Enabling the rural poor
to overcome poverty
in Cambodia
Rural poverty in Cambodia
Although the Kingdom of Cambodia is rich in natural resources,
decades of war and internal conflict have left it one of the
world’s poorest countries. The legacy of strife includes social
and economic scars. Many millions of land mines were sowed
throughout the countryside, where millions of them still lie,
hidden and unexploded. Mines are an enduring menace to the
eight out of ten Cambodians who live in rural areas, and they
are an obstacle to agricultural development.
Cambodia’s poor people number almost 4.8 million, and 90 per cent of them are
in rural areas. Most of them depend on agriculture for their livelihood, but at least
12 per cent of poor people are landless. Small-scale farmers practice agriculture
at the subsistence level, using traditional methods. Productivity is low.
Two thirds of the country’s 1.6 million rural households face seasonal food
shortages each year. Rice alone accounts for as much as 30 per cent of household
expenditures. Rural people are constantly looking for work or other incomegenerating activities, which are mainly temporary and poorly paid.
Enabling poor rural people
to overcome poverty
Landlessness is one of the causes of a strong trend of internal migration that is also driven
by the pressures of rapid population growth and the desire to evade from recurring flood
and drought in lowland areas. People are moving from the more densely populated
provinces in the south and west to the more sparsely populated provinces in the northeast, which include some of the country’s poorest districts.
The country’s poor people include subsistence farmers, members of poor fishing
communities, landless people and rural youth, as well as internally displaced persons and
mine victims. Tribal peoples and women are generally the most disadvantaged.
Women in particular do not have equal access to education, paid employment and land
ownership and other property rights. For many women, reproductive health services are
inadequate or non-existent. Many women had to assume the responsibility of heading
their households after male family members were killed in conflict.
Poverty rates are highest in upland areas. The poorest people live in the districts close to
the borders with Thailand and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in the north and
north-east, and with Viet Nam in the east. Poverty is less severe in the districts around
Tonle Sap Lake and those in the Mekong River basin in the south.
Cambodia’s poorest people are isolated. They live in remote villages, far from basic social
services and facilities. Many have to travel more than 5 km to reach a health clinic, and still
others live more than 5 km from the nearest road.
The pressures of a fast-growing population contribute to poverty. Because of a lack of
education and skills training, people have inadequate employment opportunities and low
capabilities. They are insecure, excluded and vulnerable. They have limited access to
natural resources. Poor health, lack of education, poor infrastructure and low productivity
lead to deeper poverty. The cycle of poverty, ill health and high health care expenditure
cripples poor Cambodian families economically.
Rural poverty and lack of opportunity in rural areas have contributed to the spread of HIV
AIDS, as young women migrate to urban factories and become sex workers in
neighbouring countries. Although HIV prevalence rates have shown a decrease, the
impact of the infection continues to be strong.
Eradicating rural poverty
in Cambodia
Growth, employment, equity and efficiency are the key objectives of the Kingdom of
Cambodia’s poverty reduction strategy. This so-called Rectangular Strategy pulls together
elements of the Millennium Development Goals strategy, the Socio-economic
Development Plan 2001-2005 and the National Poverty Reduction Strategy 2003-2005.
These elements are the basis of the National Strategic Development Strategy Plan 20062010, which affirms that poverty reduction in the fastest possible manner is the
government’s foremost priority.
The government’s priorities include:
• promoting income-earning and employment opportunities
• improving the capabilities of poor people, strengthening institutions and
promoting good governance
• reducing poor people’s vulnerability
• promoting gender equity
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To achieve macroeconomic stability the government is implementing reform programmes
and providing supporting policies by:
• addressing the fiscal deficit
• overseeing the soundness of the financial system
• promoting bank reform
• improving revenues
• increasing spending for the social and economic sectors through sound budget
management
• improving the investment climate
• carrying out civil service, legal and judicial reforms
The national agenda for improving income opportunities for poor rural people includes
key areas such as land, water, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and transport, as well as
decentralization.
In the agricultural sector, the government’s aims are to:
• improve food security by expanding production of rice and other food crops
• promote exports
• improve the incomes of poor farmers by crop diversification, especially in rural
households headed by women
• add value to crop and livestock production by developing agro-processing
industries
IFAD’s strategy in Cambodia
Since 1996, IFAD has invested US$48.3 million in five projects in Cambodia that have
mobilized overall investments for a total of US$100.6 million. IFAD loans support rural
and agricultural development and improvement of the livestock subsector.
A community-based approach is at the core of IFAD’s strategy in Cambodia, which is to
expand and build on its own experiences there and those of similar agencies.
The organization’s strategy in Cambodia:
Total number of programmes
and projects: 5
Total financing: US$100.6 million
Total financing from IFAD:
US$48.3 million
Directly benefiting:
425,300 households
• focuses on the food and income security of poor rural households, particularly
households headed by women
• promotes economic growth at the household and community levels by empowering
communities to manage their productive resources in a sustainable way
• promotes a mechanism for ensuring that lessons learned and best practices help
shape provincial and national policy
• draws on IFAD’s experience in rural development in many parts of the world to
develop an implementation support mechanism that adds value to development
approaches
Working in partnership with multilateral and bilateral agencies and international NGOs
in Cambodia, IFAD’s role is to take a targeted approach towards improving agricultural
productivity and neglected subsectors in the poorest provinces. IFAD focuses specifically
on assisting poor rural people, using participatory approaches to build the capacity of
grass-roots institutions and foster direct ownership of investment programmes by the
people who benefit from them.
Improving rural livelihoods is a focus of the organization’s current efforts to empower
Cambodia’s poor people to raise their incomes and standards of living. The recently
approved Rural Livelihoods Improvement Project in Kratie, Preah Vihear and Ratanakin
has the aims of improving food security and promoting agricultural diversification
and market-oriented development. It also provides support for decentralization and
deconcentration, and includes support for mainstreaming gender in agriculture.
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Ongoing programmes and projects
Rural Livelihoods Improvement
Project in Kratie, Preah Vihear
and Ratanakiri
Community-Based Rural
Development Project in
Kampong Thom and Kampot
Rural Poverty Reduction Project
in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng
Rural Livelihoods Improvement Project in Kratie, Preah Vihear
and Ratanakiri
The grant approved under the debt sustainability framework (DSF) helps finance a
project for rural development that targets poor people in 84 poor communes in three
provinces, with the goal of improving their livelihoods. The objective is to make a
positive and sustainable impact on agricultural development. The target group includes
poor people who have little land, people who are landless, indigenous peoples and
ethnic groups, and households headed by women, particularly those with young
children and/or many dependents. About 22,600 poor households, or 30 per cent of
the population of the designated area, should benefit from the project’s activities.
The project specifically targets poorer villages where there is a potential for increased
income generation and better natural resource management, and communities
composed of ethnic minorities. Commune councils will help identify the poorest
villages, and local extension workers and village elders will assist in targeting the
poorest groups within the community.
Poor people will participate directly in planning and implementing project activities to
ensure that they reflect local priorities and aspirations for social and economic
development. Activities include a focus on:
• capacity-building
• skills training
• technology transfer
• improvement of food security, agricultural productivity and natural resource
management
• income generation through on-farm and off-farm activities
• development of market-oriented production
Participants will also have a role in monitoring the project’s performance and in
assessing its impact on their communities.
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Total cost: US$11.5 million
DSF grant: US$9.5 million
Cofinancing: United Nations
Development Programme
(Grant: US$1.29 million)
Duration: 7 years
Geographical area: Preah Vihear,
Ratanakiri, Kratie
Directly benefiting:
22,600 households
Through the grant, IFAD supports project activities that will help poor rural people:
• gain access to more advanced agricultural technology to improve household
food security and incomes and agricultural productivity
• diversify their on-farm income opportunities
• form linkages with markets and development led by the private sector
• build the capacity of commune councils and village-based organization to plan
and monitor economic development activities
The project will also enhance the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries to formulate pro-poor policies and poverty reduction programmes.
The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) will administer the IFAD grant.
Rural Poverty Reduction Project in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng
The project operates in two of the country’s poorest provinces, which are densely
populated and predominantly rural. The area is vulnerable to both drought and floods.
The most important sources of farm income are rice, livestock and fisheries but farmers
use traditional methods and productivity is low. Both men and women migrate to find
seasonal employment elsewhere.
The project’s goal is to reduce poverty by promoting poor people’s active participation
in efforts to:
• improve their livelihoods
• strengthen their capacities
• achieve sustainable farming systems and natural resource management
• create and rehabilitate infrastructure
• improve access to technology, services and markets
IFAD funding supports agricultural investments and local development, and help build
stronger institutions. The project empowers poor rural people to increase food
production and incomes by diversifying and intensifying production and by managing
natural resources in a sustainable way. It also improves their capacity to plan and
manage development, including that of infrastructure. It enables service providers to
work in a participatory way that is sensitive to gender issues, carrying out development
programmes that respond to poor rural people’s priorities.
Total cost: US$19.6 million
IFAD loan: US$15.5 million
Cofinancing:
- Partnership for Local
Governance (United National
Development Programme,
Swedish International
Development Authority, United
Kingdom Department for
International Development)
(US$2.7 million)
- World Food Programme (WFP)
(US$2.4 million)
Duration: 7 years
Geographical area: Prey Veng
and Svay Rieng provinces in
the southeast
Directly benefiting:
120,600 households
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Community-Based Rural Development Project in Kampong
Thom and Kampot
The provinces of Kanpong Thom and Kampot are among the country’s most vulnerable
to food insecurity. Poor rural people do not have sufficient land and/or draught
animals and labour for farming, and they lack access to improved technology and
capital for investments in technology. Their access to government support services, safe
drinking water and other social services is inadequate.
The project’s goal is to help poor rural people, particularly women, overcome
poverty by:
• improving poor people’s capabilities to use natural resources effectively and
access services
IFAD loan: US$9.9 million
Cofinancing:
- German Agency for Technical
Cooperation (GTZ) (US$7.9 million)
- World Food Programme (WFP)
(US$1.3 million)
- Australian Agency for
International Development
(AusAID) (US$552,000)
Duration: 7 years
• promoting transfer of simple agricultural technologies through farmer-based
extension to increase productivity and income
Geographical area: the provinces of
Kampong Thom in central Cambodia
and Kampot in the south-west
• rehabilitating irrigation schemes
Directly benefiting:
49,600 households
• providing access to safe drinking water and improving infrastructure,
particularly roads
• providing institutional support to service providers
Poor people who benefit from project activities participate in community
development, local planning, field demonstrations, seed-multiplication programmes,
farmer training, construction of rural infrastructure works, and water users’ groups.
They contribute cash and labour to the construction of irrigation and water supply
facilities and take on full responsibility for operating and maintaining them.
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Total cost: US$22.8 million
Completed operations
Agricultural Development Support
Project to Seila
Agriculture Productivity
Improvement Project
Total cost: US$11.5 million
Total cost: US$35.1 million
IFAD loan: US$8.6 million
IFAD loan: US$4.7 million
IFAD grant: US$400,000
Cofinancing: Australia (AusAID)
Cofinancing: World Bank - International
Development Agency
Duration: 6 years
Duration: 8 years
Geographical area: the north-west provinces of Banteay
Meanchey, Battambang, Pursat and Siem Reap
Geographical area: provinces of Kompong Cham,
Prey Veng,
Svay Rieng, Kratie and Kompong Tham
Directly benefiting: 64,500 households
Directly benefiting: 168,000 households
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Contact
Mr Youqiong Wang
Country programme manager
IFAD
Via del Serafico, 107
00142 Rome, Italy
Tel: +39 0654592076
Fax: +39 0654593076
E-mail: y.wang@ifad.org
For further information on rural poverty in
Cambodia, visit the Rural Poverty Portal:
http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org
Building a poverty-free world
IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency
dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries.
Through low-interest loans and grants, IFAD develops and finances programmes and
projects that fit within national systems and respond to the needs, priorities and
constraints identified by poor rural people themselves.
Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested US$9.8 billion in 751 programmes
and projects around the world. These initiatives have enabled more than 310 million
small farmers, herders, fishers, landless workers, artisans and members of indigenous
communities to take steps to achieve better lives for themselves and their families.
But this represents only part of the total investment in IFAD programmes and projects.
In the past 29 years, a further US$16.4 billion in cofinancing has been provided by
governments, project participants, multilateral and bilateral donors and other partners.
October 2007
Working with partners, including poor rural people, governments, NGOs, financial and
development institutions and the private sector, IFAD tackles poverty not just as a lender,
but also as an advocate for poor rural people. One of its priorities is to assist poor rural
people in developing and strengthening their organizations so that they can advance
their interests and remove the obstacles that prevent so many people, especially women,
from creating better lives for themselves. In this way, poor rural people are able to
participate more fully in determining and directing their own development.
Enabling poor rural people
to overcome poverty
Via del Serafico, 107 - 00142 Rome, Italy
Tel.: +39 0654591 - Fax: +39 065043463
E-mail: ifad@ifad.org
www.ifad.org