Workers and Experts Contribute to Developing Outdoor workers’ Climate-Safe Health Handbook

SLO – On the afternoon of Saturday, 13 September 2025, the SocialLife Institute held an in-depth discussion session entitled “Feedback on the Outdoor workers’ Climate-Safe Health Handbook” at its office. The session ran from 14:00 to 16:30 and brought together frontline workers, representatives of social organisations, policymakers and media specialists.

The handbook is a product of the research programme “The health impacts of climate change on precarious outdoor workers in urban megacities in Vietnam”, carried out by the Social Life Institute in collaboration with the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), United Kingdom, funded by the Wellcome Trust (https://climate-health-vietnam.org/).

The discussion employed a two-way research approach: focusing both on the perspectives of workers themselves and on the implementation experience of social organisations. The organisers used the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) method to gather in-depth feedback on the practicality, language and content of the handbook.

A key element was the use of Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) with an empathy map, which explored four dimensions of workers’ lives: Thinking (their thoughts and perceptions), Feeling (their emotions and concerns), Speaking (what they typically share with others), and Acting (what they actually do in practice). This approach helped to identify both barriers to overcome and enabling factors for the handbook’s roll-out.

The first discussion group included workers from different occupations such as scrap collecting, refuse collection and street vending. They assessed the feasibility of specific sections of the handbook, shared practical experiences, and highlighted which aspects were easy to apply and which presented challenges.

The first discussion group. Credit: SocialLife Event Team.

A striking moment occurred when Mr Q., a scrap collector, was asked for his opinion of the guide. His immediate response was: “Does this help me find work, or earn money to buy food?” This candid question reflected the central concern of many workers: their daily livelihoods. However, once the guide’s purpose was explained, he acknowledged that while it would not directly secure jobs, it could help him stay healthy enough to keep working – a view that quickly won the agreement of others in the group.

During the discussion, several workers expressed a strong desire to have the handbook available soon so that they could share it with colleagues and neighbours in their boarding houses. One female worker remarked: “Even though I cannot read, I will ask my child to read it for me so I can learn more.” This revealed not only the spirit of mutual support and eagerness to learn within the labour community, but also the need to design the handbook in formats accessible to workers with different literacy levels.

The first discussion group. Credit: SocialLife Event Team.

The second group, consisting of representatives from social organisations, media agencies and policymakers, focused on strategies for wider dissemination. They discussed the most effective communication channels, the need for training local staff, and ways to integrate the handbook into the existing activities of their organisations.

The second discussion group. Credit: SocialLife Event Team.

The session generated a wealth of practical feedback – from identifying workers’ real needs and tailoring content to different occupations, to improving the clarity of language and diversifying product formats. These insights will not only strengthen the handbook’s content but also deepen understanding of workers’ psychology and behaviour when engaging with new support tools.

The second discussion group. Credit: SocialLife Event Team.

One particularly notable outcome was that each participating organisation pledged to take on a specific responsibility in implementing the handbook, fostering collaboration and ensuring the sustainability of the project. This transformed the session from a simple consultation exercise into the starting point of a broader community support network.

The outcomes of the discussion will be fully incorporated into the revision and finalisation of the handbook – from technical content and presentation style to dissemination strategy. The event reaffirmed that the development of worker support tools must be rooted in direct participation and multi-dimensional understanding of those who will use them, in order to ensure practicality and real-world effectiveness.

Wrap-up session of the discussion. Credit: SocialLife Event Team.

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