ILO/Japan Multi-bilateral Programme

Viet Nam Chapter

ILO/Japan Regional Programme for Capacity Building of Occupational Safety and Heath (OSH) in Agriculture - Viet Nam Chapter - funded by Government of Japan, was launched in May 2004.  Its aim is to help the Government formulate a national OSH action programme and assist farmers in improving their living and working conditions. The project is implemented by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam Farmers’ Association and Vietnam Women Union.

Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of the economy in Viet Nam employing 58 per cent of the country’s total workforce. But, as in other developing countries, it is also one of the most hazardous occupations and farmers are exposed to many accidents and work-related diseases, especially in the use of electricity, machines and chemicals.

The Government of Viet Nam understands the importance of this issue and made agriculture the main focus for their National Weeks on Occupational Safety and Health, Fire and Explosion Prevention and Fighting in 2002 and 2003. The Government has also issued Instruction No. 20 to enhance the management and guidance on occupational safety and health in agriculture and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs plans to carry out a feasibility study on the ratification of the ILO Convention on Occupational Health and Safety in Agriculture (No. 184).

Main Objectives

• To strengthen national OSH policies and legislative frameworks and to develop a medium-term national OSH programme with clear goals and regulations including the agricultural sector.
• To build sustainable, action-oriented training mechanisms directly with local farmers and establish their networks to improve safety, health and working conditions in agriculture by applying the WIND training programme.

The programme covers the selected four provinces/cities of Ha Nam, Nghe An, Can Tho and Hau Giang.

WIND (Work Improvement in Neighbourhood Development) training programme

The WIND programme was first developed by the Center for Occupational Health and Environment, Can Tho Province in collaboration with the Institute for Science of Labour, Japan in 1996.  Based on its initial success in Can Tho Province, the WIND programme is spreading to other provinces.

The objective of WIND is improvement of safety, health and working conditions in agriculture attain through:

• Easy-to-implement solutions, and
• Learning from existing local good examples

Participatory action-oriented training method is applied through:

• Action-checklist exercises
• Small Group discussions
• Presentations

www.agri_osh.org/english/