Economist in Cambodia

What kind of socioeconomic analysis is most relevant for decision-makers to chart and cost practical policy measures? This is what preoccupies Kongchheng Poch, the economist in the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Cambodia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kongchheng led, in close collaboration with UN entities, various analyses such as an assessment of socio-economic impact of the pandemic on Cambodia and policy responses to inform the UN’s support to the Government in  the face of such crisis. This enabled the UN to put forward a comprehensive economic and social protection policy options to ensure that livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable populations are protected, and its socio-economic impact is mitigated.  Kongchheng plays a key role in enabling successful UN country team joint programme submissions to the UN’s Joint SDG Fund, such as credit guarantee for women-owned enterprises. 

Kongchheng is proud of a recent short deployment to the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Indonesia under UN’s capacity sharing modality, during which he produced an analytical paper on the impact of the Ukraine war on Indonesia, which aims to inform UN Indonesia proposals to engage the government on measures needed to mitigate the negative impacts on the most vulnerable populations.