Supporting Informal Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Vietnam: A Lesson Learned

Abstract

Workers in the informal sector constitute a disadvantaged group of employees in Vietnam. Though they contribute significantly to national GDP, they do not have a chance to benefit from social security policies. In 2020, the proportion of workers in the informal sector increased rapidly and then decreased slowly in the following years, which reflected a negative shift in the employment structure of the country under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the understanding that workers in the informal sector are those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese government has integrated the goal of supporting this group into national social support packages for people affected by the pandemic. However, implementing these packages faced several difficulties and did not succeed. This article discusses Vietnam’s experience in supporting informal workers during COVID-19 and analyzes reasons for the policies’ failure using the social welfare policy analysis framework by Gilbert and Terrell (2014). Despite being unsuccessful, we argue that these policies also have implications concerning how to create a more comprehensive social security system with a higher level of emergency preparedness.