Implementation project

The Hanoitimes – Vietnam is among five select Southeast Asian countries reached for the extent of sexual harassment in the media workplace.

Vietnam, together with four other Southeast Asian countries, has become the latest beneficiary of a project against sexual harassment in media industry by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), one of the largest non-profit journalistic organizations in the world.

Sexual harassment in workplace remains underreported

Vietnam, together with Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Philippines will be reached for the extent of this problem in the ongoing Phase Two of a three-part project on addressing sexual harassment in the media workplace, spanning Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab Region and Southeast Asia, according to WAN-IFRA Women in News (WIN).

The Southeast Asia study makes up the second phase of the project that is conducted in the partnership between WIN and City, University of London.

Widespread project

This phase of the research will run from November 2020 until March 2021, following Phase One which collected responses from Africa, specifically Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

This new study will look specifically at those regions in order to (1) Better understand the extent of sexual harassment in the media industry in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab Region and Southeast Asia; (2) Contribute to global data on sexual harassment in the media industry, by filling these regional data gaps; (3) Enable informed, evidence-based responses to sexual harassment in the media industry.

The research will be a combination of a survey of media professionals as well as interviews with media executives.

The survey is targeted at media professionals regardless of their gender, hierarchy or whether or not they have witnessed or experienced sexual harassment. It is being distributed to media organizations and regional and national media associations or industry partners.

The interviews will be conducted with media executives focusing on their perceptions about the problem of sexual harassment. Findings will be anonymized and no individual or organization will be named.

“We are pleased to partner with WIN to address the systemic issue of sexual harassment in the news industry. This is an international crisis that occurs in newsrooms around the world. Having the opportunity to record the personal experiences of news personnel will help us support news organizations tremendously,” said Lindsey Blumell, senior lecturer at City, University of London.

Jen Teo, director, Southeast Asia, Women in News (left) and Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam Grete Lochen

“In Asia, many deny that sexual harassment is a problem. But we know it remains pervasive and is therefore underreported. This research will bring out the figures and demonstrate the need for strong workplace policies prohibiting sexual harassment at work,” said Jen Teo, director, Southeast Asia, Women in News.

“Whatever the form, sexual harassment undoubtedly upsets the victim and can cause emotional harm, and physical and psychological trauma. It also causes decline in work productivity and job satisfaction. It’s therefore in the interest of individuals and of businesses to address this issue directly in their workplace,” Teo noted.

In a message sent in September 2020 to Vietnam’s female journalists and editors who participated in a sponsored career training program, Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam Grete Lochen said “we should make zero tolerance for sexual harassment.”

Years-long efforts

In an initial study conducted by WIN in 2018, a significant gap was identified in the available data on sexual harassment in media specifically in sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab Region and Southeast Asia.

In an effort to tackle the problem, since 2018, WIN has developed a practical toolkit for media employers and employees to deal with and prevent sexual harassment in their media organizations.

WAN-IFRA Women in News (WIN) aims to increase women’s leadership and voices in the news. It does so by equipping women journalists and editors with the skills, strategies, and support networks to take on greater leadership positions within their media.

In August 2020, WIN Leadership Accelerator program kicks off in Vietnam. The two-month career training for women journalists and editors will include sessions on career development, media management, and gender balance in content.

With Covid-19 changing the way news organizations operate, the program will help women journalists acquire new skills and build their capacity for more successful careers.

This WIN’s flagship leadership media development program is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). More than 600 women journalists and editors have benefited from the program since it first launched 10 years ago.

WIN is currently working with more than 80 media from 15 countries including: Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe (WIN Africa); Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine (WIN Arab Region); and Myanmar and Vietnam (WIN Southeast Asia).

As Vietnam is among the most threatened countries by climate change, the state and people take decisive action, photo Le Toan

The government has promulgated Resolution No.06/NQ-CP on the Action Programme on continuing the implementation of Resolution No.24-NQ/TW by the 11th Party Central Committee on active response to climate change, improvement of natural resource management, and environmental protection.

The action programme, to be implemented until 2025, lays a foundation for ministries, agencies, and localities to formulate and implement their own plans on responding to climate change while strengthening natural resource management and environmental protection.

Under the programme, efforts are to be made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.3 per cent below the business-as-usual scenario by 2025, and achieve 5-7 per cent in energy conservation out of gross energy consumption.

To this end, some key solutions are to be taken. Specifically, the government orders ministries and agencies to formulate and implement sturdy policies on shifting to digital economy, and development and expansion of models on circular economy, green economy, and low-carbon economy.

In addition to an increase in state budget in investing into responding to climate change, and managing natural resources and the environment, the government will have a flexible mechanism on allocating the use of natural resources under a market mechanism. Notably, the government will “develop markets for environmental goods and services, the carbon market, public-private partnership models, and green credits and green bonds, as well as mobilise investment capital from non-state sources,” according to Resolution 06.

To enable investors, Resolution 06 stressed that a number of related laws will be revised soon, including the Law on Land 2013, the Law on Minerals 2010, and the Law on Efficient Use and Saving Energy, as well as many other related documents.

Championing the cause

Disaster and climate challenges have become a top priority for policymakers in Vietnam. This is evidenced in national and sector strategies, and these challenges are identified as one of the key pillars of the new national development plan for the next decade. For example, the government approved the National Climate Change Strategy in 2011, and the Vietnam Green Growth Strategy in 2012, which lay out a vision through 2050. Also, the government adopted the Support Programme to Respond to Climate Change for 2016-2020 that supports policy reform, capacity building, and increased investment for prioritised climate change and green growth actions in key sectors including energy, transport, forestry, and water resource management.

Internationally, the government has also championed the cause of the environment, including at the 2015 Paris Conference.

Climate and disaster risks are now recognised as a direct threat to Vietnam’s aspiration to become a high-income economy. Direct and indirect disaster losses are affecting not only the economy’s resilience and sustainability, but also its capacity to maintain rapid and inclusive growth. For instance, rapid infrastructure development in the absence of the consideration of disaster and climate risks is leading to rapidly growing exposure and vulnerabilities to adverse natural events.

“With an anticipated growth of 265 per cent over the next 10 years, annual average direct disaster losses on the coast alone are expected to grow to $4.2 billion a year,” stated the World Bank in its recently-published report on how Vietnam can become a champion of the green recovery.

The Asian Development Bank also said that the rapid expansion of gross fixed capital formation has been unplanned and without consideration of climate and disaster risks, leading to the rapid growth in people and assets exposed to adverse natural events. When all this environmental damage is combined, it is estimated to cost between 4 to 8 per cent to GDP every year due to a combination of direct negative effects on the stock of natural capital, as well as that of indirect externalities on labour productivity and on quality of physical infrastructure.

In addition, development gains could be undermined by the loss of human life; destruction of commercial property, cultivable land, and infrastructure; reduction in agricultural yields and labor productivity; loss of tax revenues; and strained public budgets from spending on relief and reconstruction. For example, farmers in the Mekong region have already recorded declining agricultural yields caused by poor development practices, including water mismanagement and land exhaustion, according to the World Bank.

Changing behaviours

“Vietnam is standing at a crossroads of post-pandemic recovery. It has an opportunity to set itself on a greener, smarter, and more inclusive development path that will bolster resilience to future shocks from both pandemics and climate-related disasters,” said Carolyn Turk, World Bank country director for Vietnam. “The authorities must tackle the environmental and climate challenges with the same sense of urgency as they have done with COVID-19 because the costs of inaction are already visible and will become increasingly irreversible. The recent tropical storms in Vietnam’s central region and rising air pollution in the country’s major cities are good illustrations of this fragility.”

According to the World Bank, two lessons from the successful management of the global health crisis could be extended to the environmental agenda. The first lesson is that the best way to cope with an external shock is to be prepared in advance and move with early and bold actions. Secondly, beyond vision and capacity, the ability to embrace innovation and experiments is instrumental to change individual and collective behaviours, which lays at the root of strategies to cope with health and climate threats.

Ocean levels have already risen 20cm over the past three decades and could increase by a further 75cm by 2050 compared to the latter part of the 20th century. This could lead to flooding of 40 per cent of the Mekong Delta, 11 per cent of the Red River Delta, 3 per cent of coastal provinces, and over 20 per cent of Ho Chi Minh City, directly impacting 10-12 per cent of Vietnam’s population and 10 per cent of GDP, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Vietnam, a country of 98 million people, has reported 879 community transmissions in 13 cities and provinces during the ongoing outbreak that returned to the country on Jan. 28 after a 55-day clean streak.