Excellency Pan Bunthoeun, Secretary of State, the Ministry of Planning

Excellencies, Colleagues

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to join you on this National Reflection Workshop on the Implementation of the On-Demand IDPoor system (OD-ID Poor). I truly appreciate the opportunity of meeting you all in person, national partners, and representatives of the departments of planning from the 7 participating provinces, to share lessons learnt, good practices and experience on the implementation of the On-Demand IDPoor system, especially during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As you all know, this pandemic is much more than a health crisis, it is also an unprecedent development crisis. It has exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities and exposed inequalities. As the technical lead for the United Nations socio-economic response to COVID-19, UNDP is committed to assist decision-makers look beyond recovery, towards the 2030 development agenda, make informed choices and manage complexity and uncertainty.

It has been nearly 18 months since Cambodia successfully rolled out its national cash transfer programme. With our partners, namely the Government of Australia, we provided equipment, software, and training for 1,700 field officers from all around the country to quickly mobilize and register vulnerable families. As a result, as of 30 September 2021, approximately USD 440 million were transferred to more than 670,000 families including more than 60,000 persons with disabilities, 332,000 elderly people and almost 2,000 people living with HIV. More than 61,000 families also received emergency cash transfer support during lockdown.

Please allow me to congratulate the Royal Government of Cambodia for assuming the responsibility and investing from its national budget to complete cash assistance transfers to the Kingdom’s most vulnerable families and responding quickly to the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to highlight the overall findings of the COVID-19 cash transfer programme evaluation that was conducted by UNDP, the General Secretariat of National Social Protection Council, and the Ministry of Planning. It was found that the programme supported positive coping mechanisms and contributed to improving socio-economic resilience of recipients and reducing poverty. It also slowed the erosion of development gains achieved during the last two decades or so, during the taxing times of the COVID-19 crisis. The success of COVID-19 response in Cambodia rests on several important factors, namely, strengthening and institutionalizing existing social protection policies, prioritizing the vulnerable and most affected by the pandemic, using technology to improve efficiency, and improving targeting to ensure inclusiveness.

UNDP has also teamed up with GIZ to provide technical support to the Ministry of Planning for developing a digital infrastructure for strengthening IDPoor monitoring and complaint resolution mechanism in view of continuous improvement of its effectiveness and impact. Within this framework, UNDP and the Ministry of Planning launched a preliminary study to review existing complaint mechanisms at sub-national administration level, assess needs, and gauge citizen perceptions and experience relating to the IDPoor Programme.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Allow me to conclude by thanking the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, the National Social Protection Council, our development partners, particularly the Australian, for their commitment to improving the IDPoor system and social protection in Cambodia, leaving no one behind.

I wish you a good continuation and a fruitful event.

Thank you.