Repository of Practices
Primary GCM Objectives
Secondary GCM Objectives
2
5
GCM Guiding Principles*
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Dates
2020 - 2022
Type of practice
Project/Programme
Geographic scope
Country:
Regions:
Sub Regions:
Local:
Viet Nam: Ha Noi city, Hai Duong province, Hai Phong city, Hau Giang province, Can Tho city
Summary
With an endeavour to strengthen the capacity of Vietnamese Government to facilitate the sustainable reintegration of returned migrant women, Viet Nam Women’s Union (VWU) with technical support from IOM Viet Nam established the One-Stop Service Offices (OSSOs) to deliver the support services to returned migrant women. The OSSOs support Vietnamese women migrants after returning from the destination countries including the Republic of Korea and other countries to access counselling, information and supporting services for sustainable reintegration. With a friendly-designed office, experienced counsellors and locally functioning network, OSSOs provide a variety of counselling, information and referral services to migrant women to support their legal, vocational and employment challenges as well as meet their psychological and health needs. OSSOs also provide services to children of migrant women by addressing their legal status issues and enhancing their access to schooling and health care system. In addition, to strengthen the capacity of relevant government officers, a series of training-of-trainers and roll-out trainings have been organized on counselling skills and OSSO operation as well as advocacy workshops. A virtual bi-lateral workshop between the government ministries and service providers of Viet Nam and Republic of Korea was also conducted to exchange best practices and improve the coordination for providing better support to migrant women from Viet Nam.
Organizations
Main Implementing Organization(s)
Vietnam Women’s Union
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Detailed Information
IOM Viet Nam
Benefit and Impact
The project intervention has addressed two main gaps to support returned migrant women (RMW) – an absence of integrated service to provide counselling and referral services to RMW and a need for more efficient coordination mechanism of key government agencies in addressing their issues. The focus on institutional and individual competency development plays an important role in achieving long-term impact and sustainability of the project results through ensuring effective management of OSSOs and their referral network, while increasing public and relevant stakeholders’ awareness for further influencing necessary policy changes. With five fully operationalized OSSOs in five cities and provinces, RMW can get comprehensive counselling for their psychological support and guidance on legal procedures, and also necessary referral services for their sustainable reintegration. As of November 2021, 805 returned migrant women received 2,421 in-person and remote counselling sessions from OSSOs. Two different communication channels were also developed to reach out to migrant women, an offline channel using VWU’s grassroot network and an online channel via Facebook, which currently receives 16,278 likes and 16,316 followers. The effectiveness and impact of the project were measured over time through periodic reports and statistic updates, case management files and mid-term and final evaluations.
With the support from the project, VWU has been able to develop an effective supporting network of government and non-government agencies to provide comprehensive services to RMW. With the increased awareness on the issues related to the needs and challenges faced by the RMWs, this network will continue to play important role in supporting for the RMW after the project ends. OSSO model to provide accessible services to RMW is also easily replicable and efficient, as the established SOPs for operations, guidance notes and frequent Q&A, division of roles and responsibilities, referral network management, communication strategy and consistent branding are easy to follow and ensure a certain level of quality to be maintained.
With the support from the project, VWU has been able to develop an effective supporting network of government and non-government agencies to provide comprehensive services to RMW. With the increased awareness on the issues related to the needs and challenges faced by the RMWs, this network will continue to play important role in supporting for the RMW after the project ends. OSSO model to provide accessible services to RMW is also easily replicable and efficient, as the established SOPs for operations, guidance notes and frequent Q&A, division of roles and responsibilities, referral network management, communication strategy and consistent branding are easy to follow and ensure a certain level of quality to be maintained.
Key Lessons
In designing and implementing this project, a few lessons have been drawn in the following areas. First of all, it is important to have evidence-based and sufficient data to raise the awareness and to formulate responsive policies and intervention programme to support migrant women. In order to address the lack of data and understanding on the challenges faced by returned migrant women, a situational analysis report was developed surveying returned migrant women in five provinces to explore the experiences, difficulties and needs of returned marriage migrant women from the five provinces and suggested the approaches and interventions to address them.
Importantly, for long-term and effective operation of any model, the capacity of the government and a whole-of-government approach should be given top priority. To strengthen the capacity of officers and counsellors for effective operation of the OSSO and delivery tailored services, a series of guidelines and manuals were developed while participatory training courses were conducted on counselling skills and different relevant thematic areas for government officers at central and provincial levels. During OSSO operation, government participation has also been ensured in all support cycle from outreaching, to communication, referring, monitoring and reporting.
It also comes to light that it is extremely important to ensure a continuum of care throughout the migration cycle by enhancing the coordination between the origin and the destination countries. Under the project, a virtual bi-lateral workshop was organized between the government ministries and service providers of Viet Nam and ROK, followed by the establishment of a bi-lateral service network to ensure specific cases could be referred trans-nationally while information could be shared timely and fully between service providers, ensuring the women’s access to coordinated support in both countries, throughout their migration journey.
Importantly, for long-term and effective operation of any model, the capacity of the government and a whole-of-government approach should be given top priority. To strengthen the capacity of officers and counsellors for effective operation of the OSSO and delivery tailored services, a series of guidelines and manuals were developed while participatory training courses were conducted on counselling skills and different relevant thematic areas for government officers at central and provincial levels. During OSSO operation, government participation has also been ensured in all support cycle from outreaching, to communication, referring, monitoring and reporting.
It also comes to light that it is extremely important to ensure a continuum of care throughout the migration cycle by enhancing the coordination between the origin and the destination countries. Under the project, a virtual bi-lateral workshop was organized between the government ministries and service providers of Viet Nam and ROK, followed by the establishment of a bi-lateral service network to ensure specific cases could be referred trans-nationally while information could be shared timely and fully between service providers, ensuring the women’s access to coordinated support in both countries, throughout their migration journey.
Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)
From the project implementation, it is recommended that a number of factors should be considered to ensure an effective and sustainable service model.
First of all, it’s crucial to have an integrated and comprehensive Standard Operation Procedure to provide specific guides in case reception, management, referral, follow-up and monitoring for effective practitioners. The SOP is also packaged with a set of questions and answers on different thematic areas for specific scenarios such as legal issues, vocational issues, psychological issues and child issues.
Meanwhile, the strong partnership, leveraging on the technical expertise of IOM - a UN Migration Agency and the Central Viet Nam Women’s Union - National leading agency tasked with the mandates of supporting and empowering women - is also a decisive factor. The partnership has been enhanced at both central and provincial levels through frequent meetings, workshops, consultation sessions, joint-monitoring visits and virtual platforms. Throughout the design, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the project, both VWU and IOM have been cooperating closely with regular correspondences and exchanges on both managerial and technical aspects.
Within the first phase of the project, seven advocacy workshops were organized, including two at Central level and five at provincial level. The workshops were successful in raising the attention of central and local state and non-state actors to the issue of supporting migrant women and promote their commitment and coordination. However, the workshops also pointed out the gaps and the issue with the roles, responsibilities and coordination among the ministries. In fact, there is no single agency taking charge of migrants in general, especially returned ones, rather each ministry oversees different aspects in a fragmented manner. There stands a need for a task force or a committee to coordinate this support, as well as the policy and legal documents to provide guidelines specifying the roles, responsibilities of each ministry and the coordination mechanism.
First of all, it’s crucial to have an integrated and comprehensive Standard Operation Procedure to provide specific guides in case reception, management, referral, follow-up and monitoring for effective practitioners. The SOP is also packaged with a set of questions and answers on different thematic areas for specific scenarios such as legal issues, vocational issues, psychological issues and child issues.
Meanwhile, the strong partnership, leveraging on the technical expertise of IOM - a UN Migration Agency and the Central Viet Nam Women’s Union - National leading agency tasked with the mandates of supporting and empowering women - is also a decisive factor. The partnership has been enhanced at both central and provincial levels through frequent meetings, workshops, consultation sessions, joint-monitoring visits and virtual platforms. Throughout the design, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the project, both VWU and IOM have been cooperating closely with regular correspondences and exchanges on both managerial and technical aspects.
Within the first phase of the project, seven advocacy workshops were organized, including two at Central level and five at provincial level. The workshops were successful in raising the attention of central and local state and non-state actors to the issue of supporting migrant women and promote their commitment and coordination. However, the workshops also pointed out the gaps and the issue with the roles, responsibilities and coordination among the ministries. In fact, there is no single agency taking charge of migrants in general, especially returned ones, rather each ministry oversees different aspects in a fragmented manner. There stands a need for a task force or a committee to coordinate this support, as well as the policy and legal documents to provide guidelines specifying the roles, responsibilities of each ministry and the coordination mechanism.
Innovation
An innovative approach of the practice is establishing the model of one-stop service office (OSSO) facilitating multi-agency cooperation to provide integrated support for target beneficiaries. The concept of a one-stop service office is not so common to public services in Viet Nam. With the facilitation and connection developed by OSSOs, free-of-charge, comprehensive and systematized services are provided to returned migrant women and their families. The cooperation and coordination among related agencies, i.e., Women’s Union, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labor, Invalid and Social Affairs, Legal Aid Centers, Employment Service Centers, etc. at both central and local levels have also been strengthened. Services are developed and provided based on the needs and demands of beneficiaries, hence, OSSO model can be considered as a case in point for a bottom-up innovation.
Amid Covid-19 pandemic, adapting to government travel restriction and social distancing measures, OSSOs proactively reached out to the target beneficiaries by utilizing the network of Women’s Union at the grassroots levels, counselling sessions are conducted via phone calls and online via social network channels including OSSO Facebook page and Zalo groups of Women’s Union. Small-scaled on-site counselling and family visits have also been conducted to provide support to women in vulnerable situations. With effective support network and standard operation procedures to provide comprehensive counselling and referral services to the target demographics as well as increased staff’s capacity, OSSOs can continue their operation sustainably.
Amid Covid-19 pandemic, adapting to government travel restriction and social distancing measures, OSSOs proactively reached out to the target beneficiaries by utilizing the network of Women’s Union at the grassroots levels, counselling sessions are conducted via phone calls and online via social network channels including OSSO Facebook page and Zalo groups of Women’s Union. Small-scaled on-site counselling and family visits have also been conducted to provide support to women in vulnerable situations. With effective support network and standard operation procedures to provide comprehensive counselling and referral services to the target demographics as well as increased staff’s capacity, OSSOs can continue their operation sustainably.
Additional Resources
Date submitted:
31 January 2022
*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).