HANOI (ILO News) – The General Statistics Office (GSO) has proposed a list of labour and employment indicators as the basis for monitoring and evaluation of the Viet Nam Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets.

Out of the 230 indicators of the SDG adapted to Viet Nam’s context, 25 are related to labour and employment. They include the rate of trained workers from 15 of age, rate of population with social insurance and health insurance, labour productivity in agriculture, forestry and fishery among others.

As assigned by the Government, GSO (Ministry of Planning and Investment) is responsible for developing the list of Viet Nam SDG indicators reflecting the UN’s 17 goals. The ILO has been supporting this critical task through the project “Enhancing the Implementation of Decent Work SDG Targets and Indicators in Viet Nam” (SDG project).

Within this cooperation framework, a consultation workshop was organized in Hanoi on 26 September to introduce the labour and employment indicators. The final set of Viet Nam SDG indicators is expected to be issued by the Minister of Planning and Investment by the end of 2018.

“The monitor and evaluation of the implementation of the Viet Nam SDGs, particularly in the labour and employment sector, is a challenge for Viet Nam as there remain some gaps in the country’s statistical system and capacity,” said ILO’s senior regional statistician Tite Habiyakare.

According to GSO Deputy Director General, Pham Quang Vinh, some proposed indicators have no metadata at all whereas some others have incomplete metadata, particularly with unclear definitions or calculation methods.

Therefore, GSO needs the cooperation of relevant parties in developing the final set of Viet Nam SDGs indicators in labour and employment so that the country can have a unified and complete system of criteria for monitoring and evaluating the SDGs.

The ILO is now supporting its national partners, including GSO and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, to improve their statistical capacity and the quality of the labour market information system.

As part of its commitment to the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, Viet Nam adopted the National Action Plan for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development last year. The 17 global SDGs were nationalized into 17 Viet Nam SDGs with 115 specific Viet Nam SDG targets in line with the national development context and priorities.