Cambodia’s largest social assistance programme – the Covid-19 cash transfer programme – has played a crucial role in boosting the economy, said the World Bank in its latest report.
Since its launch in June 2020, the program has disbursed $1.2 billion as of September 2023. The World Bank noted the positive impact of this programme and said, “increase in cash aid and their coverage expansion serves to further alleviate the negative impacts experienced by poor and vulnerable households.”
For Cambodia, the first cases of Covid hit in February 2020. Within four months, the country saw more than 30,000 confirmed cases and nearly 500 deaths.In two years of impact, the region saw 139,103 cases and about 3,056 deaths, as per Worldometer data.
During the period, the government took preventive measures like others globally. It included travel restrictions, restrictions on mass gatherings and strict lockdowns. While this was effective in containing the spread of the virus, it also resulted in lower economic activity and loss of jobs and livelihoods.
As a result of which, Cambodia’s Economic and Finance Policy Committee (EFPC) met in April 2020 for policy decisions on how to manage the economic impact of Covid. Among the proposals was the Cash Transfer Program (CTP). And it was on June 24, 2020, former Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen launched the CTP to reach 560,000 poor and vulnerable households nationwide.
The World Bank in its 2024 report also acknowledges that it was the size of the programme – “being the largest in the country” – that helped in poverty alleviation and improving the livelihoods of the marginalised. The report also noted that the government doubled its conditional cash transfer program to about $380 for each pregnant woman bearing one child up to the age of two with ID Poor cards from August 2023. The report noted it as a positive that the coverage includes female workers who are members of the National Social Security Fund, female civil servants, interns and officials.
The World Bank also said financial support to laid-off workers has also helped in Cambodia’s labour market, which has been affected by subdued goods exports. Jobs in the (formal) manufacturing sector shrank from 1.05 million in July 2022 to 1.0 million in May 2023, before partly recovering to 1.02 million in August 2023. This represents a 5 percent decline in manufacturing sector jobs, which resulted in government aid to laid-off workers.