External Assistance to Cambodia


ASSISTANCE PRIOR TO 1989

Following the collapse of the Pol Pot regime, the PRK signed working agrements with UNICEF, ICRC, O)dam, and other agencies for emergency programmes. At the same time a large-scale relief effort was set in motion to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of Cambodians who had fled into Thailand.

Faced with the extent of the destruction, donors however gave generously during this period to a broad range of emergency programmes which included essential rehabilitation components. The ICRC, UNICEF, WFP, FAO and the major NGO consortia provided a wide range of supplies from basic agricultural inputs to tractors, spare parts for industry to transport equipment, basic medical supplies to hospital equipment, pens and school notebooks to Khmer typewriters.

Rarely has the world community been called upon to support nationwide rehabilitation on this scale in the name of meeting 'emergency needs.' From 1979 to 1981 official bilateral and multilateral emergency programmes provided USD 370 million in assistance to Cambodia. The Soviet Union alone provided another USD 300 million. NGO programmes contributed more than USD 100 million. From 1981 on until 1989, aid policies reflected the prevailing political stalemate, with the Soviet bloc providing substantial reconstruction assistance, military aid, and concessional loans in budget support to the PRK. This assistance ranged from the equivalent of USD 85 million in 1983 to USD 120 million by the end of the decade. The assistance from UN agencies shrank dramatically, with programmes in the mid-1980's totalling about USD 7 million. NGO's were the principal vehicle for bilateral support from Western countries in the reconstruction phase that was commencing. A UN report estimates NGO expenditure by a dozen agencies at USD 2 million in 1984. By the end of the decade approximately 25 NGO's were programming about USD 15 million annually in Cambodia. Western donors, Japan, China, and the ASEAN countries complemented their policy of isolating Cambodia by offering to resettle Cambodian refugees in third countries and, once resettlement was closed as an option, by meeting the basic needs of 375,000 Cambodians in camps along the Thai- Cambodian border.


NEEDS ASSESSMENT WORK: 1989-1992

The prospect of the Cambodian factions reaching agreement to end their fighting and the military withdrawal of Vietnam cleared the way for several countries and international organizations to establish an official presence in Phnom Penh. Thus, for instance, UNDP opened a liaison office in 1989, and bilateral agencies progressively entered the scene with varying forms of representation falling short of diplomatic recognation. As little detailed knowledge of pre- vailing conditions in the country existed within most of the agencies concerned, there was an immediate need for undertaking a more systematic assessment of requirements. Over the next two years a plethora of techni-

Over the next two years a plethora of techni- cal and programming missions visited Cambodia. Bilateral missions were fielded by Australia, Japan, as well as by other countries. UNDP alone sent seven technical missions to Cambodia during this period, three of which were devoted to the country's failing infrastructure. The UN agencies that had been designated to play a role in implementing the future peace agreement, led by the Office of the Special Repre5entative of the Secretary-General for Cambodia, and other multilateral institutions wishing to get in on the act, moved in with deliberate speed. The number of NGO's seeking to establish them- selves kept swelling.

UNHCR focussed on preparations for receiving refugees from across the border, UNDP on the state of the infrastructure and on how refugee reintegration could be accelerated and linked to more lasting development concerns; WFP studied the predicament of the internally displaced; and the ADB came in to lay the groundwork for an emergency rehabilitation loan. The list of missions fielded by various bodies reviewing Cambodia's needs from their own particular vantage points is indeed extensive: about 50 programming missions, if individual consultant visits are included, flew in and out of Phnom Penh in the space of two years. It was an influx with which the de facto State of Cambodia (SOC) government was hardly able to cope let alone advise on any regime of priorities, for action. NGO's staked out positions in different parts of the country without much consideration being given to the need for ensuring that their presence in the rural areas was evenly spread. With a government whose authority was on the wane, it was left to the United Nations - after the peace agreement had been signed - to take on a coordinating role within the UNTAC framework.


IMPACT OF EXTERNAL AID ON PEACE PROCESS

The signatories to the Paris agreement recognized the importance Of external aid to achieve peace and reconciliation. The Declaration on the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Cambodia' formed an integral part of the Agreements on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodian Conflict. It defined the parameters and the principles for humanitarian action after the peace agreement, and mandated the following key sectors for immediate attention: food security, health, housing, training, education, the transport network and the restoration of basic infrastructure and public utilities.

As important are the principles which were to under- lie the international to rebuild Cambodia:

SOVEREIGNTY: the Declaration states explicitly that the Cambodian people and 'the government formed after free and fair elections should be primarily responsible for determining reconstruction needs.

RESPECT FOR LOCAL CAPACITY : assistance to Cambodia should "complement and supplement local resources".

BALANCE: assistance to Cambodia should benefit all areas, "especially the more disadvantaged".


The accords thus laid a sound foundation for emergency and rehabilitation assistance to give impetus to the peace process. The actual implementation of the aid effort contributed to this in a number of ways. First, the survival needs of the returnees and internally displaced were met, primarily through the provision of food rations by WFP and the Cambodian Red Cross. Second, some essential infrastructure was restored, especially in areas expected to receive the majority of the returning refugees, with the upgrading of secondary and tertiary roads, and the construction of village schools, clinics, and wells. The latter were partially intended to make local populations feel well disposed towards the returnees in offering them homes, land, and other resources. Third, the large-scale inter- national aid presence contributed to the sense, especially in the initial period, that a new era was dawning in Cambodia when it might be possible to collaborate- in peace for the reconstruction of the country.


THE UNITED NATIONS APPEAL AND ICORC

In April 1992 the UN Secretary- General issued a consolidated appeal for funds to cover Cambodia's immediate needs and national rehabilitation. It requested the international community to provide resources to the tune of USD 595 million, through bilateral or multilateral channels, for a coordinated set of measures designed to strengthen the peace process and launch Cambodia on the path of economic recovery.

In part the appeal was based on the findings of a UNDP mission in early 1992 which attempted to structure the full inventory of neds that had merged in the course of the earlier special missions and to draw together their diverse recommendations. A second important input was the review being carried out by the so-called UN Mission on Economics and Finance, on which the World Bank was strongly represented.

The Secretary-General's request included a provision of USD 116 million to repatriate all refugees. Their resettlement and reintegration at home, together with the requirements of internally displaced persons and demobilized soldiers, was estimated to cost another USD 82.7 million. This, coupled with the need to maintain and restore essential services in the rural areas, principally in the fields of health, education, water supply and agriculture, costed at USD 119 million, were over-arching requirements, amounting to 35 percent of stated needs. USD 150 million were devoted to major infrastructural works, and capacity building absorbed USD 14.5 million. A further USD 111.8 million was sought in commodity aid and balance of payments support to avert a total breakdown of the civil service and to put a break on run-away inflation.


To give political expression to the commitment of the international community, a ministerial conference on rehabilitation and reconstruction of Cambodia was convened in Tokyo in mid-1992 by the Government of Japan, providing the occasion to raise resources for the effort in Cambodia. In terms of ongoing contributions and new pledges of support, the meeting tallied up resources exceeding the stated needs by about $200 mil- lion, a most successful outcome. Despite this, some items in the UN appeal were not adequately covered, while others were over-sub- scribed. For the two-year period 1992/93, pledges totalling $880 million were announced.

As called for in the Peace accords, the Tokyo meeting also decided to establish a more permanent coordinating mechanism, named the International Committee for the Reconstruction of Cambodia (ICORC), which was to provide continuity beyond the end of the UNTAC mandate. ICORC has held three meetings, the first in September 1993 in Paris, when further contributions were recorded raising total pledges to the level of $1 billion. In March 1994 members of the aid consortium met again to consider the in Tokyo, 1994. National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia presented by the new government, and a further amount of $780 million was pledged by the donor community. The third ICORC meeting took place in March 1995 in Paris in which a further amount of USD --- was pledged. Given the nature of its current functions, it is anticipated that ICORC will evolve into a regular Consultative Group on Cambodia, similar to the others serviced by the World Bank-

According to data assembled by UNDP, total disbursements in 1992 amounted to $255 mil- lion for 1992 and reached $323 million in 1993, or 65 percent of the Tokyo pledges. In terms of the use of funds, it is interesting to note that the social sectors, including relief (food aid alone represented over $63 million) and the restoration of services in rural areas,. absorbed about 57 percent of disbursements. This result is very consistent with the Secretary-General's appeal which had sought 53 per cent of all funds for the corresponding sectors two years earlier.

Analysing disbursements by type of support, it is worth noting that a full 20 percent of expenditures represent technical assistance, with 17 percent going into investment projects. Programme aid and balance of payments support accounted for 16 percent of disbursements, including the settling of Cambodia's arrears to the IMF.


THE COORDINATION OF EXTERNAL AISSTANCE

In the past, the Government's capaci- ty to coordinate external assistance was poor. However, with the creation of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), and of one of its operating arms - the Rehabilitation and Development Board - the Royal Government has made headway in the better coordination of external assistance. Interministerial networks are being strengthened with the establishment of the Interministerial Committee to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia: a one- stop service. Furthermore, mechanisms were put in place to coordinate the work of institutional and bilateral contributors among them- selves and accelerate required reform with that of the NGOs more effectively The NGOs have provided a major pillar for the rehabilitation of Cambodia, and the Royal Government wishes to integrate their work into the mainstream of government policy more actively.

On June 1995, a Sub-Decree on the Organization and Functioning of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) was adopted. The CDC's roles and responsibilities in the rehabilitation and development process are as follows:


In the management of the public sector investments, the roles and responsibilities of CDC are the - following:


The organizational structure of one of CDC's operational arm, the Cambodian Rehabilitation and Development Board (CRDB) is comprised of the following departments in charge of.


In addition, the Royal Government has initiated a process of umbrella agreements with major contributors in order to strengthen the domestic capability to plan longer term, such as with Australia, World Bank, UNDP and UNICEF, for example. The Royal Government is now looking forward to concluding similar agreements with other contributors over the coming months.


THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES' CONTRIBUTION TOWARD THE REBUILDING OF CAMBODIA

Following the UNTAC-facilitated transition, UNDP cooperation has greatly expanded. As the needs of Cambodia have changed over the last two and a half years, so has the focus of the cooperation, shifting from relief support to development-oriented technical cooperation eration activities. Increasingly, UN technical assistance is oriented towards institutional capacity building, with various national, provincial and community structures becoming full partners.

UNDP's mission is to promote Sustainable Human Development (SHD), and, in so doing, to strengthen international cooperation, to facilitate unification of the UN family and to assist programme countries in their endeavors to achieve estain key dimensions of SHD. As regards Cambodia, UNDP re-established a represen- tation in the country in October 1990, having earlier contributed to emergency relief operations along the border between Thailand and Cambodia. During the subsequent transitional period, UNDP cooperation has been wide-ranging, at a time when most donors had yet to initiate in-country assistance. From the subsequent transitional period, when most donors had yet to initiate in-country assistance, up till today, UNDP cooperation has been wide ranging. UNDP has thus provided assistance to, fore- most resettlement and reintegration ; rehabilitation of essential infrastructure; sectoral surveys and the formulation of policy options; advisory services and training. In addition UNDP has been at the forefront of aid coordination, including the provision of technical inputs for the consolidated appeal by the Secretary- General for the immediate rehabilitation needs of Cambodia; secretariat services to-the Ministerial Conference on the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Cambodia, and active support to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cambodia and to UNTAC in executing their mandate for aid coordination. Furthermore, the initiation of programme activities by other United Nations agencies and donors in Cambodia was directly supported by UNDP.

Following the formation of the Royal Government in 1993, UNDP has assisted in the preparation of the National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia (NPRD). It was- also agreed that a UNDP-supported Country Programme for Cambodia be prepared in order to better focus UNDP cooperation in support of the priorities of the NPRD, taking into account the increasing volume and coverage of donor assistance. The first UNDP Country Programme (1994-96) was prepared in a highly participatory manner and approved by UNDP's Executive Board in October 1994. UNDP's cooperation has thus come to concentrate on two, mutually supportive areas, namely poverty alleviation and capacity building for management of the national development and reform processes in pursuing equitable and sustainable growth.

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SUSTAIN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IS DEVELOP THAT NOT ONLY GENERATES ECONOMIC
GROWTH BUT DISTRIBUTES ITS BENEFITS EQUITABLY;
THAT REGENERATES THE ENVIRONMENT RATHER THAN DESTROYS IT;
THAT EMPOWSS PEOPLE RATHER THAN MARGINALIZES THEN. IT GIVES
PRIORITY TO THE POOR ENLARGING THEIR CHOICES AND OPPORTUNITIES,
AND PROVIDES FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION IN DECISIONS AFFECTING THEM.

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