Policy Lab was designed to develop a considered and critical policy culture in Cambodia through engagement with, and connections between, multiple levels of Cambodian civil society, working towards equitable development through policy conception and implementation. By engaging mentors from existing civil society organizations, the Policy Lab initiative can embed the program more deeply and ensure maximum sustainable impact and engagement.

The agricultural sector continues to contribute to Cambodia’s economic development and the products of this sector are increasing year after year. However, some farmers experience a lack of demand for their product, leading to products either rotting away after not being bought or being purchased at low prices that make profit nearly impossible. Development of the food industry is essential. This paper examines how the development of food science and the role of R&D in the food industry could positively impact the agriculture sector.

While the quality of education has somewhat improved over the last decades, Cambodia still faces many challenges, one of which is educational mismatch. This paper recommends creating an online digital platform where students can find information and advice on choosing an appropriate major at university to help mitigate the problem.

While Cambodia is on the path toward a digital economy and is integrating into the global fourth industrial revolution, its labor market still faces issues of skills shortages and gaps in meeting the demands of the business sector. With increasing labor costs and a low degree of diversification, Cambodia may soon lose out to competition from neighboring countries. As a means to address the skill gaps especially on soft skills, this paper proposes a youth up-skill project-based learning project to be integrated into the higher education curriculum to enhance or replace the requisite ‘major assignment.’

There are nearly 5 million Cambodians that have no access to electricity and are reliant on firewood or batteries; with the Royal Government of Cambodia aiming to provide full accessibility to all rural areas by 2030. This paper discusses how, in order to promote solar panel installment throughout the country, the government should work with related ministries and deliver policy recommendations such as promoting lump-sum subsidies, reducing taxes on solar panels, providing loans via microfinance companies and providing technical assistants from developing partners to rural areas to increase the affordability of solar panels.

As Cambodian society keeps developing, the number of social media users, especially Facebook users, also keeps going up. Hence, quality news is needed, so that people who are on the internet can be informed correctly and properly. As the problem grows bigger and bigger, what can be done at the professional level? What can professional journalists do to combat fake news? And how can people, from the grassroots level, protect themselves from fake news? This paper suggests that social media itself can be used as a tool to spread media literacy knowledge, in the form of Facebook campaigns that educate people on how fake news or disinformation is spread.

In response to the influence and domination of foreign languages, Cambodian authors must be encouraged and supported as their achievements are an essential contribution in helping to protect and foster the development of Khmer literature. With that in mind, this paper suggests establishing a Khmer Literature website to encourage Khmer authors to publish online.

The majority of NCDs in Cambodia are cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, which are leading to a growing burden on the health care system. Risk factors that contribute to NCDs include tobacco use, poor diet, alcohol consumption and physical inactivity. This paper makes a series of recommendations to address these risk factors. In particular, the paper outlines a prototype for a smoking cessation counseling program among health science curricula.

Thanks to the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), our lives have been transformed in macro and micro ways. The government can deploy ICT to provide better public services, disseminate information to the public, communicate with businesses, as well as collaborate better internally. It has been a global trend for the public sector to adopt ICTs, in what is called e-governance. This paper examines the state of e-government in Cambodia and potential yields and benefits of adopting ICTs in the public sector.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for 64% of Cambodia’s deaths, with risk factors including tobacco and alcohol consumption, air pollution, poor diet, and physical inactivity (World Health Organization). The focus of this paper is the NCD risk factor physical inactivity, particularly that amongst office workers.

The expansion of industrial and construction sectors, rapid growth in urban population and the increased use of motor vehicles is contributing to increasingly poor-quality air in major cities, including in Cambodia. To tackle this problem, this policy paper proposes the idea of ‘Green Friday, ’a social movement campaign which aims to reduce the air pollution in Phnom Penh by encouraging people to use green transport beginning with one day a week by using a motivational intervention called ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve-Reward’.

Balancing daycare and income generation is a recurring gendered challenge encountered by mothers around the world, especially in developing countries. Cambodian mothers, in general, have faced a daycare barrier to maternal employment, and have experienced great consequences disproportionately bearing the brunt of unpaid caregiving responsibilities when daycare is either inaccessible or unaffordable. This policy paper proposes three policy alternatives: promote an enterprise-based system, encourage factory workers to utilize the daycare centers at the factories, and establish a negative income tax system.