Social development

The Ministry of Public Function has begun conducting a census of teachers in Cambodia ahead of a planned salary increase, officials said yesterday. ...

Despite recent announcements of large development projects throughout Cambodia focusing on so-called “affordable housing” for the emerging middle class, there remains a massive gap in the market for quality affordable housing for the poor; especially the urban poor as more rural Cambodians flock to cities ...

Fleeing strict new laws at home, surrogacy companies are moving their “wombs for rent” services from Thailand to Cambodia, causing some analysts to raise concerns that would-be parents could be swindled by the little-regulated industry. ...

At a small food shop in Phnom Penh recently, customers crowded in, eating hotdogs and meatballs. These kinds of processed meats are widely popular in Cambodia, and business was brisk. Few here seem to be concerned by new warnings from the World Health Organization that ...

The children rehearse twice a day, for about two hours each time – once at 4am, and again at 7pm – so they can perform for tourists on board cruise ships that dock at Phnom Penh year-round.But these children are not professional buskers nor part ...

A groundbreaking new study on human transmission of the dengue virus conducted in Kompong Cham province has shown that the virus can be spread back to mosquitoes by asymptomatic carriers, who are actually more infectious than those displaying symptoms. ...

International rights groups issued an “urgent appeal” this week for the release of three environmental activists in Koh Kong province imprisoned in August over their anti-sand dredging activities. ...

Representatives of a large group of secondary school teachers in Kandal province who complained about the allegedly corrupt behaviour of their boss spoke out about the failure of authorities to act on their concerns yesterday. ...

A teacher accused six months ago of punishing an 11-year-old female student by making her strip at the Hun Sen Wat Thmey Primary School in Svay Rieng province was finally detained and is awaiting trial, authorities said yesterday. ...

The international market for surrogacy is proving to be very resilient in the face of legal and social disruption. Now that India, Nepal and Thailand have banned international clients from using local surrogates, clinics and brokers are shifting their business to Cambodia. ...

The health minister on Friday defended the government’s failure to fine or shut down any of the private clinics that are currently illegally promoting baby formula to new mothers, saying that more time was needed for committees to “investigate” the breaches. ...

After years of research and testing, a nutritional snack meant to halt rampant malnourishment and stunting among Cambodian children has been developed in the form of a fish paste-filled wafer, which will be released on the market by 2017. ...

The Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday announced that it would form a committee to address the lack of services available to the homeless and mentally ill. Yesterday’s meeting was precipitated by the revelation this week by rights organization Licadho that two more residents at Prey ...

The United Nations has expressed admiration to Cambodia for having responded successfully to the spread of HIV/AIDS, reported the state news agency-AKP. According to an official report, Cambodia has currently over 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and some 500,000 of them are receiving antiretroviral treatment. ...

Legal restrictions on funding for civil-society – like Cambodia’s much-maligned NGO Law – are on the rise globally, a report by the Carnegie International Endowment for Peace has warned, putting international donors in the position of having to adapt to a backlash against democracy promotion. ...

In the market for lower to middle income housing, the line between ‘public’ and ‘affordable’ has been blurred.Post Property AnalysisLocal property developer, WorldBridge Land, Co. Ltd., and Singapore-based construction company, Strait Construction Group Pte, Ltd, last week announced a $100 million Memorandum of Understanding on ...

Living in a compact space is just a part of university life, especially for students who come from the provinces to study in Phnom Penh. While the city keeps building an abundance of international-standard complexes, almost none of these are realistic choices for students, many ...

A global index on English language proficiency has cast Cambodia against the international trend of improving standards, with the Kingdom ranking 69th of 70 countries and territories surveyed and the lowest among 16 Asian participants.Released this week, the annual English Proficiency Index, the world’s largest ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for stronger enforcement of regulations on the promotion and sale of baby formula, linking a decrease in the number of women who breast-feed to an increase in un­lawful and misleading advertising that misrepresents milk substitutes and deceives new mothers. ...

Government ministries bound by sexist traditions and a lack of support are keeping women officials across Asia from implementing their ideas, female leaders gathered for a four-day seminar in Phnom Penh said yesterday. ...

Almost 75 percent of kids in the country’s orphanages are there because their families can’t afford to keep them at home. In 2011, UNICEF released a study saying that the number of orphanages in Cambodia had increased by 75 percent in the previous six years, ...

Two people detained at Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Speu social affairs centre died last month after being rounded up from the streets as part of the city’s preparations for the Pchum Ben festival, a local rights groups has said, prompting renewed calls for the facility’s ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday questioned 17 villagers locked in a land dispute with the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) over a pair of competing lawsuits filed in the wake of a clash between locals and company security guards in January. ...

Som Saron has not worked since testing positive for HIV late last year. Taking care of her young niece at her parents’ home in Roka commune last week, the 37-year-old said that a fear of being stigmatized kept her from walking the community’s gravel roads selling ...