Coordinator: Heidi Dahles
Funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research

This program addresses institutional change in the foreign-dominated ‘development industry’ in Cambodia. The context within which this institutional change obtains significance is shaped by the current Western practice of promoting democracy and the strong (East) Asian economic presence. Cambodia constitutes a battlefield for influence of outside actors, creating opportunities and threats for (newly emerging and established) Cambodian actors. The focus is on the partly conflicting and partly converging interests and practices of these competing actors and their unforeseen and unintended consequences. The following projects under this program are currently:

• Local NGOs balancing between social value creation and profit-making: the dawn of the social enterprise? (Dr. Khieng Sothy, Researcher at CDRI, Phnom Penh and International Fellow at the Department of IBAS and GAI).
• Korea’s investments in Cambodia’s agricultural sector: an alternative path to development? (Ms. Tea San, PhD candidate at VU University Amsterdam and International Fellow at the Department of IBAS).
• The Business of Higher Education in Cambodia (Mr. Sam Chanphirun, PhD candidate at VU University Amsterdam and International Fellow at the Department of IBAS).