Overview of Poverty in Cambodia

Background

My poverty is having no land, buffalo, hoe, rake, plow, transport, mosquito net, cooking pots or even plates to eat from and spoon and fork to pick up the food. This means I cannot possibly get enough food to eat because I lack the things I need to keep me alive for much longer. ( voice a women)

In 1995, governments agreed at the World Summit for Social Development that each country should set time-bound goals and numerical targets for reducing extreme poverty and implement national plans to achieve them. In 1996, the donor community agreed to focus their co-operation around seven international development targets (IDTs), the first of which was to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty between 1990 and 2015. 

Through the Millennium Declaration of September 2000, 147 Heads of State and Governments – and 191 nations in total – committed themselves to meeting a similar set of development goals (MDGs), including the poverty target for 2015. Halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015 is possible, but not without concerted and intensified efforts.

Measured by both income and broader human development indicators, Cambodia is among the poorest countries in the world. According to the UNDP Human Development Report (2001), Cambodia ranks 121 of 162 countries in the world on the human development index. Its population of 11.4 Million is growing at about 2.5 % per year. Annual per capita income is US$ 256 (1999) . The 1997 poverty estimates confirm that poverty is pervasive in Cambodia. An estimated 36% of the population lives below the basic needs poverty line. Poverty rate is higher in rural areas (40%), which is four times higher than in Phnom Penh (10%). Rural households, especially those for whom agriculture is the primary source of income, account for almost 90 % of the poor. 

Poverty in Cambodia is characterized by low income and consumption, poor nutritional status, low educational attainment, less access to public services including school and health services, less access to economic opportunities, vulnerability to external shocks, and exclusion from economic, social and political processes. The relatively high prevalence of HIV/Aids in Cambodia is an additional challenge to the current human development situation.

Poverty Indicators

In Cambodia , population under the poverty line is defined as the poor. The Head count index

shows a declining trend between 39.0% in 1993/94 and 36.1% in 1997, while a significant

decline was not found between 36.1% in 1997 and 35.9% in 1999. The poverty gap showed a

steady decline trend between 9.2% in 1993/94 to 8.7% in 1997, and between 8.7% in 1997

and 6.5% in 1999. As for the squared poverty gap, while there was no significant decline

between 1993/94 (3.1%) and 1997 (3.1%), a declining trend is found between 1997 (3.1%)

and 1999 (2.0%). Although the interpretation of this trend is rather complicated, it is not too

much to say that the overall poverty situation between 1993/94 and 1999 in Cambodia had been improved.