[6 November 2019] — After 30 years of the Doi Moi which drove economic development and pulled millions out of poverty, Viet Nam is entering a new era of economic development. As a member of the ILO since 1992, Viet Nam has committed itself to respect and promote the 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (“ILO FPRW Declaration”). 

In 2016, Vietnam took a bold step towards a new round of comprehensive labour law and industrial relations reform. Besides, for the government to develop and implement new industrial relations policies and also for social partners to promote and establish new practices of voluntary negotiations and social dialogue, there is a need to improve and strengthen industrial relations data which will enable tripartite partners to develop evidence-based industrial relations policies and social dialogue.

In such a context, the project “Building capacity for improving national industrial relations database for evidence-based policy-making” (NIRF Canada project), which has been implemented by ILO Country Office for Vietnam and local counterparts with financial resource from the Government of Canada. The overall objective of the project is for the Government of Vietnam, together with social partners, to make better informed, evidence-based industrial relations policy decisions through improved industrial relations data collection, dissemination and analysis.

As the project is nearing its end, Economica Vietnam has been entrusted by ILO to implement the final evaluation of the project.  The main purpose of the evaluation is to support accountability and facilitate learning within the ILO and key project implementing partners. The evaluation findings and recommendations are also be used to inform design and implementation of future ILO development cooperation activities in Vietnam.