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Millennium Development Goals in Cambodia

Cambodian children © Thnam Kanha Net

UNDP has placed Cambodia in the 32 top priority countries where urgent action must be taken in order to overcome slow progress towards the deadline of 2015 for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The latest World Bank Poverty Assessment shows that 35% of Cambodia’s population live below the national poverty line, down by only about 10% over the last decade. With nearly 80% of the population surviving on less than $2 per day whilst a small elite enjoys a business boom in the capital city, Cambodia has become one of Asia’s most unequal countries, especially between its rural and urban communities.

In the past two decades, the country has received immense financial aid and technical assistance from various international financial institutions, governments and NGOs. The most recent pledge totalling $690m will cover half of Cambodia’s national budget for 2008. However, the challenges posed by poor infrastructure, low human resource capacity, governance issues and widespread corruption continue to retard any clear progress. The government has recognised the MDGs in plans to halve poverty in its National Strategic Development Plan 2006-2010, but development projects remain centralised and the main impetus for action derives from external pressure from the major donors.

Food Security in Cambodia

Bananas to market, Kompong Thom, Cambodia © Thnam Kanha Net

Cambodia’s tortured recent history is responsible for a legacy of structural obstacles to poverty reduction plans. For example, the Khmer Rouge abolished the concept of private ownership in favour of communal farming which has evolved into a profile of very small farms; about 70% of the country’s workforce is engaged in hand-to-mouth subsistence farming. Cambodia’s rice yields are the lowest in the region. With minimal investment in inputs and irrigation and with little opportunity to supplement their incomes, most of these households experience seasonal food deficits. The Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Dr.Peter Piot, has said that there is a “chronic and persistent food insecurity problem in Cambodia”. Over 35% of children under age 5 are underweight.

Cambodia farmer © Heifer International

Although a new law awards title to farmers who have been working on their land for more than 5 years, few have taken advantage due to the expense and bureaucracy involved. This has led to unscrupulous land grabbing by wealthy agricultural interests seeking land for cash crops such as sugar. The government is aware of the strategic need for investment in agriculture, land rights and alternative livelihoods but there is great uncertainty as to how the dramatic increase in the price of rice will impact on this vulnerable rural economy. One immediate painful consequence is the WFP announcement in 2008 of termination of its school feeding programmes for 450,000 Cambodian children.
Education in Cambodia

Teachers at ICT training © UNESCO

The Khmer Rouge era also casts a shadow over education. At one time Southeast Asia’s most progressive system, Cambodia's schools collapsed after the massacre of the country’s educated class. With nearly half of the population under 15 years of age, the challenge of overcoming illiteracy is formidable. As recently as 2001 over 40% of female children were out of primary school but the government has increased budgets for education so that primary enrolment in both urban and rural areas has climbed to almost 100%.

Nevertheless, literacy rates and quality of education vary greatly, with many rural provinces experiencing high student-teacher ratios. Teachers' salaries remain too low at barely $1 per day, forcing them to seek “informal fees” from their pupils. Poorer families then withdraw their children with the result that only about half complete primary education.
Health in Cambodia

Landmine survivor, Cambodia © Kike Figaredo / International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Cambodia’s health care system is struggling. Both maternal and child mortality rates are exceptionally high for the region, the latter having increased since the baseline year of 1990, quite the reverse of MDG intentions. Two thirds of the population do not have access to clean water. One person out of every 350 has a disability due to landmines and many people continue to suffer physical and psychological injuries from the carnage.

Furthermore, Cambodia’s contamination by landmines and UXOs is one of the worst in the world, with 5.1 million people at risk, representing a cruel impediment to rural development. About 2.5% of the country’s land surface areas are affected, with the highest concentration in the north and northwest. According to Landmine Monitor, Cambodia has made progress in preventing casualties, the average of just over one per day in 2006 representing a marked improvement over previous years. The government’s support is indicated by the creation of a special 9th MDG with a target to eliminate the problem by 2012. Much of the de-mining action work is carried out by local mine action centres, and victims’ assistance and rehabilitation programs are offered by both local and international NGOs.

AIDS awareness in Cambodia © United Nations Children's Fund

The scourge of HIV/AIDS is the highest in the region and is spread primarily through heterosexual contact, exacerbated by the tolerance of sex workers. The latest World Bank survey reports government commitment to strengthened institutions and policies which have helped to shrink the infection rate among adults from 2.7% in 1999 to 1.6% in 2006. However, women are increasingly at risk, now accounting for half of all infections, reflecting how their subordinate role in Cambodian culture creates barriers on sexual issues within marriage as well as vulnerability to domestic and sexual violence.
Climate Change in Cambodia

The impact of climate change is threatening to undermine Cambodia’s efforts to catch up with the MDG programme. The National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) published in 2006 mentions anecdotal evidence of increased incidence of flooding since 2000 but contains little scientific analysis of the nature of potential change and its impact. However, it is recognised that the tropical climates in this region are particularly volatile and that Cambodia is predicted tol experience greater frequency and extremes of floods and drought.

Logging along the Thai/Cambodia border © Global Witness

Flooding and disablement of irrigation systems causes losses in rice production which Cambodia can ill afford. Adaptation projects will therefore give priority to water infrastructure and raising awareness amongst communities with very poor capacity for adaptation. Water management will also be relevant to address concerns about the spread of malaria and dengue fever, the latter has been particularly virulent in 2007.

Sympathy for Cambodia’s vulnerability to the impact of climate change is tempered by the country’s notorious failure to control deforestation, now understood to be a major source of carbon dioxide emissions. Primary rainforest cover is down to just 3% as a succession of criminal syndicates are allowed free rein over their illegal logging.

Politics in Cambodia

The deplorable Khmer Rouge era (1975-1979) devastated the entire country and shredded Khmer society. An estimated 1.7 million Khmer lives were lost to arbitrary killings, torture and starvation; those who survived suffered long-term psychological and physical effects. The Vietnamese invasion in January 1979 inflicted another 10 years of warfare and bloodshed before the United Nations intervened in 1989 culminating in the Paris Peace Agreement of 1991.

Angkor Wat © Thnam Kanha Net

By 1993, there was a semblance of stability: the Khmer Rouge had been deposed, the first democratic election was held, the national constitution promulgated and a coalition government formed between the Funcinpec Party, then led by Prince Norodom Ranariddh, and Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). In the most recent National Assembly election in 2003, the CPP triumphed over Funcinpec, but lacked the two-thirds majority of seats to govern alone. This was followed by 11 months of political deadlock before the two parties agreed to renew the coalition government. The opposition is led by the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), its leader having severed his relationship with Funcinpec in 1995. Cambodia is classed as a constitutional monarchy with King Norodom Sihamoni as the largely ceremonial Head of State.

The majority party in the National Assembly, the CPP, continues to struggle to accept the multi-party system. Hun Sen has been prime minister on behalf of a variety of coalitions since 1985 and has a record of dividing and weakening opposition parties through persecution of their officials. Sam Rainsy was stripped of his parliamentary immunity during 2005 and went into exile, leaving the country without an opposition party for nearly a year until his pardon and reinstatement. Prince Ranariddh is now in exile in Malaysia having fallen out with Funcinpec and received a prison sentence in absentia for the improper sale of the Party headquarters. He has established a new Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) which intends to contest the National Assembly elections due in July 2008.

A key issue for the election campaign will undoubtedly be the appalling record of corruption of successive governments presided over by Hun Sen. A damning report published by GlobalWitness in 2007 makes a connection between a company linked to the prime minister and illegal logging activity. The country has no anti-corruption law and campaigners are pressing donors to be more vigilant in linking aid to higher standards of governance.
Human Rights in Cambodia

Phnong people, Cambodia © Refugees International

Democratic credentials are further undermined by the ban on public assembly and restricted freedom of expression, vigilantly enforced by heavy-handed police. Television is government-controlled and few rural provinces can receive radio transmissions and newspapers. The mainstream judicial system is not independent of the ruling CPP Party and is widely condemned by watchdog groups and human rights NGOs. The country has become a haven of crime with impunity, suffering high incidence of child trafficking, rape, acid attacks and sex trafficking. The 2003 murder of high-profile labour union leader Chea Vichea led to all-to-rare convictions but these have been condemned by observers as unsound.

Cambodia's relationship with the UN has reached an all-time low with the inhospitable refusal by officials to meet the special representative on Human Rights, Professor Yash Ghai. Professor Ghai has singled out the illegal evictions of as many as 10,000 slum dwellers in Phnom Penh by business interests exploiting the construction boom.

The UN has however joined the Cambodian government in efforts to bring the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders to justice by establishing a tribunal whose proceedings are intended to merge international standards with Cambodian jurisdiction. This ideal has proved fraught with difficulty, with procedural disagreements between UN and Cambodian judges and, at one stage, Human Rights Watch accusing the Cambodian government of interference with the tribunal. However proceedings commenced in late 2007 and 5 former Khmer Rouge officials are now in custody on charges of crimes against humanity, including the most senior survivor, Nuon Chea.
The Economy in Cambodia

Garment workers in Cambodian factories

By conventional indicators, Cambodia’s economy has performed extremely well since 2005, mostly galvanised by garment exports and tourism. Concerns that these sectors may be threatened by recession in the US are countered by the discovery of offshore oil reserves which may generate revenue as early as 2010. In view of the poor redistribution of currently booming resources, there are questions about Cambodia’s capacity to manage an oil bonanza.



The OneWorld Cambodia Guide was first published in December 2004 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Thnam Kanha Net

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