COVID-19 Socio-Economic Impact Assessment
Reporting on a high-frequency survey of 2000 households across Cambodia that seeks to better understand the changing needs of the most vulnerable
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for nations around the world. National governments have employed strategies to avoid overwhelming their health systems –such as business and school closures, quarantine, and lockdown measures – which have affected the livelihood and wellbeing of millions of people, especially children.
Cambodia has shown great success in isolating cases of COVID-19. However, this successful containment has affected many key industries that provide employment for Cambodians. The tourism industry has been severely impacted and reduced to a minimum, depending exclusively on internal travel, while garment and construction industries have greatly reduced their activities in response to global demand. The education system has been heavily affected, as all schools faced closure for a considerable part of 2020 and extended into 2021. The economy was estimated to have contracted by 3.1 per cent in 2020, following an average growth of 7.0 per cent per annum from 2010-2019. The impacts on employment, household wages and non-wage incomes have been significantly larger than what the macro-economic trends would suggest.
Surveys that analyse the COVID-19 impacts on people’s livelihoods and wellbeing, such as this one, are a powerful source of information to guide evidence-based actions that can minimize impacts and protect the most vulnerable children. This report presents the objectives of the study and methodology of assessment and includes six thematic areas of findings that reveal the COVID-19 impacts on Cambodia.
Phase One, covered by this report, went from August 2020 to March 2021 and was a collaboration of UNICEF with WFP, UNFPA, UNAIDS and UN Women. Phase Two will go through January of 2022, with a report scheduled to be released in late spring 2022.
Learn more about this report in an informal interview with Juanita Vasquez Escallon.
