High-Level Meeting with the RGC on Joint Program to Support Returning Migrants during COVID-19 Crisis and its impacts - UNRCO

Your Excellency Samdech Krolahom Sar Kheng, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior,

Your Excellencies, Distinguish Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the UN development system in Cambodia, it is a privilege to provide the keynote address at this High-Level Meeting on the UN Joint Programme to Support Returning Migrants in response to COVID-19 crisis and its impacts.  I am sharing the time allocated to the UN with Dr. Li Ailan, WHO Representative, to provide key recommendations building on Cambodia’s successful health response, while Ms. Kristin Parco, Chief of Mission, IOM, will brief on the joint program: its objectives, timelines, target indicators and next steps for implementation. My colleagues, the representatives of UNICEF, Mr. Gianfranco Rotigliano and UNFPA, Mr. Daniel Alemu, who are part of the joint programme are also here to contribute to the discussions.

The interventions I will make this morning come in the form of three sets of questions:

First, why do we focus on migrant workers as priority response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Second, how do we optimize the opportunity presented by this joint program beyond its 6-month duration?

Third, what can we learn from Cambodia’s success in the health response that can be applied to the on-going planning for economic recovery?  And more importantly, what can the UN offer to support the Royal Government in mitigating the socio-economic impact of the pandemic?

I would like to start by expressing sincere appreciation to the Royal Government of Cambodia, particularly to the Ministry of Interior for the commitment and leadership in responding to the needs of returning migrants as one of the key vulnerable groups impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why do we need to prioritize support to returning migrant workers in the context of the pandemic?

By virtue of their numbers and their movements, the approximately 100,000 returned Cambodian migrant workers from Thailand demonstrate how the pandemic can impact on a specific group of people in multiple ways and rapidly render them vulnerable.  On the health side, returning migrant workers risk carrying and spreading the virus to their homes and communities. On the socio-economic side, they represent a critical mass of Cambodians who have lost their jobs, incomes and livelihoods which their families rely on, a situation that may push them to engage in taking more risks by crossing borders through illegal and unsafe channels, that may in turn jeopardize health response efforts.

Although Cambodia has so far been spared by a large-scale outbreak, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy is far-reaching and disproportionally affects vulnerable groups already at risk.  In addition to migrant workers, women, children, youth, the elderly, low-wage and informal sector workers, people with disability and underlying illnesses are at high risk of being further left behind.  The pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social and economic systems, which are in turn amplifying the impact of the pandemic.  

This leads to the second question, how do we propose to optimize the opportunity presented by this joint program beyond the six-month implementation timeframe?

To ensure that we leave no one behind requires an investment in disaggregated and quality data and statistics to help identify vulnerable groups and design appropriate responses. We will need to especially pay close attention to the needs of women and girls who may be facing a “pandemic within a pandemic” with the increase in gender based violence. As such, a key action in the joint program will be to provide the data and evidence base, through a rapid assessment in the three target provinces, as to who and how they are affected by the impact of the pandemic. The UN’s efforts will build on ongoing work, such as on data led by UNFPA with Ministry of Economy and Finance and with Ministry of Planning.

Therefore, what we learn from this joint program on returning migrants allows us to better target our emergency response to other vulnerable groups and improve both the health and socio-economic response to the pandemic, while at the same time put in place the foundations for intermediate and medium-term solutions driven by the beneficiaries themselves.

This means that the joint programme will focus on devising local solutions through community innovations. Empowered communities and sub-national governments, combined with investment and capacity building support, are expected to create dynamics to drive innovation for more effective solutions to the pressing needs and the fast-changing situations. 

Hand-in-hand with community driven solutions, the joint programme at the same time will strengthen the government mechanism at sub-national level for the delivery of health and social services. I highlight two examples of how we will do this:

One, we will prioritize continued delivery of essential health services including reproductive, maternal, neo-natal, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH), HIV/AIDS and other STIs, communicable diseases and NCDs, as well as an often-overlooked need of providing mental health and psychosocial support, as investments in health systems strengthening.

Two, the work of social workers is critical in facilitating access and referral to health and social services as well as social protection support. This is why, as part of this joint programme and building on very good collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY), the UN [under the lead of UNICEF] will support the deployment of 20 social workers in selected districts in the target provinces of Siem Reap, Battambang and Banteay Meanchey. This support will be limited within the timeframe of the joint programme, however it will practically demonstrate the essential role that social workers play in supporting the most vulnerable groups and strengthen service delivery mechanisms at the sub-national level. Looking beyond this joint programme, the UN [UNICEF in particular] is ready to support the capacity building of social workers to further professionalise the workforce throughout the country as a key element to improve the overall social service provision for the most vulnerable.

To these ends, we are committed to coordinate the planning and implementation of this joint programme through the existing national and sub-national COVID-19 structures already established by the RGC.  We believe that in the long run, our joint efforts, in particular with the focus on local government leadership and multisectoral approach, will be vital to strengthening national and local preparedness and response capacities and mechanisms, including for future response to similar crises.

This leads me to the third set of questions, what can we learn so far from the achievements in the health response? How can these lessons help in designing an equally important response to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable Cambodians?

This is an important opportunity, at this juncture, to recognize and appreciate what the Royal Government has achieved in containing COVID-19 transmission in Cambodia and in the implementation of the Master Action Plan led by Ministry of Health, with support from WHO. Four elements have been critical to Cambodia’s success. One, core public health systems that rapidly mobilized to detect cases and contain the spread. Two, highest level political leadership that directed the entire government response.  Three, strong awareness and public engagement on prevention of COVID-19 transmission. And four, a whole of government approach that facilitated collaboration across ministries, with development partners, technical agencies and together with sub-national authorities.

Cambodia can be certainly one of the examples, building on its effective response to the health crisis as a cornerstone for a successful socio-economic recovery in this “new normal” world.   Lessons from the health response shows that we need:

One, highest level political commitment to ensure wide-ranging efforts to address the devastating socio-economic aspects of the crisis with a focus on the most vulnerable and looks ahead to “building back better.”

Two, governance and public administration systems equipped with data and evidence that inform decision making, as well as strong and capable national and sub-national governments and institutions able to effectively minimize socio-economic shocks but emerge stronger than the pre-crisis.

Three, engagement of a wide range of stakeholders in society able to access information and actively participate in the response and recovery efforts of the Royal Government.

And four, continued inter-ministerial collaboration and close cooperation between national and sub-national, as well as with DPs, business sector and civil society. We need to mobilize a whole-of-society approach in the socio-economic response and recovery to the pandemic.

Finally, what can the UN offer to help the Royal Government in mitigating the socio-economic impact and recover better?   

At the 29 April meeting between the UN and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on combatting COVID-19 chaired by HE Minister of Health, we shared the then recently launched UN global framework, which is comprised of five workstreams:

1. ensuring essential health services and protecting health systems;
2. helping people cope with adversity, through social protection and basic services;
3. protecting jobs, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, and informal sector workers through economic response and recovery programmes;
4. guiding the necessary surge in fiscal and financial stimulus to make macroeconomic policies work for the most vulnerable and strengthening multilateral and regional responses; and
5. promoting social cohesion and investing in community-led resilience and response systems. 

Guided by the global framework, the UN in Cambodia is finalizing a socio-economic response plan, based on social and economic impact assessments and a repurposing of the UN’s development cooperation framework. The Plan will be hinged on the Leaving No One Behind principle and human rights and gender equality, including through specific indicators to measure progress.

We know that this unprecedented crisis requires an unprecedented response.

Because of this, the UN is committed to mobilize our collective efforts to support the Royal Government and the people of Cambodia to emerge stronger from this unprecedented crisis.

I take this opportunity, under Samdech Kralahom’s guidance to facilitate support for our forthcoming request for a high-level dialogue on partnership between the Royal Government and the UN to mitigate the socio-economic impact and recover better from the pandemic.

Thank you for your attention.