Enterprises support gender equality VietNamNet Bridge - The Centre for Social Initiatives Promotion (CSIP) has called for organizations and enterprises to apply applications to Social Enterprise Support Program 2013 (SESP 2013). This is partly to conduct the “Plan W – empowering women through learning” campaign that is first launched in Vietnam by Diageo.   Pham Kieu Oanh, director of CSIP, and Stephane Gripon, general manager of Diageo Vietnam, shake hands after signing on the board to commit to empower women through Plan W. Under the sponsorship of Diageo, SESP 2013 will identify and directly invest in social enterprises, capacity improvement, business consulting and networking at their critical stages of development in order to enhance their sustainability and social impact. Pham Kieu Oanh, director of CSIP, said that CSIP has so far supported 40 social enterprises and 500 disadvantaged women in Vietnam. Through the Plan W campaign and the strategic partnership with Diageo, CSIP hopes to support other 22,000 women within five years.  “CSIP has the strong point in supporting the community. Diageo has its own strong point in finance as well as strict compliance to affirm its commitments to the community. And they meet up with each other in a same target, helping Vietnamese women raise their voices and supporting Government’s efforts in boosting gender equality. With these evidences, I believe that SESP 2013 will get success,” Oanh stressed.   Women and young girls make handicrafts at Sapa O'Chau Center - a social enterprise in Sapa. Stephane Gripon, general manager of Diageo Vietnam, said that besides the partnership with CSIP to support the community, the company at the same time conducts two other programs in Vietnam that are parts of the Plan W campaign. To human resources development, Diageo will offer choices and training courses to its female employees to maximize their chance of success as well as being promoted to positions of influence. This will help increase the number of female managers in the company, contributing to the new global target of 30% of women in leadership roles by 2014. To the industry, Diageo also maps out a long-term plan through giving bartender training. Initially, by mid-2013, the program benefits around 1,000 bartenders, especially women, contributing to the regional target of training 20,000 bartenders across Asia within five years. “I strongly believe that a group of talent bartenders will help create many impactful changes to Vietnam’s hospitality industry in which women account for 72% of employees,” stressed Stephane Gripon. Gripon added that Diageo decided to pour US$756,000 (almost VND16 billion) to carry out the three pillars, including developing its employees, giving training to bartenders and sponsoring social enterprises through CSIP by 2017.   Stephan Gripon, general manager of Diageo Vietnam, talks with local press about the investment of VND16 billion to contribute to helping Vietnamese women raise their voices. In a bigger picture, Vietnam’s Prime Minister approved the 2011–2020 National Strategy and 2011–2015 National Program on Gender Equality. From earlier this year, State agencies and localities continuously have reported updates as well as summary meetings about implementation of gender equality targets in 2012. However, Oanh of CSIP said that to implement gender equality effectively, it needs to call for the participation of men and to raise awareness on their roles as husbands and fathers in a family, aiming to partly release burdens of women. “I see the fairness in Plan W’s program. That is empowering women and not missing out the masculine role. This will help both men and women have motives to grow, contributing to creating a fair society”, Oanh said. Hoai Vy