By Evie Gilbert
In 2022 and 2023, I spent several months researching women’s work in Cambodia’s garment industry. As well as interviewing garment workers, I spent time with incredible organisations navigating a complex and turbulent political climate to advocate for workers’ rights, while also supporting a much-needed outlet for workers’ voices.
However, as we enter 2025, as a consequence of widespread cuts to foreign aid, we are witnessing a rapid unravelling of crucial projects around the world, including projects that I had the honour of learning from first-hand.
Real-world impact of aid cuts
The recent cuts by the UK, US, and other European countries will have, and frankly already are, having a devastating impact on women globally. Huge challenges that garment workers were already dealing with are being further entrenched and exacerbated.
In Cambodia, for example, where over 90% of the garment workforce is female, the lasting effects of economic crises and Covid-19 continue to ripple through the garment sector. Workers are grappling with job insecurity, limited overtime, and employers refusing to provide a living wage.
These challenges were already significant, but the recent funding cuts are making it worse. Vital programs that support garment workers, who are predominantly women, are being gutted, and as local organisations close or lay off staff, the networks of support that garment workers rely on are beginning to weaken.
What’s more, frontline activists worry that the aid cuts will simply fuel the fire of government suppression of workers’ rights, eliminating the progress they have worked hard to achieve.
Aid funding has historically supported vital civil society projects in Cambodia. These projects operate in a challenging environment where government crackdowns on unionisation are common. For many garment workers, these programs have been a lifeline, offering support in the fight for fair wages, better working conditions, and fundamental human rights.
Why we should all care
At The Circle, our Living Wage Project seeks to secure decent work for women, enabling them to access safe and fairly paid employment. This vision of decent work is only possible through the tireless efforts of activists who help workers understand their rights and advocate for improved working conditions.
However, these activist organisations are now facing cuts too. For instance, the vital network built by Clean Clothes Campaign, which has been instrumental in pushing for workers’ rights, has been hit hard by budget cuts in the Netherlands.
These cuts are not just a funding issue; they are a human rights issue, and we cannot afford to be passive. Organisations that seek to bring to light corporate abuses, provide training and support for workers so that they can advocate for themselves, create routes to accessing legal assistance, amongst many other vital projects, are having their resources cut off.
Unfortunately, the nature of global supply chains has left so many workers dependent on support that is funded by foreign aid.
I spent time with workers in Phnom Penh who were taking part in training to learn more about their rights at work, understanding their employment contracts, health and safety in the factory, and safety on their commute to work. Information that allows people to stand up for themselves. One worker told me that she finally has access to a safe space where she receives support from other workers and professional counselling and has since participated in trade union action to improve working conditions in her factory.
The sudden halt to projects like this will inevitably contribute to the reversal of progress on women’s rights, putting female workers at greater risk of job insecurity, exploitation, domestic violence, and debt. This will exacerbate the unethical practices already commonplace in the global fashion industry.
What’s next
We must raise our voices and demand that our governments reconsider the aid budget reduction and protect gender equality by prioritising funding for women’s rights work. We must remind them that foreign aid is an investment in a better, fairer, safer world that benefits all of us.
Make your local representative know that you don’t support the aid cuts and ask them how they are resisting on your behalf.
Continuing the work of our Living Wage project, we ask that the UK government introduce due diligence legislation that holds companies accountable when they fail to prevent human rights abuses and environmental harms.
Evie Gilbert is The Circle’s Living Wage Project Coordinator, who wrote her PhD thesis on the future of work for Cambodia’s female garment workers. Previously, Evie worked on a campaign to restore the UK’s aid budget, gaining an insight into campaign and advocacy work. She is passionate about women’s empowerment and has focused primarily on women’s labour in the garment sector.
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