Cambodia’s education system is structured into a 6+3+3 formula -students spend their first 6 years in primary school (grades 1–6), followed by 3 years in secondary school (grades 7–9)  and 3 years in high school (grades 10–12) before sitting the diploma examination.1 Cambodian students are ...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at a bilateral meeting. Photo by U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh, taken on 06 January 2016. Licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.Cambodia is a lower middle-income country with a fast-growing economy that has sustained a ...

Goal 16’s full title is “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” It has a monitoring framework of 12 targets (2 around means of implementation) and 23 indicators.  Transition ...

A trained medical staff listens to the heartbeat of an infant at 16 Makara hospital in Preah Vihear, Cambodia. Photo by The World Bank, taken on 30 January 2013. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Social development addresses profound social problems,124 especially poverty, unemployment and social exclusion, ...

Under Cambodia’s Constitution, all Khmer citizens have equal status before the law, regardless of wealth or station.191 This promotes a political principle called the rule of law,192 an ideal that all members of a society, both the people and the State, are held equally accountable ...

Cambodia is struggling to safeguard its forests while preserving economic growth since many people make a living via farming, logging, and other activities that might lead to deforestation. Almost 80% of Cambodians living in rural regions rely on forests for survival. On the other hand, ...

Phy Linna, Royal University of Phnom PenhEditor-Research Intern, July-September 2024Linna is a third-year student majoring in Environmental Sciences at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Linna joined Open Development Cambodia Organization (ODC) in July as Editor-Researcher intern. Linna is very interested in studying climate change and ...

The first outbreak of COVID-19 was reported in China in late 2019 and on 30 January 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).297 The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global economy and the growing crisis ...

Forest view. Photo by Open Development Cambodia, taken on 05 December 2021. Under license CC BY-SA 4.0.Cambodia is covered with forest, accounting for around 13.1 million hectares in 1973, and it is had fallen to 8.7 million hectares in 2014.396 However, based on the Ministry ...

After the first general election in 1993, the government prepared and implemented a comprehensive micro- and macroeconomic policy and structural reform program to integrate Cambodia’s economy into the region and the world as well as stimulate its economic growth.438 In the two decades following that ...

Cambodia has the ambition to transform and digitalize the government system and its economy. The overarching determination comes after the country’s ambitious economic goal of 2050, the readiness to keep up with the region’s science and technology development, and the global megatrend, the fourth industrial ...

The Cambodia Red Cross (CRC) is the principal humanitarian society in Cambodia. The government has designated it as an auxiliary to public bodies offering humanitarian assistance. In addition to the national headquarters, the CRC has 25 branches.602 CRC was founded in 1955 and has worked ...

The Royal Government of Cambodia has acknowledged the potential of the tourism industry as a source of Cambodia’s socio-economy growth, including job creation and poverty reduction. Tourism has been considered one of Cambodia’s key economic pillars, both international and domestic. In the early 2000s, the ...

Extractive industries include mining and mineral sectors, natural gas and oil exploration, petroleum refineries, and quarrying for construction resources such as sand, stone, and gravel. Cambodia’s extractive resources have gone largely untapped, while these resources are geographically identifiable. French and Chinese geologists have been indicated ...

Children in Moung district, Battambang province, wash their hands with soap and water. Photo by WorldFish Cambodia, taken on 08 November 2018. Licensed under (CC BY-ND 2.0).Recognized as a global crisis, the United Nations has included water and sanitation in Sustainable Development Goal 6, ensuring ...

The Royal Government of Cambodia has continued its effort to reform the education sector at all levels. Over the years, policies and regulations have been enforced to improve education quality, accessibility, efficiency, effectiveness, inclusiveness, and transparency. Those policies and regulations include Education Strategic Plan 2019-2023, ...

Sustainable Development Goal 14 is primarily about the interactions of humans with the oceans. Specifically, it aims to conserve and manage the use of oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.954 A UN General Assembly call for action has been used to clearly articulate ...

Small and medium enterprises (SME) have long been considered a vital driver to economic growth for developing economies. SMEs stimulate job creation throughout the country. Migration of employment to neighboring countries and the unemployment rate has significantly decreased due to a rising number of SMEs, ...

RationalIn 2018, the total number of registered Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) was 155,745. More than 90 percent of registered firms in Cambodia are SMEs. However, despite being vital to the socio-economy, 95 percent are not registered yet. By 2025, 80% and 95% of small and ...

N.B. After receiving feedback from Forestry Administration and other organizations, ODC has updated the data on this page and included forest cover 2014, adopting the methodology outlined in the notes that you can read here. Please contact us if you have any questions about these ...