Balancing policy objectives: Cambodia's COVID-19 emergency cash assistance scheme for workers

Welfare programs in emerging economies are, in most cases, highly selective. This article illustrates this point by exploring Cambodia's emergency cash assistance scheme coverage for workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on policy analysis and interviews with government officials, industry representatives, and garment and tourism unions, it analyzes the level of benefit and efficacy of the initiative for different groups of workers. Based on this analysis, we find that garment factory and tourism workers received better support than workers in other sectors as a consequence of industry lobbying and strategic decision-making on the part of the government designed to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on those sectors. Our analysis also reveals, however, that the relatively informal nature of even formal-sector workplaces in Cambodia meant that the scheme's impact was highly varied even among these targeted groups of workers. We conclude with a discussion of the findings' broader implications.

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