ADB to Help Prepare Livelihoods Project in Cambodia's Tonle Sap Basin

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (2 February 2004) - ADB has approved US$1.26 million in technical assistance to Cambodia to help prepare a sustainable livelihoods project in the five provinces adjoining the Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.

The TA will carry out a feasibility study to define effective means of enhancing livelihoods in the provinces of Battambang, Kompong Chhnang, Kompong Thom, Pursat, and Siem Reap, which are home to some of Cambodia's poorest people.

The assistance is cofinanced by the Government of Finland, which will provide US$560,000 of the grant, with ADB funding the balance. The Government of Cambodia will contribute an estimated $225,000 toward the total cost of $1.485 million.

The integrity of the Tonle Sap ecosystem depends on continued annual flooding. The "Great Lake" can increase in size from 2,500-3,000 square kilometers in the dry season to 10,000-16,000 square kilometers in the rainy season. Most of the population relies on its rich land, water, and biotic resources for a living.

The lake supports one of the most productive capture fisheries in the world. Yet, despite the vast natural wealth of the Tonle Sap, poverty is widespread, with up to 60% of households living below the poverty line in about half of the villages in the five provinces.

Moreover, there is increasing concern over development and unsustainable exploitation of the Tonle Sap's natural richness and King Norodom Sihanouk has warned that Cambodia faces environmental disaster if the lake's fragile ecosystem is further degraded.

Using the livelihoods approach, the TA will examine the opportunities, constraints, and interactions that characterize people's lives in the flooded areas of the five provinces that adjoin the Tonle Sap. It will then design appropriate interventions to tackle the issues that emerge, such as better management of natural resources, improved access to education and health services, a more supportive and cohesive social environment, and the policy and institutional setting.

"The livelihoods approach is a way of thinking about the objectives, scope, and priorities for development," says Olivier Serrat, ADB Senior Project Economist. "It is a way of putting people at the center of development, thereby increasing the effectiveness of development assistance."

The TA will focus on the different aspects of livelihoods assets, including human capital and social capital, which have been severely diminished by war, and natural capital, straining under increasing exploitation. Physical capital, particularly rural roads and water supply and sanitation, is inadequate and there is poor coverage of schools and health posts. Access to financial capital is restricted as most loans are obtained from informal networks of relatives or neighbors, and moneylenders charge high rates of interest.

Ability to tackle all these problems has been diminished at all levels of Cambodian society by 25 years of strife and conflict. Moreover, many internally displaced persons, repatriated refugees, internal migrants, and demobilized soldiers are reestablishing their livelihoods in what remains a fractured society.

"Tackling poverty in Cambodia means working with the rural poor, initially where livelihood assets are being fundamentally affected by such problems as overfishing, drought, pests, floods, or deteriorating infrastructure," Mr. Serrat adds.

"Through the livelihoods approach, we can build a picture of rural livelihoods in the flooded areas of the Tonle Sap and formulate options for enhancing and developing the asset base of the rural poor."

The Ministry of Rural Development is the executing agency of the TA, which is due to be completed in December 2004.

Read the full TA report.