People from the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila communities demonstrate near Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Tuesday, Sept 25, 2012 for the release of two jailed villagers. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
More than 100 NGOs and human rights groups yesterday urged foreign donors to flag issues regarding land policies, democratic processes and human rights during today’s Government-Development Partner Coordinating Committee (GDCC) meeting.
While the high-level aid conference was once held every six months, today’s meeting marks the first GDCC since April last year after the government indefinitely suspended it in August 2011.
Intended as a preparatory meeting for Cambodia’s main government and donor summit, the GDCC is generally used by the government to provide an indication of where its five-year plan is headed. That, in turn, is meant to inform donor policy in the lead-up to the Cambodian Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF), in which donors typically reveal where aid funding will be channelled and identify reforms they expect the government to tackle.
While the high-level aid conference was once held every six months, today’s meeting marks the first GDCC since April last year after the government indefinitely suspended it in August 2011.
Intended as a preparatory meeting for Cambodia’s main government and donor summit, the GDCC is generally used by the government to provide an indication of where its five-year plan is headed. That, in turn, is meant to inform donor policy in the lead-up to the Cambodian Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF), in which donors typically reveal where aid funding will be channelled and identify reforms they expect the government to tackle.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has said the next CDCF will be held in 2014. Although the meetings are supposed to be held every 18 months, last year they too were indefinitely postponed, and one has not convened since 2010.
Although the Ministry of Finance and the Council for the Development of Cambodia earlier denied knowledge of the meeting, an official within the former department who declined to be named confirmed the GDCC meeting would begin today behind closed doors.
Even though reforms, or Joint Monitoring Indicators (JMIs), are ordinarily approved only at the CDCF, speculation has been rife many will be validated today, prompting a slew of urgent recommendations from the NGO and human rights community.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a representative of a donor country told the Post yesterday that donors had been given “plenty of notice” that the meeting would go ahead and that JMIs had been tabled on the agenda “to review and validate”.
When asked what may have spurred the government to announce the meeting, the source said “it had been a very big year with ASEAN”.
“It’s really important that the dialogue continues; we’ve really welcomed this.”
In the list of recommendations released by NGOs yesterday following a workshop, the groups called for amplified transparency and accountability, land and election reform as well as greater support for agriculture and fisheries.
Chief among the reforms called for was that relating to land, including the “transparent and comprehensive demarcation of state land” and “the adoption of a national resettlement policy … consistent with international standards.”
Dr Sin Somuny, executive director at MEDiCAM – a health sector NGO and one of the workshop’s co-ordinators – said he believed reforms would be approved today.
“It’s also a positive signal that the CDCF may be held earlier than expected. Tomorrow, we will put forward critical governance and accountability issues. That’s our theme, but there is a set agenda, and we are technically observers tomorrow, so we hope to get the chance to raise our concerns,” Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum in Cambodia, which also co-ordinated the recommendations, said.
Tags: Boeung Kak, Borei Keila, Cambodia, Development, Human Rights, Land Concession, Land Dispute, Phnom Penh
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