Australian Ambassador for Women and Girls Natasha Stott Despoja said WEAVE is the latest initiative of Australia to raise the position of women in Vietnam.

The Australian government will provide AUD2.5 million (US$1.9 million) for the project, which will be administered by a consortium of NGOs comprising CARE, Oxfam and SNV. It will be carried out between now and 2019 in the northern mountainous provinces of Lao Cai and Bac Kan.

The project will help improve the livelihoods for over 1,800 people in the two provinces through providing them with marketing skills and knowledge on financial know-how, business planning, negotiation ability and legal understanding.

It will also increase ethnic women’s economic empowerment in the agricultural value chains including bananas, cinnamon and pigs via promoting gender equality, while improving production efficiency and connecting farmers with other economic actors in the value chain.

The project is a premise for a new aid programme of Australia which aims to enhance the economic empowerment for women in Vietnam’s northwestern region in the years to come, Stott Despoja said.

Participants lauded the project for improving their income through technology transfer. However, they hoped for more stable markets for their products.