Gender and Development

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p. 5 of 35 BACK | NEXT Bangladesh Cambodia Implementation of the Action Plan for Gender Mainstreaming on the Agriculture Sector, TA 4459, 2004 Preventing Poverty and Empowering Female Garment Workers Affected by the International Trade Environment, TA 4131, 2003 Sustainable Employment Promotion for Poor Women, TA No 3947 CAM , October 2002 Capacity Building for the Ministry of Women's and Veterans' Affairs TA No. 3327 CAM - December 1999 Women in Development, 1994 Fiji Lao People's Republic Pakistan Viet Nam Indonesia Philippines Malaysia Nepal

Cambodia

Preventing Poverty and Empowering Female Garment Workers Affected by the International Trade Environment

TA 4131 - 2003

Since the mid-1990s, the Cambodian garment industry grew very rapidly as a result of the preferential access to European and U.S. markets under the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) for World Trade Organization (WTO) members. Garment exports accounted for 80% of Cambodia's export earnings. The garment sector is labor-intensive with 230,000 employees of which 85-90% are females, 18-25 years old from rural households. 90% of those surveyed regularly send most of their monthly income home to ensure that their families have enough food to eat, repair the house and send younger siblings to school. In addition, there are about 150,000 female entrepreneurs providing services to the garment industry and its employees.

This TA aims to address the potential downside risks caused by the ending of the guaranteed access to export market in textiles and clothing provided under the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA). The implications of the MFA phase-out in the end of 2004 are uncertain. However, unless the competitiveness in Cambodia's garment sector is improved, the quota lifting is likely to result in the reduced economic growth, slow poverty reduction, and a significant level of job loss among the garment workers who are predominantly young uneducated women. The TA has been designed to analyze the likely impact of the MFA phase-out on the industry and its workers and prepare possible scenarios and options to minimize and mitigate any negative impacts.

Based on a comprehensive socio-economic survey, a pilot project on "Garment Employees Development" was initiated under the TA to improve the productivity and employment status of the garment workers. The pilot project has four components. The first two components are currently being implemented by the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) supported by Ministry of Commerce (MOC), Garment Manufacturers' Association of Cambodia (GMAC) and Cambodia Garment Training Center (CGTC), a local NGO, and the International Labor Organization.

The overall objective of the TA is to help Cambodia to achieve the goal of sustainable poverty reduction and gender development through addressing in a timely manner the potential downside risks caused by phasing out of the quota restrictions on textiles and clothing at the end of 2004.

The TA will produce three major outputs:

• A comprehensive situation analysis of the garment industry and workers in the sector (ii) introduction of small pilot schemes to (a) build formal and informal and informal safety nets and effectively establish links with alternative employment opportunities for the workers
• Develop and test effective short-term social protection measures for those retrenched
• strengthened capacity of concerned government, private sector, and civil society organizations to address the downside risks caused by Multi-Fiber Arrangement phase out

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