CEB Toolkit Application: Vietnam

The Toolkit has been adapted to be used at country level to assist UN Country Teams, national constituents and stakeholders, and other development partners to mainstream employment and decent work in national development frameworks. A checklist for use specifically at country-level was developed.

At the request of Viet Nam’s Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the ILO provided technical assistance in October 2008 to help raise awareness of the central role of employment and decent work in the country’s sustainable development. The Toolkit was presented to the staff of MOLISA and other key government ministries, the social partners, and the Policy Coherence Group on Trade, Employment and Sustainable Enterprise Development of the UN Country Team. The presentations raised a great deal of interest in the potential use of the Toolkit. A desk review of the impact and implication for employment and decent work of the 2006-2010 Social-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) was carried out using the Toolkit checklist.

Since then, a number of awareness-raising and capacity building activities have taken place with the aim to mainstream employment and decent work into the country’s Socio-Economic Development Strategy (SEDS) 2011-2020 and the Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) 2011-2015.

In September 2009, a first training workshop was held with a wide range of government institutions (including MOLISA), workers’ organizations and other social organizations. This workshop helped to further raise awareness of the Toolkit and decent work and to secure the engagement of the stakeholders in the process of mainstreaming employment and decent work into national development frameworks. The results of the previous assessment of the 2006-2010 SEDP were presented.

A second workshop with MOLISA took place in December 2009 to mainstream employment and decent work in the Viet Nam Social Protection Strategy 2011 – 2020 (SPS). The workshop was conducted as a one-day assessment of the draft SPS using the diagnostic checklist.

To continue with the process, a third workshop was held in April 2010 by the National Economic Issues Department of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (NEID/MPI). This time, the Toolkit was used to assess the draft of the 2011-2015 Social-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) and to discuss how the document could be improved.

A final workshop was held in August 2010 with the Development Strategy Institute (DSI) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (NEID/MPI) to discuss the draft of the 2011-2010 SEDS and to assess it using the Toolkit and to make adjustments to the strategy in line with employment and decent work mainstreaming.

The final drafts of the 2011-2020 SEDS and the 2011-2015 SEDP have been ratified by the government.