Bretton Woods Project
The Cambodian government has been under a [World] Bank lending freeze over a controversial land-titling project, financed by the Bank, that resulted in the evictions of the Boeung Kak lake community in Phnom Penh (see Update 75). Following the violent repression of protests and the arrest of local activists in May, 127 Cambodian and international civil society groups sent a letter to then Bank president Robert Zoellick and president-elect Jim Yong Kim, urging the Bank to "ensure a fair resolution for the displaced and excluded families before the Bank provides any further financing to the [Cambodian government]". Natalie Bugalski and David Pred, of NGO Inclusive Development International, argued in June that the "Bank is in a rare position to push that agenda forward by making it clear that it will maintain the lending freeze until ... a comprehensive agreement is reached with the majority of Boeung Kak households who are still awaiting a remedy."
Bugalski also wrote a discussion paper, launched by NGO Equitable Cambodia and German political foundation Heinrich Boell in late May. Eang Vuthy of Equitable Cambodia explained that the paper "was written against a backdrop of increasing forced evictions, displacement and landlessness in Cambodia, and the regular granting of dubious economic land concessions that are now estimated to cover a total land mass equivalent to over half of the country’s arable land". In it, Bugalski proposes a framework for a human rights approach "to development interventions in the land sector [in Cambodia], in which processes and tools that elevate rights, transparency and accountability are incorporated throughout the project cycle and broader country strategy."
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