Collaboration with the private sector has been an influential tool in addressing a variety of complex issues or problems in both developed and developing economies around the globe. Like many countries, Cambodia has strongly promoted collaboration with the private sector across all education sectors. In the Cambodian TVET sector, the Royal Government of Cambodia has emphasised public-private partnerships (PPP) in its national TVET Policy 2017-2025 and Skills Development Roadmap 2023-2035. Such collaboration can make TVET more industry-relevant by increasing the […]

Although Cambodia has a strong ambition to become an upper middle-income nation by 2030 and a high income by 2050, it faces various challenges in achieving these goals. This study investigates Cambodia’s progress and potential in this regard by analysing its position and trajectory relative to Greenfield Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows and outflows – where foreign firms establish new operations in Cambodia and Cambodian investors set up businesses abroad. This study also provides preliminary insights on Cambodia’s integration into […]

Cambodia has made notable paces in reducing poverty and advancing human development. However, a significant portion of the population remains susceptible to poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, and various shocks. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, coupled with the global food and fuel crisis and recent climate-related events, has exacerbated the already fragile conditions for many, especially marginalised communities.The Tonle Sap Lake and Cambodia’s Mekong Delta are crucial for sustaining a rich diversity of fish species, rice cultivation, and local livelihoods, while […]

The transnational mobility of people, information, and resources is critical to the success of nonprofit international development projects. Ensuring effective transnational flows arguably takes on greater salience for grassroots international nongovernmental organisations (GINGOs), as these organisations and their leaders are unlikely to have a full-time presence in their intervention sites, instead tending to have short-term, episodic presences in the communities they serve. This is especially true among GINGOs active the health sector that provide healthcare services transnationally in the form […]

Despite recent declines in university enrolment due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, the number of university students has continued to grow in Cambodia. In fact, in its recent Education 2030 Roadmap, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) estimates that there will be twice as many students enrolled in higher education in 2030 as there were in 2018 (MoEYS 2019a, 36). The field students choose as their major when they enrol in higher education orients their pathway […]

The global emphasis on addressing gender disparities in education has highlighted the importance of equitable academic achievement for policymakers, scholars, and the public. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have incorporated gender equity, emphasising the ongoing challenge of ensuring equal access to quality education worldwide. In Cambodia, traditionally a male-dominated society, a notable shift has been observed: female students are now surpassing their male counterparts in school enrolment and academic performance. This reversal has sparked significant public interest, prompting this research […]

In this study, we examine the revenue, costs, profits and technical efficiency of chilli farms in Cambodia. We employ a representative sample of 542 chilli farming households from Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Cham, Tboung Khmum and Kandal. The sample was randomly selected using a two-stage stratified sampling design, where villages were chosen in the first stage as the primary sampling unit and households engaged in chilli production were selected in the second stage as the secondary sampling units. […]

The global COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented disruptions to the higher education landscape worldwide. Widespread school closures, driven by the imperative of social distancing to combat the virus’s spread forced a rapid and dramatic shift from traditional face-to-face instruction to online learning and teaching environments in numerous countries. Recent research has highlighted the formidable challenges lower- and middle-income countries face, particularly those with weaker ICT infrastructures and less technology-ready teachers and students, when adapting to these new tech-enhanced teaching and learning […]

Intimate partner violence (IPV) disproportionately affects women in many countries. The prevalence in low- and middle-income countries is particularly high for various reasons, ranging from severer gender-discriminatory cultures to wider gender gaps in education. The Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the pre-pandemic situation due to increased economic stress and frequent lockdowns. Many studies have documented that IPV has huge impacts on women’s health and children’s health. Given its prevalence and consequences, IPV remains an important issue.In developing countries, child marriage is […]

Water is central for a variety of livelihoods, development, economic growth, and food production. It is also very important in the large deltas of South and Southeast Asia. Yet, water is turning into a scare resource and global climate change is making its availability more unpredictable. Commercial interests and infrastructure development are also competing for water resources, sometimes at the expense of local smallholders.This report, which is a desk study combined with stakeholder interviews, aims to map out the issues […]

In the past two decades, Cambodia has been committed to the global agenda of ensuring that all children from all walks of life have access to education and quality learning opportunities. The focus was not only on access to education but also on gender parity and learning quality. Three years after the adoption of the Dakar Framework for Action in 2003, Cambodia adopted the national plan for Education for All (EFA) as a guiding pathway to realise the government’s commitments […]

This study analyses the impacts of COVID-19 on the lives and livelihoods of workers in the garment, textile and footwear manufacturing in Cambodia, a sector which employed approximately 800,000 people (80 percent of whom were female) and contributed about 70 percent to the country’s annual total export value prior to the pandemic. The analysis examines potential disproportionate effects of the pandemic on women and men, focusing on earnings, consumption and remittances, possible conflicts at home and workplace, mental health, coping […]