BAGNKOK (ILO News) - Farmers trained under the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Work Improvement for Neighborhood Development (WIND) programme have accomplished many work safety improvements by using local materials and resources. 

The workshop will provide an opportunity for farmer WIND volunteers to exchange their experiences and accomplishments, seek ways for improvement, as well as to share their experiences with neighboring countries.

Mr. Le Bach Hong, Vice Minister,Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) will open the meeting: “Results of improvement of

Some 100 participants are expected to attend.  Vietnamese participants include farmer WIND volunteers from the four participating provinces, representatives of MOLISA, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the Viet Nam Farmers’ Association (VFA) and the Viet Nam Women’s Union VWU).  Representatives of the governments of Cambodia , Lao PDR and Thailand will also attend the workshop.

The WIND programme involves four day training courses for farmer volunteers conducted by the provincial authorities trained by the ILO.  Afterwards, the farmer volunteers conduct mini-WIND training sessions for small groups of neighboring farmers.  The training covers:  materials storage and handling, work station design, safe use of electricity and machines, working environment and management of chemical, welfare facilities and work organization. 

Since the programme started in May 2004, many farmer WIND volunteers have been trained, resulting in some 4,000   The WIND project is implemented by the MOLISA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development , the VFA and the VWU in four provinces, namely Ha Nam, Nghe An, Can Tho and Hau Giang.

The Viet Nam Government has also integrated WIND in its national policy.  The programme has been strengthened and will be expanded.  The workshop has been scheduled to coincide with Viet Nam Safety Week, 18-24 March.

“ Viet Nam has been working to modernize its agriculture to increase productivity and improve safety measures.  Training farmer WIND volunteers proves to be a simple and practical way to achieve this.  The programme has been very successful in Viet Nam .  This experience should be shared with other countries,” states Dr. Tsuyoshi Kawakami, ILO Senior Specialist on Occupational Safety and Health.

WIND has been implemented and accomplished good results in Cambodia and Thailand .  The programme will be implemented in Laos PDR in the near future.

Organized by the MOLISA and ILO, the workshop is supported by the ILO/Japan Regional Programme for Capacity Building of Occupational Safety and Heath (OSH) in Agriculture (Viet Nam Chapter).