The northern mountainous region of Vietnam, home to ethnic minorities, faces low livestock productivity, market access for animal products, and food safety. Notably, women's empowerment in livestock remains consistently lower than men's across all species (cattle, pigs, goats, andpoultry). Women's disempowerment is characterised by limited access to productivity-enhancing technologies; to credit and to capital; workload imbalances; constrained mobility; and low self-efficacy (belief in own ability to succeed in tasks). Inequitable gender norms are one rootcause of such disempowerment, which ultimately affects the progress of the livestock sector. ​ 

The Gender, Youth and Social Inclusion Area of Work of SAAF (AoW5) has three key components to progress towards equitable and productive livestock systems: supporting women's empowerment, transforming inequitable gender norms (to address the root causes of women's disempowerment), and integrating gender considerations in technological innovations to ensure they meet the needs and preferences of all.​ This strategic work addresses structural barriers through social behavior change communication interventions that challenge restrictive community norms, alongside capacity strengthening in gender analysis and gender-responsive planning for provincial and commune-level officers. Furthermore, the integrated work ensures that the distinct roles and needs of both women and men farmers in Son La are embedded in livestock research tools and innovations. These gender-transformative approaches have also been institutionalized through their integration into the Bachelor’s curricula and training courses at the Vietnam Women’s Academy.  

The gender-responsive technical innovations and the gender-transformative and empowerment interventions are designed as a modular framework, allowing for seamless integration into livestock systems across the northern mountainous region of Vietnam and Southeast Asia. By prioritizing low-cost, community-based communication tools and local capacity building, these interventions are highly adaptable to diverse ethnic minority contexts in these upland areas and beyond.​ 

Implemented through a multi-institutional partnership under the CGIAR Animal and Aquatic Foods (SAAF) Science Program, AoW5 demonstrates how combining gender-responsive technological interventions with empowerment and gender-transformative interventions can contribute to more equitable and sustainable livestock and food systems in Son La, Vietnam.