In February 2020, the National Employment Agency (NEA, Royal Government of Cambodia) and WAPES Executive Secretariat brought together a range of national and international stakeholders to identify the project’s key challenges and explore high-level pathways towards potential solutions. The workshop involved 33 officials from the Cambodian NEA and Job Centers, 5 Experts in PES and related fields, 3 special guests/observers, and a Project Coordinator. The 5 Experts were drawn from WAPES members (Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare in Japan, Korea Information Employment Service), Ingeus and the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center.

Participants used insights from a national PES Study and from the Experts to look at different international approaches to performance management and customer satisfaction and to identify some of the institutional and capacity barriers they might face introducing them.

Energetic group exercises gave everyone an opportunity to contribute thinking about the kind of pathways NEA might take to develop solutions appropriate in a Cambodian context. Their contributions will be distilled and developed further over the coming months. Participants also got the chance to compare service delivery methodologies in the public and private employability services by visiting the Phnom Penh Job Center and a private job placement agency, Creative Diamond Links Human Resources.

3rd-5th Feb 2020, Phnom Penh