Public Lecture "Social Innovation and Development"

Synopsis:

Cambodia has enjoyed high economic development over the last two decades, with a GDP growth rate of slightly above 7%. However, the benefits from development have not been fairly distributed which led to widening development gap between the rich and the poor, between the urban and the rural areas. Environmental degradation particularly deforestation, land disputes, social injustice, and social inclusiveness remain the key development issues in the country. This talk suggests that one of the key solutions to resolve these issues is through the promoting and nurturing of social innovation.  Social innovation refers to the process of generating novel solutions to social problem and need through building multi-stakeholder partnership. The main goal of social innovation is to build a sustainable, resilient, and mutually supportive community.  The talk will introduce the evolving concept and understanding of social innovation in Cambodia, the nexus between social innovation and development, and propose actionable policy recommendations on how to promote social innovation in Cambodia.

About the speaker
 
Vannarith Chheang currently is an advisor to the Enrich Institute, senior fellow at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, a co-founder and chairman of Cambodian Institute for Strategic Studies, and a columnist of the Khmer Times. He previously served as the Executive Director of Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (2009-2013). He used to serve as a technical adviser to the Cambodian National Assembly, helping to organize the 32nd ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, and supported the Ministry of National Defence of Cambodia to host the Sixth ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting. He has been awarded numerous fellowships, including T-wai's Global Emerging Voices programme (2013), the Nippon Foundation Fellowship for Asian Public Intellectuals (2013-2014), France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Personalités d'avenir (2012), the CSIS Pacific Leadership Program (2010) and the East-West Center's Asia Pacific Leadership Program (2008). He has also been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO) in Tokyo (2012) and a South-East Asia Fellow at the East-West Center in Washington (2010). His research interests include regionalism, governance and development, foreign policy analysis, security community, and social innovation with a focus on East Asia.