Funding Cut

In response to Louise Coventry’s article, “Cambodia’s NGO Sector Is Collapsing. Does It Matter?” Heike Löschmann examines what Cambodia stands to lose as international funding declines. Moving beyond the survival of individual organisations, she asks how independent civic functions, accumulated expertise and the capacity to defend rights can be sustained—and what responsibility international partners have for the transition.

Focusing on the concrete institutional pressures currently facing Cambodian civil society organisations, this article examines shrinking funding landscapes, operational fragmentation, and emerging ecosystem approaches. It highlights collaboration, shared infrastructures, AI-supported adaptation, and public trust as key dimensions of future civic resilience.

This introductory reflection examines Cambodia’s historically externally shaped civil society landscape at a moment of profound transition. Against the backdrop of shrinking development cooperation and changing geopolitical realities, it argues for a broader rethinking of dependency, resilience, and development pathways — while exploring how this shift may also open space for more locally rooted, collaborative, and adaptive forms of civic organization.

This think piece is not a roadmap but a provocation—a call to rethink, reimagine, and reorient Cambodian civil society in a moment of deep crisis. There is no golden bullet, but a chance to build something new and enduring.