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Analyses, Perspectives and Opinions

RLS Southeast Asia regularly publishes political analyses and working papers on current and relevant topics from the Mekong Region. Together with our partners, we shed light on different opinions and introduce perspectives on pressing social and ecological questions and challenges. The publications are categorized according to topics and countries and can be selected using the links below.

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The impact of the COVID lockdown on the rights of migrants with disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City

Although the impact of the Covid pandemic on people with disabilities has become the main concern of advocates for the rights of people with disabilities, there exists limited research on migrants with disabilities in big cities of Vietnam.

Pink Tax

When you go to a supermarket to buy shampoo or shop online for new summer clothes, do you ever look at the price of the same product when it is marketed toward women and men? Are you aware that women are often charged more for goods and services?

Food sovereignty: International experience and practice to ethnic minorities farmers in Vietnam

Over the past two decades, the concept of "Food Sovereignty" has been increasingly mentioned and has become an important topic in international discussions related to food security and development. However, in Vietnam, food sovereignty is still a new concept, it has rarely been known and hasn’t been used in any executive documents, programs, or policies of the Party or the Government.

Research on the impact of COVID-19 on the issue of Social security of women migrant workers in the informal sector in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city after the 2nd and 4th outbreaks

From the analyses, judgment, and the result of the surveying rounds, the research team put forward some recommendations and experiences, contributing to better quality and implementation of social security policies for marginalized groups, improving the medical and social security support system in the context of a pandemic and other emergency situations.

Impact on Workers in Vietnam's Apparel and Footwear Sectors

The study aims to document the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on female migrant workers in Vietnam’s apparel and footwear industries over a period of six months, from February to July 2020, focusing on: (i) economic impacts (employment, income); (ii) health impacts (access to health services, healthcare, and infection prevention); and (iii) social impacts (constraints on families and individuals; need for future support).

Will EVFTA Help to Increase Real Wages for Vietnamese Workers?

The European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), effective on 1 August 2020, is one of the first two “new-generation” free trade agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam has joined. EVFTA promises to bring many benefits to Vietnam across areas ranging from trade, services, and investment to intellectual property, public procurement, labour, and the environment, among others. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, wages of Vietnamese workers will be approximately one percent higher in foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises than in domestic firms.

Even if the forecast of social benefits is a modest one, can a three percent wage increase by 2025 be achieved as expected? This is a question that should be studied thoroughly in order for policy-making to achieve the predicted benefits from EVFTA in practice.

The Many Climate Challenges Facing the Mekong Delta

The Mekong Delta region in southwestern Vietnam is home to over 20 million people, and is crucial to the country’s agricultural and aquaculture production. It is also a unique natural habitat, teeming with thousands of plant and animal species that cannot be found anywhere else. Yet it is also one of the parts of Southeast Asia most threatened by accelerating climate change.

Philip Degenhardt of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung’s Southeast Asia Office in Hanoi spoke with the Institute’s director, Nguyen Hieu Trung, to learn more about the challenges that climate change is imposing in the Mekong Delta, and how people are responding.

Needs of re-structuring organizational and finance management capacity in organizations supporting vulnerable people in the time of Post Covid-19 - South Vietnam

According to research reports from INGO and government organizations, Vietnam state budget and resources have not been adequate in meeting the needs of social care for vulnerable people. Many official documents from the government call for contributions from all stakeholders in this area of “socializing social assistance”. In fact, for the past decades, many individual charities, philanthropists, religious groups, self-help groups… have supported vulnerable people, filling this gap of social assistance.

The Impact of Covid on Social Security Issues of Female Migrant

With financial support from RLS SEA – Hanoi Office, the research team assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the group of migrant female workers in the informal sector in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. With the desire to have a concrete and comprehensive assessment of COVID's impacts on this target group, the research team used a participatory approach with a sociological survey method to survey over 600 qualified samples and 12 case studies in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city.

The impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on ethnic minorities working in tourism - The case of H’Mong and Dao people in Sa Pa

More than 200 households in the two above-mentioned communes, tourism service companies and representatives of governmental agencies related to the tourism industry of Sa Pa town were selected to survey.