Background

In March 5, 1998, the Urban Poor Development Fund (UPDF) was set up as joint venture of Phnom Penh’s network of community saving groups, the Municipality of Phnom Penh and the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). Until the end of 2011, UPDF’s ages are 13 years. Since the signing of the MOU, many achievements have been made in improving the housing and development situation of the urban poor, and the activities of the UPDF have expanded beyond Phnom Penh into other Cambodian cities and also into rural areas. A national slum mapping survey was carried out, with the participation of local communities, to identify all communities facing housing problems and insecure tenure. Communities have been organizedto form into networks of the urban poor, and have set up savings and credit groups, for activities ranging from housing upgrading to livelihood projects.Now, UPDF support community development onlyin Phnom Penh. Base on the experiences and the principal guideline of UPDF, the Community Development Foundation (CDF) was registeredby law in Ministry of interior to support community development both in urban and rural area of Cambodia. So, since January 2012, CDF has been developing the own managing structure to continue supporting the activities of Community Saving Network of Cambodia (CSNC), Community Development Fund (CDF) at city and provincial level in collaboration with local authorities and funding agencies in all level focusing on community-led the own development process in Cambodia.