Germany and World Food Programme to Provide Cash Assistance to Support Recovery of Vulnerable Cambodian Families Affected by Covid

Phnom Penh. Germany and WFP entered into a new partnership to support lower-income Cambodian families affected by multiple shocks such as COVID-19 and climate-related shocks. The Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has committed EUR 5 million, which is approximately US$ 6 million to provide cash assistance to vulnerable households to support their recovery. The partners will also support the Royal Government of Cambodia to enhance the responsiveness of social protection schemes to strengthen resilience to shocks

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound social and economic impacts on Cambodia's vulnerable population. For part of them, these negative effects have been compounded by climatic shocks such as the devastating floods of late 2020.

"COVID-19 and severe flooding have only added to the challenges faced by these already vulnerable people. Reports show that many of the most vulnerable households hit by these two shocks have reduced their food consumption, sold productive assets, and taken on debt to meet basic needs. We are pleased to be able to support those in need to meet their food and nutrition needs and support their recovery." said WFP representative Claire Conan.

GIZ and WFP will use data from the Royal Government of Cambodia, including the Ministry of Planning's Identification of Poor Households (IDPoor) database, and disaster-related information from the Platform for Real-​time Information System (PRISM), to identify poor households affected by the floods and COVID-19. GIZ has provided technical support to the Ministry of Planning to implement its IDPoor programme for more than a decade. The IDPoor programme now covers 100% of rural and urban areas in Cambodia.

Targeted households will receive cash transfers in addition to the government's COVID-19 emergency cash transfers. This extra support will prevent the households from falling further into poverty and help build up their resilience to future crises.

While the COVID-19 situation remains volatile and climatic shocks remain a constant potential threat, preparing for these is important. Therefore, WFP and GIZ will continue to provide support to the Royal Government of Cambodia to improve the responsiveness of current social assistance schemes to shocks.

"Germany is proud to have supported IDPoor together with Australia for over a decade. Together with our technical cooperation agency GIZ, the Ministry of Planning has continuously enhanced IDPoor and the registry now covers all of Cambodia. It is instrumental in the response to the COVID pandemic." said H.E. Christian BERGER, the German Ambassador.

"In this additional collaboration with WFP, we are using a data driven approach with IDPoor and PRISM to help vulnerable groups including children, older persons and women in recovering and building resilience," he added.

"We thank Germany for its long-term support to Cambodia and are eager to work closely with GIZ to support families that have suffered from the effects of multiple shocks since last year. We are keen to develop an operational model for Cambodia's future shock-responsive social assistance scheme. In so doing, we will be able to identify new ways to enhance social assistance and disaster response programmes, meaning families in the future will be much more ready and resilient when shocks do occur," said Conan.

This partnership will serve to support related efforts of government institutions such as the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, the General Secretariat of the National Social Protection Council, the Ministry of Planning, the National Committee for Disaster Management, as well as development partners engaged in social assistance and disaster response.