Youth in Cambodia: A Force for Change

More than half the population of Cambodia is less than 20 years old, and youth comprise almost 20% of the total population. Unlike some countries in Southeast Asia where this percentage is expected to decline by 2030, the proportion of youth in the population is expected to peak in 2035 with average annual growth of 0.1% in 2005-2015 and 1.0% in 2025-2035.

ILO Policy Brief on Youth Employment in Cambodia

Cambodia has a young population with 39 per cent of the population in 2004 below 15 years of age, down from 43 per cent in 1998. By 2004 the dependency ratio showing the children and elderly as a percentage of the intermediate group was 74 per cent.1 Youth aged 15–24 represented 22 percent of the population that year. Large numbers of young people are entering
the labour force as a result of a baby boom in the 1980s. Measures must be taken to ensure that youth do not add to underemployment in the countryside or lead to higher rates of urban unemployment but instead contribute to growth and development through productive employment.

Volunteerism: Harnessing the Potential to Develop Cambodia

Youth Star Cambodia and United Nations Volunteers Cambodia commissioned a research project on volunteers and their contribution to national development. While volunteers are widely present in development, there is little current information that assesses their contributions. The research project began in December 2007, and the fieldwork concluded at the end of February 2008.
The aims of the research were to:
1. get a clear picture of the current volunteer infrastructure and environment in Cambodia, including the profiles of volunteers, their communities and their projects;
2. provide recommendations on how opportunities for Cambodians to volunteer can be increased and a clear understanding of the needs within volunteering organisations;
3. explore ways in which volunteerism can be better integrated and linked to national development objectives and initiatives;
4. provide recommendations on how donor support could be better targeted to increase volunteer participation in sustainable development.

World Drug Report 2016

The World Drug Report 2016, which provides a comprehensive overview of major developments in drug markets, trafficking routes and the health impact of drug use, supports comprehensive, balanced and integrated rights-based approaches. The text highlights the importance of drug abuse prevention and treatment; encourages the development, adoption and implementation of alternative or additional measures with regard to conviction or punishment; and promotes
proportionate national sentencing policies, practices and guidelines for drug-related offences.

Skin on the Cable: The Illegal Arrest, Arbitrary Detention and Torture of People who use Drugs in Cambodia

“Skin on the Cable”
The Illegal Arrest, Arbitrary Detention and Torture of People Who Use Drugs in Cambodia

Cambodians who use drugs confound the notion that drug dependence is a self-inflicted condition that results from a character disorder or moral failing. When Human Rights Watch talked with these people, they were invariably softly spoken and polite. They talked openly and honestly about difficult childhoods (in many cases still underway) living on the streets, or growing up in refugee camps in Thailand. Often young and poorly educated, they spoke of using drugs for extended periods of time. Despite many hardships in their lives, their voices rarely became bitter except when describing their arrest and detention in government drug detention centers. They did not mince words when describing these places. One former detainee, Kakada, was particularly succinct: “I think this is not a rehab center but a torturing center.

Human Trafficking Vulnerabilities in ASIA: A Study on Forced Marriage Between Cambodia and China

Human Trafficking Vulnerabilities in ASIA:
A Study on Forced Marriage Between Cambodia and China
This report examines patterns of forced marriage in the context of broader migratory flows between Cambodia and China. It primarily draws on the accounts of 42 Cambodian women who experienced conditions of forced marriage, with interviews having taken place in both countries. Key informants from government and non-government stakeholders in Cambodia and China were consulted as well.
The objective has been to analyze recruitment, brokering, transportation and exploitation patterns as well as the links between these; to determine service needs amongst Cambodians trafficked to China for forced marriage, in China, during the repatriation process and upon return to Cambodia; as well as to identify opportunities for interventions to prevent forced marriages from occurring and to extend protective services to those in need, at both policy and programming levels.

Best Cities Ranking and Report

This report was shared by Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU). EIU has studies on hundreds of countries around the world to ranking best cities. Cambodia was one of 10 bottom country in the list.

2016 Natixis Global Retirement Index

The Global Retirement Index (GRI), Survey included 7,100 investors in 22 countries.

GRI is a multi-dimensional index developed by Natixis Global Asset Management and CoreData Research to examine the factors that drive retirement security and to provide a comparison tool for best practices in retirement policy. The index incorporates 18 performance indicators, grouped into four thematic sub-indices, which have been calculated on the basis of reliable data from a range of international organizations and academic sources. It takes into account the particular characteristics of the older demographic retiree group in order to assess and compare the level of retirement security in different countries around the world.

World Happiness Report 2016 Update (Vol. 1)

In this report we give new attention to the inequality of happiness across individuals. The distribution of world happiness is presented first by global and regional charts showing the distribution of answers, from roughly 3,000 respondents in each of more than 150 countries, to a question asking them to evaluate their current lives on a ladder where 0 represents the worst possible life and 10, the best possible.

Web-link: World Happiness Report

Investigation Report: Global Fund Grants in Cambodia

Investigation Report: Global Fund Grants in Cambodia
Principal Recipients CNM, NCHADS and MoH and NCHADS Sub-recipient MEDiCAM

The Investigations Unit of the Office of the Inspector General of the Global Fund has carried out an extensive investigation of allegations of fraud and financial abuse in Rounds 1 through 9 of multiple grant programs financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the “Global Fund”) to the Kingdom of Cambodia. The investigation has focused upon certain government entity implementer in the health sector within Cambodia, including the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control (“CNM”), a Principal Recipient (“PR”); the National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD Control (“NCHADS”), also a PR; and MEDiCAM, a Sub-recipient (“SR”) of the Ministry of Health (“MoH”) and NCHADS.1 CNM and NCHADS are not distinct or separate legal entities from the MoH, and thus are considered part of the Cambodian government.

The OIG investigation was initiated as a result of findings from the 2009 OIG audit of the Global Fund grants to Cambodia, which included the identification of procurement irregularities and substantial weaknesses in internal controls, along with complaints received through the OIG anti-fraud web and whistle-blower hotlines. Further allegations, including those of fraud, abuse, bribery, corruption and other forms of financial abuse, such as misuse of funds by senior officials in Global Fund-supported programs, arose throughout the course of this investigation.

The investigation has identified sufficient credible and substantive evidence of corruption, procurement irregularities, and misuse and misappropriation of grant funds, in connection with Global Fund programs