Vietnam

Along with China, Mongolia and Thailand, Viet Nam is also participating in the inter-regional project Promoting the Employability and Employment of People with Disabilities through Effective Legislation PEPDEL project. Through this project, the ILO provides technical assistance to stakeholders in Viet Nam to enhance their capacity to promote disabled job seekers’ access to equal job and training opportunities through effective national laws and policies. A National Project Advisory Group is chaired by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) with representatives for the employers’, workers’ and disabled persons’ organizations.

A range of PEPDEL supported activities have been implemented through the National Project Working Group (NPWG) partners:

·       The University of Labour and Social Affairs has adapted and pilot tested the curriculum on ‘Achieving Equal Employment Opportunities for People with Disabilities through Legislation’, developed by Cornell University under the PEPDEL project;

·       The National Assembly Committee on Social Affairs held three workshops, cosponsored by PEPDEL and a local NGO Vietnam Assistance to the Handicapped (VNAH), on ‘Implementation of Legislation on People with Disability’ .Participants included representatives of the People’s Council, the People’s Committee, and provincial level ministry officials. The objectives of the workshop were to: review and discuss the implementation of policy on disability; to present the National Assembly’s recent evaluation of the Disability Ordinance, as a precursor to the development of a new law; to introduce the National Action Plan to support People with Disabilities 2006 -2010 (NAP) as a precursor to the development of Provincial level plans by local People’s Councils; 

·       The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) delivered three employer awareness workshops in May 2007, with the support of PEDEL: one in Hanoi, northern Vietnam; one in Danang, central Vietnam; and one in Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam. As well as local businesses, several large multinational employers also participated in these workshops;

·       A journalist training workshop on the rights to employment for disabled people was held in March – April 2007 in Vietnam, coordinated by the Labour and Society Newspaper;

·       The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) has developed a draft action plan to enhance the effectiveness of policy and legislation on employment of people with disabilities. A national workshop to discuss this draft plan was held in December 2007. As part of the development of this plan, MoLISA conducted an evaluation of the current laws and policies on disability employment in Vietnam.

Viet Nam also participated in the 2005 ILO/Korea Fellowship Programme and has participated in many ILO regional meetings, including the 2005 ILO/ESCAP Multinational Roundtable on Disability and Employment.  Viet Nam’s National Coordinating Council on Disability (NCCD), in collaboration with the NGO, Viet Nam Assistance to the Handicapped, replicated the Roundtable in a meeting targeting employers in March 2006. The ILO senior specialist in vocational rehabilitation served as a resource person and delivered a presentation on what drives employers to hire disabled persons and provided other inputs and technical assistance with regard to organizing an employers’ group focused on training and employment of disabled persons. A follow-up meeting is planned for Ho Chi Minh City in the near future and Viet Nam hopes to organize a Blue Ribbon Panel of employers to permanently address the issue of employment and disability. Several of the national Roundtable companies have pledged their participation.

The ILO has engaged in a variety of technical assistance activities in Viet Nam through regular missions to Viet Nam by the ILO senior specialist in vocational rehabilitation and through inclusion of Viet Nam social partners and disabled persons representatives in regional and national meetings. For example, in meetings with Government and National Assembly officials, the ILO provides policy advice with regard to making laws and policies more in line with ILO standards. The ILO has served as a resource person to several NGO/MOLISA sponsored meetings, including the 2004 MOLISA/USDOL/VNAH Conference on Employment for People with Disabilities. At this meeting, the ILO delivered a presentation on lessons learned from the 2003 14-coutnry study on employment and training policies and practices in the region that addressed the Vietnamese context.

Viet Nam has reciprocated by receiving study tours from other countries on disability matters and sending resource people to meetings and events where Viet Nam can make a significant contribution. For example, see the Laos section in these Web pages. In addition, a representative from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour presented at the ILO Expert Group Meeting on Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Vocational Training and shared information about what the VGCL has done to include disabled persons in its training and employment activities.  

In 2003, Viet Nam participated in the ILO’s 14-country study that resulted in a print publication of the country study in both English and Vietnamese that has been widely disseminated. Prior to 2003, the ILO was involved in training staff from Viet Nam employment service centres in how to provide services to disabled job-seekers.

Viet Nam participated in the ILO/Japan Technical Consultation of Vocational Training and Employment of People with Disabilities in Bangkok,  January 2003. As a follow-up to the consultation, the ILO/Japan Fund provided technical assistance and resources to the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). In December 2003, VCCI held a well-attended conference designed to examine the issue of entrepreneurship and people with disabilities and to make recommendations for action among all the social partners to assist disabled persons establish their own businesses.

More recently, the ILO has worked with VCCI and an international NGO called World Concern to provide technical assistance in the delivery of Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) training to people with disabilities in Viet Nam. In addition, many disability NGOs and members of the Viet Nam Association of Businesses, and Enterprises of Persons with Disabilities and NGOs of and for disabled persons have received SIYB and Get Ahead training through mainstream ILO projects in-county.

For more information about the situation of training and employment of people with disabilities in Viet Nam, consult the following:

Training and Employment of People with Disabilities: Viet Nam 2004. Part of the AbilityAsia Country Study Series, 2004.

For more information about disability related laws and policies and the country consult our National Laws and Information pages.

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