Government Engagement

The collaboration and engagement between civil society and the Cambodian government is not inclusive, stable or predictable. It is noted that the collaboration is more productive in the field of service delivery while the collaboration in the other sensitive fields such as human rights, environment, natural resource management, and advocacy organizations rarely happens. CCC as the largest membership based platform for NGOs in Cambodia has its members who are working across development sectors including the sectors which are listed above. CCC has made great efforts in ensuring that the voices of its members as well as other civil society organizations are heard and addressed by the government through respective channels.

At the national level, the Development Cooperation and Partnership Strategy (DCPS 2014-2018) was endorsed by the government as one of the key mechanism to promote mutual partnership for development. It is expected that DCPS would work in conjunction with other existing mechanisms such as the Technical Working Groups (TWGs), Cambodia Development Forum (CDF), Government Development Cooperation Committee (GDCC), and others both at the national and sub-national levels. However, the effective functionality of those mechanisms remains questionable. As of now, CCC stays as a member of various TWG including the TWG on Planning and Poverty Reduction, the TWG on Partnership and Harmonization and TWG on Public Administrative Reform. Through those platforms, CCC has consolidated the inputs from its members and partners to feed in many national development plans/policies such as the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals (CSDGs), the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), and others.

At the sub-national level, the national program of the government, the Sub-National Democratic Development (SNDD) developed its second three year implementation plan (IP3-II) and the Implementation Plan for the Social Accountability Framework (ISAF). The space of CCC as the vice chair of the Partnership Steering Committee (PSC) from civil society side has promoted the voice and space of CSOs and citizens in the whole process.