WAIPA is a forum for exchange and a mechanism for action to call on parliaments to ensure women’s substantive participation in legislatures and decision-making.

Representing Vietnam’s National Assembly were full-time deputies Thai Quynh Mai Dung, a member of the National Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, and Nguyen Thanh Cam, a member of the NA Committee for Culture and Social Affairs.

Parliamentarians from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand shared experience in strengthening dialogue with women’s and civil society organisations; establishing and consolidating women parliamentarian groups in national legislatures; supporting young women’s participation in mock parliamentary sessions and leadership training programmes; promoting budgets for women and vulnerable groups; improving sex-disaggregated data; and creating a safe political environment for women.

In her remarks, Thai Quynh Mai Dung said Vietnam fully supports the importance of inclusiveness and diversity in ensuring gender balance in parliaments. A parliament that represents the will and aspirations of the people must include the voices, perspectives and experiences of all groups in society, without distinction by gender. A strong and future-ready ASEAN requires that lawmaking, oversight and policy decisions be guided by principles of fairness, inclusiveness and equality.

Dung said Vietnam’s legal framework for elections to the National Assembly and People’s Councils for the 2026-2031 term continues to maintain a minimum of 35% women on candidate lists, with nearly 45% of candidates for the 16th National Assembly being women.

She said the results of the 2026-2031 National Assembly election are noteworthy, with 150 women deputies out of 500, or 30%, higher than the global average of 27.5% reported by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

At its first session, the 16th NA held discussions on the implementation of national gender equality targets for 2025. Many lawmakers called for early amendments to the Law on Gender Equality, the development of an integrated gender database, stronger inspection and enforcement, and greater resource allocation to less developed areas that have not met gender equality targets.

“Building on the achievements of the 15th National Assembly, the 16th National Assembly will soon consolidate its group of women deputies. Vietnam’s National Assembly stands ready to cooperate with ASEAN parliaments to develop practical programmes connecting women legislators across ASEAN to share views on issues of common regional concern such as digital transformation, the digital economy and online safety,” Dung said.

At the same meeting, Nguyen Thanh Cam said both the proportion and quality of women deputies in Vietnam’s National Assembly have continued to increase. This demonstrates the National Assembly’s efforts and serves as a basis and a driving force for Vietnam to continue pursuing gender equality goals and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

She also noted that challenges remain, including women deputies’ deeper participation in specialised fields such as finance and science and technology, while the activities of the group of women deputies still depend heavily on inter-agency coordination and external support.

The Action Plan and Implementation Framework to promote women’s political participation and leadership in ASEAN (WPPL) was first discussed at the Women Political Leaders Forum and the WAIPA Coordinating Committee meeting held in Vientiane, Laos from February 4 to 6, 2024.

To accelerate implementation of the framework, Cam said efforts should focus on establishing mechanisms for sharing databases and best practices among member parliaments, and strengthening technical support and specialised training for women deputies in areas such as digital transformation and cybersecurity.

NA Chairman meets Georgian parliament speaker on IPU-152 sidelines

Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Tran Thanh Man on April 16 held talks with Chairman of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili, on the sidelines of the 152nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-152) in Istanbul, Türkiye.