Analysis of Cambodia’s Preparedness for the Implementation of Cambodia's Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges, Opportunities and Financing

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), envisioned, on top of all, to slash world poverty by half, will end this December 2015. The post MDGs development agenda termed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will pursue the un(der)achieved goals of MDGs and require all governments, developed and developing, to work together to achieve the indivisible vision combining environmental sustainability, economic development and inclusion.​This research report argues that Cambodia has proven gradually more capable in various fashions such as resources mobilization, having a good knowledge about what works and does not work (priority is on growth and less on governance) for country‘s development, and better ownership of the development agenda in the context of uncoordinated and competing development partners. Therefore Cambodia would be in a better position to implement the possible Cambodia version of SDGs than during the past 15 years through which it has implemented Cambodian MDGs (CMDGs). The profound challenge for Cambodia is to negotiate with the international players for political space that would allow the government to adopt its Cambodian SDGs that are feasible for the local context and that do not pose significant barriers to growth.