Safety + Health for All Workers in Myanmar

Myanmar’s parliament passed the new Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Law in March 2019, which is a major step towards the Government’s provisions for safer and healthier workplaces. In conjunction with its significantly broadened scope of coverage and extensive obligations , the ‘2019 OSH Law’ notably defines the a National Tripartite OSH Council, promotes prevention actions at the enterprise level and recognizes the importance of forming work places that are not only safe but also “good for health”. Nonetheless, a number of challenges remain for the full implementation of this landmark legislation and to build a preventative culture on safety and health in the country. The ultimate objective of the project is for Myanmar workers to be safer and healthier. In order to reach this ultimate goal, the project will implement a holistic approach to ensure that the Government, employers and workers adopt/revise governance instruments to build a promotional framework for OSH (IO1); that institutions, and in particular the Ministry of Health and Sports, take policy and operational measures to enhance access to occupational services (IO2); that social partners and educational institutions implement programmes to address OSH issues (IO3) and that workers increasingly demand Safe and Healthy workplaces (IO4). The project will be implemented in the framework of the ILO Flagship programme on OSH Safety + Health for All and will build on results achieved by other projects such as SafeYouth@Work. The project will be part of the ILO OSH Project Portfolio in the ILO Liaison Office in Yangon. It will complement other OSH projects, such as the Vision Zero Fund focusing on agriculture, garment and construction supply chains and the OSH framework project funded by the Republic of Korea. The ILO OSH Portfolio is the implementing arm of Myanmar’s Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) 2018-2021, Priority 3, Outcome 3.3: “By 2021, an integrated and unified OSH system is in place and implemented”. The project will therefore contribute to the implementation of the DWCP through its role in the OSH Portfolio. Against this background, crosscutting areas of interventions have been identified and will be highlighted throughout project implementation – the promotion of occupational health and the improvement of the collection and use of OSH data.

Project symbol

MMR/19/02/JPN

Admin unit

ILO-Yangon

Start date

31/03/2020

End date

31/12/2023

Total allocation

1243215

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

1243215

Development Partners

Japan, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Country/Countries

Myanmar

Outcomes

Outcome 6: Protection at work for all