This project aims to provide new skills and knowledge to Hanoi’s informal female workers, such as waste collectors or second-hand clothes vendors, so that they improve their income security.
Background
Rapid industrialization and urbanization have increased migration from rural areas to Vietnam’s cities as people seek income-earning opportunities. There are currently around 4 million migrants living in Vietnam’s urban areas, with the rural-to-urban migrant population expected to reach 5 million by 2019.
However, this figure only included migrants who lived in the arrival locations for more than six months and did not count a sizable seasonal migrant population. It is estimated that thirty percent of the 12 Million Ho Chi Minh population and 10 million people in Hanoi are migrants. Female migrants account for about 60 percent of the overall migrant population and find work in both the formal and informal economies.
Many women are formally employed in garment and shoe factories, while others work in the informal sector, including street vendors and waste collectors. Around half of all women employed in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City work in the informal sector. Female migrants face challenges in the cities they migrate to, ranging from poor housing and living conditions, lack of access to government services, violence, insecure work and income, unsafe working conditions, and lack of labor rights protection.
Female migrants working in the informal sector are particularly vulnerable, especially in relation to labor protection, access to services, working conditions, and stable incomes.
Objective of New Me
CARE’s New Me! project aims to improve the security and value of recycling-based livelihoods for female migrants engaging in waste collection and street vending.
- Improved knowledge and skills in financial management, and business planning and start up
- Ability to start up and run their small business
- The scale-up potential of the quality used goods trade is determined
Participants of New Me
Female
migrant waste collectors and recycling vendors in Hanoi
Location
Hanoi
Time
2/2016 – 7/2016
Donor
