The Seila Program in Cambodia

Hughes, C. (2007) The Seila Program in Cambodia. In: Manor, James, (ed.) Aid that Works: Successful Development in Fragile States. The World Bank, Washington, DC, pp. 85-121.

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Abstract

Cambodia’s Seila program emerged in a context in which conflict was ongoing and political and economic reforms were at an early stage. At the national level, political conflict remained intense, while on the ground, almost 90 percent of the population engaged in subsistence agriculture amid physical, political, and economic insecurity. The rural economy was characterized by shattered infrastructure that inhibited access to markets and services, unclear land rights and widespread land-grabbing, and a largely nonexistent private sector offering little off-farm employment. Throughout the 1990s, natural resources, particularly forests and fishing lots, were rapidly privatized through nontransparent means, with disastrous implications for the incomes of the landless and the poor.