39th History
From 2024, under new leadership, and as development trends have changed rapidly, the NGOF and its members have adopted a new strategic plan for 2024-2030 or Vision 2030 named "METRI - Multi-stakeholders Engagement for Transformative, Resilient and Inclusive Society). The plan focuses on influencing policies and legal frameworks, solidarity and civic actions, and resilience of civil society organizations to promote inclusive and green growth, climate resilience and natural governance, public financial management, and civil society effectiveness and sustainability. Vision 2030 responds systematically to the needs of civil society organizations and contributes significantly to achieving the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “plan of action for people, prosperity and planet”, as well as Cambodia’s Sustainable Development Goals (CSDGs), Pentagonal Strategy Phase I, the National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP), the National Program on Sub-National Democratic Development Phase 2, and other sectoral plans
The NGOF has a long history. It was established in the 1980s by international NGOs working together to advocate an end to the international aid embargo on Cambodia, promote the need for humanitarian assistance, and support the peacebuilding process in Cambodia. At that time, a small number of international NGOs worked in Cambodia in defiance of the aid embargo, but local NGOs were not allowed to exist.
International NGOs continued to play a dominant role in the NGOF up until 1996, when the NGOF’s International Steering Committee was disbanded and replaced by a local Management Committee. From 1997 onwards, local NGOs became increasingly involved in NGOF, with meetings held predominately in Khmer and with Cambodians playing the dominant role in NGOF activities. In the year 2000, the NGOF voted in a fully Cambodian Management Committee for the first time. In 2006, the NGOF appointed its first Cambodian Executive Director.
Due to rapid growth and new issues, the NGOF expanded its staff to meet the expectations of member organizations. It began to strengthen cooperation with provincial NGOs and to help NGOs build advocacy-linkages from the grassroots to the national level aimed at strengthening the effectiveness of NGO advocacy on land issues. NGOF extended its engagement with CBOs engaged in Community Forestry (CF), Community Fishery (Cfi), and Agriculture Cooperatives (Cs) in Cambodia.
Since then, the NGOF has continued to focus on policy advocacy in the areas of natural resource governance, development policies, land and livelihoods, environment, agriculture, climate change, and socio-economic development. Especially, the NGOF has made significant contributions to the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), and Public Financial Management Reform.
After the Paris Peace Accords in 1991, local NGOs were allowed to form, and the NGO Forum became a Cambodian-based membership organization for both local and international NGOs. NGOF began to work on a broader range of issues, such as an international ban on land mines, the creation of a permanent tribunal for crimes against humanity, and concerns about the impacts of development aid.
The NGOF facilitated its members and NGO networks working on Gender, Trade and Economic Development, Environmental Awareness, Pesticides Reduction, Mekong Basin Community Rights, Land Rights, Resettlement, and Forest Livelihoods.
In 2012, the NGOF shifted its registration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and was registered with the Ministry of Interior (under the reference Sor Cho Nor #304, issued on 07 March 2012).