Breaking down the barriers to entrepreneurship for people with a disability
In Cambodia, people with disabilities make up at least 10% of the population aged five and over.
As in many countries, living with a disability in Cambodia carries with it the inevitability of exclusion, caused by policy barriers, lack of disability friendly infrastructure, and sometimes discrimination and lack of understanding. Active participation in the economy can also be challenging, as equitable policies facilitating access to financial service providers are not commonplace. Although many people with disabilities turn to entrepreneurship due to the difficulty of obtaining and maintaining mainstream employment, low financial literacy and barriers in accessing capital prove to be common roadblocks.
These challenges have been compounded further by the covid pandemic, where the economic shock has severely impacted work opportunities and income. Repercussions of the pandemic are exacerbated for people with disabilities. They may have difficulty accessing insurance usually associated with mainstream employment and their carers might need to go out and find employment themselves. Now more than ever, it is pivotal to address the barriers preventing people with disabilities from engaging in entrepreneurship. Addressing and breaking down these barriers has the power to catalyse entrepreneurship amongst people with disabilities, and break the existing cycle between disability and poverty.
Under the Australia-Cambodia Cooperation for Equitable Sustainable Services (ACCESS) program, Good Return and our partner Chamroen are working with people with disabilities to break down the barriers to entrepreneurship. The project aims to empower people with disabilities to optimise their entrepreneurial activities through financial education, and gain increased access to financial services and products tailored for their needs. In creating a model of accessible, responsible micro-finance for people with disabilities, we are leading the way in addressing the neglected nexus between microfinance and disability inclusion.
Working closely with disabled people’s organisations like the Phnom Penh Centre for Independent Living (PPCIL), Good Return and Chamroeun piloted a financial coaching program for people with disabilities. The program sits under Good Return’s existing CAFE (Consumer Awareness and Financial Empowerment) program, which has been tailored for participants with disabilities. Training materials, facilitation methods and venue accessibility were all considered and adapted to meet participant needs. Feedback about material accessibility was overwhelmingly positive, with participants highlighting the size of text and layout of tools as easy to see and use. The coaching seeks to instigate positive financial behaviour change and empower participants to utilise newly acquired financial skills in optimising their entrepreneurial activities .
Raskmey held onto a key message from the first training session, which was to “think before spending".
This financial coaching has had tangible impacts on participants, who now regularly budget and track their cash flows, and work to save towards both personal and business related goals. Raskmey said a key lesson she remembered from the first coaching session was to “think before spending”. Although she now tries to cut down on unwanted expenses, she knows it will take time to turn these new skills into habits.
Participants also benefited from increased confidence in knowing how to understand loan conditions and negotiate financial services and products. Dara says he now knows to collect critical information to weigh up risks, before committing to a loan. He has also shared this knowledge with his family, encouraging his brother and sister to communicate directly with financial service providers before taking out a loan.
Simple tools and plans provided during coaching enable participants to improve their money management and work towards financial goals; for example, a debt reduction plan to pay off loans or a life cycle tool to plan for personal and family financial needs. After the program, all PPCIL participants were using the weekly money tracking tool to keep a record of their household cash flow and most said they had developed a plan in case of financial emergencies.
The CAFE coaching as adapted for people with disabilities sits within the long-term vision of creating a disability inclusive microfinance sector. In the next stage of the project, CMP is making its services accessible to people with disabilities through staff training and adaptations to branch infrastructure, operating procedures and documents and by piloting a tailored product for people with disabilities. This pilot program, emphasising financial literacy and access to finance, will serve as a model of disability inclusive finance for the wider sector. An increase in the number of disability inclusive financial coaching programs like CAFE as well as facilitated access to financial service providers are integral steps towards fostering a disability inclusive finance sector in Cambodia.
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