Founded in 1993 in Vietnam, the Research Centre for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED) has been carrying out social scientific research and intervention activities, targeting at women’s development and gender equity. As one among the first Vietnamese non-governmental organisations (NGO), CGFED is proud of its work building the foundation and the development of a young NGO community among member of the Vietnamese civil society not often and widely recognised.

During the period 1993-2010, targeting the promotion of Vietnamese Women’s Development and Gender Equity, CGFED have been active in four main areas: research; intervention/application; training; and publication. CGFED has conducted 50 research projects, 20 intervention projects/programmes, released 30 publications, and organised 15 scientific conferences/seminars. In the research activities CGFED applies an inter-disciplinary approach and gender analysis to the study of women, family and the interaction between social and natural envioronment. The focus is on women’s roles in the spheres of family, society and the community, the problems of specific groups of women (rural women, poor women, trafficked women, female migrants, etc.), the fields of population and health, especially reproductive health, women and environment issues, and women’s human rights issues. CGFED’s interventions have been based on the research findings. They have usually been in the form of experimental models carried out at a specific communal site in order to be replicated on a large scale later. The target groups of CGFED’s research and intervention activities are mainly women in rural areas, including mountainous, delta and coastal areas.

Since 2011 CGFED has revised its strategy and determined the mission to carry out action research and policy advocacy to promote gender equality, a determinant for happiness of individuals, families and communities.