Introduction
As part of its mandate, the Cambodian Rehabilitation and Development Board of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC/CRDB) produces a Development Cooperation Report (DCR) that provides information on Official Development Assistance (ODA) provided by international development cooperation partners of Cambodia. This report is based on data collected by CDC/CRDB from all bi-lateral and multi-lateral partners including IFIs on actual and planned disbursements of their assistance to Cambodia.
This Development Cooperation Report presents preliminary estimates on ODA disbursements for the year 2005 and data on actual disbursements as reported by the development cooperation partners for the year 2004. As in the previous reports, the data on disbursements is summarized by type and terms of assistance, by sector, and by major development cooperation partner. It also includes a summary of ODA disbursements cross tabulated by development cooperation partner and sector and by province.
In terms of methodology, the data for the preparation of the Development Cooperation Reports is collected through a questionnaire. CDC/CRDB has developed a web-based system to collect information from bi-lateral and multi-lateral development cooperation partners on their disbursements. For the first time, the data reported in this document for the years 2004 and 2005 has been provided by development cooperation partners through CDC/CRDB ODA Disbursements website (CDC.KHMER.BIZ). As a starting point, CDC/CRDB had posted on the website the data for each development cooperation partner that they had provided for the last report and had asked them to verify and update the data for years 2004 and 2005. While only the concerned development partner is allowed to update their data, information on the website can be accessed by "visitors", thus, providing access to ODA information to the general public.
CDC/CRDB collects information for each on-going and planned program and project from development cooperation partners. Unfortunately, some of development cooperation partners do not provide detailed information on their supported programs and projects that makes the task of developing a comprehensive picture of ODA disbursements by type and term of assistance, sector, or the target geographic location of assistance a bit difficult. Also, not all partners have posted their disbursements information in time for the preparation of this report. The estimates presented here include estimates for the missing data based on the best available information, where possible. For the NGOs, information on disbursements is compiled from data reported to the NGO Department of the CDC/CRDB by the NGOs. The ODA disbursements information presented in this report is based on data that has been provided by development cooperation partners as of 16 February 2006.
In terms of classification of the ODA data by type and terms of assistance and sector, the OECD/United Nations standard classification methodology is used. Under this system, the type of assistance is classified in the following categories: Free-Standing Technical Cooperation; Investment-related Technical Cooperation; Capital/Investment Project Assistance for public investment projects; Budgetary Aid/Balance of Payments Support; Food Aid and Humanitarian/Emergency Relief Assistance. More information on the definition of type and terms of assistance is provided in Annex II.
Many development cooperation partners implement their programs and projects, either in part or entirely, through UN agencies and/or through non-government organizations (NGOs). Also, a significant number of co-financing agreements are made by bi-lateral development cooperation partner agencies to deliver their programs through multi-lateral agencies and international financial institutions. In order to avoid "double counting", the disbursements data for the UN agencies after the year 2000 have been grouped into two categories. The first category shows their “total program delivery” irrespective of the source of funds. The second category represents an estimate of disbursements of UN agencies “own resources” in the delivery of their programs. Similarly, in the case of NGOs adjustments have been made to include only their "core and/or own resources" (funds from private sources, religious bodies, philanthropic organizations and other non-government funding bodies). Finally, the data on disbursements reported by development cooperation partners in their own currencies have been converted into US $ using the United Nations official exchange rates.
The report begins with a brief analysis on economic performance in 2004 and 2005 in Section two. Section three presents information on pledges and disbursements of Official Development Assistance (ODA) received by Cambodia since 1992. The information on disbursements is provided by type and term of assistance, by sector and development cooperation partner, and cross tabulations of disbursements data by development cooperation partner and sector and by province.