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IN THE vast rural areas of Cambodia, thousands of poor farmers toil each day under the punishing Mekong sun, working to harvest enough rice to sell for a few riels and put food on the table.

In a sense, these farmers are just like any other businessman trying to make a profit to make life a little bit better for them and their families. Yet, unlike coated executives in plush offices, they make little profit, if any at all, from their laborious work. At the end of the day, these farmers, who make up almost 90% of Cambodia’s poor, are simply getting by, still unsure of tomorrow’s harvest, and still poor.

“The problem is that, in many cases, these poor farmers, like most of Cambodia’s rural poor, do not have adequate business skills,” says Sophea Mar, an ADB Social Sector/Poverty Officer. “They want to grow food and vegetables, yet they don’t have enough information and resources needed to make their farming profitable and sustainable.”

This situation is not unique to Cambodia; in neighboring Thailand, the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), one of the largest nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in the country, found that the poor often remain poor because they lack business skills and access to credit. This realization led to the creation in 1986 of the highly successful Thailand Business Initiative in Rural Development (TBIRD), which connects Thai rural villages or communities with companies that help them develop business skills to improve their income and living standards.

Given Cambodia’s young and vibrant business sector, the Thailand project lent itself as a replicable solution. “The private sector generally has an entrepreneurial way of operating and taking approaches that are based on vision, innovation and planning – a business know-how often lacking in rural societies,” says Mr. Mar. “With the business sector’s expertise, farmers can learn the skills needed to create more profitable and sustainable enterprises and activities and generate income.”

Thus, in July of 2005, ADB and Cambodia’s Ministry of Rural Development, backed by a $150,000 technical assistance (TA) grant from the United Kingdom Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund, began studying the possibility of adapting the TBIRD model in Cambodia.

Findings, however, showed that partnerships between the government, business, and civil society, like the ones being set up by TBIRD, are rare and few in Cambodia. Most businesses are concentrated in Cambodia’s urban centers, and appear to take little interest in rural development issues, especially when more pressing concerns like governance and corruption command their attention. Rural people were also often viewed as aid recipients, and not as potential resources for business.

Armed with this information, the Cambodia Business Initiative in Rural Development (C-BIRD) Public-Private Partnership Task Force – itself a concrete evidence of the TA’s success in promoting development cooperation being a diverse group composed of representatives from Cambodia’s major business associations, various ministries, the NGO sector, and interested donor agencies – developed four C-BIRD project concept papers.

One project will help provide funds from the banking sector to cotton growing farmers, while another will find ways to use remnant garments from factories to create income generating opportunities. A third project will establish a micro-credit fund for people living with HIV/AIDS, and last, a business guidebook for rural communities, spearheaded by the Association of Bankers in Cambodia, will be developed.

Realizing that C-BIRD’s success and sustainability depend on forging strong and fruitful partnerships among its stakeholders, each of these four projects represent a multisectoral cooperation, with each one having private sector partners committed to taking the lead in carrying them out. The partners behind the HIV/AIDS project, for instance, are people living with HIV/AIDS, the Phnom Penh Chamber of Commerce, selected companies with interest in corporate social responsibility, NGOs, and ADB.

Sustainability is also a critical factor, with firms more likely to be committed to a C-BIRD project that can develop a life of its own, and that relates to their core business as well. The garments project, for example, represents a partnership between villagers, selected garment factories, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, microfinance institutions, ADB, and other donor agencies.

“It’s a win-win activity,” says Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister Lu Lay Sreng of the C-BIRD partnerships, with companies benefiting as well from participating. Corporate social responsibility activities often result in higher levels of morale among employees, and, to the extent that the CBIRD activities relate to the core business of the company, either through deepening the supply chain or supplying some raw materials or products to the company, the profitability of the company may also increase.

Early in 2007, a C-BIRD Foundation, as recommended by the TA, is scheduled to be established as an NGO that would take on the critical role of facilitator and mobilizer between the two main C-BIRD partners - the rural communities and business associations - with support from government agencies, NGOs, and donors.

“Empowering the rural poor with the same skills and resources that make companies so successful could dramatically transform Cambodia’s rural poverty landscape,” says Mr. Mar. “It would revitalize rural productivity, increase incomes, increase purchasing power and increase demand for consumer goods, thus spurring economic activity beneficial to both the government and businesses themselves.”

Indeed, the business of business is more than just business; the TBIRD and CBIRD projects are showing that the private sector has a crucial role to play in poverty reduction.

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