Expanding Capabilities
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August 2013 Report Expanding capabilities How adolescent Khmer girls in Viet Nam are learning to juggle filial piety, educational ambition (and Facebook) Nicola Jones, Elizabeth Presler-Marshall and Tran Thi Van Anh with James Hamilton Harding Informed by the longstanding consensus that women play a unique role in consolidating development gains in the next generation – and building on the emerging understanding that adolescence, because it is a critical period in terms of capacity development, presents a unique opportunity to alter life trajectories – this report explores Khmer adolescent girls’ understanding of the role that gendered social norms play in shaping both their current wellbeing and the realisation of their future capabilities. Part of a larger multi-country programme of research in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, this study draws on qualitative and participatory research methodologies to assess the key threats to gender justice facing Khmer adolescent girls living in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta region – and the types of programme and policy responses they believe would enhance the realisation of their full capabilities. Shaping policy for development odi.org Table of contents Executive summary ii 1 Introduction 1 2 Conceptual Framework 2 2.1 Social norms, attitudes and practices 2 2.2 Capabilities and gender justice 3 2.3 Positive deviance 6 3 Setting the context: overview of Viet Nam 7 3.1 Governance structure 7 3.2 Ethnic differences 8 3.3 The importance of gender 9 4 Setting the context 11 4.1 Education Domain 11 4.2 Economic Domain 13 4.3 Physical integrity and sexual and reproductive health domain 15 4.4 Psychosocial development domain 17 4.5 Participation domain 19 5 Gendered adolescence among Khmer communities 21 5.1 Situating our research 22 6 Methodological approach 25 6.1 Caveats 27 7 Gendered adolescence in Khmer communities 29 7.1 Education Domain 29 7.2 Economic Domain 38 7.3 Physical integrity and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) 46 7.5 Participation at home and in the community 56 8 Conclusion and future directions 61 8.1 What’s working now 62 8.2 Leaving the poor behind 63 8.3 Well begun but not yet done: policy and programming for tomorrow 63 References 65 Figures Figure 7: Location of Kien Giang in Viet Nam 22 ODI Report i Expanding capabilities i Executive summary Overview Informed by the longstanding consensus that women play a unique role in consolidating development gains in the next generation – and building on the emerging understanding that adolescence, because it is a critical period in terms of capacity development, presents a unique opportunity to alter life trajectories – this report explores Khmer adolescent girls’ understanding of the role that gendered social norms play in shaping both their current wellbeing and the realisation of their future capabilities. Part of a larger multi-country programme of research in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, this study draws on qualitative and participatory research methodologies to assess the key threats to gender justice facing Khmer adolescent girls living in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta region – and the types of programme and policy responses they believe would enhance the realisation of their full capabilities. Vietnamese context The World Bank (2013a) notes that “Vietnam is a development success story,” having moved from one of the world’s poorest countries in the mid-1980’s to middle-income status in 2010. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been over 5% a year since 2000 (World Bank, 2012a) and nearly half Vietnam’s population escaped poverty in less than two decades (World Bank, 2013b). That said, however, millions of households have ‘incomes very near the poverty line and remain vulnerable to falling back into poverty as a result of idiosyncratic shocks… or related economy-wide shocks” (World Bank, 2013b:1). Minorities are particularly at risk. Their poverty rates are five times higher than the national average and the gap between Kinh (ethnic majority) and minority outcomes continues to widen. The Khmer, who originate in Vietnam’s most productive agricultural region, are increasingly fragile as they face not only landlessness, which has been growing for decades, but sharp recent rises in unemployment, as mechanisation has quickly eliminated a major source of jobs. Vietnamese adolescent girls also face a variety of threats to the realisation of their full capabilities, many of which are related to the broader developmental context outlined above. Some of these threats, however, are social mores related to age and the tradition of filial piety, which leaves girls focused on their parents’ short- term needs rather than their own long-term futures. Other are related to gender relations—as Vietnamese families have traditionally preferred sons, barred daughters from inheritance and forced girls and women to shoulder the lion’s share of domestic work while excluding them from household decision-making. Study Sample and Methodology Our research was conducted in Kien Giang province, in the Mekong Delta of southern Viet Nam.1 Kien Giang, while having a relatively low income poverty rate – 5.73% in 2012 compared to a national average of 9.6% – ranks amongst the lowest of Vietnam’s provinces in terms of multi-dimensional poverty. This is explained in part by high levels of landlessness and land concentration, as well as geography – the region is criss-crossed with rivers and canals, which presents challenges in terms of education and health service access. How Kien Giang’s rapid economic success but simultaneous rise in inequality is affecting young people appears to be poorly understood. Interviews with provincial officials suggested that there is a general recognition that adolescents, especially 16 and 17 year olds, exist in a “no man’s land” as they are seldom the target of programming and overlooked in most policy. Moreover, very little attention is being paid to specific vulnerabilities experienced by adolescent girls. 1 Note there is also a second report for Viet Nam on Hmong girls in Ha Giang province which is part of the same broader study. See Jones, Presler-Marshall and Tran, 2013. ODI Report ii Expanding capabilities ii Our primary research was sited in the Go Quao district of Kien Giang province in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam. The district has the densest Khmer population in the province – nearly two in three residents are Khmer – and a combined poor and near-poor rate of nearly 20%. In consultation with local authorities, we selected girls and their families living in the middling poor commune of Dinh Hoa with whom to carry out our research. We employed a multi-layered participatory and qualitative research approach. Focus group discussions, conducted with groups of adolescents and adults, in both single-sex and mixed settings, allowed us to explore general community-level definitions, views and experiences surrounding gendered adolescence and the ways in which gendered social norms are both persisting but malleable. In-depth interviews, with younger adolescent girls, older adolescent girls – as well as a more limited number of their older and younger brothers – and key informants, helped identify how adolescents see their status, opportunities and challenges within the household and community. We also used life histories, case studies and intergenerational pairings to explore intra- household dynamics vis-à-vis adolescent girls by triangulating the views of adults and teens and paying particular attention to gendered themes. A variety of participatory techniques, including body mapping, rankings, timelines, and family drawings, were used to stimulate conversation and facilitate recall regarding the vulnerabilities that face Khmer girls and the opportunities they would need to realize their full capabilities. Capability deprivations facing Khmer girls in Dinh Hoa Khmer girls in Dinh Hoa are, to some extent, reflecting the changing norms of the larger Vietnamese culture, but in other ways they are living lives of positive deviance. Despite the high poverty and drop-out rates in the larger Khmer community, a confluence of strong social and political institutions, combined with growing economic opportunities in Dinh Hoa commune, is giving the majority of local Khmer girls an opportunity to think outside confining gender norms, realise more of their full capabilities and plan their own futures. While concerns remain, these girls are benefiting from dynamic local governance that not only sees – but also responds to – the needs of girls; teachers who not only teach students – but also care about children; an ethnic community that is not only cohesive – but also has longstanding traditions that have emphasised the importance of education and fostered gender equality; and parents who not only want different futures for their daughters – but are also willing to make sacrifices themselves in order to help their daughters obtain them. By identifying the confluence of factors that is helping Khmer girls become the women they would like to be, it is hoped that we can begin to develop a road map that might help other vulnerable girls do the same. The factors accounting for the positive deviance of Khmer girls in Dinh Hoa include: Educational domain: Although poverty continues to force many children in Kien Giang Province to abandon their educations, girls in Dinh Hoa are increasingly likely not only to attend upper-secondary school, but to plan for tertiary education. Parents are willing to “plough harder” to keep their daughters in school, teachers are largely kind and supportive, and schools work to find ways to retain students and make the educational environment one that supports not just students, but children. The impact of these actions is bolstered by ethnic traditions that encourage girls’ education and a local commitment to education that has roots in the past. Economic domain: Despite the fact that poverty, often instigated by bouts of ill-health and shaped by growing landlessness, continues to limit the lives of many of Dinh Hoa’s Khmer girls, most families have been able to diversify their incomes through small-trading and migration and are able to make ends meet.