Cambodia: IDPoor Programme alleviates poverty as system continues digitization

The United Nations Development Programme has provided additional ICT equipment for Cambodia’s IDPoor Programme.

The equipment includes 546 tablets, software and hardware for the IDPoor platform to improve access to social protection for the country’s most vulnerable residents, according to the UNDP.

The technology will be used to improve the accuracy and accessibility of data collection, ease the handling of information, and ensure data can be collected quickly and accurately. The IDPoor programme identifies households living below the poverty line and provides them with social assistance, such as cash transfers, healthcare and other targeted services.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, an initial batch of 1,700 tablets was dispatched by the UNDP to accelerate registration for the On-Demand IDPoor, which enabled Provincial Departments of Planning and Cambodia’s communes (town or city subdivisions) to register new households for receiving cash assistance.

Technical support was provided for the IDPoor System by the UNDP under the DFAT-funded Resilience Facility in collaboration with GIZ, as the Cambodian government and especially the Ministry of Planning developed the platform.

IDPoor has evolved into a fully digitized, on-demand poverty identification system since it was established in 2007. In a GIZ report the authors note that while IDPoor was not designed with the aim of being a comprehensive social protection system, its regular identification rounds and “steadily growing” digital capacities have helped lay the groundwork for a “full-fledged social registry” and a “digital, interoperable social protection system” for Cambodia.

This has come about, for example, via digital solutions that linked the cash transfer delivery system with the IDPoor database of households holding Equity Cards, which are cards given out to households identified as poor. Over the years, Equity Cards have enabled a significant portion of the Cambodian population to receive life-changing funds.

Article Topics

Cambodia  |  civil registration  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  GIZ  |  humanitarian  |  IDPoor  |  legal identity  |  social protection  |  UNDP