A national Consultative Workshop on the Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Education and Child Labour in Cambodia was co-organised on 25 August 2009 by the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport (MEYS) and the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MLVT). Approximately 100 participants attended the workshop, including key representatives of the Ministry of Education , Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Economic and Finance, the Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC), the Cambodian National Council for Children (CNCC), the National Sub-Committee on Child Labour (NSC-CL), Ministry of Planning as well as from the Education Donor Group and GTF partners (ILO, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, teachers association) as well as UNFPA, representatives from employers and workers' organizations, NGOs and civil society.  Both the FTI coordinating agencies in Cambodia were among those above present.

Keynote addresses were given by the Deputy Secretary General of the Supreme National Economic Council, the Country Representative of UNICEF (who also chairs the Education donor group and is FTI coordinating representative) and by the Director of the ILO’s sub regional office for East Asia.

Background on crisis impact in Cambodia

H.E Mr. Ros Seilava, Deputy Secretary General of the Supreme National Economic Council said that as a result of the crisis Cambodia now faces a number of challenges including a decline in Foreign Direct Investment, drop in government revenues, increasing government debts, and rising poverty. Key sectors which were the drivers of growth have been impacted, notably the garment, tourism and construction sectors.

Against this backdrop, the incidence of poverty and unemployment was expected to increase both in the urban and rural areas. Reduced employment puts pressure on government revenue mobilization, which in effect reduces funding available for poverty reduction programmes. Similarly, he also expressed concern as to the impact of the crisis on international resources for funding poverty reduction programmes.  He stressed that the success of getting back to Cambodia’s previous track of high growth and speedy poverty reduction rests on two factors: first the strong ownership and commitment of the Government to implement a recently adopted crisis policy package, and second, the continued commitment from development partners to finance development programs including those aimed at tackling child labour and boosting education. He added that in this context, the RGC has approached the crisis in two ways, addressing the vulnerabilities in the finance and banking systems while seeking to reduce the social impact of the crisis.

Is there information suggesting the crisis is reducing the numbers enrolling in or attending school?

Participants expressed concern that the Ministry of Education budget, as a percentage of the total public budget, will decline.    Data provided by the Ministry of education representative indicated that education as a proportion of the national budget had been 19.2% in 2007, 18.10% in 2008 and 17.03% in 2009.  It was said that reduction in funding would impact the operational budget of schools, hence undermining the schools’ ability to maintain the quality of its physical infrastructure.

Participants pointed out the quality of education would be affected. As teachers’ living conditions deteriorate, there was a danger that teachers would be forced to take on additional private teaching duties putting pressure on their time within the public education system.

Child labour

There are sporadic sources of anecdotal information about the impact of the crisis on child labour, but no hard data.

The view was expressed that more children from poor families may leave school during the planting and harvest season to help their families, but there is no mechanism to help such children catch up with coursework later.  

It was said that as adults in the cities lost their jobs, some would move with their children to other provinces to look for work, pulling school-aged students out of school. It might be hard for children to return to school once the family arrives in a new destination, and this could also trigger an increase in the numbers of children working.

Is there a need to collect data on the impact on vulnerable households with children?

There was strong interest in the idea of initiating a rapid assessment, with participants suggesting that either the Ministry of Education or Ministry of Labour could take the lead as coordinator. The rapid assessment could serve to gather specific information for policies targeting the poorest families and for setting up pilot projects in the following year.

New government measures helping to keep children in school

Prior to the crisis the government had been looking at the possibility of developing a Social Safety Net package which would seek to protect poor families, including those with school aged children.  It is understood that efforts are being made to move this process forward.  In his address to the meeting the UNICEF representative (chair of the Education donor group) raised the importance of the social safety net to assist vulnerable families that would be most affected by the economic crisis.

Other relevant information

The UCW project is presently engaged in an exercise in Cambodia seeking to assess the resource requirements needed to meet targets for eliminating the worst forms of child labour and reducing overall child labour, and there is a good basis for inter agency cooperation.

Mid-Term Evaluation of the EFA Fast Track Initiative: Country Case Study: Cambodia by Ray Purcell, Abby Riddell, George Taylor and Khieu Vicheanon

• Cambodia is heavily aid-dependent. Aid flows increased by 46% between 2003 and 2007, from USD 540 million to USD 790 million1.
• Latest estimates indicate donor disbursement of nearly USD 900 million for 2008. ODA has been running at 9-12% of GDP, a relatively high rate by developing country standards. Donor assistance provided to the education sector between 2003 and 2007 was USD 385.6 million. Though disbursements fluctuated, they were on a slightly rising trend, increasing from USD 75.0 million in 2003 to USD 88.2 million in 2007.
• However, the share of aid to education in total ODA has declined from 13.9% to 11.2% over the same period.Recurrent expenditure on education, youth and sport increased by 42% in real terms between 2003-2007. And Government has committed, in the National Strategic Development Plan 2006-10, to providing 60% of total government and donor resources for basic education. It has also committed and is achieving a share of the government recurrent budget for education at around 18.5% of total recurrent. Actual recurrent expenditures on education have been running at 17.1-18.8% of total government recurrent expenditures between 2003 and 2008.
• In May 2007, Cambodia formally applied for an FTI CF grant of USD 57.4 million, which was approved in principle by the FTI Steering Committee.
• UNICEF is the lead donor in the LDG. The proposal for the utilisation of the USD 57.4 million for the three year CF programme was approved by the FTI Secretariat in April 2008.
• In June 2008, the Country CF Grant became effective and the first disbursement was released in October 2008.
• FTI inputs have been designed to:) expand pre-school and primary education services to reach the most vulnerable groups; and 2) enhance professional and administrative institutional capacity for education service delivery. The FTI CF provides finance for strategies for achieving UPC, in particular by allowing the scaling up of initiatives especially of classroom and district education administration facilities. FTI has contributed to the participation of key education stakeholders in policy setting and planning processes, and to access to and quality of primary education among vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.