Integrated SDG Insights
Cambodia
UNDP’s Integrated SDG Insights explore how to achieve the SDGs by 2030. So that no one is left behind.
How To Read This Report
‘SDG Insights’ playbooks transcend development “as usual,” and leverages data innovation, AI and systems analysis to chart credible pathways that help countries meet the 2030 Agenda.
SDG Moment — This section provides an overview of a country's economic growth trajectory, with new insights on sustainability and inclusiveness of growth pathways.
SDG Trends & Priorities — This section builds from the foundation of national SDG progress and uses machine learning to analyse national development ambition with an SDG lens.
SDG Interlinkages — Combined, these insights are mapped against SDG interlinkages to define policy choices the accelerate SDG progress, tailored to national context.
Finance & Stimulus — These policy choices are made against fiscal constraints and opportunities for stimulus mapped in this section to ensure choices translate to development impact and leave no one behind.
1. SDG Moment
While economic growth is a key element in achieving the SDGs, many countries are intent on moving beyond growth as a yardstick for progress. In the short run, growth enables the SDGs; but in the long run, the SDGs aim to transform the pattern of growth itself.
GDP Growth Pathways
People
Poverty: Percentage of the population under each threshold (PPP$ a day).
Planet
Carbon Intensity: CO2 emissions intensity of GDP (tCO2 per PPP $1,000).
Cambodia’s pace of growth during the 2023-2025cycle is in acceleration, characterized by being twice thegrowth rates projected for the world and coinciding with thecountry’s growth trajectory projected before the pandemicand subsequent crises.1 Monetary poverty was almost halved since2009 (though the trend reversed in 2021 because of the pandemic-induced contraction), and multidimensionalpoverty decreased significantly from 47.1% in 2010 to 16.6% 2021/22.Yet income inequality increased during this period. Boostinginvestments in people will be crucial to building resilienceand achieving Cambodia’s ambitious goal of reaching upper middle-income status by 2030.
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This rapid economic growth has also come at the expense of theenvironment, as the country’s carbon emissions intensity of GDP isexpected to increase under current conditions at an annual rate of 24%due to fossil fuel usage and an additional 9% when also considering land-use change.
2. SDG Trends & Priorities
Trends
Understanding how Cambodia performs against the SDG targets provides a baseline landscape against which to build integrated SDG pathways. SDG progress tracking follows UN Stats standards and methodology, and is aligned with country profiles.
Priorities
Camdodia
’s national priorities are analysed using machine learning to reveal the most prominent SDGs referenced in national policy documents. This analysis uses a custom-built model for SDG classification. It considers 100k+ terms, including phrases and expressions.
3. SDG Interlinkages
Maps synergies and trade-offs of national priorities to the most relevant SDG targets to chart policy pathways with most potential to accelerate progress.
1.2: By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
With sustained high economic growth, Cambodia’s monetary poverty rate dropped from 33.8% to 17.8% in the last decade leading up to the global pandemic. However, this poverty rate has now increased again by 2.8 percentage points, indicating that around 460,000 people have fallen below poverty income thresholds.1
On the other hand, the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) has declined to 16.6 percent in 2022 from 36.7 percent in 2014.2 The MPI identifies the range of different deprivations and disadvantages people experience in health, education and standard of living by analysing data on 10 indicators, namely, nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, access to cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, and ownership of assets.
The 'Strategic Framework and Programs for Economic Recovery in the Context of Living with COVID-19 in a New Normal 2021-2023' is now well underway. With COVID recovery on track, the Royal Government of Cambodia has been working to implement Graduation-Based Social Protection, alongside existing social insurance, social assistance and labour market programmes.
Alleviating poverty will create more resilience in the Cambodian society as the population increases its capacity to support itself and others in need in the community. SDG 1.2 has synergies with the most basic needs, contributing directly to SDG 2, zero hunger, SDG 3 Good Health and Wellbeing, SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 5 Gender Equality, SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, SDG 7 Access to Sustainable Energy, SDG 8 Inclusive and sustainable Growth, SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 11 Sustainable and Resilient Cities and Human Settlements. However, the initiatives around attaining target 1.2 would pose challenges to attain targets around SDG 6 where the increase in livelihoods places more pressure on water systems, sanitation and hygiene (SDG 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4).3
1 World Bank, 2022 Cambodia Poverty Assessment - Toward A More Inclusive and Resilient Cambodia.
2 OPHI/ UNDP. 2023 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
3 UN Water, 2016. Water and Sanitation Interlinkages across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
The Gender Inequality Index assesses three crucial dimensions: reproductivehealth, empowerment, and participation in the labour market. In Cambodia, a highproportion of women participate in the labour force mostly in the informal sector.Women contribute significantly to Cambodia’s economy as owners of 62% ofmicro- and 26% of small- and medium-enterprises, but they continue to facebarriers to financing and registration. The representation of women in decision-making remains low and is a consequence of underlying gender inequalities.1
The gender wage gap in Cambodia stands at 19%, decreasing by 5% since 2017.2 The focus could be on increasing the rate of women in government institutions,where the wages can be set to bridge the pay gap. This would provide a positiveexample for the rest of Cambodian society to follow.
SDG 5.5 forms an entry point as it creates synergies with, among others, efforts todiversifying the economy, reinforcing productivity (SDG 8.2) and decent jobcreation (SDG 8.3), bringing more attention to the care economy.3
1 Mith et al., 2020 as seen in UNDP, Gender Equality Deep-Dive for Cambodia, 2022https://cambodia.un.org/en/174010-gender-equality-deep-dive-cambodia
2 UNDP, 2021 The Gender Wage Gap in Cambodia.
3 Ramos 2014; Nilsson 2017. SDG interlinkages visualization tool - Target level
8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
The future of Cambodia lies in its people, with its citizens aged under 30 years comprising more than 25% of the total population (2019 Population Census). 70% of young people aged 15-29 were economically active in 2019. They made up a major part of Cambodia’s working-age population (37%). A structured survey of young people aged 15-24 that was conducted as part of the “Youth Situation Analysis in Cambodia” in December 2020, indicated that 59% of those surveyed were not in employment, education or training (NEET).1
Improving the livelihoods of men and women is a key pathway to greater inclusion and reduced inequality. In 2022, labour force participation among women was 69.6% and among men 82.1%. The working-age share has been rising, creating opportunity for a demographic dividend to support growth and development.
Maximizing the benefits of the demographic dividend will require (i) increased decent work creation to absorb young women and men who enter the job market each year, (ii) comprehensive workforce skills development to meet labour market needs at a time of rapid technological and structural change in the economy, (iii) improved quality of work for young people in the country and (IV) tackling the gender and inclusion dimensions of work.
Despite the very low rate of youth unemployment, the quality and stability of employment remain a big concern in Cambodia. The creation of decent jobs linked to the economy of tomorrow would further help to build the tax base and reduce the societal vulnerability to economic and climate shocks. The Royal Government of Cambodia is encouraging investments, strengthening Technical and vocational training, skills development and digitalization.
By accelerating target 8.5, the government can strive towards sustainable economic growth, inclusive development and improved livelihoods for its citizens. However, decent employment may be negatively affected by targets related to energy transition (SDG7) as the skills required in the renewable energy sector differ from those in the traditional energy sector, leading to potential skills gap that could risk employment targets.
11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management
Extreme weather conditions, such as floods and droughts, have a significant impact on urban and rural communities and their livelihoods, If "business as usual" for emissions and climate investment climate change would reduce absolute GDP by 2.5% in 2030, and 9.8% in 2050.1
Cambodia is rapidly urbanizing, and the government has implemented several initiatives to address air pollution in cities,2 awarding waste management contracts in large population centres and investing in WASH infrastructure.3
Challenges in achieving SDG 11.6 remain, however the synergies and opportunities are broad, effecting quality of life and the (sub) targets of each SDG. The prioritization of reducing the negative environmental impacts will especially complement efforts related to SDG 6. Clean water and sanitation and SDG 7. Affordable and clean energy.
16.3: Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all
Addressing limitations in the rule of law and justice sectors are key to enable progress towards 2030 Agenda.1 SDG target 16.3 has the potential to significantly accelerate the achievement of SDG 8 and SDG17 in Cambodia as lack of transparency and accountability is seen asan obstacle to investments and private sector development, and acontributor to the decreasing Cambodia’s rankings in the ease of doing business.3
The promotion of SDG 16.3 Rule of Law will benefit other SDGs such asSDG 6. Clean water and sanitation. The Mekong delta's water is a "common" shared resource, and its governance directly impacts millions in Cambodia.2
1 Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/KHM/CO/3); HR Council Resolution 48/23; and CCPR/C/KHM/CO/3, and third cycle of UPR(110.123).
2 https://www.mrcmekong.org/our-work/mekong-integrated-water-resources-management-project/
3 World Bank, 2019. Doing Business project ( doingbusiness.org ). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.BUS.EASE.XQ?locations=KH
4. Futures Scenarios
SDG Push is a futures scenario based on 48 integrated accelerators in the areas of Governance, Social Protection, Green Economy and Digital Disruption. It uses national data to explore the impact on human development by 2030 and 2050 across key SDG indicators. It does this by using ‘International Futures,’ a systems model designed to explore interactions across development systems.
Poverty <$1.90 Per Day (Number of People)
5. Finance and Stimulus
Many countries are facing reduced fiscal space, high debt levels, rising interest rates and downgrades on credit ratings. Fiscal and financial constraints tend to slow or even reverse SDG progress.
Cambodia's gross government debt is expected at 37.5% of GDP in 2023, which is about a third less than the low-income developing countries (LIDC) average of 48.3%. The country is expected to collect 22% of GDP in revenue this year, thus more than a third more than the LIDC average of 14.9%.
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Cambodia’s public external debt servicing this year is expected to reach 9.7% of revenue, which is about a third below the LIDC average of 14.1%. According to the latest World Bank and IMF DSA from December 2022 the country is rated as in ‘low risk of debt distress’.
Cambodia is financially robust due to its moderate fiscal stance. The kingdom only borrows for productive investments in infrastructure and is implementing a Revenue Mobilization Strategy 2019-2023 that ensures contributions to public spending. This includes actively exploring new means to build a sustainable financial architecture for national development.
6. SDG Stimulus
The UN Secretary General’s SDG Stimulus Plan lays out a blueprint for action within the existing financial architecture. It includes:
Along with the SDG budget-tagging exercises, which provide insights on efficiently allocating public funds for a relative increase in public goods and service provision, the UN Secretary General’s SDG Stimulus Plan lays out a blueprint for action within the existing financial architecture. It includes:
- Providing liquidity to support recovery in the near term
- Expanding development financing by MDBs
- Align financial flows with the SDGs and Paris Agreement, according to country-level priorities and needs, for example through the rollout of the UN Integrated National Financing Framework (INFFs).
Recognizing this fiscal landscape, the Cambodian government is exploring innovative financing solutions to bolster our economic aspirations and address challenges. Possible funding options for the investments derived from the identified interlinkages, while retaining a healthy debt to GDP ratio, are as follows:
- Tax and revenue reform
- Climate finance or green bonds
- SDG-aligned business environment and investment
- Accessing financial markets and insurance
- Blended and public-private finance.
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7. Methodology & Data Sources
Click here to view the Methodological Note for the Integrated SDG Insights.
SDG Moment
Methodology
Assesses challenges and opportunities in national growth trajectories with insights on environmental sustainability and inclusiveness.
Data Sources
Future trajectories to 2025 are based on IMF-WEO GDP projections, distributions of per capita income or consumption from the World Bank, and CO2 emissions from the Global Carbon Budget 2022 and EDGAR (JRC and IEA).
Trends & Priorities
Methodology
SDG trends tracks progress from 2015 to date for the 231 indicators. National priorities are analysed using machine learning to reveal the most prominent SDGs referenced in national policy documents.
Data Sources
SDG trends tracks progress from 2015 to date for the 231 indicators. National priorities are analysed using machine learning to reveal the most prominent SDGs referenced in national policy documents.
Interlinkages
Methodology
SDG trends tracks progress from 2015 to date for the 231 indicators. National priorities are analysed using machine learning to reveal the most prominent SDGs referenced in national policy documents.
Data Sources
The exercise globally considered a total of 454 documents published from 2015 to August 2022. (Miola et al., 2019 updated in 2021-2022)
Finance & Stimulus
Methodology
Provides insight into indicators of fiscal and financial stress with options (INFF) for stimulus and other means to accelerate progress.
Data Sources
Most recent resource data from UNU-WIDER GRD (between 2018 and 2021), debt and revenue from IMF WEO (between 2020 and forecasts for 2023), external debt from IDS (2023), yields from Haver Analytics (8 June 2023), credit ratings from S&P, Moodys and FITCH (2023), and DSA ratings from World Bank/IMF (31 May 2023).