Cambodia

This chapter examines the adequacy of social protection in Cambodia in light of the risks and vulnerabilities identified in . Social protection in Cambodia is well established in legal and policy frameworks, including the Social Protection Policy Framework approved in 2017. While Cambodia has a variety of social assistance, social health protection, social insurance and labour market programmes in place, coverage is low and provision is highly fragmented. The current capacity of social protection to reduce poverty and vulnerability is therefore limited.Health Equity Funds are emerging as an exception to this situation. These provide relatively high levels of coverage among the poor population and are growing rapidly, thus providing a potential avenue towards universal health coverage.

The Royal Government of Cambodia is committed to improve the food security and nutrition (FSN) situation in the country, and has put various policy mechanisms in place to deal with its multidimensional nature. Implementation has presented some challenges, most notably in ensuring that all regions and provinces benefit equally from the progress achieved to date. As things currently stand, FSN outcomes vary across regions and provinces, and the capacity to deal with territorial disparities is constrained by co-ordination failures and disconnects between various tiers of government, as well as between the many development organisations and non-governmental organisations operating in the country. Adopting a territorial approach would help to ensure that policies are delivered effectively to where they are most needed, and that policies and programmes are linked up to prevent fragmentation and duplication of efforts.

This chapter documents the overall development context in Cambodia since the Paris Peace Agreement in 1991, describing how far Cambodia has come since then and describing key challenges going forward. It summarises the key findings in each policy area and provides tailored recommendations.

Since 2000, Cambodia has posted one of the strongest and most sustained periods of economic growth in the world. Between 2000 and 2015, annual growth in its gross domestic product (GDP) averaged 7.8%, raising GDP per capita to USD 1 225 and reducing poverty rates from over 60% to 13.5%. The national poverty gap, which indicates the severity of poverty, fell from 21.8% in 2004 to 2.2% in 2014.

Cambodia is exposed to floods, droughts, tropical storms and landslides (GFDRR, 2017[1]). Floods are the most prevalent type of disaster affecting the country, as shown in the figure below. It is classified as facing high disaster risk by the WorldRiskIndex (8.19, 65th-highest risk out of 193 countries). Between 2000 and 2022, disasters triggered by natural hazards caused more than 1 200 deaths and affected more than 16 million other people (CRED, 2024[2]).

The SIGI 2023 profile for Cambodia provides a comprehensive overview of the state of gender equality in the country, as measured by the OECD’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI). The full SIGI Country Profile for Cambodia is available at: OECD Development Centre (2023), “Cambodia SIGI Country Profile”, SIGI 2023 Country Profiles, OECD, https://oe.cd/sigi-dashboard. The fifth edition of the SIGI, released in 2023, assesses 140 countries based on the level of gender-based discrimination in their social institutions. These discriminatory social institutions encompass both formal and informal laws, as well as social norms and practices that restrict women’s and girls’ access to rights, justice, empowerment opportunities and resources, thereby undermining their agency and authority.

Cambodia is a key tourist destination home to Angkor and the Preah Vihear Temple, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. A secondary attraction is the seaside resort destination of Sihanoukville and further beach tourism developments emerging from the Kep Tourism Development Master Plan (2022-35). The construction of new international airports at Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is expected to usher in a period of increased travel to Cambodia, with accommodation for larger planes and expanded welcome capacity.

This chapter presents the country profile for Cambodia. It provides an overview of the current de jure requirements for the institutions, tools and processes of regulatory governance and, where possible, how these have been implemented in practice. The profile focus on three aspects of regulatory governance pertinent to the past, present and near future of regulatory reforms in the ASEAN region. The first is whole-of-government approachesto regulatory policy making, including national and international commitments to better regulation that are driving domestic reform processes. The second is the use of good regulatory practices, including regulatory impact assessments (RIAs), stakeholder engagement and ex post review. The third is approaches to digitalisation, or how countries are using digital tools to respond to regulatory challenges, and is the newest frontier for better regulation reforms in both ASEAN and OECD communities. The information contained in this and the other profiles serves as the basis for the analysis of trends in regulatory reform presented in Chapter 1.

Cambodia’s SME policy has principally focused on improving the legal and regulatory environment to support SME development. The country is at a relatively early phase in the development of targeted SME policies, but it has undergone a wave of long-term economic planning over recent years with the aim of accelerating diversification and maintaining robust economic growth. SME policy is a pillar of this. A policy priority is to increase SME integration into GVCs, particularly higher value-added activities.