Australian Ambassador Angela Corcoran speaks during the launch of Ponlok Chomnes on Thursday. The Asia Foundation
The Asia Foundation (TAF) and the Australian Embassy on Thursday launched the Ponlok Chomnes: Data and Dialogue for Development programme to promote quality research and evidence-based policy-making.
The programme is to run for three years until 2022 with A$2.9 million (US$1.9 million) in support from the Australian Embassy.
Implemented by TAF, the initiative is to encourage evidence-based policy dialogue between policy-makers, think tanks, universities, consulting firms and NGOs, the Australian Embassy said on Thursday.
“Today’s launch marks the very start of seeking ways in which we can communicate and engage with a whole range of people, including the public, on important issues of policy and research.
“The programme is to be as inclusive as possible to promote inclusive conversation,” TAF Country Representative Meloney Lindberg told The Post on Thursday.
TAF is to work with a set of partners that will support the programme, she said.
“We will also work with a range of smaller partners who will potentially be doing very specific issue-based research, maybe smaller in scale to enable them to be part of the conversation,” Lindberg said.
Australian Ambassador Angela Corcoran told journalists at the launch that Ponlok Chomnes aimed to promote capacity strengthening in Cambodian research institutions and the knowledge sector in the undertaking of quality research for policy-making.
The programme was a very important addition to the policy development process as Cambodia continued to grow, she said.
“Cambodia aspires to be a high-income country by 2050. To reach this goal, it will be critical for policy-makers to use solid evidence to inform their decisions in the coming decades.
“The Ponlok Chomnes programme will help civil society and the government prepare for the increasingly complex challenges Cambodia will face as national wealth increases.
“Ponlok Chomnes will complement the long-standing policy development links between Australian and Cambodian institutions in areas such as agriculture, health, trade and economic reform,” Corcoran said.
The initiative, she said, would hopefully encourage the people to participate in the public policy process by becoming involved in the discussion.
Corcoran said Australia had supplied Cambodia with more than A$1.3 billion in support through regional and global programmes over the past 25 years.
The embassy said the programme would help promote the connections between Cambodian organisations and research institutions in Asean nations and Australia.
