Developing a Commune Service Levy in Cambodia

After creating elected commune governments in 2001, the Government of Cambodia is considering enhancement of their resources by creating a service levy based on land characteristics. As part of a United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) technical assistance effort to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the Capstone team is performing background research and developing case studies on various options for instituting the levy. The team is also developing data collection instruments to help the MEFdecide if and how to pursue this reform as part of its larger efforts to support the service delivery capacity of new local governments and to improve accountability to their constituents.