Cambodia
Strengthening the Economic Resilience of Female Garment Workers during COVID19 – Phase 2
This is the End of Project Evaluation Report for the Strengthening the Economic Resilience of Female Garment Workers during COVID19 – Phase 2 (SER) Project which was implemented in Phnom Penh, Kandal and Kampong Speu provinces. The Project commenced in July 2021 and concluded in February 2022. The goal of the project was to strengthen the economic resilience of female garment workers who are socially and economically marginalized in Cambodia to cope with the negative impacts of COVID-19. In order to conduct the evaluation, data was collected through a comprehensive literature review and fieldwork. The literature review was conducted reviewing reports and documents from the SER Project and also other relevant external publications. The evaluation interviewed 400 people and was conducted in January 2022.
• It should be noted that the project was not wholly a humanitarian type intervention project, which tend to have a short implementation period, rather the project had knowledge, capacity and resilience training elements which require a longer timeframe to implement. For this reason, as well as the delay to the start of the project and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, project staff were faced with a high workload within a challenging environment. Specifically, a longer time period would have given more time to prepare for project interventions such as the training, baseline and rapid situation assessment of the labour market. With more time the baseline and rapid situation assessment of the labour market could have been used to better tailor and inform the development of the training materials and curriculum.
• The focus on social protections in the project interventions was a relative new topic especially for factory workers, who are mostly only aware of the NSSF and the IDPoor. As highlighted as an unexpected result of the project, many project participants directing enquiries to local authorities about social protections. While local authorities are aware of social protections in general, they do not have detailed knowledge, especially since many social protections are administered at the national level and not at the village level. Therefore, more cooperation with local authorities should have been sought in order to prepare the local authorities for this situation.
• The delay in the signing the project’s administrative contract, caused the project to miss opportunities to use the findings of the baseline survey and the rapid situation assessment of the labour market to better inform the development of the project’s training activities.
• The evaluation found that while knowledge of GBV improved, the same was not the case for sexual harassment. Indeed, respondents who could not identify sexual harassment increased from 32% (114/356) at the baseline to 38% (139/362) at the endline. Project staff reported that this was not an unexpected finding as CARE’s previous sexual harassment projects had encountered similar such resistance to changing attitudes.
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• It should be noted that the project was not wholly a humanitarian type intervention project, which tend to have a short implementation period, rather the project had knowledge, capacity and resilience training elements which require a longer timeframe to implement. For this reason, as well as the delay to the start of the project and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, project staff were faced with a high workload within a challenging environment. Specifically, a longer time period would have given more time to prepare for project interventions such as the training, baseline and rapid situation assessment of the labour market. With more time the baseline and rapid situation assessment of the labour market could have been used to better tailor and inform the development of the training materials and curriculum.
• The focus on social protections in the project interventions was a relative new topic especially for factory workers, who are mostly only aware of the NSSF and the IDPoor. As highlighted as an unexpected result of the project, many project participants directing enquiries to local authorities about social protections. While local authorities are aware of social protections in general, they do not have detailed knowledge, especially since many social protections are administered at the national level and not at the village level. Therefore, more cooperation with local authorities should have been sought in order to prepare the local authorities for this situation.
• The delay in the signing the project’s administrative contract, caused the project to miss opportunities to use the findings of the baseline survey and the rapid situation assessment of the labour market to better inform the development of the project’s training activities.
• The evaluation found that while knowledge of GBV improved, the same was not the case for sexual harassment. Indeed, respondents who could not identify sexual harassment increased from 32% (114/356) at the baseline to 38% (139/362) at the endline. Project staff reported that this was not an unexpected finding as CARE’s previous sexual harassment projects had encountered similar such resistance to changing attitudes.
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The Safe Service for Minority Population (SSMP) Project 2019-2021
This is the End of Project Evaluation Report for Safe Services for Minority Populations (SSMP) Project which was implemented in Ratanak Kiri province- Banlung, Oyadav, and Andong Meas districts. The Project was funded by the Australia-Cambodia Cooperation for Equitable Sustainable Services (ACCESS). It started on 30 September 2019 and will end on 30 September 2021 (following a no cost extension). The goal of the project was for Persons with disabilities and women affected by GBV benefit from access to sustainable, quality, inclusive services
In order to conduct the evaluation, data was collected through a comprehensive literature review and fieldwork. The literature review was conducted reviewing reports and documents from the SSMP Project and also other relevant external publications. Field work was conducted in August 2021. The interview questions were based on the CARE’s monitoring and evaluation tools and updated to capture information needed for the Evaluation Read More...
In order to conduct the evaluation, data was collected through a comprehensive literature review and fieldwork. The literature review was conducted reviewing reports and documents from the SSMP Project and also other relevant external publications. Field work was conducted in August 2021. The interview questions were based on the CARE’s monitoring and evaluation tools and updated to capture information needed for the Evaluation Read More...
Know and Grown Project
Cambodia is one of several countries that implemented a five-year program (increased to 6 years due to the COVID 19 pandemic) with the intention to impact 500,000 adolescents between 10-18 years, with a focus on girls. The Know and Grow (K&G) project was implemented by CARE Cambodia, funded by Patsy Collins Trust Fund Initiative (Cohort 3) with the overall objective of Attainment, Equality, Quality, and Empowerment for ethnic minority girls and boys living in Ratanak Kiri Province in northeast Cambodia. The K&G project’s intention was to empower 2,889 adolescents with a focus on 1,505 marginalised ethnic minority adolescent girls and boys. The K&G program aim was on innovation in learning and teaching so as to promote 21st century knowledge and skills among ethnic minority girls and boys so they would be ready to engage as Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) citizens when ASEAN integration occurred. CARE Cambodia has been implementing programs with ethnic minority communities and government partners in Ratanak Kiri Province for two decades. The K&G program team worked with the Provincial Office of Education (POE) staff, school directors, teachers and students from 11 lower secondary schools (Grades 7 to 11) to achieve the project objectives. [118 pages] Read More...
Addressing Gender-Based Sexual Harassment in the Workplace in Vietnam and Cambodia
Purpose: This final evaluation aims to build an impact assessment of the sexual harassment prevention (SHP) package in the targeted suppliers of Primark in Vietnam. In particular, the final evaluation aims to assess the appropriateness and the effectiveness of interventions of the SHP package and review the possibility and lesson learnt to scale up the SHP intervention to other suppliers of Primark in Vietnam.
Methods: The study employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Regarding qualitative methods, the study organised and collected information from 2 focus group discussions (FGD) with the Sexual Harassment Committee (SHPC) members, 6 in-depth-Interview with leaders and workers, the four most significant change stories and a program reflection workshop. The quantitative method was a survey with a sample of 196 employees working in the targeted factories. [76 pages]
Main findings: The intervention package of the project had 3 major domains of activities which included training and advocacy to leaders and managers of the factories participating in the project on SHP, supporting the factories to develop and implement SHP mechanisms, and awareness-raising and behaviour change campaigns. The project’s activities that focus on training and advocacy for the targeted factories’ leaders and managers had promoted them to proactively participate in address sexual harassment in their factories. The factory management board had publicly shown their commitment to implement the established SH prevention policies and actively participating in implementing all the project activities and creating role models at the forefront of good practice performance. Also, the findings of this evaluation show significant improvements in behaviours and the capacities of SHPC members and resource persons regarding implementing SHP activities and SH case handling. Read More...
Methods: The study employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Regarding qualitative methods, the study organised and collected information from 2 focus group discussions (FGD) with the Sexual Harassment Committee (SHPC) members, 6 in-depth-Interview with leaders and workers, the four most significant change stories and a program reflection workshop. The quantitative method was a survey with a sample of 196 employees working in the targeted factories. [76 pages]
Main findings: The intervention package of the project had 3 major domains of activities which included training and advocacy to leaders and managers of the factories participating in the project on SHP, supporting the factories to develop and implement SHP mechanisms, and awareness-raising and behaviour change campaigns. The project’s activities that focus on training and advocacy for the targeted factories’ leaders and managers had promoted them to proactively participate in address sexual harassment in their factories. The factory management board had publicly shown their commitment to implement the established SH prevention policies and actively participating in implementing all the project activities and creating role models at the forefront of good practice performance. Also, the findings of this evaluation show significant improvements in behaviours and the capacities of SHPC members and resource persons regarding implementing SHP activities and SH case handling. Read More...
GENDER AND COVID-19 VACCINES Listening to women-focused organizations in Asia and the Pacific
More than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed across at least 176 countries, with over 1.7 billion doses administered worldwide. Combating the pandemic requires equitable distribution of safe and effective vaccines, however, women and girls are impacted by gaps both in the supply side and the demand side that hamper equitable distribution of the vaccine. Evidence reveals that 75 per cent of all vaccines have gone to just 10 countries, and only 0.3 per cent of doses have been administered in low-income countries. Very few of COVID-19 vaccines are going to those most vulnerable. The vaccine rollout in Asia and the Pacific has been relatively slow and staggered amid secondary waves of the virus. India, despite being the largest vaccine developer, has only vaccinated 3 per cent of the population and continues to battle a variant outbreak that, at its peak, was responsible for more than half of the world’s daily COVID-19 cases and set a record-breaking pace of about 400,000 cases per day.5However, the small Pacific nation of Nauru, reported a world record administering the first dose to 7,392 people, 108 per cent of the adult population within four weeks. Bhutan also set an example by vaccinating 93 per cent of its eligible population in less than two weeks. That success could be at risk, given the situation in India and the suspended export of vaccines. Read More...
STOP Southeast Asia Impact Reflections
Sexual harassment is any unwanted, unwelcome or uninvited behaviour of a sexual nature which could be expected to make a person feel humiliated, intimidated or offended. Female garment workers experience sexual harassment in their workplace, generally have limited legal protections, lack job security and work in an environment where there is often impunity for the harassment they experience. In Cambodia alone, sexual harassment costs in the garment industry USD $89 million per annum in lost productivity.
After four years of work, independent evaluations found the STOP project had assisted factory management to set up clearer guidelines and mechanisms for dealing with and preventing sexual harassment. It also empowered female workers to be confident to report sexual harassment incidents and become more aware of their rights. Read More...
After four years of work, independent evaluations found the STOP project had assisted factory management to set up clearer guidelines and mechanisms for dealing with and preventing sexual harassment. It also empowered female workers to be confident to report sexual harassment incidents and become more aware of their rights. Read More...
Supporting Meaningful Civic Engagement for Improved Accountability by Leveraging Digital Technologies Baseline Assessment
The baseline assessment for the “Supporting meaningful civic engagement for improved accountability by leveraging digital technologies” project was conducted to develop values for baseline indicators and provide evidence with regards to the degree of satisfaction and level of dialogue target beneficiary groups have with public service providers. Data from this baseline assessment will enable comparisons between start, during the course of the project and at the end of project. Donor for this project is the European Union via European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).
The overall objective for this Action is to develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels and ensure public access to information and fundamental freedoms. The overall objectives will be achieved through activities, which empower young ethnic minority community citizens to demand the government for more participatory, transparent, responsive and accountability in leveraging digital technologies. We will use a digital scorecard, which is currently tested and will be applied in 2021 in this project. Report is 53 pages long. Read More...
The overall objective for this Action is to develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels and ensure public access to information and fundamental freedoms. The overall objectives will be achieved through activities, which empower young ethnic minority community citizens to demand the government for more participatory, transparent, responsive and accountability in leveraging digital technologies. We will use a digital scorecard, which is currently tested and will be applied in 2021 in this project. Report is 53 pages long. Read More...
A Social Impact Analysis of CARE’s ‘Enhancing Women’s Voice to STOP Sexual Harassment ’ Project
The Enhancing Women’s Voice to Stop Sexual Harassment project (STOP), an initiative of CARE Australia, has been working since 2017 to prevent and address the under-reported problem of sexual harassment in mainland Southeast Asia’s garment sector. At the time of writing, STOP is the only initiative that addresses this issue on a multi-country scale within the sub-region. Operating across a pool of garment factories in four Mekong countries—Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam—STOP aims to enhance women’s voice and economic rights at both the national and factory levels. Based on a socio-ecological model of violence prevention, CARE Country Offices (COs) are working with participating factories to create workplaces where female workers feel safe and experience less SH through the implementation of standardised SH reporting mechanisms and rigorous training programs. Supported by CARE Regional staff, each CARE CO engages with relevant country, regional and international stakeholders to strengthen the national regulatory environment to promote laws, policies and mechanisms to address SH in the workplace.
In 2018, CARE Australia commissioned a consortium of researchers from UNSW Sydney and UNSW Canberra to undertake an independent evaluation the STOP project and provide a separate Social Impact Assessment (SIA) focused on Cambodia STOP as the particular case study. The SIA is intended to complement the findings of the Final Evaluation (FE) of the STOP, as implemented in the other three project sites. The SIA and the Final Evaluation should be read as two parts of a single whole. The UNSW team drew upon a range of evaluative sources including factory surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews with factory workers, middle management and government officials. A conceptual framework is also advanced in order to better capture the nuances of social impact and gender transformation, and to provide a rigorous basis on which to evaluate STOP’s development and implementation in Cambodia. [94 pages]. Read More...
In 2018, CARE Australia commissioned a consortium of researchers from UNSW Sydney and UNSW Canberra to undertake an independent evaluation the STOP project and provide a separate Social Impact Assessment (SIA) focused on Cambodia STOP as the particular case study. The SIA is intended to complement the findings of the Final Evaluation (FE) of the STOP, as implemented in the other three project sites. The SIA and the Final Evaluation should be read as two parts of a single whole. The UNSW team drew upon a range of evaluative sources including factory surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews with factory workers, middle management and government officials. A conceptual framework is also advanced in order to better capture the nuances of social impact and gender transformation, and to provide a rigorous basis on which to evaluate STOP’s development and implementation in Cambodia. [94 pages]. Read More...
Regional Mekong Rapid Gender Analysis COVID-19
COVID-19 has created unprecedented health, economic, and social impacts all over the world. As of 31 August 2020, there have been 25,405,845 confirmed cases globally, and a total of 849,389 deaths. In the Mekong region, there have been 5,612 cases, with 274 in Cambodia, 22 in Lao PDR, 882 in Myanmar, 3,390 in Thailand and 1,044 in Viet Nam. In addition to health effects and deaths caused by the virus, the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 and prevention measures taken by governments are far reaching and long-lasting, especially in the context of climate change and natural disasters in the region.
For the Mekong region, COVID-19 presents special challenges for high-risk populations, including the many migrant workers, garment industry workers, indigenous and ethnic minorities, refugees, internally displaced peoples, migrants, urban slum-dwellers, and people working in the informal sector, such as female sex workers. As with all crises, women and children are disproportionately affected. COVID-19 exacerbates the challenges at-risk populations face and makes it even harder for women to access the support services they need in times of crisis.
This brief summarises the Mekong RGA, written by Athena Nguyen, Jordan Hoffmann, Laura Baines, Ratha Ra, Rebecca Elias, and Christina Haneef in September 2020. This Rapid Gender Analysis draws from 301 interviews (including 126 women), secondary data sources, and CARE’s research to understand women’s specific challenges in the Mekong region during the pandemic. Read More...
For the Mekong region, COVID-19 presents special challenges for high-risk populations, including the many migrant workers, garment industry workers, indigenous and ethnic minorities, refugees, internally displaced peoples, migrants, urban slum-dwellers, and people working in the informal sector, such as female sex workers. As with all crises, women and children are disproportionately affected. COVID-19 exacerbates the challenges at-risk populations face and makes it even harder for women to access the support services they need in times of crisis.
This brief summarises the Mekong RGA, written by Athena Nguyen, Jordan Hoffmann, Laura Baines, Ratha Ra, Rebecca Elias, and Christina Haneef in September 2020. This Rapid Gender Analysis draws from 301 interviews (including 126 women), secondary data sources, and CARE’s research to understand women’s specific challenges in the Mekong region during the pandemic. Read More...
GARMENT WORKER NEEDS ASSESSMENT DURING COVID19
The COVID19 pandemic has severely impacted the garment industry in Cambodia. As of July 2020, over 400 factories have temporarily or permanently closed down and over 150,000 workers are out of work.1 The garment industry employs approximately 750,000 workers in Cambodia, 89% of whom are women.
CARE’s Rapid Gender Analysis demonstrates the disproportionate impact that COVID19 has had on women in Cambodia and around the world. A lot of attention has been placed on the garment industry, but there is little detailed information available from the workers themselves on the impact of the pandemic and what support they need.
The objectives of this needs assessment are to:
• Better understand the needs of women garment workers during the COVID19 pandemic
• Develop evidence-based recommendations for CARE and civil society partners, workers’ organizations,
employers, brands and government stakeholders in Cambodia on how to best address the needs of women
garment workers during the COVID19 pandemic. Read More...
CARE’s Rapid Gender Analysis demonstrates the disproportionate impact that COVID19 has had on women in Cambodia and around the world. A lot of attention has been placed on the garment industry, but there is little detailed information available from the workers themselves on the impact of the pandemic and what support they need.
The objectives of this needs assessment are to:
• Better understand the needs of women garment workers during the COVID19 pandemic
• Develop evidence-based recommendations for CARE and civil society partners, workers’ organizations,
employers, brands and government stakeholders in Cambodia on how to best address the needs of women
garment workers during the COVID19 pandemic. Read More...