NGOs may have stymied health care in Cambodia

 23-Jan-17, The Phnom Penh Post 

A new study examining the development of health care in post-conflict societies suggests that the influx of NGOs in Cambodia may have weakened the government health sector.

Image: Tang Chhin Sothy / AFP

The report, published last week by BioMed Central, compares Cambodia’s health care development after the fall of the Khmer Rouge to post-conflict health care development in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

The study concludes that Cambodia has been more dependent on health NGOs for a longer period of time than the other case studies. While it does acknowledge that “international aid was critical to support the country’s reconstruction”, the study also claims that conflicting agendas “did not help strengthening government stewardship and ownership of health sector development in the post-conflict period”.

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