Cambodia

 

 

Overview

Although the economic growth rate has almost doubled in Cambodia in the last decade, reaching 4.9 percent in 2004, around 40 percent of the population still remains under the national poverty line. 

The economy of the country is mainly based on agriculture, which in spite of the decrease of its participation during the last years, still accounts for 32 percent of the GDP. The urbanization process is ongoing, (see graph below), but around 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas and is engaged in agriculture. 

In spite of the fact that the age dependency ratio has notably decreased since 1990,  it is still relatively high (see graph below), as the population of working age significantly outnumbers the dependent population. 

In the Cambodian context, social protection refers primarily to a system of formal and/or informal safety nets which help reduce the vulnerability of the poor.

Given the underdeveloped state of this safety net system in Cambodia, other mechanisms traditionally considered to be part of social protection, such as unemployment insurance and pension schemes, are a less immediate priority. Furthermore, given the small size of Cambodia’s formal employment sector—compared to the large informal sector and the proportion of Cambodians engaged in subsistence agriculture—labor policy may be considered a longer-term priority to be addressed once basic safety nets for the poor and vulnerable population are in place.

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 Ongoing Projects
 Closed Projects
 Analytical and Advisory Activities

Ongoing Projects

None

Closed Projects

Social Fund I Project - P037088

Approval Date: June 1995
Closing Date: 30 June 2000                                                        

The objective of the project was to support the Government's efforts to reduce poverty through (a) financing small-scale projects for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of social and economic infrastructure; (b) creating short-term employment opportunities; (c) expanding community opportunities to identify local development needs and manage small-scale development projects; and (d) increasing line ministry experience and capacity in developing investment criteria for local infrastructure construction.

Under the Social Fund I, the Social Fund of the Kingdom of Cambodia (SFKC) provided over 1,400 sub-grants for small-scale irrigation, bridges and culverts, sewerage and drainage, water supply, education and health facilities, and other investments.

These sub-projects are estimated to have created over 39,900 person/months of employment for skilled and unskilled workers and local technicians. Nearly 90 percent of project applications were received directly from communities.

For more complex projects, some communities sought assistance from locally-based international organizations and NGOs in preparatory work and maintenance of the facilities.

Social Fund II – P050601

Approval Date: 23 March 1999
Closing Date: 30 March 2005

The objective of the Social Fund II Project was to support Cambodia’s reconstruction through (a) providing small-scale, community-based sub-projects in the areas of social and economic infrastructure, with an emphasis on the poor; (b) creating short-term employment opportunities; (c) strengthening the capacity of communities to implement and sustain development projects; (d) improving donor coordination and co-financing; and (e) improving poverty and district targeting. 

Additional support to this project was provided through a supplemental credit in July 2001 for the rehabilitation of facilities damaged by floods in 2000.

Under the Social Fund II project, the SFKC approved over 1,800 sub-projects.  Sub-projects included schools, water supply and irrigation systems, bridges -culverts, and health centers.

Building on the experiences of the Social Fund I project, the SFKC entered into partnership agreements with 12 local and international agencies—including the World Food Programme, GTZ, CARE Cambodia, American Assistance for Cambodia, and the Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance—to enhance its reach and strengthen community ownership.  Over 500 sub-projects were supported through these partnership arrangements.

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Analytical and Advisory Activities (AAA)

The Cambodia Social Protection Strategy Note provides an analytical and strategic basis for addressing issues of poverty and vulnerability, taking into account changing country needs as well as the social protection activities being undertaken by the Government of Cambodia and its partners.

Specifically, the strategy note (i) takes stock of existing knowledge on risk and vulnerability in Cambodia; (ii) examines coping strategies employed by the poor and vulnerable to deal with risk and dampen the effects of shocks; (iii) reviews existing social protection mechanisms; and (iv) lays out priority areas and a proposed action agenda for support by the World Bank and other partners in the social protection sector.

Improving the Data Collection on Children with Disabilities (in progress)

For countries attempting to reach the last 10% to 15% of children not enrolled in primary education, addressing the needs of children with disabilities is particularly important, since they are often the last considered.   However, due to a lack of data, governments are unsure about how to identify and scale up best practices.  This project, part of the Netherlands partnership program, will help build local capacity for collecting real-time data on children with disabilities that can be used to monitor education services and evaluate the impact of interventions intended to improve them. Ongoing disability data collection that is built into countries’ own Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) is needed because survey data – which is usually scarce and of poor quality – is too expensive and generally not suitable for M&E in national programs for a relatively small, hard to identify group. 

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