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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Vietnam Country Program

Region/Country

ASIA/Vietnam

Project Duration

September 30, 2001 – August 31, 2005 (completed)

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY2001: USD 499,383

Problem to be Addressed

In the last decade Vietnam has experienced dramatic economic growth and poverty reduction.  However, the opening of the economy has prompted the emergence of new forms of vulnerability for children.  Recent reports indicate a rise in internal migration, and in the numbers of displaced and unregistered families in urban centers.  Children are at risk for various hazardous work activities, including trafficking for labor and sexual exploitation, and work in the informal sector in activities that are unsupervised and unregulated.

Results

The project withdrew 368 children and prevented 830 children from hazardous work scavenging, in the services sector, and on the streets or in informal settings in selected areas of Vietnam.

Project Objectives

This program, with a focus on prevention, withdrawal and rehabilitation, contributed to the progressive elimination of child labor in Vietnam through the following two immediate objectives:

  • At the end of the project, the capacity of the governmental agencies, including the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the employers, workers, mass and other child development organizations will have been strengthened to plan, initiate, implement, monitor, evaluate and report on action to combat child labor, especially its worst forms; and
  • At the end of the project, a selected number of working children will have been identified, provided appropriate social and other services to enable their protection and withdrawal from hazardous and exploitive work and working conditions, and some at-risk children and their families will have been prevented from starting work.

Summary of Activities
  • Conducted action-oriented research to understand the nature and extent of the worst forms of child labor;
  • Progressively eliminated child labor in selected hazardous sectors by removing children from work and providing them with social protection services;
  • Enabled family members of former working children to access income generation and training activities;
  • Raised awareness about the hazards of child labor and the value of education, and build the capacity of local and national institutions to combat it;
  • Assisted in the review of national laws on hazardous work and/or child labor to pinpoint gaps and/or raise awareness on existing laws; and
  • Promoted the creation of community-based monitoring of child labor and the establishment of a database to track the data.

Grantee

International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC)

Implementing Partners

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs; the Vietnam Committee on the Care and Protection of Children; People’s Committees at selected locations; Ministry of Education and Training; provincial governments; Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL); the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI); the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA); workers’ and employers’ organizations; other non-governmental organizations to be determined.

Contact Information

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking (OCFT)

(202) 693-4843