Regions and Countries

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p. 4 of 22 BACK | NEXT I. Country Performance Assessment A. Economic Performance Assessment B. Poverty Assessment C. Assessment of Socio-Environmental Performance D. Governance: Sound Development Management E. Implementation Assessment II. Poverty Reduction and Country Operational Strategy III. Sector Strategies IV. Regional Cooperation V. Donor Activities and Aid Coordination VI. Cofinancing and Catalyzing External Resources VII. ADB’s Operational Program VIII. Economic and Sector Work IX. Local Cost Financing

Country Assistance Plans - Cambodia : I. Country Performance Assessment

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C. Assessment of Socio-Environmental Performance

1. Gender Issues

21. In the past, traditional Khmer culture and religion influenced the extent to which Cambodian women could contribute to and benefit from economic development in Cambodia. By tradition, after a marriage arranged by her parents, a wife shared in the responsibilities for day-to-day household operations and managed the household finances, but deferred to her husband on major decisions. However, three decades of conflict have disrupted the traditional balance of power, leaving women with little political power at the same time that protection from domestic and social violence was eroded.

22. Constitutionally, the level of protection from discrimination afforded women is consistent with the United Nations (UN) Charter on Human Rights. Women can vote and stand for office. They have the rights to maternity leave, equal pay, property inheritance, divorce, and equal treatment before the law. In practice, these rights do not always materialize. There are currently only 2 female Ministers out of 25, 10 female representatives out of 122 in the National Assembly, no female Governors, and only a few female judges.

23. Women suffer from wage and non-wage discrimination in the formal sector, and enjoy lower educational attainment. Women have higher rates of labor force participation than men between the ages of 10 and 19 as a consequence of the family’s need for supplementary financial support and lesser importance placed on female education. However, men have higher rates of labor force participation after age 20 and they earn, on average, 50.0 percent more than women. Girls represent 45.0 percent of primary school attendees but only 35.0 percent of secondary school students and perhaps less than 20.0 percent of those in tertiary education.

24. Poverty, low female educational attainment, and discrimination are reflected in poor reproductive health indicators and high fertility and population growth rates in Cambodia. A lack of knowledge about family planning combined with the prevalence of home birth, stunting, and general poor health give rise to high infant mortality and maternal mortality rates (IMR and MMR). Cambodia’s IMR, at 89.4 per 1000 live births, and MMR, at 473 per 100,000 live births, are among the highest in the region. In addition, prostitution and domestic violence are serious social problems. HIV/AIDS is reaching epidemic proportions, with unusually high incidences among commercial sex workers (42.0 percent) and women of childbearing age (2.6 percent).⁵

25. The elevation of the Secretariat of State for Women’s Affairs, created in 1993, to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (now Women’s and Veteran’s Affairs) in 1996 signaled the increased attention being paid to gender issues in Cambodia. A primary mission of the Ministry is to act as a catalyst for mainstreaming gender issues into the policies and programs of public and private institutions. The Ministry is still young with limited capacity and is almost entirely dependent on foreign aid. Moreover, acid attacks on women reported in the local press indicate the formidable task before the Ministry in educating the public about the rights of women.

2. Human Development

26. Closely linked to pervasive poverty in Cambodia is low human development. In the UN Human Development Report 1999, using 1997 data, Cambodia ranks 137 th out of 174 countries, making it one of the least developed developing member countries (DMCs). Moreover, Cambodia’s 1997 Human Development Index (HDI) score of 0.514 is below what one might expect for a country with real per capita GDP of PPP$1,290 (expressed in US dollars using a purchasing power parity exchange rate).⁶ This is not surprising. The Khmer Rouge abolished most social services, particularly education, and routinely executed members of the professional classes.

27. In part because of the decimation of the Khmer Rouge years and the baby boom that followed, the population of Cambodia, about 11.7 million in 1999, is very young and growing rapidly. In 1998, 43.0 percent of the population was under 15 years of age. Thus a high dependency ratio is common, particularly in poorer households. Total fertility was 4.1 children per woman in 1998, and the population was estimated to be growing at about 2.5 percent annually as compared to 1.4 percent for all DMCs. With added pressure from returned refugees and the plans for demobilization of soldiers and downsizing of the civil service, indications are that the demand for jobs and social services will increase rapidly over the next several years.

28. Yet, social service provision is already woefully inadequate, as indicated by the statistics cited in paragraph 15. The poor quality of human resources, because of low educational attainment and poor health, is a principal constraint on economic development in Cambodia. With a 1997 adult literacy rate of 66.0 percent, Cambodia ranks below all Southeast Asian countries except the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). About 40.0 percent of the Cambodian population never attended school, and less than 1.0 percent has had any training beyond high school. Thus, Cambodia lacks even the skilled personnel to effectively improve its administrative, legal, educational, and medical institutions.

29. The quality of the labor force and the quality of life are further affected by high rates of morbidity and mortality and by a relatively high proportion of the population with physical disabilities. Among DMCs, only Lao PDR has a life expectancy as low as Cambodia’s 53.4 years. Inadequate health care and limited nutrition is debilitating the population. Stunting is common among children. Adults frequently lose days of work because of illnesses that are expensive to treat. Leading causes of death include malaria, acute respiratory infections, tuberculosis, road accidents, and land mines. An impending crisis is the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the worst in Asia and the worst outside Africa. Furthermore, in 1998, only an estimated 37.0 percent of the urban population and 5.0 percent of the rural population had access to clean water.

30. Because of inadequate fiscal revenues and large security expenditures, public social service expenditures in Cambodia are very low, resulting in the widespread practice of informal user fees in actual social service delivery. Public expenditures on education in 1999 (of which about 4.0 percent was for domestically financed capital expenditure) were about 8.4 percent of total expenditure or 1.4 percent of GDP. Public expenditures on health in 1999 (of which 40.0 percent was for domestically financed capital expenditure) were 6.8 percent of total expenditures or about 1.1 percent of GDP. These low levels of public funding combine with inefficient public expenditure management to produce a very low quality of social services.

31. Recognizing that human development is both the ultimate goal of and a key factor in achieving sustained economic development, the Government is taking steps to improve social service provision, particularly to the poor. To achieve sustainable service delivery for the poor will mean increasing the percentage of villages with schools and clinics, improving the delivery of operating funds at the district level, and acquiring and retaining qualified staff in rural areas. With improved security, international aid agencies are increasing social infrastructure investments in rural areas. The Government, having committed to increasing social spending as a percentage of the budget, is also initiating several budget reforms to strengthen budget execution, including decentralization of budget operations. Qualified staff placement and retention in rural areas will require substantive civil service reform, including increased compensation. An alternative is private sector service provision such as is being tried in health care.

3. Environment

32. One legacy of the post-conflict period has been accelerated environmental degradation, particularly deforestation. Declining Khmer Rouge influence resulted in increased security in previously contested areas and illegal logging accelerated in 1994. About 70,000 hectares per year (ha/y) were deforested in 1973-1993, increasing to 180,000 ha/y in 1994-1997. As the area under concession expanded, government revenues from commercial forestry declined, triggering an intense international review of forestry concession management that revealed massive corruption and the involvement of the military. The Government began to take action in early 1999 to address abuses associated with commercial forestry. It has since cancelled 15 concessions, curbed illegal logging, seized equipment and illegally harvested logs, and closed illegal sawmills.

33. However, much remains to be done. A review of commercial forest concession management, conducted with ADB technical assistance (TA) and completed in August 2000, concluded that all concessions were violating their contracts with the Government.⁷ The 31 March 2000 draft TA report, Cambodian Forest Concession Review Report, recommended a series of actions to improve commercial forestry concession management. Community pressures on forests, in the form of fuelwood collection, shifting agriculture, and permanent land conversion, are also an important cause of deforestation and forest degradation. Thus, the report also recommends a series of actions to protect the rights of forest dependent communities and to help them develop plans for sustainable management of community forest resources. There is substantial international attention focused on the Cambodian forestry sector. The concession review was preceded by a series of World Bank-sponsored studies and is being followed by a World Bank project to improve forest management planning.

34. If deforestation is not slowed, the resulting reduction in crop yields because of soil erosion and increased flooding may contribute to poverty in a rural population that is heavily dependent on agriculture. A related problem is that fisheries, a vital source of protein in the diet, are threatened by the combined effects of habitat loss in the inundation zone of the Tonle Sap, overexploitation, destructive fishing practices, inadequate sanitation, and agrochemical pollution. Improved natural resource management is a critical litmus test of the Government’s resolve to reform and improve the lives of average citizens.

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