PHNOM PENH: The “Australia-Cambodia Cooperation for Equitable Sustainable Services” (ACCESS) has released its six-month employment report, which shows that the program has helped 610 persons with disabilities gain employment and 22 women with disabilities get entrepreneurship training, with the support and promotion of the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the Disability Action Council, Em Chan Makara.
During the Hybrid 10th Disability Workstream Meeting, the Second Secretary of the Australian Embassy to Cambodia, Connor Floyd stated that over the six months between October 2021 to March 2022, ACCESS helped rehabilitate a total of 9,686 persons with disabilities, including 3,226 women. In addition, the program also helped a total of 610 persons with disabilities get job opportunities. From this number, 24 were self-employed, 43 were employed in various institutions, 13 employed in business loans, and 497 employed in vocational training and counseling. There were also other activities under the program related to strengthening gender equality, disaster response, finding cooperation, and data collection.
The Second Secretary also expressed support for Australian-Cambodian partnership and hoped that employment activities in the field of disability in Cambodia would continue to grow.
Floyd said, "I am confident that through our large ACCESS partnership, mobilizing strong expertise and commitment, and under [Secretary of State Em Chan Makara’s] guidance, we can address these challenges. As my colleagues and I turn to the end of program review and design of the ACCESS successor program (maybe called ACCESS II), that will take place from July 2022, Disability inclusion at all levels, including in policies formulation, programming, and implementation is the front of our minds."
According to the Head of the Disability Program, Chou Vivath, ACCESS has contributed to the implementation of the National Disability Strategic Plan 2019-2023 by helping persons with disabilities find employment, access health services and rehabilitation, and also facilitated gender equality, disaster response, cooperation, and the collection of disability data.
The head of the program further added that from October 2021 to March 2022, ACCESS organized a national forum on employment and business with a disability-friendly environment, and set up a mobile phone program to help persons with disabilities called "OAKAS."
In organizing the "OAKAS" mobile app, ACCESS also compiled and collected data from persons with disabilities, which found that more than 140,000 persons with disabilities in Cambodia are unemployed. This is according to the Director of Welfare at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Yeap Malino. He added that the government is currently mobilizing the private sector to participate in the recruitment and reception of persons with disabilities.
He said, "We now manage persons with disabilities and the needs of the labor market, so persons with disabilities have the opportunity to get jobs and economic opportunities."
Speaking at the meeting, the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the Disability Action Council, Em Chan Makara, requested a study on why more than 140,000 persons with disabilities in Cambodia are unemployed, in order to develop new strategies to help them. He said, "If we can complete the research on the education levels of the 140,000 people, we can conclude [the strategies needed to help them]."
The Secretary of State also expressed his appreciation for the achievements made by the ACCESS program, and encouraged the work done in the past six months to be implemented in the next quarter to even better results. He added that the participation of representatives of ministries, government institutions at both the national and sub-national levels and from partner organizations greatly contributes to the implementation of the current National Disability Strategic Plan, especially on key priorities such as support mechanisms, facilitation of the disability sector at both the national and sub-national levels, support access to rehabilitation services, health services, legal services, employment and business opportunities, and other support services to access various benefits from the implementation of environmentally friendly social protection programs, and facilitating the participation of persons with disabilities in policy-making, implementation, and program monitoring.
Under ACCESS, a total of 4,170 employment opportunities were created for persons with disabilities by the end of 2021. From this number, 156 received employment, 243 were self-employed, and 57 women were trained to become entrepreneurs. Additionally, the “OAKAS” program is designed to match registered persons with disabilities with private sector employers, the data of which will be cross-referenced with the NEA system for better job matching opportunities.
ACCESS is a five-year initiative (2018-2023) with financial support from the Australian Government provided through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). In the last three years, Australia has pledged $15 million Australian dollars through ACCESS to improve quality, sustainability, and integrate services for persons with disabilities and for women affected by gender-based violence (GBV).
The Australian Government is currently planning to add another $10 million Australian dollars through ACCESS for the remaining two years of the five-year program (2018-2023) to reflect the Royal Government’s Covid-19 response and recovery efforts, including its priorities on social protection.
