USAID IN CAMBODIA, August 29, 2025
As a United States citizen, I respect the United States Government’s need to rebalance and reconsider strategy and whether it has the right people to implement new strategies, and in the context of United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s policies in Southeast Asia, and particularly Cambodia, there’s a good deal of room for improvement and change. The two caveats for any new strategies should not be old ways repackaged in different terms and examples of success in the past should not be discarded if they remain good ideas for the future.
The United States Government needs to open its perspective to see the world not in terms of the strategies of local staff who frequently rotate in/out of the country and region before they truly understand it, but trusted civil society, government, intergovernmental and private actors who are vested in the country and regional success.
– YOUK CHHANG
Director, Documentation Center of Cambodia
e: dccam@online.com.kh
February 3, 2025
*USAID/Cambodia officially closed on August 15, 2025, after more than three decades in the country, noted by USAID Mission Director Kerry Pelzman.
Photo by Heng Sinith
