UN Analysis Final.pdf - United Nations in Cambodia

MAFF sees that increasing production and diversifying agriculture will serve as a basis for downstream
value-added processing (Technical Working Group on Agriculture and Water 2007). There are also
opportunities for profitable development in the agribusiness value chain. For instance, ‘upstream’ marketing
facilities such as transportation must be improved. This implies opportunities for the private sector and
also for farmers and other people in rural areas to work cooperatively to add value to agricultural production.
Thus, the policy and the current pattern of growth in agro-industry and agribusiness offer considerable
openings for improving the livelihood of rural youth. At the same time, this will offer locally available on-farm
and off-farm jobs and can be a source of cash income for young and adult workers.
Findings from FGDs and informal discussions with youths and their parents in Cheung Kor Village,
Sihanoukville, substantiate the prospects for agro-industry and agribusiness. In this study area, an oil palm
plantation has employed local people, especially youth, from surrounding villages with daily wage rates
estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 Riel. With jobs being available, the majority of youths are able to
work close to their villages. Some families also reported that their livelihoods were much improved after
the agro-industry development in their area. The downside to this development, however, is that some
young people are reluctant to continue their education, due to their ability to earn income for their families
and eventually drop out of school for full time employment in the plantation.
5.4.3 SCALING UP SOCIAL PROTECTION FOR YOUTH
FGDs across the study area expose the importance of vocational training provision to poor and marginal
youth. Vocational training programmes may be a cost effective way of reducing youth vulnerability and
linking them to employment opportunities. Priority should be given to marginalized youths, especially those
who are out-of-school.
ADB (2006) points out that the expenditure on labour market programme stands at USD 2.21 million, with
a total of 41,951 beneficiaries and is financed by international donor agencies, NGOs and the Government.
In practice, the majority of the donor funds for this programme are channelled through NGOs and other
development agencies in close collaboration with central government. The beneficiaries are mostly youths,
including female heads of households. Currently, total social protection expenditure on this concern is
far below the demand coming from the increasing youth population and those who require such skills
provision (World Bank 2006b). Limited opportunities from vocational training programmes are a key
constraint to promoting youth employability towards stimulating economic growth in the country.
5.5 POLICY AND PROGRAMMING IMPLICATIONS
Despite the significant progress in its economic development in the last decade, Cambodia remains among
the poorest countries in Asia. This can be seen as the foremost challenge for the country and for creating
broad-based economic development to provide employment to enable the rapidly increasing labour market
to move out of poverty. Enhancing Cambodia’s human resources, particularly youth, is crucial for the country’s
economic future.
An important observation of this study is the mismatch between the supply and demand of the young
labour force, resulting in continuing poor youth employability. To better integrate youth into the labour
market attention needs to be paid to the following: (i) agricultural development; (ii) improving locally
available jobs for youth that focus on SME development and agro-industry; (iii) skills promotion and
(iv) scaling up social protection programmes for youth. For relevant interventions to take place, more
Situation Analysis of Youth in Cambodia
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