Assessing the Local Civil Services Influencing Human Development in Cambodia: Good Governance and Its Relationship with Economic Growth

  • Samnang Ouk Asia Euro University, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • Sarom Mok Main Advisor, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • Sarin Chey Co-advisor, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • Chivin Chuon Committee, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Keywords: Local Civil Services, Human Development, Good Governance. Economic Growth

Abstract

The foundation of public policy is the advancement of human prosperity on local administration. This work investigates the relationship between local public service quality and human development results. It deviates from previous studies that mostly focus on general indicators of good governance and their connection to economic expansion. Rather of focusing only on economic growth, this study isolates local civil service quality as a sub-component of good governance and investigates its relationship with human development. In particular, it assesses how human development is influenced by impartiality and meritocratic employment in the local public sector—two fundamental components of local civil service quality. Targeted samples were collected from 5-targeted District Administration with various provinces in Cambodia. Also, data were adapted and summarized from the Varieties of Democracy Indictors, the Worldwide Governance Indicators, and the World Development Indicators in order to supplement with the real data. Collected data were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS program. And, a two-way fixed effects model is used in analyzing the data. The findings show that, even when concentrating on the non-income aspects of human development, higher levels of local public service impartiality are consistently linked to higher levels of human development. In settings with lower levels of development, this correlation is stronger. Because estimations are only meaningful at lower stages of human development, the association is weaker for meritocratic employment. This study directly affects whether public administration strengthening should be given top priority in development programs as a way to promote human development in local administration in Cambodia.

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Published
2026-06-14
How to Cite
Ouk, S., Sarom Mok, Sarin Chey, & Chivin Chuon. (2026). Assessing the Local Civil Services Influencing Human Development in Cambodia: Good Governance and Its Relationship with Economic Growth. International Journal of Education, Vocational and Social Science , 5(03), 1170-1188. https://doi.org/10.63922/ijevss.v5i03.4292