The
NGO community appreciates the work undertaken by the RGC in developing the NPRS,
and welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the first annual review of
implementation.
The NGO community wishes to reiterate its support for the government’s
implementation of the NPRS.
NGOs also wish to continue to work with the RGC and donors to further
develop, implement and monitor the outcomes of the NPRS in achieving a real
impact in poverty alleviation.
NGOs
have been pleased to see dedicated people in government willing to put
considerable effort into the NPRS document and the subsequent Progress Report,
as well as willing to accept input from NGOs.
The NPRS has led to more sharing of plans between government ministries
and with NGOs and, as such, is seen as a positive step forward.
At
the same time, the NPRS process has placed strains on limited capacity and led
to some duplication of existing reporting and planning processes.
Ownership of the NPRS, both the document and the process, appears to
reside in a small group of government officials.
As an externally imposed system of planning and reporting, the NPRS
process appears more as a process of reporting to donors than a system of
national planning.
NGOs call on government to define the planning process that best suits
the Cambodian institutional and cultural context.
Existing planning processes need to be analysed to identify constraints
and solutions.
Donors need to adjust their expectations to allow a Cambodian-led
evolution of the planning process.
The RGC needs to lead the process of prioritising the many projects
described in the NPRS, in discussion with civil society and with donor technical
support.
While
encouraging the government to be in the “drivers seat”, donors have an
important role in contributing to a long-term vision for Cambodia’s
development. Central
to this vision must be the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
by 2015. Donors
need to consider the level of external resources that will be needed to achieve
this vision, and make a ten-year commitment to providing the level of assistance
required. This
long-term commitment needs to be conditional on the RGC taking the necessary
steps to efficiently utilise both external funding and its own resources.
Aid needs to be properly sequenced to respond realistically to capacity
constraints. Effective
reforms in governance, administrative reform, judicial reform and strong
anti-corruption measures are necessary prerequisites for effective aid delivery
in many sectors.
Realistic benchmarks need to be set and agreed among all donors, the
benchmarks need to be effectively monitored, and the implications of not
reaching the benchmarks should be made clear.
The
NGO community welcomes its inclusion in the process of contributing to the NPRS
and assessment of its progress. It strives to engage in this process in a
positive manner offering a pro-poor, experience-led contribution both to debates
surrounding poverty reduction and through its own poverty reduction activities.
The question of wider civil society involvement in the NPRS process is
difficult, since there has been less progress in this area.
More connections could be made between national planning processes and
the decentralized local decision-making process to ensure bottom-up flow of
information.
The
NGO community once again calls for a comprehensive poverty and social impact
analysis of fiscal, monetary and trade policies in order that the policy
instruments that will most effectively target the poor are embraced.
The NGO community encourages the RGC to continue to reform the budget
disbursal system and strengthen internal and external systems of control over
budgets, for example through an effective audit system, increased transparency,
and strengthened institutional capacity.
Financial resources need to be provided to the ministries without
political bias.
Every
effort must be made to reschedule the debts owed to the United States and
Russia. The
United States could consider some level of debt forgiveness as part of their aid
to Cambodia. The
National Assembly should debate the level of loans to be accepted from
international financial institutions, taking into consideration both the
country’s needs and its capacity to effectively absorb aid, in order to limit
the level of debt repayments in future budgets.
Whilst
NGOs agree with many aspects of government strategy, there are a few areas where
NGOs believe re-thinking of strategy may be beneficial.
This stems from the fact that various vulnerable groups within Cambodian
society may become worse off as a result of rapid economic development unless
their needs are sufficiently accounted for:
Although
appreciating the opportunities inherent in free trade, the NGO community is
concerned that small-to-medium size enterprises, especially small farmers,
in Cambodia do not yet have the ability to compete in the international
market. Loss
of domestic markets due to increased international competition may increase
poverty for large sections of the Cambodian population unless trade liberalization
is properly sequenced and capacity is rapidly increased.
The
adverse impacts of export processing zones have been raised by a number of
stakeholders.
Internationally, EPZs have demonstrated the trend towards creating
investment, production and profit extracting enclaves with minimal backward
linkages or re-investment into the local host economy. NGOs are concerned
about a possible lowering of labour and environmental standards in these
zones, a loss of fiscal revenue opportunities, and an intensification of
existing economic inequalities.
The
imposition of large agricultural plantations and concessions is unlikely to
assist the average small farmer and may reduce the access of rural
communities to land and natural resources.
The NGO community would like instead to recommend an emphasis on
expanding extension services to small farmers, support for small-scale
user-maintained irrigation facilities, and the adoption of low-input methods
of increasing crop production.
Cambodia’s
rich biodiversity, and the livelihoods of many rural communities, would be
better supported through stepping up support to community forestry,
especially resin tapping in primary forests, than by clearing Cambodia’s
forests to make way for cash crops and rubber plantations.
The economics of rubber production should also be strongly
questioned.
The
interests of the disabled need to be better included in the NPRS. A
long-term plan for the disability sector, ensuring a commitment to adequate
funding for rehabilitation services, and addressing both physical and mental
disabilities, is needed.
The
situation of ethnic minorities needs to be more fully considered in the NPRS.
The limited references to upland communities need to be developed, and the
RGC should consider the needs of the Vietnamese and Cham ethnic minorities
in relation to poverty reduction.
Finally,
the significance of a stable political situation cannot be underestimated in
ensuring economic stability, progress in reforms, and a reduction in poverty.
The Cambodian people carried out their civic responsibilities in casting their
votes in large numbers at the general election on 27th July 2003. It is now up
to politicians to act responsibly in forming a new government and National
Assembly under the Constitution and in developing a political agenda which will
benefit all Cambodians.
Ultimately,
the value of the NPRS lies in its implementation rather than in the document
itself. The poor in Cambodia need to see real improvements in their lives as a
result of development projects. All
stakeholders have a clear responsibility to work together to ensure that
pro-poor sustainable development can be achieved.