03 2019 SUPPORTING STATE-BUILDING FOR DEMOCRATISATION? A STUDY OF 20 YEARS OF SWEDISH DEMOCRACY AID TO CAMBODIA Henny Andersen, Karl-Anders Larsson and Joakim Öjendal Supporting State-Building for Democratisation? A Study of 20 Years of Swedish Democracy Aid to Cambodia Henny Andersen, Karl-Anders Larsson and Joakim Öjendal Rapport 2019:03 till Expertgruppen för biståndsanalys (EBA) Please refer to the present report as: Andersen, Henny, Karl-Anders Larsson and Joakim Öjendal (2019), Supporting State- Building for Democratisation? A Study of 20 Years of Swedish Democracy Aid to Cambodia, EBA Report 2019:03, The Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA), Sweden. This report can be downloaded free of charge at www.eba.se This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN 978-91-88143-47-1 Printed by Elanders Sverige AB Stockholm 2019 Cover design by Julia Demchenko Henny Andersen has 40 years of experience in development cooperation. She now manages a consultancy firm (Just(e) Analysis) specialising in appraisals and evaluations, and with a focus on monitoring the results of democratic and social accountability, multidimensional poverty and gender equality. Her experience from South-East Asia dates back to the early 1980s, including experience from research cooperation through Stockholm School of Economics, from holding positions within the Swedish Government staff, and from consultancies. Karl-Anders Larsson has 40 years of experience from working with analysis and implementation of development assistance, at Sida and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and as a consultant. His main focus has been on macroeconomics, public financial management, poverty reduction and aid effectiveness, in general and in several countries in Africa and South-East Asia (including Cambodia). Joakim Öjendal is a Professor of Peace and Development Research at the School Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg. He has a long-standing interest in research on post- conflict reconstruction, peace building, and democratisation globally. He has been involved in Cambodia since the early 1990s, specialising in local aspects of democratisation during the last decade. In addition, he has worked as a consultant for organisations including the UNDP, the World Bank, the EU and the Asia Foundation. In the appendix “The authors’ previous work in Cambodia”, further details are presented regarding each author’s previous involvement in Cambodia, to allow readers to form their own assessment of whether the authors’ previous work in Cambodia are assets for this study or raise concerns about potential bias on the part of the authors. Acknowledgements We would first and foremost like to extend our gratitude and thanks to the reference group that has supported us during the study process, consisting of the chair Fredrik Uggla and members Brittis Edman, Göran Holmqvist, Börje Ljunggren and Astrid Norén- Nilsson. We are also grateful to Lena Johansson de Chateau of the EBA secretariat for her support throughout the process, as well as to her EBA colleagues for assisting us in disseminating and communicating our study results. We would then like to express our particular appreciation and gratitude to all those in Cambodia and Sweden who helped us by offering their time and sharing their invaluable insights and experiences from more than 20 years of development cooperation between Sweden and Cambodia. The views expressed in this study, as well as any errors and omissions, are those of the authors. Table of Contents Foreword by the EBA 1 Sammanfattning 3 Summary 12 1. Background and Rationale 21 1.1 Introduction 21 1.2 The rationale for choosing Cambodia 21 1.3 The rationale for selecting case study areas 23 2. Purpose and Methodology 24 2.1 Study purpose and approach 24 2.2 Human rights – a pillar of democracy 25 2.3 Study methodology 26 2.4 Contextual dynamics 29 2.5 Study design 30 3. Unpacking the Concepts of Democracy and Democracy Aid 32 3.1 Comprehensive political settlement of the Cambodia conflict and democracy 32 3.2 Swedish definitions and underlying theories of democracy and human rights 34 3.3 Typology and models of democracy 36 3.4 Supporting democratisation 40 3.5 Analytical framework for case studies 43 4. The Cambodian Context 45 4.1 Institutions for democracy and human rights 45 4.2 Performance for development and democracy 47 4.3 Cambodia’s political development 50 4.4 Overview of the Government’s long-term strategies 56 4.5 International donors in Cambodia 59 5. Swedish Context 64 5.1 Swedish aid to Cambodia – overview and context 64 5.2 The Swedish role in promoting democracy and human rights in Cambodia 73 5.3 Comparing the Cambodian and Swedish perceptions of democracy and human rights 76 6. Case Studies 79 6.1 Decentralisation and democratic development in Cambodia 80 6.2 Education and democratic development in Cambodia 106 6.3 Civil society and democratic development in Cambodia 137 7. Overall Concluding Analysis and Lessons Learned 167 7.1 Contribution to democratisation and human rights as seen in the cases 168 7.2 The Swedish overall contribution to democracy and human rights in Cambodia 177 7.3 Lessons learned 181 7.4 Policy implications for future democracy support 189 References 191 List of abbreviations 209 Appendix: The authors’ previous work in Cambodia 216 Foreword by the EBA Democracy and human rights are core values for Swedish development cooperation. The present study assesses the long-term effects of Swedish development assistance to Cambodia in the area of democracy and human rights. The report is the result of an open invitation for country evaluations by the Swedish government’s Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA) in 2017, and is thus one of several EBA evaluations that have studied the long-term effects of Swedish development cooperation in individual countries.1 Spanning twenty years of cooperation, from 1997 to 2017, the study scrutinizes the influence of Swedish support on democracy and human rights and what can be learned from those experiences. Furthermore, the study has been conducted in parallel to the EBA report 2019:04, which focuses on a specific programme for decentralization, local democracy and local economic development in Cambodia, a program that is also considered in the present evaluation. The total Swedish assistance to Cambodia between 1997 and 2017 amounted to 4 billion SEK, and was largely directed towards democracy and human rights, including contributions to decentralization, education and civil society. In terms of the size of its financial contribution, Sweden currently ranks third among bilateral EU donors to Cambodia, following France and Germany. The evaluation concludes that, overall, Swedish long-term commitment to Cambodia has, in fact, contributed to promote democratic development, particularly at the local level. Furthermore, Swedish development assistance has assisted in strengthening the country’s civil society and its education system. For the future, the authors recommend to continue development assistance to Cambodia in order to counter authoritarian tendencies. To bring such support to its full potential, Swedish assistance should be based on in-depth risk analysis, be flexible and be ready to deal 1 Other country evaluations from the EBA are: Bosnia & Herzegovina (EBA Report 2018:10): Tanzania (EBA Report 2016:10) and Uganda (EBA Report 2016:09). 1 with political and economic changes in the country. Moreover, the study suggests that institutional support alone is not enough to promote democracy and human rights. Hence, support to civil society needs to supplement support to the state. The democracy support provided should focus on strengthening the interaction between state actors, and between state and civil society while taking account of cultural and political conditions. I hope that this report will find its intended audience among decision- and policy-makers at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Sida, as well as among readers in civil society, the research community and the general public who are interested in Swedish development cooperation with Cambodia. Also, people with an interest in democracy and human rights, including the evaluation of democracy and human rights support, will hopefully find the report rewarding. The study has been conducted in dialogue with a reference group chaired by Fredrik Uggla, member of the EBA. However, the authors are solely responsible for the contents of the report. Gothenburg, June 2019 Helena Lindholm 2 Sammanfattning Sveriges stöd till Kambodja inleddes med nödhjälp och humanitärt bistånd i slutet av 1970-talet när den folkmordsregim som letts av De röda khmererna föll. Från mitten av 1990-talet övergick svenskt bistånd till att stödja återuppbyggnad och utveckling. Den första landstrategin för långsiktigt svenskt bistånd till Kambodja godkändes för åren 1997–1998. Den nu gällande landstrategin gäller till slutet av 2019. Demokrati och mänskliga rättigheter (D/MR) har sedan 1990- talet varit ett viktigt mål i svenskt utvecklingssamarbete, så även i samarbetet med Kambodja. Denna studie spänner över åren 1997– 2017 och syftar till att besvara följande frågeställningar: Har svenskt bistånd haft inflytande på förändringar relevanta för D/MR i Kambodja? Om så är fallet: på vilket sätt och i vilken utsträckning? Vilka lärdomar kan dras av utvecklingssamarbetet över tid och hur kan lärdomarna bidra i till dagens samarbete med Kambodja inom demokrati och mänskliga rättigheter? Metod Studien bygger på en omfattande genomgång av dokumentation och intervjuer med intressenter i Kambodja och Sverige. Rapporten innehåller tre delar, var och en med egen analytisk ansats och metod. Den första delen är en sammanfattande analys av politiska och socio-ekonomiska förhållanden och övergripande processer i Kambodja över tid, samt en sammanfattande analys av svenskt utvecklingssamarbete med Kambodja. Den andra delen innehåller fallstudier av svenskt bistånd till tre områden som fått svenskt stöd under åren 1997–2017: i) decentralisering och lokal demokrati; ii) undervisning; och iii) civila samhället.