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Taking a value chain approach towards local economic development and women's economic empowerment in Vietnam

Recognizing the need to increase income and to promote employment opportunities for the rural poor in Viet Nam, the Government of Viet Nam and the United Nations launched a Joint Programme on Green Production and Trade to Increase Income and Employment Opportunities for the Rural Poor in 2010. The programme supports the handicrafts sector, recognizing its importance as a major source of income for smallholder farmers and landless poor, and has a high potential for creating employment opportunities in rural areas by promoting entrepreneurship and sustainable production.

This document presents the experience of the programme in strengthening the Sericulture value chain in Quy Cahu district of Nghe An province and shows how strengthening the value chain contributed to economic empowerment of women and their negotiation power, increased income and employment opportunities in rural areas, and preservation of the environment and local ethnic minority traditions. This document zooms in on the Hoa Tien Textile Cooperative, a group of women weavers that belong to the Thai ethnic minority.