The health impacts of climate change on precarious outdoor workers in urban megacities in Vietnam

Precarious outdoor workers in urban areas of the global South are one of the world’s most climate change exposed groups. The nature of their exposure is thinly understood and policies to address such exposure under-developed. This project explores the (in)visible vulnerabilities and multiple health exposures of such workers in Vietnam, a country experiencing rapid urbanisation and with a large informal sector. This project will aim to fill knowledge gaps through co-constructing a new evidence base utilising a multi-stakeholder approach. The project aims to transform our understanding of the exposures and vulnerabilities of outdoor urban workers and Vietnamese policy makers’ ability to devise interventions attuned to the conditions and concerns of workers.

Underpinned by an equal partnership with government agencies, representative associations and informal workers, the project team will:
1.) Undertake a systematic review of the literature;
2.) Survey three occupational groups to capture their exposure to climate-related health risks;
3.) Conduct in-depth interviews with informal outdoor workers to understand the health impacts of climate change;
4.) Adopt a participatory vulnerability analysis (PVA) approach to de-centre data collection;
5.) Develop a ‘Workers’ Health’ GIS-integrated App and a Policy Toolkit for Health-centric Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience; and
6.) Use this knowledge to co-produce knowledge for policy action.