Country-level effectiveness and accountability review (CLEAR) : Cambodia

Donor successes in Cambodia to date can be attributed to a shared vision of a commercial microfinance industry characterized by sustained deployment of skilled technical expertise; performance-based contracts; highly effective support to the Cambodian government in building a regulatory and supervisory framework conducive to pro-poor financial institutions; and the ability to alter funding strategies as the industry grew and matured. Today, the challenge for the donor community working in Cambodia is to support the successful integration of microfinance into the national financial system. Although crucial gaps exist at all three levels of the financial system (micro, meso, and macro), the meso-level requires the most urgent attention, both to consolidate retail institutions and to promote transparency. At the meso-level (e.g., skilled technical service providers, auditors, credit bureaus, etc.), donors are encouraged to support a commercially-based wholesale capital market for microfinance, develop local technical expertise, support the institutional growth of the Cambodian Microfinance Association, and facilitate the exchange of debtor information among MFIs (with the ultimate goal of creating a credit bureau).