Cambodia has come a long way since the UN sponsored elections of 1993. Much remains to be done however in terms of social protection and poverty reduction. Although per capita GDP rose 5 per cent per year between 1993 and 2010, Cambodians still face precarious employment, low quality healthcare, and poor basic infrastructure. Plus chronic malnutrition and a high risk of natural disasters.
To address these issues the 
Cambodian Government launched a National Social Protection Strategy for the Poor and Vulnerable in late 2011. This is part of the country’s plan to rebuild its social services and raise living standards for all its citizens.
The Cambodian Government and UNICEF-Cambodia contracted the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance to help in this work. Our role is to estimate the rates of return on social protection investments in Cambodia, and so help design social protection instruments.
Our study focuses on non-contributory social transfers and their role in socio-economic development. In this context, we find that social transfers reduce income poverty and inequality but also affect household behaviour. For example they increase consumption and the resources available for investment in health, education, livelihoods and productive activities.
The study started in January 2012 with a period of fieldwork to collect data and connect with various governmental institutions and development partners. Overall the study analyses four social protection instruments: cash transfers, scholarships, public works and social pensions.
For this work we are using various 
quantitative techniques to generate a comprehensive analysis of the potential benefits of social transfers in Cambodia. These draw on national surveys from 2004 and 2009, as well as static and dynamic micro-simulations. The results will be presented at the end of summer 2012 during a workshop in Phnom Penh.
Andrés Mideros Mora, PhD fellow, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance
I was awaken by this article about the real situations of the Cambodians. I am very thankful that some people are really spending time to take actions for the poor.
Dear madam/sir
Hi I am currently a graduate student at Graduate school of Public Administration in Seoul National University, South Korea. I am involved in a research network project (funded by the Korean government and led by scholars in the field of social policies) where we conduct a comparative research on social protection in east Asia. One of our key interest is Cambodian social protection, mainly focusing on NSPS. We have heard about your research during our field visit in Phnom penh but was wondering where we could find a copy of the rate of return study? I have heard the work was finalized but could you please let us know where to find one? Thank you.
Hello, thanks for your message. The final report is submitted but not yet cleared by UNICEF. As soon as we have their ‘go-ahead’ we will put it on our website (http://mgsog.merit.unu.edu/). Please check back in a few weeks. HH