or establishing a separate credit source for women in starting a business and entrusted it through the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies with an annual increase in capital.

Implementing the National Comprehensive Financial Strategy, aiming to improve financial management capacity for policy credit borrowers, every year, the Vietnam Women's Union and the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies have coordinated to organize many training courses on comprehensive finance, personal and household financial management, helping borrowers gain more understanding and knowledge about finance, improve the efficiency of capital use; promote guidance for borrowers, members, and women to deposit savings at the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and official credit institutions, creating their own capital for families, reducing the burden of capital repayment.

With the determination and efforts of the entire Women's Union system at all levels and the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, millions of households have been supported to access and effectively use preferential capital from the Government, contributing significantly to improving and enhancing the quality of life of the people, including a large number of members and women. Up to now, the outstanding loan balance entrusted through the Women's Union has reached nearly 128 trillion VND with nearly 2.6 million households borrowing capital, through 61,937 Savings and Loan Groups.

In the coming time, along with promoting leadership, direction, propaganda, and effective implementation of Directive No. 40-CT/TW and Conclusion No. 06-KL/TW of the Central Party Secretariat, the Association will continue to proactively and responsibly participate in the implementation of social policy credit. In particular, focusing on innovating and creating solutions to effectively implement the Agreement No. 11789/VBTT between the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and socio-political organizations; promoting social supervision and criticism of poor households, in particular, to make recommendations and proposals to the Party and the Government on social policy credit policies suitable for each target group and practical context. Promoting the integration of economic development and start-up models from national target programs and government projects in savings and loan groups to support members in sustainable poverty reduction and economic development; actively contribute to the implementation of socio-economic development goals of the locality and the country.

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/tin-dung-chinh-sach-xa-hoi-nang-cao-quyen-nang-kinh-te-cho-phu-nu-20240308211458844.htm