Development Watch

 


The Development Watch project aims to promote a human rights approach to development by conducting monitoring, research, analysis and advocacy on the activities of major foreign business and development actors operating in Cambodia.  Development Watch conducts research and evidence-based advocacy on activities that have the potential to cause large-scale displacement or environmental destruction in an effort to hold responsible business and development actors accountable. Through this work, Development Watch promotes the following principles:


  • The poor should not be forced to pay the price of development, but should be its primary beneficiaries.
  • Local communities should be active and informed participants in decisions about development that affect them. 
  • The fruits of development should be equitably distributed.
  • Development activities should respect and progressively fulfill human rights without discrimination on any basis.

Development Watch is currently monitoring and campaigning on three major cases or sectors where we believe evidence-based advocacy has a significant likelihood of being successful and creating important precedents. 

 

The rapidly growing sugar industry in Cambodia has led to significant environmental destruction, forced displacement and impoverishment of local communities, and other serious human rights violations. Following extensive research and documentation conducted by Development Watch, BABC has joined forces with affected communities and other concerned organizations to launch the Cambodian Clean Sugar Campaign.  

 

Development Watch has conducted extensive research on the Cambodian land sector and has been advocating for the land sector donors – which include the World Bank, Canada, Germany, and Finland - to apply a rights-based approach to their assistance to this sector. BAB Cambodia published the findings of its research in its 2009 report Untitled: Tenure Insecurity and Inequality in Cambodian Land Sector. This action research led to the submission of a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel on the Land Management and Administration Project.

 

Development Watch is also closely monitoring the Rehabilitation of the Cambodian Railways Project, financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AusAID.  This project will affect at least 3800 families and preliminary research and analysis conducted by BABC suggests that resettlement planning and implementation thus far have been woefully inadequate.  Development Watch is conducting rigorous monitoring, research and analysis of this project in order to inform evidence-based advocacy and ensure future compliance with resettlement safeguards and remedies for any harm done.