National Institute of Social Affairs

To protect children from violence, abuse and exploitation, as well as support their access to justice and quality care, it is imperative for States to have an effective child protection system. One critical element of that system is a strong social service workforce1 with a clear mandate. Social services in Cambodia are positively progressing but still limited due to resources constraints, low capacities and a limited number of social service workers in particular, professional social workers. This condition is exacerbated by the fact that the social work education in this country is relatively new, and that there is no entity to provide oversight of educational programs to meet national, regional and global standards.

In the last few years several initiatives are already being conducted to develop the social service workforce in Cambodia. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation (MoSVY), has deployed 17 social workers in five provinces to support the implementation of the Action Plan for improving child care2, the development of Social Work Guidelines3 and are currently working on a Business Case advocating for increased financial and human resource investments in social service workforce.