Phnom Penh, June 12, 2007 - Over the last one-and-a-half decades, Cambodia has achieved high rates of economic growth and significant poverty reduction.  However, the benefits of growth have been spread unevenly, resulting in a rise in consumption inequality.  Drawing on national household surveys, qualitative studies, and opinion polls, the report "Sharing Growth: Equity and Development in Cambodia" finds that:

• Rural inequality of consumption rose during the last decade, driving up aggregate inequality in Cambodia, while urban inequality remained unchanged.  Rural inequality of consumption rose during 1993-1997, but then stabilized between 1997 and 2004.
   
• In contrast to consumption inequality, inequality in non-consumption measures of living standards such as school enrollment and mortality rates has fallen over time.  The disparity in access to infrastructure (roads), amenities (clean water, electricity), and basic services (schooling, healthcare) has also narrowed between 1997 and 2004, as have gender gaps in literacy and schooling. 
   
• Inequality in rural and urban areas comes from two sources: the gap between the richest 25 percent and the rest, and inequality within the richest quarter of the population.  Rising rural inequality was mainly the result of rising inequality among the richest quarter.

Based on the findings and analysis, the report concludes that policies that directly tackle poverty will also address inequality, because income growth of the poor will narrow the rich-poor disparity. This suggests a number of policy priorities for Cambodia’s response to inequality concerns: 

1. There is a need for continued effort in economic reform and improvement of investment climate.  Maintaining the economy’s openness and global outlook will be the best strategy for continued growth and sustained poverty reduction.  
    
2. Priority in land policy should be to accelerate and intensify systemic titling, extending it throughout the country, including to remote, more conflict-prone areas.  Land policies within the agricultural strategy should give priority consideration to household farming, including by redistributing idle plantation land to landless poor households. 
    
3. More needs to be invested in building and then maintaining basic infrastructure to connect up remoter parts of the country to economic opportunities and improved social services.  Rural roads clearly have a significant impact in equalizing geographical inequalities.  There is also a pressing need for increased investment in improved water supply and sanitation in rural areas: the rural-urban gap in access to these facilities remains extremely wide.