Cambodia’s Cash Transfer Program and the Laid-off Workers’ Economic Priorities in the Post-COVID-19 Context: A Labor Market Assessment

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had a devasting effect on the global economy. The rapid spread of the virus led to the disruption of supply chains and freezing demand, limiting the flows of travel, trade, and investment (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2020). The lockdown measures implemented across nations to control the spread of the pandemic triggered supply and demand shocks and posed severe challenges for people with low incomes (Dash & Dash, 2021). Almost 1.6 billion informal economy workers, out of a worldwide total of two billion and a global workforce of 3.3 billion, suffered massive damage to their capacity to earn a living (International Labor Organization [ILO], 2020). To mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable, countries diversified their measures, and social assistance played a crucial role in rescuing targeted people. The social assistance program is short-term in general, and due to the unpredictable nature of the crisis, the extension over time was uncertain. To meet the needs of the people during the crisis, several countries expanded their social assistance programs in general and cash transfers in particular. Globally, over 2020–2021, cash transfers reached 1.36 billion people, which means one out of six people in the world received at least one cash transfer payment (Gentilini, 2022). In addition to the unprecedented scale of cash transfers, many beneficiaries’ profiles show that 203.7 million workers received unconditional cash transfers, including 184 million in the informal sector and 19.7 million in formal jobs (Gentilini et al., 2022).