The objective of this paper is to present the complexities of designing the pilot CCT
(Conditional Cash Transfer) scheme in Cambodia, focusing on the benefit level, potential
selected beneficiaries, and tentative costing in different scenarios. The four potential
beneficiaries for this paper are selected to address gaps in health, nutrition, and education.
They are: pregnant woman, infants (< 2 years old), children of primary-school-age, and those
of secondary school-age. If proven effective, targeted cash transfer programs linked to
education and health should be integrated, or at least harmonized. High impacts on poverty
rate are projected, mainly if transfers are directed to rural areas. The poverty rate in rural
areas is expected to be reduced from 28.13% in the base year 2010 to 27.10% in the CCT
scheme for pregnant women, to 25.54% for infants, to 22.68% for primary school children, and
to 24.20% for secondary school children. The total impact on rural poverty is a 13 percentage
point reduction in the rural poverty rate from the base year (from 28.13 to 15.13%). The
proposed CCT scheme, especially if targeted at the poor population, is estimated to reduce the
Gini-coefficient at the national level from 0.4191 to 0.3933. An annual budget of 0.95% of
GDP for all four scenarios is required to make this a reality (or 0.88% of GDP if limited to only
targeted poor beneficiaries in rural areas). The total government budget for social sector
ministries increased by 0.8 percentage points between 2006 and 2010, to 3.9% of gross
domestic product (GDP). Given this trend of increasing social budget as share of GDP, it is
secured that the proposed CCT scheme, at 0.88%, is in line with the government’s spending
capacity.