The Girl-Child and Government Service Provision.pdf - Tanzania ...

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Approximately 53 per cent of the population is under theage of 17, which results in a high dependency ratio of 86:1.In the adult population, the majority is women (52per cent), due to the loss of men during the DemocraticKampuchea (DK) period. Women-headed householdsrepresent a quarter of the total (25.7 per cent). Womenare solely responsible for generating income and parenting.The major social units are the family and the village.Ninety per cent of the Cambodian population resides incentral lowland regions, with 84.3 per cent of the populationliving in rural areas. Of the country’s remaining urbanpopulation, 1.2 million reside in the capital of Phnom Penh.The population is 95 per cent ethnic Khmer, with the remaining5 per cent mostly Chinese and Vietnamese, althoughthere is a significant Cham community and othergroups such as Lao, Thai and small ethnic minorities inhabitingthe mountainous zones in the north and northeast ofthe country. Approximately 95 per cent of the populationfollows Theravada Buddhism; the remaining 5 per cent areChristians and Muslims.Recent historyFollowing US intervention in the war in South Vietnam, theHo Chi Minh Trail supplying the Vietcong from North Vietnampassed through Cambodia. This led to large scale USbombing of eastern Cambodia, leaving thousands dead,with a corresponding rise of Khmer Rouge insurgentsthroughout rural Cambodia. King Sihanouk was toppledfrom power in 1970 by his defense minister Lon Nol, whoestablished the Khmer Republic, which received large-scaleUS government support until it fell to the Khmer Rouge inApril 1975.During the following four years the infamous Pol Pot ledthe government of Democratic Kampuchea and the KhmerRouge in a reign of terror that resulted in social disruption,economic vandalism and decay and substantial loss of humanlives. Most educated people were executed, PhnomPenh was emptied, and all Cambodians were forced towork hard in the rice fields and large-scale irrigationschemes. One to two million people died from genocide,starvation or disease in a failed attempt to create a selfsufficientagrarian Maoist state. The destruction from 1975to 1979 was substantial, and the impact of this period onlife in Cambodia is still strong. This period of terror endedwhen, in response to Khmer Rouge insurgency into Vietnameseterritory, the Vietnamese invaded and capturedPhnom Penh in January 1979.The Vietnamese supported the establishment of thePeoples Republic of Kampuchea under the leadership ofHeng Samrin, and the war continued in much of the northeastof Cambodia with the Khmer Rouge–led coalitionbased near the Thai border. All international developmentaid was withheld for more than a decade. When Vietnamesetroops left Cambodia in 1989, the constitution wasrevised with the State of Cambodia (which continued to beled by the Cambodian People’s Party, the CPP, under HunSen) entering negotiations that eventually resulted in theOctober 1991 Paris Peace Accords. These were termed a“comprehensive peace plan” and resulted in the UnitedNations’ then-largest-ever mission, with the UN TransitionalAuthority in Cambodia (UNTAC) overseeing disarmamentand demobilisation (which was not achieved), repatriationof 350,000 refugees from the Thai border anddemocratic elections.The 1993 May elections resulted in a coalition government.Simultaneously, a constitutional monarchy was established,and King Norodom Sihanouk was made the head of stateof the Kingdom of Cambodia.A major conflict between the two main political parties(the CPP and FUNCINPEC) in July 1997 resulted in theousting of the first prime minister, Prince NorodomRanaridd. As a result, the international community froze allnew aid assistance; business investment and tourism werealso seriously affected. At the same time both the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank suspendedtheir programmes in Cambodia for reasons of economicmismanagement. The local currency faced serious depreciation,and the government was forced to make major budgetcuts, including 20 per cent to the health-and-educationbudget.The national elections in July 1998 and 2003 resulted in thecontinued governance of the coalition government, whichwas now solely headed by Samdech Hun Sen as the primeminister. In 2003 and 2004 civil security gradually has beenstabilised with decreasing incidences of robbery and kidnappingcases, the results of a ‘disarmament’ campaignlaunched by the government and the strengthening of militarypolice forces. Furthermore, the surrender of almost allthe remaining Khmer Rouge guerrillas in December 1998resulted in peace and stability for the people of Cambodiafor the first time in more than three decades.10 The Girl-Child and Government Service Provision
In February 1999 the freeze on new international aid assistancewas lifted, and the IMF recommenced loans later thatyear. At the 2000 Consultative Group held in Paris, donorspledged US$548 million over three years. During the preceding18 months the government made progress on reformof the forestry sector and illegal logging; public-sectorreform; budget reform, including introduction of a 10per cent VAT; and has implemented a programme fordemobilisation. Cambodia was also formally admitted toASEAN in April 1999 and the Royal Government of Cambodia(RGC) ratified the Mine Ban Treaty in July 1999 afterpassing national land-mine legislation in May. At the recentConsultative Group meeting the government set an ambitiousagenda in the draft Governance Action Plan, whichincludes revision of the role and structure of the military,natural resource management, fiscal and budget reform,public-sector reform, legal and judiciary reform and anticorruptioninitiatives. Whilst the government has demonstratedthe ‘political will’ required for some changes, thereis concern that it lacks the political will and institutionalcapacity to carry out such an ambitious reform agenda. Thegovernment has committed itself to promoting democracy,to building civil society and to social and economic reform.However, the restoration of Cambodia’s damaged physical,social and economic infrastructure will be a long process.EconomyThe recent peace and stability enjoyed by Cambodia havehad a positive affect on the struggling Cambodianeconomy, 3 following falls in growth in 1997 and 1998 (theperiod of the coup and the regional financial crisis and nationalelections). The years 1999 and 2000 saw growth ofbetween 4 and 4.5 per cent, according to the IMF. Duringthis period the currency remained stable at 3850 riels tothe US dollar, and the government increased its revenue to11 per cent of the GDP. The GDP in 1999 was US$3.1 billionand the GDP US$300 per capita, according to AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) estimates.Cambodia’s economy historically has been dominated bythe agricultural sector. The largest sub-sector is rice, andother significant sub-sectors include fisheries, livestock,timber and rubber. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries accountfor 48 per cent of the GDP and approximately 80–85 per cent of employment.There has been significant growth in the industrial and servicesectors in recent years. The service sector represents40 per cent of the GDP, which has until recently mostlyconsisted of trade, transport and real estate, but of whichtourism represents a rapidly growing sub-sector. The garmentindustry, food and wood processing and shoe manufacturingare the major contributors to industrial output,with the garment industry representing 90 per cent ofCambodia’s manufacturing exports and 38.8 per cent of allexports. The export garment and tourism industries aregrowing rapidly and are increasingly important sources ofrevenue for Cambodia. The value of these industries combinedincreased from US$64 million in 1998 to US$90 millionin 1999.Whilst significant gains have been made in improving ruralinfrastructure in some areas, limited government spendingin rural areas, particularly in irrigation systems, hinders thedevelopment of the agricultural economy. Whilst privateforeign investment is increasing, lack of adequate infrastructure,official corruption, poor application of fiscal policy andlack of a skilled labour force will hinder further developmentof the industrial sector.Cambodia will remain dependent on foreign aid for itsshort- and medium-term economic growth, as aid contributesmore than 40 per cent to government revenue. However,to achieve long-term economic growth the governmentmust face the challenge of laying the foundations forsound industrial and broad-based economy by increasingtaxation revenue; implementing widespread public-sectorreform, including trimming the size of civil services; andrestoring the human capital of the country.MethodThe study used focus groups when working with childrento gain their collective view on questions, which cover issuesof gender, participation, abuse and access. In three differentlocations 30 boys and 30 girls, aged 12 to 16, wereselected from two villages (180 children in total). The childrenwere surveyed in groups of 10 in each location. Somefocus groups were all male, some all female, and there wasone mixed group of five boys and five girls in each location.The study used semi-structured interviews for householdsurveys with 20 parents from two villages in each of thethree locations (60 parents in total). Interviews were alsoconducted with members of up to five government facilitiesin each location. Within each government facility interviewswere to be conducted not only with the head of theThe Girl-Child and Government Service Provision 11
Page 2 and 3: Copyright 2004 by World Vision Inte
Page 5: ContentsIntroduction ..............
Page 8 and 9: identified in the case studies that
Page 12 and 13: facility but also with staff member
Page 14 and 15: Literacy and educationAdult literac
Page 16 and 17: constrained by low funding; the nat
Page 18 and 19: Policewoman, for example, had 100 p
Page 20 and 21: EducationA deputy principal of a pr
Page 22 and 23: ObservationsThis study has focused
Page 24 and 25: Regulation and taxation neededCorru
Page 26 and 27: 7. What reasons does the family giv
Page 29 and 30: Girl-Child Accessto Government Soci
Page 31 and 32: class. According to a 1996 TDHS sur
Page 33 and 34: there is governmental inconsistency
Page 35 and 36: ole models. Other educational barri
Page 37 and 38: was collected face to face. The stu
Page 39 and 40: • Consultations: Institutions con
Page 41 and 42: Secondary schoolsTwo of the five vi
Page 43 and 44: This finding is consistent with nat
Page 45 and 46: Case story 3Mercy John, a 14-year-o
Page 47: Health workers’ viewsAll the heal
Page 50 and 51: Annex 2: Questions forinterviews wi
Page 52 and 53: Annex 6: Questions forfocus-group d
Page 54 and 55: Sepehri, A. 1992. ‘Balance of Pay
Page 56 and 57: equires the generation of condition
Page 59: Table 3-3. Interviews, April 28-May
Page 62 and 63:
Table 3-5. Working adolescentsLos C
Page 64 and 65:
Table 3-6. Household chores and lac
Page 66 and 67:
per cent of the population. However
Page 68 and 69:
Figure 3-7. Access to services in t
Page 70 and 71:
Annex 1Interviews, Stage 1, April 2
Page 72 and 73:
Education1. Who likes attending sch
Page 74 and 75:
3. What are the main reasons why bo
Page 76 and 77:
7. What do you think are the main p
Page 79 and 80:
World Development Report 2004and Gi
Page 81 and 82:
power and wealth. But it fails to d
Page 83 and 84:
economies of scale of setting up wa
Page 85 and 86:
Services and the girl-childThe serv
Page 87:
5The World Bank Annual Report 2003,
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