Since 1993, UNIFEM has been helping to improve the lives of women fish processors in Do Son, Vietnam. Do Son, 125km northeast of Hanoi in Haiphong Province, is a typical fishing community. The men go to sea in boats to catch fish which the women salt or ferment at home to make the pungent fish sauce that flavours most Vietnamese dishes, as well as fish paste and fish cakes. However, due to the low level of technology used in fish handling, processing and marketing, the women's earnings are small and their families remain poor.

UNIFEM is helping the women to improve the quality of their products, increase their earnings and raise their status. In Do Son, wastage is high due to poor hygiene and spoilage caused by a lack of chilling and preservation facilities. The project established a Production Centre managed by the local branch of the Vietnam Women's Union to improve processing and enable the women to operate more profitably. Equipped with modern grinding machines and a chilling facility, the Production Centre offers the women training and access to improved technologies. It also produces ice to reduce spoilage and enable fish to be preserved for processing during the off season, thus providing the women with an income throughout the year.

Mme Truong Thi Phuong Dung, the project Fish Technologist from the Haiphong Research Institute for Marine Products, has trained 50 women from the two subdistricts in improved fish processing techniques and quality control. Mme Dung taught the women to make fish cakes, shrimp paste and fish sauce to commercial standards using simple techniques that can be applied in household production. She also taught them to calculate their costs of production and thus the minimum price at which they can afford to sell. New recipes enable the women to diversify their products, thus increasing their market.

The women trained by Mme Dung reported that their sales had increased because their customers liked the new products. They undertook to pass on the knowledge they had gained to other women in the community. To facilitate this exchange, five of the women fish processors participated in a four-week long Training of Trainers (TOT) course at a local training institute, COHASIPH. The TOT, covering training, production and business methods, was conducted jointly by COHASIPH, UNIFEM and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIDO. Although other course participants were experienced trainers, one of the five village women emerged as one of the most successful trainees.

Many of the women fish processors did not understand basic business principles: they could not determine their capacity to repay loans or whether their enterprise was profitable. Thus, the village women trained by COHASIPH and the project marketing consultant conducted a second training programme in basic business principles, including simple market research, production planning and costing. Successful local business women joined the training to share their secrets to success, and local bank officers also explained how to apply for a loan.

Armed with their newly acquired skills and supported by the Production Centre, the women of Do Son are now improving their own businesses and sharing their knowledge with neighbours. In this way, UNIFEM is contributing to the economic empowerment of women in a poor fishing community in Vietnam.

Dated: 16May1998