Cambodia

While the World Bank praised Cambodia’s growing economy recently, they also warned that the gap between rich urban centres and poor rural communities is increasing.

To help combat this, Concern Worldwide continues to support local communities, helping to improve access to food, improve education and provide microfinance.

Latest blog post: Settling into Cambodia

Making progress

One of the biggest changes we have seen in the areas where we work is people’s ability to send their children to school. Another noticeable improvement is that now communities, especially the poorest members of villages, are taking a more active role in local planning.

Building better government

Across Cambodia, we have helped improve the processes involved in local governance. Concern took part in a government-led consultation on the key concepts of draft legislation entitled the Organic Law. This law will provide guidelines for commune councillors and other organisations on how to implement decentralisation reform and local planning.

More achievements in Cambodia:

• We are now working with 21 local partner organisations in Cambodia
• 125,000 people benefited directly from our natural resource management work
• An additional 181,000 people also benefited indirectly from the programme
• We helped many landless families secure access to common land for farming
• Communities have also successfully participated in public forums to fight against illegal logging and land encroachment