Participatory approach to improving safety,health and working conditions in informal economy workplaces in Cambodia

Abstract

Objective: The present study aimed to improve safety and health in informal economy workplaces such as home workplaces, small construction sites, and rural farms in Cambodia by using "participatory" approach.

Methods and Participants: The government, workers' and employers' organizations and NGOs jointly assisted informal economy workers in improving safety and health by using participatory training methodologies. The steps taken were: (1) to collect existing good practices in safety and health in Cambodia; (2) to develop new participatory training programmes for home workers and small construction sites referring to ILO's WISE training programme, and (3) to train government officers, workers, employers and NGOs as safety and health trainers. The participatory training programmes developed consisted of action-checklists associated with illustrations, good example photo sheets, and texts explaining practical, low-cost improvement measures.

Results: The established safety and health trainers reached many informal economy workers through their human networks, and trained them by using the developed participatory training programmes. More than 3,000 informal economy workers were trained and they implemented improvements by using low-cost methods.

Conclusions: Participatory training methodologies and active cooperation between the government, workers, employers and NGOs made it possible to provide practical training for those involved in the informal economy workplaces.