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Cambodia’s poorest to be supported through a new food security and social safety net program

Contacts:

World Bank, Phnom Penh:

Bou Saroeun (855) 23-217-301

sbou@worldbank.org

Australian Embassy, Phnom Penh:

Lachlan Pontifex (855) 12-900-911

lachlan.pontifex@ausaid.gov.au

Phnom Penh, August 4, 2009 – Today the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the World Bank signed a US$13 million agreement to support Cambodia’s poorest and most vulnerable people by strengthening food security and social safety nets.

The World Bank has approved the Smallholder Agriculture and Social Protection Development Policy Operation to support the efforts of the Government of Cambodia to mitigate the combined impacts of the global food price and economic crises. The program aims to boost food security for poor households and expand safety net support. Continue reading →

2009: 08/07
CATEGORY: Press Release
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Media Statement: Punishing the Poor: More Arrests of Street People

LICADHO deplores the authorities’ renewed campaign to unlawfully arrest homeless persons, beggars, sex workers and other “undesirables” from the streets of Phnom Penh. In recent days, such arrests have led to women and children being sent to stay in a government social affairs center whose staff include alleged rapists and murderers, and to sex workers who have HIV/AIDS being detained at an NGO shelter where they were denied their life-sustaining antiretroviral medicines.

“Once again, the government is treating poor people who live and work on the streets as though they are criminals,” said LICADHO director Naly Pilorge. “This has nothing with to do with actually trying to help these people – it is simply intended to drive them off the streets in order to ‘beautify’ the city.”

Over the past month, dozens of people have been arbitrarily arrested from the streets, particularly in Daun Penh district along the riverside and around Wat Phnom, in night-time sweeps by district security guards or police. Continue reading →

2009: 08/04
CATEGORY: Press Release
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Development Partners Call for Halt to Evictions of Cambodia’s Urban Poor

July 16, 2009— Development Partners are calling upon the Royal Government of Cambodia to stop forced evictions from disputed areas in Phnom Penh and elsewhere in the country until a fair and transparent mechanism for resolving land disputes is put in place and a comprehensive resettlement policy is developed.

Development Partners recognize that land issues are an ongoing challenge to development in Cambodia and urge the Government to adopt fair and transparent systems for land titling, including in urban areas, which recognize and protect the equal rights of all citizens. Development Partners stand ready to support the establishment of national policy guidelines which would ensure that evictions and resettlement follow due legal process and provide just compensation to affected individuals. Continue reading →

2009: 07/31
CATEGORY: Press Release
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THE MYTH OF DEVELOPMENT: HOW LAND-GRABBING IS IMPOVERISHING CAMBODIANS

Cambodia’s epidemic of land-grabbing – often committed in the name of so-called “development” – is fueling poverty and jeopardizing the government’s claimed development goals, according to a LICADHO report released today.

Entitled Land-grabbing and Poverty in Cambodia: The Myth of Development, the report concludes that: “The Cambodian government’s policies and practices on land management have failed. Rather than contributing positively to the development of the country, they are swelling the ranks of the landless, the unemployed and the poverty-stricken”. Continue reading →