ENG Netra

Executive Director

Eng Netra has a long and distinguished career in development policy research specialising in governance and inclusive society, along with research management and policy influencing. Her appointment as Executive Director of CDRI caps a history of managerial and leadership positions over a 15-year research career at CDRI. She began her committed journey with the Institute in 2003 as a research associate in the Policy Oriented Decentralisation Research Program. From 2006-2010 and from 2015-18, Netra was research fellow and the head of the governance unit (now the Center for Governance and Inclusive Society). She oversaw many research studies that have produced original, high quality and locally owned research on Cambodia’s political and institutional transformation over the past twenty years, particularly on the critical sub-national governance reforms. She is also active in a range of international and regional networks of governance and development scholars and has published in international peer-reviewed journals and books. Prior to her appointment as the Executive Director, she served as Director of Research. Eng has a PhD in political science from Monash University.  

Email : netra@cdri.org.kh


ENG Netra


International Publications

This article analyses how and to what extent state regulation of civil society organisations (CSOs) have resulted in elitisation, i.e., the process of obtaining elite status within and beyond civil society. This is studied in the context of emerging democracy in Indonesia and shrinking civic space in Cambodia. Combining Bourdieu’s concepts of field...

Working Papers 116

Youth make up one-third of the Cambodian population. This generation was born after the Khmer Rouge years and has grown up with the idea of regular competitive elections in a multi-party system. The youth cohort forms an increasingly significant proportion of the national electorate. This report analyses the results from a nationally representa...

International Publications

Rural internet use, although still limited, is growing, raising the question of how rural people are using social media politically. As a vehicle of communication that permits the rapid transmission of information, images and text across space and connections between dispersed networks of individuals, does technological advance in rural areas presa...

Cambodia Development Review 22 - 2
ENG Netra   (2018)

International Publications

Cambodia’s youthful population is significantly responsible for a recent unexpected decline in the popularity of the Cambodian People’s Party, which has governed since the end of the Khmer Rouge regime. This increasingly young electorate has lived through an era of peace and openness with regular multi-party elections and impressive economic growth...

International Publications
ENG Netra   (2016)

The usual arguments for decentralization by its advocates are that it can achieve accountability, transparency, participation and democracy. In reaching these goals, however, proponents of decentralization reform have articulated concerns about whether government officials have sufficient capacity to implement decentralization policies, particularl...

Working Papers 102

Social accountability is becoming integral to the government of Cambodia’s reform agenda as a new approach to promote and empower citizens’ collective voice to demand accountability from state officials for improved public services. International donors and non-government organisations have initiated and implemented various tools of social accounta...


CDRI research on decentralization and local governance reform showed that over the last 20 years, elected commune/sangkat councils have become among the most trusted and respected government institutions across Cambodia. Charged with both representing the government to the people, and representing the needs and desires of their constituents to high...


Inspired by the high and sustained economic growth of the past decades that lifted disposable income and pulled millions of people out of poverty, the Cambodian government has set its ambitious target of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2030 and further a high-income country by 2050. This aspiration terms as ‘Cambodia’s Vision 2030’...


Since the end of the war, Cambodia has undergone significant social, economic and demographic change as well as governance reform. In 2002, the first local elections of the post-war era elected local government councils. This study repeats an ethnographic study previously conducted by CDRI in some Cambodian communes in 2007, to establish how leader...


COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe disruption of the global garment industry such as manufacturing shutdowns, consumer lockdowns, order cancellation of suppliers, and lack of raw materials. However, social protection in Cambodia remains limited coverage to address livelihoods as a result of factory suspension and layoffs.This study focuses on unde...


In close coordination with local governments and organizations, the project will identify gender-sensitive policies and good practices from the macro to micro level that will support the recovery process and improve resilience among vulnerable women workers and micro, small, and medium enterprises. It will facilitate policy dialogue and coordin...


In this context of promoting Cambodia’s Sustainable Development Goals and aid effectiveness, and with the aim to inform the preparation of the next Joint European Strategy 2020-2024, European partners in Cambodia agreed to conduct an analysis on European and Chinese development cooperation portfolio in Cambodia. The study is to give an overview of...


This project is cutting-edge research with innovative that addresses cross-cut topics and disciplines in developing holistic interventions and solutions to developing countries in Cambodia and India. This is collaborative research with a team of researchers from Cambodia, UK, and India. The research topics focus on i) credit as a form of climate r...