Cambodia: Supporting informal economy workers during the pandemic
16 février 2022

In Cambodia’s rural Kampong Thom province, cook, caterer, and part-farmer Li Him has tried everything to stay afloat during the economic turndown caused by Covid-19.

First, Li lost his job as a primary cook for a nutrition program at a primary school near his house when pandemic shuttered schools. Next, he lost his secondary source of income catering to weddings and other events when gatherings were suspended during Cambodia’s lockdowns.

As the breadwinner, Him’s five family members depend on his income. With nothing else left to do, Himdecided to invest all his time into his third job – growing fruit and vegetables to try to sell at his nearby market. But between dealing with the pandemic’s impact on trade and competing with cheaper Vietnamese-imported products, he took a huge revenue cut. Prior to the pandemic, he could earn at least US$10 on a good day but during the pandemic struggled to make ends meet with US$3-5 a day. 

To ensure his fruit and vegetables grew well, Him used cheap chemical fertilizers but had to stop because, without the right personal protection equipment, the chemicals led to a deterioration in his health.

“I have used chemical fertiliser for a long time, and it has affected my health. Now I have stopped using it but it is difficult for me to sell my products at a local market at a higher price now,” said Him, speaking of his challenges. 

The reality of informal workers

Him’s struggles sadly mirror many from the informal sector in Cambodia who are the first to lose their jobs and left without social protection. Informal sectors, which make up 93.1% of Cambodian employment, took one of the hardest hits. By January 2021, one in five informal workers had lost their jobs while three in five could no longer afford their daily needs and four in five had to cut down on their food expenses.

Street vendor Than Thai, 38, also in Kapong Thom, has been selling local street food with her husband for seven years. The business was the main income generator to support their family and their two children but their income plummeted when the pandemic hit.

« The big challenge [for us] is the loss of income.  In a normal situation, we can earn around US$12 a day, but during the outbreak, we could only earn around 5$ a day, » explained Thai. « In addition, we have observed that the education of our children has also regressed.”  

Than Thai and her family in front of their house in Kampong Thom province, Cambodia.

At the height of the pandemic in their community, their town market had to close down for 21 days, leaving them unable to get the ingredients for their food business. With limited access to supplies and fewer and fewer clients, Thai and her husband were barely getting by. 

An Alternative Solution 

To support families like Li Him’s and Than Thai’s to get back on their feet, Aide et Action, in partnership with the European Union, has been providing small-scale businesses like theirs with business training, capacity-building and tailored educational services as well as in-kind materials. In 2021, we reached 180 communities in Kampot, Kandal and Pursat provinces. 

As part of our project Holistic Educational Strategies for Pro-Poor Community Development, we supported business owners like Li Him by providing vegetable/fruit seeds and the necessary farming equipment and supplies to improve yields and quality. This enabled him to develop his business further by expanding the land for plantation which is now his main hope for income generation. 

Him expects that in the coming months his harvest will be better and he is confident that he will gain more income when he has more vegetables to sell. He believes that will be enough to help him get by until he can go back to work fully. 

« I am sure that I will get more income because I have more vegetables to sell now,” he said. 

Thai also received support from us to renovate her shop and buy more supplies for the business, including a zinc roof, a functional cooler, new chairs and tables, and more. She also received training on how food hygiene and how to efficiently communicate better with customers. 

Thai’s Khmer sausages which she sells in her shop are typically hung and dried like this under the Cambodian sun.

“The support allows our business to grow. The shop is bigger now and has more food. We have more customers now as our shop is cleaner and we have better communication,” said Thai.

Thai also dreams of expanding her business in hopes to soon start selling her products online. 

“In the future, we also want to start selling online and it would be good to have support on that too,” Thai added. 

On the same theme :

Actualités, Blog|Stories, Stories, Asie du sud est, Accès et qualité de l’éducation, Inclusion

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