The Royal Government of Cambodia, under the leadership of the Council for Agriculture and Rural development (CARD), has developed a National Social Protection Strategy for the poor and the vulnerable (NSPS-PV), which was adopted by the Council of Ministers’ office on 18 March 2011 and launched on 5 December 2011 by the Prime Minister. The implementation of the national social protection strategy which has just started faces the following challenges:

• lack of coordination among stakeholders at the national level and between national and subnational levels;
• lack of resources to expand coverage and provide adequate levels of benefits;
• absence of national registry databases and management and monitoring systems;
• lack of empowerment of local administrative units in charge of delivering the services, lack of voice and representation of final beneficiaries.

Lack of coordination leads to inefficiencies in the delivery of services and creates barriers to access. Final beneficiaries may have to register under multiple agencies and surmount a range of administrative hurdles before they can access the benefits to which they are entitled.

Lack of resources results in poor availability and quality of public social services and low levels of social protection benefits. In addition, the principles of transparency, accountability and sound financial management are not always instilled within governmental processes.

If the universality of the SPF is given as a core principle, the accurate identification of the beneficiaries among the population remains a significant challenge due to the absence of national registration databases in many countries. The difficulty of identifying potential beneficiaries often leads to coverage gaps. The absence of national database makes it impossible to properly monitor the extension of coverage.

SPFs are designed to reach the whole population (including in rural areas). Sub-national administrative bodies are thus appropriate channels for implementation of the SPF. In many developing countries, however, the decentralization process is still in its early stages and sub-national levels of administration suffer from lack of resources and capacities.

Poor and vulnerable groups, who are the primary targets of SPFs, may lack voice and representation. The involvement of community leaders, trade unions, the dissemination of information, education campaigns and independent and transparent complaints and appeals mechanism are important means to ensure proper representation of the persons of concern.

The Single Window Service provides practical solutions to overcoming the challenges of the implementation of the NSPS.

For more information on the NSPS, click here

Decentralization has been a key feature of Cambodia’s transitions to democracy, shifting the responsibility of providing services from national to local government. Decentralization is associated with objectives of democratic decision-making, popular participation in government, and accountability of public institutions to citizens. Decentralization is also motivated by the need to improve service delivery to the population.

However, decentralization takes time to establish and its design must be in line with the capacity of subnational administration. Despite ongoing reforms, the roles and responsibilities of local administration remain rather imprecise in Cambodia. The SWS has the potential to give concrete functions to the sub-national administration in the delivery of social services. Implementing the SWS in Cambodia offers a significant opportunity to support these countries in their respective decentralization and democratization efforts.

To ensure optimal proximity to final beneficiaries and to facilitate integration of the existing institutions, each level of the sub-national administration will have a role to play in SWS functions (application of the subsidiarity principle).

For more information on the D&D reform, click here