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“Capacity: Helping Countries Lead” is among Oxfam America's latest research and policy reports. (Photo: By Soeung Sophat VOA, Khmer)

Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington, D.C Wednesday, 15 September 2010

“We talk a lot about investing in the recipients' ability to do things for themselves, but we don’t always deliver our aid in ways that make that easy for people. A lot of times, we fund the things that we think poor people in developing countries need, rather than taking the time to listen to what poor people and their governments say they need.”

Cambodia and other countries should be encouraged to develop their own plans for progress, an international development group says in a new report.

In its “Capacity: Helping Countries Lead,” Oxfam America said developing countries could benefit more from US aid if they were given room to make their own plans for it.

“We talk a lot about investing in the recipients' ability to do things for themselves, but we don’t always deliver our aid in ways that make that easy for people,” Gregory Adams, director of aid effectiveness at Oxfam America, told VOA Khmer Monday. “A lot of times, we fund the things that we think poor people in developing countries need, rather than taking the time to listen to what poor people and their governments say they need.”