Welcome to Poverty, Agriculture and Rural Development Programme (PARD) website of CDRI – Cambodia’s leading independent development policy research institute. PARD has conducted research on various aspects of development including rural livelihood, land issues, social issues in rural and urban areas, agricultural trade and tourism.
In order to provide information about our research projects and programmes to local and international audiences including policy makers, civil servants, researchers, consultants and students, we have designed this site to serve as a portal for access to key research findings and policy relevant documents produced by the PARD research team.
1. Programme Background
PARD was originally established to carry out research related to agriculture, rural development and poverty with a focus on sustainable development. Although poverty has become the main focus of the programme, PARD has broadened its research activities to cover related aspects such as agricultural trade and tourism.
PARD, in collaboration with other programmes within CDRI and other research institutes, works to ensure high quality research outputs. PARD aims to provide policy makers, researchers and development workers with key development issues. The objectives of the programme are:
- Improve rural livelihood and reduce poverty through a quality research programme that supports national sustainable development objectives;
- Deepen and broaden collaboration with relevant national and international institutions including civil society organisations in order to improve research impacts;
- Build development knowledge on agriculture, rural development and poverty; and
- Serve as an independent and reliable source of information for policy formulation.
2. Research Team
Dr THENG Vuthy - Programme coordinator
Mr SO Sovannarith - Research fellow
Mr CHHAIR Sokty - Research associate (PhD candidate)
Mr NOU Keosothea - Research associate (PhD candidate, study leave)
Mr KIM Sothorn - Research associate
Mr CHHIM Chhun - Research assistant
Ms KHIEV Pirom - Research assistant
3. Ongoing Research Projects
Poverty Dynamics Study, Apr 2008 to June 2010, funded by DFID / WB
Rapid Assessment of Economic Impact on Cambodian Households , May 2009 to April 2010, funded by WB
Building Resilience of Community Fisheries in the Tonle Sap Lake: Collective Action and the Capacity to Manage Resource Competition, Sept 2009 to Nov 2010, funded by CGIAR / WorldFish
Assessing the Socioeconomic Effects of the Greater Mekong Sub-region – Southern Coastal Corridor (GMS-SCC) and Communicable Disease Control (GMS-CDC), Jul 2009 to Jun 2010, funded by ADB
Developmental State Analysis, June 2009 to Dec 2010, funded by CDRI
4. Recent Research Publications
Cambodia Land Titling Rural Baseline Survey Report, Dec 2007
Cambodia Land Titling Urban Baseline Survey Report, Dec 2007
Irrigation Water Use in Takeo Province: Problems, Conflicts and Solutions, Oct 2007
Moving Out of Poverty Study (MOPS), Sept 2007
Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA), Apr 2007
Youth Situation Analysis in Cambodia, May 2009
Cambodia Land Titling Rural Baseline Survey Report
The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC), with support from international donors, is implementing a Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) to improve land tenure security and strengthen land administration systems. Among other activities, the project has established a systematic land-titling programme that will issue one million titles over a five-year period. The project expects that land titles will help: (a) increase farmer access to formal credit; (b) stimulate agricultural and commercial investments in rural and urban areas that will increase productivity and employment; (c) promote more efficient land markets; and (d) promote the use of the official registry to facilitate land transactions and transfers. The LMAP land-titling programme is also expected to help achieve the Royal Government of Cambodia’s poverty reduction objectives as outlined in the National Poverty Reduction Strategy 2006 – 2010 (NPRS).
Cambodia Land Titling Urban Baseline Survey Report
CDRI in collaboration with the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Construction and Planning, collected baseline survey data in and around Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Serei Saophoan (i.e. Banteay Meanchey) from October to December 2005. CDRI conducted 2706 household interviews in areas representing a mix of property characteristics and land use patterns, as well as dynamics (e.g. transactions, documentation and conflicts). The primary objective of the urban baseline survey, as with an earlier rural survey (CDRI 2004), is to generate data that will provide a basis for a systematic comparative evaluation of the economic and social impact of the land-titling programme after three years.
The expected benefits of land titles in urban areas include increased investment in residential and commercial property, improved access to formal credit, more efficient markets that allocate land to more economically productive uses, fewer conflicts and better land administration services including the use of the official registry to facilitate land transactions. Other expected benefits include increased government revenue from taxes on land transactions. Government planners and others also expect more secure land tenure through land titles to play an important role in reducing poverty in both rural and urban areas. Land titles are therefore expected to strengthen the institutional framework of urban development and thus contribute to sustainable macro-economic growth.
Irrigation Water Use in Takeo Province: Problems, Conflicts and Solutions
In Cambodia, irrigation is mainly used for dry season rice farming. Wet season farming, which produces approximately 80 percent of the total crop, relies on rainwater. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), in 2006 total rice yield was estimated at 6.3 million tonnes, an increase of five percent from the previous year. The reason for this increase was partly the expansion of irrigation, according to MAFF. Despite its potentially important role, however, irrigation still receives little investment from either the state or the private sector. The World Bank’s 2006 Cambodia Poverty Assessment emphasises improved irrigation infrastructure in increasing paddy yield and argues that more public investment is needed to strengthen irrigation management.
Cambodian irrigation schemes, to date, have been unable to hold their full storage capacity because reservoirs have been allowed to deteriorate and are leaking, limiting water for farming. Irrigation issues often go beyond limited water to water governance and conflicts. Thun and Chem (2007) argue that answers to the existing problems generally depend on a package of governance, technical design and popular participation.
Recognising the importance of irrigation, CDRI, with support from the Economy and Environment Programme for South-East Asia (EEPSEA), conducted research on irrigation water use and related issues. This paper aims to present practical options that may be useful to a wide spectrum of readers, from policy makers to extension workers.
The study’s main objectives were to understand the water use problems confronting irrigation projects. The specific objectives are 1) to provide an overview of irrigation systems with a focus on Takeo, 2) to study irrigation water use and conflicts, and 3) to find possible solutions to irrigation constraints.
Moving out of Poverty Study (MOPS)
The Moving out of Poverty Study (MOPS) is a first of its kind in Cambodia, one of 18 studies commissioned by the World Bank to examine poverty dynamics and trends. Conducted in 2004/05, the study revisited nine rural villages in which CDRI had conducted research in 2001, using quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the extent to which these villages and individual households had been able to move out of poverty and improve prosperity, or had experienced downward mobility and decline.
The study set out to examine: which communities or groups move out of poverty and which remain trapped and why; whether people experience mobility differently in different economic conditions; how and why governance and social networks matter in mobility; what factors explain household and community progress and mobility or decline and stagnation; and the interaction between household and community factors, as well as any variations between villages and types of households.
Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA)
The Participatory Poverty Assessment of the Tonle Sap (PPA) has been undertaken by CDRI in collaboration with the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The study employed qualitative research methods covering 24 villages in the six provinces around the Tonle Sap Lake. The main objective of the study has been to provide policy makers, donors, and civil society with a deeper understanding of (1) the relationship between poor people’s livelihood strategies and their use and the management of natural resources, (2) the gender dimensions of poverty, and (3) the role of local governance in poverty reduction.
The PPA study shows that many of the poor and the destitute in the Tonle Sap region are not benefiting from Cambodia’s rapid economic growth, and often appear to be beyond the reach of public policy. This observation poses serious challenges for the government and its development partners in delivering effective poverty reduction outcomes in line with the objectives set out in the National Strategic Development Plan aimed at meeting Cambodia’s Millennium Development Goals.
Youth Situation Analysis in Cambodia
Cambodia has the youngest population in Southeast Asia, with young people in the 10-24 year old age group making up 36 percent of the population. Despite economic growth, young people will face increasing competition for employment and other economic opportunities, resulting in continued pressure on public services and resources in areas of education and health. An estimated 300,000 young people leave school every year to search for livelihood opportunities, and this figure is expected to increase to 400,000 over the coming thirty years before declining.
The issues confronting Cambodian youth today are therefore deeply inter-related. For example, issues pertaining to youth employment are inextricably linked to access to education and skill training. Moreover, access to healthcare and knowledge is similarly structured to access to education, as youth from better off households tend to have access to better quality schooling and healthcare than do children of poor and very poor households. This suggests that the distribution of decent employment opportunities, schooling, and health care reflects the distribution of well-being and equality in society. The children of poor and very poor households are more vulnerable to problems associated with poverty and exclusion.
The Youth Situation Analysis aims to inform policy makers and development partners in the development of a national youth policy as well as specific sectoral policies and programmes that serve young Cambodians. The analysis focuses on the human resources, financial, and organisational barriers to the fulfilment of young people’s rights, with special focus on those most vulnerable and excluded from society. The Analysis also defines and distinguishes between different groups and the different challenges they face according to a combination of factors such as socio-economic status, risk, and vulnerability.