Realizing the Promise of Social Assistance : Cambodia Policy Note
Although Cambodia has become one of the world’s leaders in poverty reduction, two-thirds of its population remains poor or economically vulnerable, with a large number of households moving in and out of poverty. Cambodian households are exposed to...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/241131543595892968/Realizing-the-Promise-of-Social-Assistance-Cambodia-Policy-Note http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30925 |
| Summary: | Although Cambodia has become one of the
world’s leaders in poverty reduction, two-thirds of its
population remains poor or economically vulnerable, with a
large number of households moving in and out of poverty.
Cambodian households are exposed to a range of shocks that
can have devastating costs for the poor and vulnerable.
Negative coping strategies to manage shocks can put poor or
economically insecure households at risk of a return to or
deepened poverty. Formal social protection in Cambodia is
only incipient, with low levels of spending compared to
other countries, particularly for social assistance. Most
social protection spending in Cambodia goes toward
retirement benefits for civil servants through the National
Social Security Fund for Civil Servants (NSSF-C) and the
National Fund for Veterans (NFV), neither of which have been
contributory to date and are thus entirely funded through
general revenues. Social assistance spending is much lower
and comprises several small, fragmented programs. The
Government has recently signaled its willingness to scale up
social assistance through its approval of the National
Social Protection Policy Framework (NSPPF), which lays out
ambitious reforms. The NSPPF, approved in 2017, provides the
framework for an integrated social protection system.
Guidance will be provided by a National Social Protection
Council (NSPC) under the overall direction of the Ministry
of Economy and Finance (MEF), with distinct sub-bodies for
social insurance and social assistance. This note presents
policy options for ensuring the feasibility of the
institutional and programmatic rollout of social assistance
reforms envisaged in the NSPPF. To realize the goals of the
NSPPF, a clear vision on prioritization and sequencing of SA
reforms will be critical. The path from incipient and
fragmented social assistance systems is one that has been
trodden by many developing countries in recent years, and
those experiences can provide important lessons for Cambodia
in this process. This policy note draws from these lessons
while taking into account Cambodia’s ongoing social
assistance programs, institutional frameworks, and delivery
systems. It utilizes the World Bank’s ASPIRE database,
program documents, an assessment of Cambodia’s social
assistance programs in the OECD’s 2017 Social Protection
System Review of Cambodia, and country data. |
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