Key MessagesMigrants were mainly young adults, with men doing high-risk jobs like construction and women doing less risky jobs such as factory work. Migrant households’ livelihoods are affected by unpredictable weather conditions, reduced water availability, and extreme events like heatwaves, droughts and floods, which lowered crop yields and fish stocks. This led to income loss and financial instability, especially for farming households. Migration was primarily driven by economic hardships, including poverty, job scarcity, and debt. Yet, these hardships were worsened by climate […]

Key Highlights In Cambodia, one in four people over five years old are estimated to have some form of disability. This group tends to be older, female, and residing in rural areas. The most common types of disabilities include difficulties in seeing, remembering, and walking/climbing. Education and work opportunities are limited, especially for women with severe disabilities. Their health and quality of life are lower overall. There is no specific legal framework in Cambodia addressing access to information specifically for persons with disabilities, […]

This policy brief presents key findings from the technical report “Learning to Improve Book Resource Operational Systems (LIBROS) in Cambodia”. The study examined the perceived impacts, development, and implementing factors of the Track and Trace (TnT) system, a digital intervention implemented by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS) to manage the textbook demand of and supply to Cambodian public schools. Link to the full report (Eng): https://curate.nd.edu/articles/report/SHARE_LIBROS_Learning_to_Improve_Book_Resource_Operational_Systems_Cambodia_Technical_Study_Report/24877683?file=47014198 

During the First PAGE National Steering Committee in Cambodia, PAGE also presented a summary brief outlining five priorities that serves as a roadmap for policymakers and stakeholders to identify the obstacles and opportunities for fostering a green economic transition in Cambodia: Unlocking private and public finance More evidence on different growth pathways Integrating circular economy principles in Cambodia’s manufacturing sector Prioritize skills development for jobs creation Leaving no one behind The brief was developed based on the last year’s policy […]

Why is childcare service important? Every child has the right to quality care. Public and private investment in childcare is globally considered a foundation to human capital development and economic growth. The World Bank Group defines human capital as three domains which develop throughout a person’s life: knowledge, skill, and health (The World Bank Group, 2020). The 0–3-year period is crucial to a child’s brain development and long-term health. Access to good quality care, health services, education programmes at home or […]

Collaboration between training providers and the industry is crucial for a responsive technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system. It not only alleviates the skill mismatch problem but also contributes to better quality training provision and increases the employability of TVET graduates. Based on the findings from the “Skills for Industry” research project conducted from 2017 to 2023 in Cambodia and five other countries, training providers and the industry in Cambodia have collaborated in many forms and through formal […]

A recent survey study conducted by CDRI found that university students in Cambodia were keen to pursue an entrepreneurial career. The study also found that a simple provision of entrepreneurship education and support programmes at universities fell short of converting those interests into actions. This policy brief presents five recommendations that higher education institutes should consider adopting to increase entrepreneurial activities: Involve SMEs in providing internships and other work opportunities to help students learn from business owners. Organise innovation and […]

Cambodia is now on the path to economic recovery with projected GDP growth rates of 5.5 percent in 2023 and 6 percent in 2024. However, as a small, export-dependent economy, Cambodia is more susceptible to external environmental conditions and global economic shocks (UNDP 2022). Particularly, the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the China-US trade war, widespread economic sanctions and other chronic conflicts around the globe still negatively affect the Cambodian economy. These negative impacts include supply chain disruptions, oil […]

This study investigates factors affecting welfare prior to and during Covid-19. It employs analysis of the Cambodia Living Standards Measurement—Plus Survey 2019/20 data, Frequency Phone Surveys between May 2020 and March 2021 to assess socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic. The results point to a range of factors which could contribute to explaining poverty incidence prior to the pandemic. Household resource endowment was an important correlate of welfare, particularly in terms of possession of a mobile phone, ownership of livestock and […]

The Covid-19 global health crisis has caused ongoing economic concerns. It exacerbated pre-existing issues and diminished Cambodia’s poverty reduction efforts with evidence of both impoverishment and destitution. In multiple ways, poverty and the pandemic put more strain on people’s livelihoods and on the relationships between agriculture, migration, debt, education and other tightly interwoven sectors. This policy brief aims to provide a synthesis of selected key research findings and emerging themes from two studies under the Poverty Monitoring Initiative Project (PMI): […]

In 2020, Cambodia experienced a negative growth rate for the first time in two decades. As a country susceptible to small changes in the global economy, it grew increasingly obvious that Cambodian businesses need a more solid foundation to grow and diversify. Most businesses in Cambodia are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) but they significantly contribute to the country’s employment, domestic economy and poverty reduction. However, SMEs are encountering several major challenges including informality of operation, limited access to finance, […]

In the Mekong-Lancang basin, intergovernmental scientific water data sharing has progressively expanded between governments since the early 1990s as an outcome of water diplomacy efforts. Much of this scientific water data has been made public via online platforms.Water data underpins water diplomacy, including through trust building and providing evidence. It is crucial in the Mekong-Lancang basin given changing river conditions due to large dam operations, climate change and other development trends that have intensified hydropolitics in recent years.As water data […]