Country or Region: Cambodia
Sectors: Trade Policy
Client: European Commission
This project aimed to increase the integration of Cambodia in the international economy through increased participating in trade and frameworks that govern international trade in order to contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable development.
The project was a Results Oriented Monitoring (ROM) covering the European Commission’s contribution to a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) administered by the World Bank in support of the Trade Development Support Programme (TDSP), which aims at increasing the Kingdom of Cambodia’s capacity to formulate and implement sound trade policies leading to transparency and efficiency in trade-related transactions and export competitiveness, and at supporting the implementation of the Kingdom of Cambodia’s Diagnostic Trade Integration Strategy in the context of the EIF through institutional and human capacity building.
The project is also aligned with Cambodia’s Trade Sector-Wide Approach which is based on 3 pillars:
- Cross-cutting issues and legal reform;
- Product and Service Export Sectors Development;
- Capacity Development for Trade.
The Results Oriented Monitoring consisted in providing external and objective feedback on the performance of the European Commission’s aid projects and programmes on the following topics: quality of project design, efficiency to date, effectiveness to date, impact prospects, potential sustainability, horizontal and cross-cutting issues. These topics have been analysed thanks to a series of performance indicators and granted an overall grade, after desk-based and field-based data collection.
The project was expected to improve governance quality and capacity to formulate and implement trade policies, to strengthen government leadership in the allocation and harmonization of donor assistance flows, and to encourage the Government’s longer-term transition from state control on the private sector’s activities to an enabling environment for private sector initiatives.
This project led to the production of a monitoring report and background conclusion sheet. In addition, recommendations were formulated for each topic as well as for the overall implementation of the Trade Development Support Programme, in particular regarding the engagement, coordination and cooperation of stakeholders and implementing agencies.
