By Chhailim Vy
The global care economy is a crucial element that represents one of the most significant sectors in both social and economic terms, yet this work is still often invisible.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), unpaid care and domestic work account for nearly nine percent of global GDP, amounting to over $11 trillion annually.
This work has universally been performed by women without a proper salary and sometimes overlooked by their families, which generates a gender equality gap in families.
Caregivers who provide care to children, older people, and people with disabilities sometimes perform unpaid care work full-time, which requires them to be out of their actual job and, in turn, cuts off their financial supply so that they have to rely on other family members.
Others perform it on top of their work. This situation is happening globally, including in Cambodia. Caregiving deserves more recognition, as it involves a significant sacrifice, not to mention a gender inequality element as well, since the burden of caregiving tends to fall more on women.
This commentary argues that recognizing and formalizing care work in Cambodia is essential to advancing decent work, reducing gender inequality, and promoting inclusive social development.
Population Ageing, Disability, and the Gendered Exclusion of Women from Paid Work in Cambodia
According to the 2019 Cambodia Population Census Thematic Report on Disability by the National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of Cambodia, Cambodia had 689,532 persons with disabilities both physically and mentally disabled, equal to 4.89 percent of the population.
In addition, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation’s data indicates that the number of Cambodian people aged 60 and above is steadily increasing each year, reaching nearly 1.4 million by 2023.
It was projected to reach 1.5 million by 2025 and to double by 2050. This data has obvious implications for the number of people who work as caregivers in their families.
Based on the International Labour Organization report, around 606 million working-age women internationally are outside the workforce due to caregiving responsibilities, including childbirth and childcare, thereby missing out on many opportunities, especially as regards their careers.
Similar dynamics can be observed in Cambodia, where unpaid care work also limits women’s participation in paid employment. However, in some circumstances, family caregivers can also step back from this role, which enables them to find a proper job that can support them financially.
And yet, this is also the point at which the problem becomes evident, since many caregivers have lost opportunities to improve their capabilities and skills, and thus they will struggle to find jobs. The skills and experience that they have are related to caring for people, so one positive solution might be to turn their caregiving experience into a paid job opportunity.
Why and How to Formalize Care Work in Cambodia?
Building a care economy is not only a social priority for caregivers but also a strategic approach to broader development, which many countries around the world are pursuing.
Having a professional care workforce and system could ensure that care-receivers receive a high-quality service across the board, which would be consistent with the engagement of Cambodia in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Establishing a national care framework or policy will allow the government to coordinate training, certification, and service delivery at the local and national levels. Without formal preparation, Cambodia will face a shortage of caregivers, which will put more pressure on family caregivers, who are primarily women, and exacerbate gender inequality and affect the general healthcare system.
Formalizing care work as a professional labor category by the government will make this work more visible and valuable in society, and create a job market for people who used to be caregivers in their families.
Taking care of people with disabilities and older adults should be a prestigious role that requires professional experience, so establishing a national standard for this role can ensure higher-quality, safer care for care-receivers.
The most important step is cooperation in creating a training center for caregivers. Government entities, national organizations, and international entities can collaborate to establish a training center and set a standard for the caregiver training course that makes it comparable to a degree for students.
Since people who need to be cared for span many situations, the course should be designed based on type, such as caregivers for elder people, people with physical disabilities, and people with mental disabilities.
The government can cooperate with other institutions, including ones active in Cambodia, such as HelpAge Cambodia, Inclusive Cambodia, and the Japan and Cambodia Interactive Association, in providing quality training to caregivers.
As a final stage, to ensure quality and sustainability, the Cambodian government should establish systems for certification, monitoring, and ongoing training, which can be implemented step by step.
By increasing the number of professional caregivers, the government could cooperate with institutions that are willing to hire caregivers as employees, such as hospitals, care centers, disability care organizations and private home care services, which can be considered a job market for graduates.
This approach can be considered a preparation and vision for transforming care work into a public service in the future, which would be a significant step toward Cambodia’s creating more jobs and reducing the gender inequality gap.
The Counter-Argument Measurement
Even though formalizing care work as a profession is advantageous to society and the economy, this transformation also faces criticism, as it places pressure on national resource management.
The creation of training centers, development of programs, national licensing, inspection and other processes demand greater investment. As Cambodia is a developing country, national resources must be carefully managed to develop other priority sectors, and focusing on social harmony is often expected to generate less income and be less effective, which creates additional pressure.
Moreover, care work has long been recognized as a tradition and mindset in which families are expected to look after their own members rather than hire others; therefore, this policy raises concerns about potentially undermining traditional family values.
However, even though these concerns are a possible perspective, there are still ways to break the process down into small steps for implementation. Instead of relying solely on government resources, cooperation with other entities, such as private institutions willing to sponsor programs, can help reduce the burden on the budget.
Strategic partnerships with national and international organizations that promote gender equality can also help raise awareness and challenge the ideology that “women must do care work within their families,” while strengthening public understanding of gender equality.
Formal Care Work Will Contribute to Development
Developing formal care work not only provides incentives to individuals but also improves the country’s development.
The care sector is a field that generally applies to many families worldwide, yet when it becomes professional work, it creates opportunities for caregivers, especially women, to earn income to support themselves and their families.
This service will also reduce the informal care burden on women in general if there is a reliable, knowledgeable caregiver and good service. At the same time, such a policy would also improve care services for people with disabilities and older people.
Ultimately, investing in formal care work strengthens Cambodia’s social infrastructure by improving the quality of care for persons with disabilities and older people, while simultaneously advancing decent work, gender equality and sustainable development.
Chhailim Vy is a junior research fellow at Future Forum. This article is an excerpt from Future Forum’s new publication, An Inclusive Agenda for Cambodia. It was written as part of the Inclusive Policy Fellowship Plus (IPF+), supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, which builds upon the original Inclusive Policy Fellowship (IPF) supported by the Australian Government through The Asia Foundation’s Ponlok Chomnes II program.
