Our Australian Social Program for Inclusive Rural Enterprise (ASPIRE) supports the development of cooperative social enterprises (CSEs) in the provinces of Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmum, focusing on building pathways to economic sustainability and expanding financial inclusion among women, people with disabilities, and youth in rural Cambodia.
Small enterprises across Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmum provinces struggle to access the capital, skills, and support networks needed to start, formalise, and grow. Rural entrepreneurs, particularly women, people with disabilities, and youth, often lack access to affordable credit, leaving viable business ideas unfunded entirely. Many small enterprises operate informally, with limited financial record-keeping, budgeting, or business planning capability.
ASPIRE helps establish and build cooperatives, helping cooperatives graduate toward self-sufficiency and reliably serve members' business needs. It delivers financial literacy training that equips entrepreneurs with budgeting, record-keeping, and planning skills needed to formalise and grow their enterprises. By deliberately expanding women's representation in cooperative leadership, the program also improves gender and social inclusion.
As cooperatives mature, entrepreneurs gain lasting access to affordable finance, enabling businesses to formalise, grow, and create stable local income and employment. Sustained gains in women's leadership embed more inclusive governance as the norm within cooperatives. Together, these outcomes strengthen household economic resilience and Cambodia's rural finance sector, reducing reliance on informal lending and establishing a durable, locally-led model for cooperative enterprise development.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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