World Bank’s Land Allocation Program Provides Safety Net to Workers Hit by COVID-19

• Samphors Sao
• 18 March 2021
• Local News
• 3901 Views

The Land Allocation for Social and Economic Development (LASED) is a program co-organised by the World Bank and the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, aiming at gifting land to poor and indigenous people in Cambodia.

Since the project began in 2008, at least 30,000 hectares of land have been provided to more than 50,000 poor families across the kingdom.

According to the report of the General Department of Housing, the first program or LASED I was implemented from 2008 to 2013. With a budget of US$11.5 million, the program has allocated a total of 14,126 hectares of land to 46,976 families.

The LASED II project (2016-2021) used a budget of US$26.8 million to allocate 17,042 hectares of land to 5,141 families.

In June last year, the World Bank approved another US$93 million to implement the third phase for another six years from 2021. The third phase will be a larger scale program, covering 71 communities in all provinces except Phnom Penh.

Besides land allocation, LASED III will fund other infrastructure projects such as the construction of rural roads, micro-irrigation, water supply and sanitation, schools, teachers’ homes, local health centres, and community centres.

According to the World Bank report released on 10 March, the LASED has thus far effectively helped improve the quality of lives of many poor families nationwide. Becoming landowners will enable poor families to earn moderate income through agriculture.

The LASED program has played an even more significant role during the COVID-19 pandemic, given a high number of laid-off employees. The report added over the last year, nearly 50 families were able to return to their holdings and generate income after losing their city jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yu Thy and his wife, Neath Sim, for instance, have returned to their hometown in Tbong Khmum in June 2020 after losing their jobs in the tourism sector in Siem Reap. Since coming home, the couple has been growing vegetables, raising fish and chickens, and tapping their rubber trees. This job has to generate an average income from US$200 to US$300 per month.

“We’re very glad that we have a house and land. If we didn’t have land, we would have been badly affected by COVID-19, and would have had to move from place to place selling our labour,” Mr Thy is quoted in the report.

Similarly, 30-year-old Yon Leng Sung, and her husband Pha Sophon, 29, returned to her parents’ house in Kratie province in mid-2020 after losing their jobs as construction workers in Thailand. Since returning, the couple has expanded their cassava crop, which is expected to give a yield of over 10 tons this year or equal to US$1,125 income.

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