NGOs across sectors cooperate to influence donor and government policies and practices so that foreign aid benefits poor and vulnerable groups.

In 2007, the Development Issues Program in close cooperation with members of the Trade and Economic Development Network started work on aid effectiveness in Cambodia with the first Aid Effectiveness Forum held in Phnom Penh on 13 March 2007 where DFID, World Bank, JICA, USAID, and ADB presented their work to civil society organisations followed by discussions. The organizing NGOs (Womyn's Agenda for Change, Action Aid, Samakum Teang Tnaut, NGOF, NPA, World Vision, NGO Education Partnership) concluded that this work needs to be continued and that it deserves the attention of full-time staff member who started work early 2008 which also was the official start of the Aid Effectiveness Project.

Historically the behaviour of official donors (such as IMF, WB, ADB, and bilateral donors such as Japan) in Cambodia has been poor, with low levels of co-ordination, failure to respect country ownership, and high levels of expensive and often ineffective Technical Assistance. This has soured relations between donors and government, with the donors accusing the government of corruption and bad governance and the government accusing the donors of poor co-ordination and using aid to serve their own interests. As a result, aid money has been much less effective than it could have been in the fight against poverty. With the onset of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, donors are starting to work together more closely and to better align their programmes and policies to Cambodia’s own priorities. Progress is starting to be made, but much still remains to be done.

Scrutiny over government-donor relations by Cambodian citizens remains weak. While there is some NGO engagement in the Technical Working Groups (TWGs), NGO influence is still small, and most donor-government processes are heavily geared towards meeting donor requirements for accountability to their own taxpayers. There are no significant opportunities for Cambodian citizens, CSOs, the National Assembly, media and other stakeholders to hold donors and government to account for ensuring that aid money is used to benefit the Cambodian poor.