A senior official of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has confirmed that the Cambodian’s People Party (CPP) will continue to implement its cash assistance programme for pregnant women and children under 2 under the leadership of Prime Minister-in-waiting Hun Manet.
NSSF deputy director-general Heng Sophannarith said on August 16 that the policy of the CPP is to promote the wellbeing of mothers and babies.
“The CPP-led government will continue to implement this support programme, as well as other policies, in order to build a strong social security system that ensures income security, reduces poverty and enhances social stability,” he explained.
“There will be no changes to our various cash assistance programmes,” he added.
Mann Senghak, president of the Federation Union of Labour Influence (FULI), said on August 16 that the affirmation was good news, as the provision of cash assistance to pregnant women and babies is an important social protection mechanism.
“The programme is very important because it supports the livelihoods of its recipients. Woman and children have never received these benefits before, but they are proving valuable.
“We would like to see the government introduce a law that means the programme will be implemented forever, as a verbal assurance is less convincing,” he said.
In the first 10 days of the programme, from August 1-10, nearly 200 pregnant women and children under 2 received additional benefits from the new policy, which doubled the amount of money provided. Many women expressed their satisfaction with the additional funding package.
Separately, Sophannarith noted that as of August 14, a total of 24,306 self-employed individuals had applied for NSSF cards through voluntary contributions. The majority of them were vendors, tuk tuk drivers, construction workers and farmers.
