It is strange that why there are not many civil society providing the public services to Cambodian people. It's true that Cambodia is a poor and developing country. While there are good signs of positive development in recent year because of strong economic growth, NGOs' contribution to service delivery is relatively very low. Of course there are many NGOs working on human right, HIV/AIDs, labor improvement and democratic promotion.
Recent success in many countries in relation to active NGOs' contribution to public service delivery is a good example for Cambodia. We are still in need of improving many basic services to be delivered specifically to the poor. Health, education and infrastructure development actually can be very effective to the people's living. I think we may have quite enough NGOs to promote democracy but not poverty reduction. Hence, what should we do?
Local effort is the key answer. It's generally agreed that democratization proposals of local NGOs are likely to be approved by foreign donors. It's time to shift the focus as Cambodia is gaining dividend from peace and stability. We have many NGOs elites who are recognized widely among fund sponsors. They can be leading key persons who should make a change. I would say many Cambodian citizens still trust NGOs because of their better impartial, effective and efficient work compared with the government agencies. The services that they can provide to citizens such as health clinic, fund raising for infrastructure construction, community garbage collection.
Another option is government promotion. The government should encourage and delegate some services to be delivered by its institutions. Political motive should be lifted for the sake of development. However, civil society must show its commitment for the services but not political one. They must trust each other by focusing on services.
What Cambodia really needs now is development and povery alleviation not competition for power.
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