A Phnom Penh-based governance organization is seeking a short-term consultant to help informal workers and micro-entrepreneurs strengthen their businesses, a role that reflects a wider push to bring Cambodia's vast informal economy into the fold of formal social protection. The Advocacy and Policy Institute, known as API, has opened applications for a Business Coach Consultant position under its ROKSI project, a four-year initiative designed to reach more than 1,500 informal workers through mentoring, digital tools, and policy engagement.
Why the Informal Economy Matters
Cambodia's informal sector, comprising street vendors, small traders, and unregistered micro-businesses, employs a substantial share of the country's workforce, yet remains largely outside the reach of labor protections, tax systems, and insurance schemes. Workers in this space often operate with limited bookkeeping skills, inconsistent income, and no safety net against illness, market shocks, or economic downturns. The ROKSI project, building on an earlier digital coaching pilot run by Mission Alliance, treats this gap not as a side issue but as a central barrier to sustainable development. Many participants will rely on basic smartphones for the first time to track sales or access guidance, a shift that, in many households, begins simply when someone decides to get the app that connects them to coaching resources and peer networks. get the app
What the Coaching Role Involves
The consultant hired for this two-month engagement will work directly with business owners, offering mentoring on financial management, digital literacy, and pathways to social protection services such as insurance or registration schemes. The position reports to a Business Coach and Project Officer, suggesting a layered support structure rather than a solitary advisory role. Because the contract is structured as a short-term consultancy rather than formal employment, it suits professionals who can commit full-time for a defined period without seeking permanent placement.
A Broader Governance Strategy
This recruitment sits within API's larger strategic framework for 2024 to 2028, which spans inclusive policy work, climate risk management, and civil society resilience alongside economic empowerment. The organization has framed its mission around enabling citizens to engage meaningfully with government structures, and the ROKSI initiative extends that logic into economic life, treating financial literacy and digital access as forms of civic participation. Whether such pilot programs can scale into durable policy change will depend on how effectively lessons from direct coaching feed back into advocacy work with Cambodian authorities.
- Position: Business Coach Consultant, full-time short-term consultancy
- Duration: two months, based in Phnom Penh
- Focus: business management, digital literacy, social protection access
- Reporting line: Business Coach and Project Officer
API has indicated that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted, a common practice given the volume of applications such roles attract in Cambodia's competitive NGO sector. The organization has also underscored its commitment to inclusion, explicitly encouraging women and people with disabilities to apply, a stance consistent with its stated goals around gender equality, disability, and social inclusion.