R4D Cambodia

Workers' agency and re-working power relations in Cambodia's garment industry

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:14 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: Arnold, D. Workers’ agency and re-working power relations in Cambodia’s garment industry. (2013) 25 pp. ISBN 978-1-909336-95-7 [Capturing the Gains Working Paper 2013/24]

Summary: This paper explores Cambodian garment factory workers’ collective voice and ability to negotiate a living wage. Workers’ agency is examined through a case study of a large-scale strike in September 2010 over national minimum wage negotiations, led by two Cambodian trade union federations. Analysis is centred on four structural impediments to workers’ wage demands. First, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) consolidated power in 2008. As a result, space for independent trade unions and civil society is decreasing. Second, Cambodia is not deemed ‘competitive’ as a global sourcing option in terms of price, quality and speed to market. As a result, low wages and a proliferation of unmonitored subcontract factories are increasingly becoming the industry’s competitive advantage vis-à-vis Bangladesh and Vietnam. Third, the proliferation of fixed-duration contracts in Cambodia means work is less secure, with attendant impacts on workers and unions’ negotiating strength. And fourth, the unusually high number of plant-level and national trade union federations makes it difficult for ‘genuine’ unions to promote the rights of their members, and workers’ agency potential is marginalized. The intersection of these four structural forces circumscribes workers and independent trade unions’ ability to rework power relations with the employers association, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC). Despite the challenges, workers and independent unions recognize themselves as the agents who must shape key demands, including on wages.

Enhancing Water Productivity and Improving Livelihoods Through Drip Irrigation and Better Market Integration in Cambodia

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:11 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: Anon. Enhancing Water Productivity and Improving Livelihoods Through Drip Irrigation and Better Market Integration in Cambodia. The CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, Sri Lanka (2013) 4 pp.

Summary: In Cambodia, innovative market-based strategies helped capitalize on water efficiency gains for small farmers. Demand for high value crops is rapidly increasing in Cambodia’s urban areas. This project designed a strategy to enable smallholders to establish links to markets for their products, while encouraging adoption of water and food technologies.

Improved water efficiency, primarily in the form of irrigation drip-kits, resulted in water savings, lower labor requirements and improved yields. Income of the target farmers more than doubled. A strategy of drip irrigation in conjunction with improved soil fertility, high value crops, appropriate horticulture training for farmers, and better market integration leads to enhanced water productivity and improved livelihoods.

ReBUILD Newsletter, January 2013

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:56 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: ReBUILD. ReBUILD Newsletter, January 2013. (2013) 6 pp.

Summary: This newsletter gives an overview of the reBUILD RPC, with news on publications, progress, achievements and challenges.

WorldFish Annual Report 2011/2012

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:23 GMT

Production Year: 2012

Citation: WorldFish. WorldFish Annual Report 2011/2012. WorldFish, Penang, Malaysia (2012) 12 pp.

Summary: This year's report contains the Director General's and Chairman's statements. Also highlighted in the reports, are stories of projects with different partners:
(1) CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) in Zambia.
(2) Wetland Alliance project in the Mekong delta.
(3) Projects with CARE, the humanitarian organisation in Egypt.
(4) Tilapia breeding program with Water Research Institute (WRI) in Ghana.
(5) Partnerships with the private sector on sustainable aquaculture enterprise in developing countries.

Economic and social upgrading in apparel global value chains: public governance and trade policy

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:39 GMT

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Pickles, J. Economic and social upgrading in apparel global value chains: public governance and trade policy. (2012) 126 pp. ISBN 978-1-907247-87-3 [Capturing the Gains Working Paper 2012/13]

Summary: The Capturing the Gains research network assesses the relationship between economic and social upgrading in global production networks in four sectors; apparel, agro-foods, mobile phones, and tourism. This paper details the findings of the apparel sector research team, with a focus on public governance, specifically trade policy. The paper elaborates the consequences of post-MFA/ATC quota removal for social upgrading and then turns to an analysis of the effect of trade policy instruments that continue to shape global apparel manufacture and trade, particularly the role of regional trade agreements, preferential market access, rules of origin, duty and tariff rates. The paper draws on Capturing the Gains research projects carried out in or on 17 countries to examine the effects of these policies across four low-income regions; East Asia (China, Cambodia, and Vietnam), South Asia (Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka), North Africa and the Middle East (Morocco, Egypt, and Jordan), Sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, Kenya, Mauritius, and Madagascar), and Central America and the Caribbean (Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic).

The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis on Primary Schools, Teachers and Pupils' Households in 12 Countries. DFID – RIVAF Final Report.

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 14:11 GMT

Production Year: 2011

Citation: UNESCO. The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis on Primary Schools, Teachers and Pupils' Households in 12 Countries. DFID – RIVAF Final Report. UNESCO, Paris, France (2011) 74 pp.

Summary:

The ultimate aim of this research was to explore the conditions that may contribute to the changes primary schools, teachers and pupils' households faced during the crisis and to their adaptation and coping strategies, to understand better the diverse pattern of education change and progress among different developing countries affected by the global financial crisis, and to examine the role and nature of education policy in the transmission of effects down to schools. It centres on twelve countries purposely selected: Armenia, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Chad, Jordan, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritania, Mexico, Paraguay and Ukraine (country selection criteria are discussed in section three).

The study used survey research methods to:
1. Describe whether and how primary schools, teachers and pupils' households' teaching and learning conditions changed between the years before and after the 2008/09 global financial and economic crisis; and
2. Examine how primary schools, teachers and pupils' households adapted and coped with the changes brought about by the 2008/09 global financial and economic crisis.

Generic copies of the head teacher, teacher and parent surveys are appended as well as the main report. Surveys were adapted and localized to each country's context.

Policy Review and Institutional Analysis of the Hydropower Sector in Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:37 GMT

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Suhardiman, D.; de Silva, S.; Carew-Reid, J. Policy Review and Institutional Analysis of the Hydropower Sector in Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam. (2011) 150 pp.

Summary: The report reviews existing policies and legal frameworks relating to land-water-environment management with a focus on hydropower development and livelihood options in Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It describes the sectoral decision-making set up at national level. Later, this decision-making set up is linked with operational rules and procedures of hydropower projects in each o the three countries. The report comprises three individual country reports (Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam). Following detailed policy review and institutional analysis in each of the three countries, the main research findings are synthesised in the concluding section.

ReBUILD Capacity Building Strategy

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:56 GMT

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Theobald, S. ReBUILD Capacity Building Strategy. ReBUILD Consortium, (2012) 29 pp.

Summary: The ReBUILD consortium has a real opportunity for impact on capacity development in health systems research within all partner institutions and country contexts. Led by Dr Sally Theobald, capacity building forms an integral part of the work of the consortium. The strategy for capacity building focuses on (1) ensuring that we have the capacity to deliver the project effectively and (2) leaving a legacy of improved capacity amongst project partners and wider groups to sustain the development and use of research findings in health systems in policy making.

Plasmodium knowlesi Infection in Humans, Cambodia, 2007–2010

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:52 GMT

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Khim, N.; Siv, S.; Kim, S.; Mueller, T.; Fleischmann, E.; Singh, B.; Divis, P.C.S.; Steenkeste, N.; Duval, L.; Bouchier, C.; Duong, S.; Ariey, F.; Ménard, D. Plasmodium knowlesi Infection in Humans, Cambodia, 2007–2010. Emerging Infectious Diseases (2011) 17 (10) [DOI: 10.3201/eid1710.110355]

Summary: Two cases of Plasmodium knowlesi infection in humans were identified in Cambodia by 3 molecular detection assays and sequencing. This finding confirms the widespread distribution of P. knowlesi malaria in humans in Southeast Asia. Further wide-scale studies are required to assess the public health relevance of this zoonotic malaria parasite.

Comparison of trust in public vs private health care providers in rural Cambodia

Tue, 15 May 2012 08:16 GMT

Creator: Ozawa, S.; Walker, D.G.

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Ozawa, S.; Walker, D.G. Comparison of trust in public vs private health care providers in rural Cambodia. Health Policy and Planning (2011) 26 (Suppl. 1) i20-i29. [DOI: 10.1093/heapol/czr045]

Summary: How trust in providers affects health care-seeking behaviour is not well understood. Focus groups and household surveys were conducted in Cambodia to examine how villagers describe their trust in public and private providers, and to assess whether a difference exists in provider trust levels. Our findings suggest the reasons for trusting public and private providers differ, and that villagers’ trust in and relationship with providers is one of the important considerations affecting where they seek care. People believed that public providers were ‘honest’ and ‘sincere’, did not ‘bad mouth people’ and explained the ‘status of [the] disease’. Villagers trusted public providers for their skills and abilities, and for an effective referral system. In contrast, respondents noted that seeing private providers was ‘comfortable and easy’, that they ‘come to our home’ and patients can ‘owe [them] some money’. Private providers were trusted for being very friendly and approachable, extremely thorough and careful, and easy to contact. Among those who sought care in the past 30 days, trust in the health care provider was listed as the fifth and second most important consideration for choosing public or private providers, respectively. This study illustrates the importance of trust as a unique concept that can affect people’s choice of health care providers in a low-income country.