The Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation workshop on the use of the IDPoor Card app on January 5. CDPO
The Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation (CDPO) recently ran a digital empowerment workshop for NGO partners working with people with disabilities. The session aimed to teach them how to use the Public ID Poor Card app, which allows people to register and manage social protections online.
CDPO executive director Mak Monika explained on January 9 that in the past, whenever an issue arose, organisations like hers, which represents people with disabilities, sent letters or had to visit village or commune authorities directly.
The Ministry of Planning has now developed a mobile application that will allow the management and registration of individuals, under the Identification of Poor Households programme.
Monika said the CDPO organised the January 5 workshop, in collaboration with OXFAM Cambodia and the planning ministry, to ensure that all organisations working with people with disabilities across the country would understand how to use the digital system.
“Because many of these organisations work with people at the sub-national level, they have traditionally spent a lot of time composing correspondence and attending in-person meetings. Now, they can gather all of the information they need, then input it into the app, which is convenient and reaches the authorities faster,” she added.
Now that the different advocacy groups have a clearer understanding of the app and its function, she said they have been invited to offer suggestions and other inputs into the management of the identification of IDPoor households.
Monika added that it has targeted organisations representing people with disabilities, as they will be able to share what they have learned with sub-national level authorities, self-help groups and people with disabilities.
According to a report by the Department of Disability Welfare under the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, between 2020 and 2023, the ministry identified 318,473 people with disabilities, 155,410 of them women. The ministry has so far approved the printing of ID cards for 254,419 individuals.
