An innovative finance scheme has been developed as part of strengthening Cambodia’s water, sanitation and hygiene sector. The scheme includes incentive payments totaling nearly US$10 million to project implementers, if the country eliminates open defecation by 2025. It comes as part of Cambodia’s significant efforts to strengthen its sector, founded on a new National Action Plan. The national plan is built around key SWA principles, particularly on improving cross-sectoral cooperation and seeking new options for closing national sector finance gaps. It forges strong cross-sectoral links with nutrition programming, as well as with the education and health sectors, in order to build a strategy backed by a clear financial plan, rooted in multi-stakeholder engagement.
The National Action Plan is based on core principles championed by the SWA partnership, of multi-stakeholder, cross-sectoral co-operation, defining a clear path for Cambodia towards delivering the SDGs in the country. It highlights the importance of strengthening sectoral systems to help decision makers anticipate – and intervene – in areas where expected programming and financing gaps for the sector could hamper progress.
The Cambodia Rural Sanitation Development Impact Bond (DIB) supports USAID’s goal in Cambodia of supporting all Cambodians to live a healthy life. Using a private sector approach, this DIB develops market-based solutions to achieve universal sanitation coverage in Cambodia, which reduces stunting among children and prevents the spread of disease and contamination of drinking water.
A key part of Cambodia’s plan is the ambitious aim to eliminate open defecation by 2025, five years ahead of the SDG target. A stronger sector helps attract increased funding – and Cambodia has sought innovative ways to finance its ambitious goals. The first ‘development impact bond’ for the sector was rolled out in earnest across Cambodia during 2020. The programme draws on expertise of the private sector and the principle of payment by results, as opposed to traditional grant funding. The programme will pay out up to nearly $10 million, if it succeeds in achieving open defecation-free status for 1,600 villages in six Cambodian provinces by 2023.