Consultant to provide technical advice in identifying employment-related policy orientations for the productivity focus of the Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work in Viet Nam

The Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work Programme (PE4DW), launched jointly by the SME unit of the ILO Enterprises Department and the Employment Policy Department, together with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), aims at addressing constraints to productivity growth and decent job creation. The Programme was launched in April 2022 with the initial 6 months of inception phase, and will run until the end of 2025, being piloted in Ghana, South Africa and Viet Nam and implemented by the ILO Enterprises and Employment Departments and ILO Country Office for Viet Nam.

In Vietnam the productivity agenda has high priority for the Government, where national productivity programme (Nb 712) was declared almost 10 years ago, and extended in Aug 2020 by the decision of Prime Minister (Nb. 1322) for 2020-2030. A separate national productivity programme on science and technology was developed in 2021 (Nb. 36). However, despite this declared political will to promote productivity growth, the results of policies remain unclear for variety of reasons; among them lack of tangible incentives for firms and workers, but essentially  there is a need for precise design and detailed plan on how to achieve the productivity goal. The ILO’s PE4DW programme therefore aims to engage stakeholders into testing and piloting approaches at all 3 layers of intervention, and offering evidence-based advice for effective policy making for Government and social partners in Vietnam.

The Department of Employment under Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA) has recently approached the ILO Vietnam’s new Productivity Ecosystem for Decent Work project in April 2022 with a request to support the revision of employment law. Preliminary work was already implemented jointly by ILO Vietnam and MOLISA in 2021 on the assessment of application of international labour standards, on employment law implementation, credit policies for job creation, public employment services’ organization, etc. ILO Vietnam’s social protection project is currently supporting the Government with the revision of related social insurance legislation.

The Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work Programme (PE4DW), in the Inception Phase, has started the review of all existing policies related to labour and employment to assess the presence and effectiveness of any productivity-related policy to identify an orientation for the work on productivity of the Project. PE4DW also comes at the right moment when the Government of Viet Nam is undertaking a revision of the Law on Employment, under the leadership and coordination of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. The Employment Law, enacted in 2014, has been providing a framework to implement job creation and employment services programs; increase the coverage of the unemployment insurance, and identify the roles of different stakeholders in promoting decent work in Viet Nam. However, the 2013 employment law needs to be upgraded in view of the growing challenge to build resilient and productive economy, and to introduce lessons learned from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Vietnam’s labour market, the need for scaling up the recovery measures as part of further employment policy reforms. The revision of the Employment Law will be an important platform for social dialogue and the development of policies supporting the growth of productivity. The ILO PE4DW project is engaging international expertise to support the Department of Employment of MOLISA’s work on review of impact assessment reports of 2013 Employment Law.

The current assignment from PE4DW Project aims at engaging another international consultant on an Excoll basis to assist the Project through the process of policy orientation on productivity policy-making and advice, the detailed objectives and tasks of the assignment are provided further.

Deadline for Submissions: 25 June 2022

Address for Applications: Up-to-date Curriculum Vitae should be submitted by email to main@ilo.org.