A Vietnamese academic, Hanh Nguyen, has won the Regulating for Decent Work prize for her paper, Expectations vs Reality: The Well-being of Female Migrant Workers in Garment Factories in Myanmar.

The award was presented by the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, at the conclusion of the 6th Regulating for Decent Work Conference, held at the ILO’s Geneva headquarters.

The prize recognizes the best conference paper by an emerging scholar from a developing country. Nguyen’s research looks at workers’ well-being within the context of the economic and social transition in Myanmar. She examines how the concept of material and non-material well-being is understood, as well as the experiences of female migrant workers in the labour-intensive garment industry.

She said she plans to turn her paper into policy recommendations, “that will be submitted to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population of Myanmar, as concrete action to empower female migrant workers in garment factories, which has never been in place in the country before.”

Nguyen presented her paper at the three-day conference, which brought together researchers from across the world to discuss new ideas and policies that could help to shape a better future of work.

Ryder congratulated conference participants for what he called “a remarkably successful and productive conference.”

“It’s a very promising and encouraging event for the ILO in this important Centenary year,” the Director-General added.