The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted most aspects of socioeconomic development, with the garment, manufacturing and textile industry being no exception. Decreased demand for orders has led to factory closures, and workers being suspended or laid off. The empirical evidence in this policy brief captures the impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of 2000 surveyed garment workers. The survey revealed that a majority of workers (80 percent) have faced income reductions, as well as reductions in food and non-food consumption. Respondents […]

COVID-19 has heavily affected Cambodian female garment workers’ economic security and personal well-being. The impacts are on employment, household income and expenditures, mental and physical health, remittances, investment, and savings. Recognizing this as a threat, the Royal Government of Cambodia has rolled out a new measure of temporary wage subsidy as part of a social assistance program for suspended garment workers, to a total of US$70 monthly to mitigate the impacts and support their livelihood. Hence, this study delved into […]

More than two thirds of Cambodia’s manufacturing companies have experienced growth and transformation over the past five years. This increase in complexity and sophistication requires high-skilled workers and vocational skills development (VSD) programmes play important roles in the transformation of companies in Cambodia. Pre-employment VSD programmes can be a prerequisite for entry-level high-skilled jobs because fresh Cambodian graduates usually have no industry-specific working experience, while in-employment VSD programmes are mostly related to industry-specific skills. Unfortunately, most VSD programmes are not […]