Cambodia: Institutional Coordination and Donor Harmonization in a Postconflict Setting
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at the subnational level to support commune/sangkat program/project planning, budgeting, and implementation. The CSF has been designed as a permanent government program. It operates across the entire country, covering all 23 provinces and the capital, with works activities in all communes/sangkats. The CSF is one of the central government’s main programs for developing good governance and sustainable public service delivery at the subnational level (Johannessen 2010). By government decree, the share of the national budget allocated to the CSF increased from 1.5 percent of current domestic revenues in 2002 to 2.7 percent in 2008. The fund has enabled the commune/ sangkat councils to respond directly to the priorities and needs of their local citizens through participatory planning and project management. According to data for 2002–06 from the Commune Project Database, the CSF funded nearly 5,000 water points (including drilled wells and community ponds); over 7,000 kilometers of earth and laterite commune roads (including structures); 730 primary school rooms; and numerous small-scale irrigation, agriculture, environment, and health-related schemes. The executive committee of the Provincial Rural Development Committee has supported the communes/sangkats in managing projects and executing contracts and agreements in accordance with good governance principles. Additional financial resources have been accompanied by increased efforts to build capacity at the subnational level. Thousands of commune/ sangkat councilors and clerks, provincial officials, and focal persons have been trained in the principles of democratic development and participatory planning and budgeting. In 2008, for example, training was provided to 2,454 central officials and focal persons (of whom 493 were women); 8,373 provincial/municipal officials (1,059 women); 7,612 commune/ sangkat councilors (1,225 women); and, 2,485 commune/sangkat clerks (212 women).3
Donor Level Donors have played an important role in rural development in Cambodia. Over the past 20 years, as many as 20 major donor-supported initiatives were implemented in the country, mainly with the objective of reintegrating societal factions, improving food security, responding to emergency situations, and improving livelihoods of poor Cambodians. Donors have helped to move the public works agenda forward by