The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) today launched a 2.5-million-Euro Project of Support to the Design and Implementation of National Programmes on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Viet Nam.

The opening of the economy has brought in its wake the emergence of new forms and patterns of vulnerability for Vietnam’s children. Social institutions to address this vulnerability have not kept pace with economic reform. Recent reports indicate a rise in internal migration and the number of displaced and unregistered families and children found in urban centers. Many children are at risk of labour and sexual exploitation. Children and young people now can also be found in informal work, in arrangements that are unsupervised and unregulated. In these situations, the children, having limited access to education, can neither develop themselves nor have a dignified life. Migrants, ethnic minorities and young girls are among those who require targeted attention.

This ILO 48-month project aims to contribute to the prevention and progressive elimination of child labour in Viet Nam. The project is to have national reach, and its pilot direct action programmes are expected to reach about 5,000 children and young people involved in the worst forms of child labour in 5 selected provinces and cities of Ha Noi, Lao Cai, Ninh Binh, Quang Nam and Dong Nai. If successful, these programmes will be replicated in other areas of risk of child labour.

The project will be implemented through four components:

• Improving the national knowledge base on child labour and its worst forms;
• Creating an enabling environment to eradicate the worst forms of child labour through institutional strengthening, capacity building, mainstreaming child labour issues into national policy frameworks;
• Developing, implementing and documenting integrated models in 5 target provinces aimed at reducing the worst forms of child labour; and
• Advocacy, awareness raising, gender sensitivity and capacity building, which are integral parts of the above strategies.