The “COVID-19 Cash Transfer Programme for Poor and Vulnerable Household in Cambodia” represented the first large-scale cash transfer programme in the country’s history. It was implemented by the Ministry of Planning (MOP) and Ministry of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation (MOSVY). The programme was launched on the 25th of June 2020, by the Government of Cambodia, to alleviate the hardships of the people affected by Covid-19, especially low-income households. Its main objective was to maintain a stable living standard for poor and vulnerable families during the fight against Covid-19.
The Programme was built upon the IDPoor project, which aims to identify and register poor and vulnerable households so that they can access benefits such as social transfers, healthcare and other targeted services. The IDPoor system identifies poor households using proxy means testing based on structured questionnaires and a community-based validation process to assign household poverty levels. This process involves villagers electing a representative group of peers, who are trained to interview fellow community members to assess their poverty status. The resulting list is then displayed publicly, followed by a discussion and ratification by the commune council, which typically oversees ten villages. Since 2011, all services for poor people within the country are required by law to use IDPoor to target beneficiaries.
The COVID-19 crisis called for urgent nationwide implementation of the ‘on-demand’ IDPoor (OD-IDPoor) process, which began its development in 2017. That consisted of a quick update on the households economic status to incorporate those most affected by the crisis as eligible to receive social assistance.. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the German Development Agency (GIZ), on behalf of the Australian and German governments, supplied Cambodian Ministry of Planning employees tablet computers, software, and training for field officers from all around the country to quickly identify families that had recently fallen into poverty. This allowed an expansion of the programme during the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result of the advances made during the pandemic, nowadays any IDPoor equity card holder can register with an administrator at the commune level and receive an account from an e-payment provider. The households can withdraw the monthly payments at a local branch of the e-payment provider. The benefit rates were, at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, USD20 per month for rural households, plus an additional USD4 per household member. Urban households received more: USD30 per month, plus USD7 per household member. Additional payments were authorized for those living in extreme poverty, people with disabilities, children, elderly people, and people living with HIV/AIDS.
The cash transfer for the poor and vulnerable households during COVID-19 in Cambodia stands as the largest cash transfer initiative ever implemented in the country's history.
- In the first two months of the programme (June and July of 2020), the government provided cash transfers to 560,000 households identified as poor or vulnerable by the IDPoor, figure that amounts to approximately 2.3 million individuals (about 14% of the population of the country).
- About 191,000 newly poor households have been added to the IDPoor database using the OD-IDPoor process. This means that approximately, 700,000 households (3 million individuals) were supported with temporary cash assistance.
The Cash Transfer Program’s budget has been expanded from USD200 million in 2020 to USD335 million in 2021. As of August 2021, more than USD410 million has been disbursed to 2.6 million people. Over a 25-month timeline until June 2022, approximately US$714 million has been transferred to more than 680,000 households.
Summary: Multi-level governance involving international agencies, national institutions, provinces and local governments.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the German Development Agency (GIZ), on behalf of the Australian and German governments, supplied Cambodian Ministry of Planning employees tablet computers, software, and training for field officers from all around the country to quickly identify families that had recently fallen into poverty.
Given the large scale of implementation, the program required effective coordination among the various key stakeholders involved, from national governments to local governments. The Ministry of Planning, which is responsible for the IDPoor database system, played a key role as the coordinator for updating, identifying, and registering vulnerable and poor households in the IDPoor database. The Ministry of Social Affairs Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation was responsible for benefit calculation and cash payment based on the IDPoor database system. The task force of the General Secretariat of the National Social Protection Council was to monitor and evaluate the overall program implementation in the field. In addition to these task forces, the Ministry of Interior managed local governments and assisted these ministries and agencies in coordinating with local governments.
In addition to these government agencies, this program also required local governments at the provincial and commune levels to work together to identify the poor and vulnerable households in their community. The Ministry of Planning, together with provincial departments of planning, took control of updating the IDPoor database across the country. Meanwhile, provincial and district coordination teams provided training and technical assistance to implement the IDPoor process in each commune. At the commune level, the Planning and Budgeting Committee Representative Group was responsible for process oversight. At the village level, the Village Representative Group was directly responsible for beneficiary identification.
The programme uses IDPoor as its MIS. This system was established in 2006 within the Ministry of Planning in Cambodia. To effectively implement IDPoor, the Government promulgated Sub-Decree 291 on Identification of Poor Households in December 2011. This Sub-Decree regulates the procedures for management and implementation of the identification of poor households, and the utilization of poor household data. Based on this Sub-Decree, IDPoor is the mandatory standard tool for all organizations who want to target social services to poor households and at-risk households in Cambodia. Commune councils and the national agencies update the database regularly, allowing for immediate addition and removal of beneficiaries in the program when necessary. All households identified as poor are issued with Equity Cards. These cards enable poor households to receive free services and assistance, and help service providers to quickly verify the identity of poor household members to provide services to them.
Impact on Poverty and Inequality:
Household Vulnerability to Income Shocks in Emerging and Developing Asia: the Case of Cambodia, Nepal and Vietnam (De Stefani A., Laws A., Sollaci A., 2022)
At the onset of the pandemic, an estimated 10 percent of Cambodian households were already living below the international poverty line of $1.90 per worker per day (PPP), as defined by the UN and World Bank (World Bank, 2020). In the absence of a cash transfer programme, this share would have risen sharply to 17.3 percent. However, thanks to the intervention, the poverty rate increased more moderately, reaching only 12.6 percent. This 4.7 percentage point mitigation highlights the relative improvement compared to the poverty rate of 17 percent simulated under the Covid -19 scenario. In conclusion, the cash transfer scheme did very well in supporting households in the bottom deciles of the income distribution.
Food security and guaranteed income:
An Assessment of Cambodia’s Cash Transfer Program for the Poor and Vulnerable Households During COVID-19 (Shrestha, M., Palacios, R. J., & Nishikawa Chavez, K. V., 2021)
Food Security
Almost all the beneficiary households reported using the Emergency Cash Transfer to purchase food. This pattern held true across all regions and economic groups. Four fifths of the beneficiary households used the transfers to purchase essential items. The share of beneficiary households purchasing essential items has increased from 58 percent in Aug- Sep 2020 to 78 percent in Feb-Mar 2021.
Increased income of poor families
Households that did not receive the transfers saw their overall incomes decline by 15 percent whereas households that received the transfers experienced a decline of only 5 percent. The difference in income loss of about 10 percentage points is both large and statistically significant. This difference is clearly driven by the transfers received from the government through the COVID-19 Cash Transfer Programme.
Food security and nutrition, and human capital:
Socioeconomic Impacts of the COVID-19 Cash Transfer Programme in Cambodia: Micro and Macro-level Evaluations (GS-NSPC and UNDP, 2022)
Food Security
Despite a decline in food security levels in Cambodia due to the pandemic, households that received cash transfers demonstrated greater resilience in food security compared to similar households that did not. The share of food-secure households dropped from 47% to 32% (-15 p.p.) in the treatment group, and from 47% to 28% (-19 p.p.) in the control group, as measured by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). Rural and male-headed households were the most benefited compared to their counterparts. In conclusion, the cash transfer programme helped to protect poor and vulnerable households from falling into further food insecurity.
Health
Non-beneficiary households (56%) in urban areas reported a significantly higher prevalence of being unable to afford medical fees vis-à-vis beneficiary households (22%). This result suggests a protective impact of the cash transfer and raises concerns for poor and vulnerable households in urban areas that do not receive the cash transfer.
Children Education
Results suggest that cash transfers can prevent school dropout for children in vulnerable and poor households because recipient households can spend some cash on their children’s education. More than 25% of recipients reported using the cash for children’s education when the schools reopened in January 2021.
The Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 on Households in Cambodia (Karamba, W., Salcher, I., & Tong, K., 2021)
Following a decline from 67 percent in August of 2020—based on data gathered through interviews during the Round 2 of data collection (August–September 2020)—the share of households affected by moderate-to-severe food insecurity dropped to 39 percent in October of the same year, according to the data collected in Round 3 between October and November 2020. Moreover, the share of households affected by moderate-to-severe food insecurity, as measured by the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), stood at 34 percent in December of 2020, based on Round 4 interviews conducted between December 2020 and January 2021.
Digital technologies improved program efficiency and data management during the pandemic, while the emergency cash transfer expanded social protection and boosted the economy. Focus on refining targeting is important in order to better reach vulnerable urban households.
- The use of digital technologies was a key success factor, particularly in supporting implementation during a pandemic. The use of digital technologies for data collection and management ensured faster turnaround times. Tablets reduced the use of labour and paper for questionnaires, making data available immediately in the national database, improving data quality and facilitating payments to beneficiaries.
- The COVID-19 emergency cash transfer accelerated the expansion of the country’s first large-scale cash transfer programme. It has paved the way for future social protection programmes within the country beyond the current crisis. Additionally, much was learned in adapting and scaling up the programme, including in building the necessary data linkages, policies and roll-out strategies.
- Considering the available fiscal space weighed against other priorities, the government was advised to extend implementing this social assistance programme during at least the recovery period, as it became evident that the program accelerated consumption and stimulated the economy, helping to prevent further losses.
- Efforts should be made to improve the programme targeting mechanism, as results suggest some weaknesses in the identification process. This is important to increase its robustness and minimize subjectivity in the identification of poor and vulnerable households at the community level. With more than 80 percent of the total workforce in the informal sector, mostly concentrated in urban areas, vulnerable urban households appear to have received less support when compared to rural households, despite significant reductions in workers’ income during the pandemic.
SDG 1 - No Poverty
- Target 1.1 - By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.
- Indicator 1.1.1 - Proportion of the population living below the international poverty line by sex, age, employment status and geographic location (urban/rural)
- Target 1.2 - By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
- Indicator 1.2.1 - Proportion of population living below the national poverty line, by sex and age
- Target 1.3 - Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
- Indicator 1.3.1 - Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable Indicator 1.5.1: Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
- Target 1.5 - By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.
- Indicator 1.5.3 - Number of countries that adopt and implement national disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030
SDG 2 - Zero hunger
- Target 2.2 - By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.
- Indicator 2.2.1 - Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
- Indicator 2.2.2 - Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
SDG 1 – No Poverty
- Target 1.1 – By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.
- Indicator 1.1.1 – Proportion of the population living below the international poverty line by sex, age, employment status and geographic location (urban/rural)
- Target 1.2 – By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.
- Indicator 1.2.1 – Proportion of population living below the national poverty line, by sex and age
- Target 1.3 – Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
- Indicator 1.3.1 – Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable Indicator 1.5.1: Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
- Target 1.5 – By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.
- Indicator 1.5.3 – Number of countries that adopt and implement national disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030
SDG 2 – Zero hunger
- Target 2.2 – By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons.
- Indicator 2.2.1 – Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age
- Indicator 2.2.2 – Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)
The “COVID-19 Cash Transfer Programme for Poor and Vulnerable Household in Cambodia” represented the first large-scale cash transfer programme in the country’s history. It was implemented by the Ministry of Planning (MOP) and Ministry of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation (MOSVY). The programme was launched on the 25th of June 2020, by the Government of Cambodia, to alleviate the hardships of the people affected by Covid-19, especially low-income households. Its main objective was to maintain a stable living standard for poor and vulnerable families during the fight against Covid-19.
The Programme was built upon the IDPoor project, which aims to identify and register poor and vulnerable households so that they can access benefits such as social transfers, healthcare and other targeted services. The IDPoor system identifies poor households using proxy means testing based on structured questionnaires and a community-based validation process to assign household poverty levels. This process involves villagers electing a representative group of peers, who are trained to interview fellow community members to assess their poverty status. The resulting list is then displayed publicly, followed by a discussion and ratification by the commune council, which typically oversees ten villages. Since 2011, all services for poor people within the country are required by law to use IDPoor to target beneficiaries.
The COVID-19 crisis called for urgent nationwide implementation of the ‘on-demand’ IDPoor (OD-IDPoor) process, which began its development in 2017. That consisted of a quick update on the households economic status to incorporate those most affected by the crisis as eligible to receive social assistance.. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the German Development Agency (GIZ), on behalf of the Australian and German governments, supplied Cambodian Ministry of Planning employees tablet computers, software, and training for field officers from all around the country to quickly identify families that had recently fallen into poverty. This allowed an expansion of the programme during the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result of the advances made during the pandemic, nowadays any IDPoor equity card holder can register with an administrator at the commune level and receive an account from an e-payment provider. The households can withdraw the monthly payments at a local branch of the e-payment provider. The benefit rates were, at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, USD20 per month for rural households, plus an additional USD4 per household member. Urban households received more: USD30 per month, plus USD7 per household member. Additional payments were authorized for those living in extreme poverty, people with disabilities, children, elderly people, and people living with HIV/AIDS.
Digital technologies improved program efficiency and data management during the pandemic, while the emergency cash transfer expanded social protection and boosted the economy. Focus on refining targeting is important in order to better reach vulnerable urban households.
- The use of digital technologies was a key success factor, particularly in supporting implementation during a pandemic. The use of digital technologies for data collection and management ensured faster turnaround times. Tablets reduced the use of labour and paper for questionnaires, making data available immediately in the national database, improving data quality and facilitating payments to beneficiaries.
- The COVID-19 emergency cash transfer accelerated the expansion of the country’s first large-scale cash transfer programme. It has paved the way for future social protection programmes within the country beyond the current crisis. Additionally, much was learned in adapting and scaling up the programme, including in building the necessary data linkages, policies and roll-out strategies.
- Considering the available fiscal space weighed against other priorities, the government was advised to extend implementing this social assistance programme during at least the recovery period, as it became evident that the program accelerated consumption and stimulated the economy, helping to prevent further losses.
- Efforts should be made to improve the programme targeting mechanism, as results suggest some weaknesses in the identification process. This is important to increase its robustness and minimize subjectivity in the identification of poor and vulnerable households at the community level. With more than 80 percent of the total workforce in the informal sector, mostly concentrated in urban areas, vulnerable urban households appear to have received less support when compared to rural households, despite significant reductions in workers’ income during the pandemic.
Child and family support/benefits; Digital transformation of social protection information systems; Social registry; Unconditional cash transfer
In Cambodia:
International:
Summary: Multi-level governance involving international agencies, national institutions, provinces and local governments.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the German Development Agency (GIZ), on behalf of the Australian and German governments, supplied Cambodian Ministry of Planning employees tablet computers, software, and training for field officers from all around the country to quickly identify families that had recently fallen into poverty.
Given the large scale of implementation, the program required effective coordination among the various key stakeholders involved, from national governments to local governments. The Ministry of Planning, which is responsible for the IDPoor database system, played a key role as the coordinator for updating, identifying, and registering vulnerable and poor households in the IDPoor database. The Ministry of Social Affairs Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation was responsible for benefit calculation and cash payment based on the IDPoor database system. The task force of the General Secretariat of the National Social Protection Council was to monitor and evaluate the overall program implementation in the field. In addition to these task forces, the Ministry of Interior managed local governments and assisted these ministries and agencies in coordinating with local governments.
In addition to these government agencies, this program also required local governments at the provincial and commune levels to work together to identify the poor and vulnerable households in their community. The Ministry of Planning, together with provincial departments of planning, took control of updating the IDPoor database across the country. Meanwhile, provincial and district coordination teams provided training and technical assistance to implement the IDPoor process in each commune. At the commune level, the Planning and Budgeting Committee Representative Group was responsible for process oversight. At the village level, the Village Representative Group was directly responsible for beneficiary identification.
The cash transfer for the poor and vulnerable households during COVID-19 in Cambodia stands as the largest cash transfer initiative ever implemented in the country’s history.
- In the first two months of the programme (June and July of 2020), the government provided cash transfers to 560,000 households identified as poor or vulnerable by the IDPoor, figure that amounts to approximately 2.3 million individuals (about 14% of the population of the country).
- About 191,000 newly poor households have been added to the IDPoor database using the OD-IDPoor process. This means that approximately, 700,000 households (3 million individuals) were supported with temporary cash assistance.
The Cash Transfer Program’s budget has been expanded from USD200 million in 2020 to USD335 million in 2021. As of August 2021, more than USD410 million has been disbursed to 2.6 million people. Over a 25-month timeline until June 2022, approximately US$714 million has been transferred to more than 680,000 households.
The programme uses IDPoor as its MIS. This system was established in 2006 within the Ministry of Planning in Cambodia. To effectively implement IDPoor, the Government promulgated Sub-Decree 291 on Identification of Poor Households in December 2011. This Sub-Decree regulates the procedures for management and implementation of the identification of poor households, and the utilization of poor household data. Based on this Sub-Decree, IDPoor is the mandatory standard tool for all organizations who want to target social services to poor households and at-risk households in Cambodia. Commune councils and the national agencies update the database regularly, allowing for immediate addition and removal of beneficiaries in the program when necessary. All households identified as poor are issued with Equity Cards. These cards enable poor households to receive free services and assistance, and help service providers to quickly verify the identity of poor household members to provide services to them.