Our History
In 1991, Cambodia emerged from 30 years of devastation and isolation to begin its journey towards democracy. After having suffered the purge of virtually all experts in every field – health care, education, law and justice, religion, politics, business, social services – during the Pol Pot years, the country had been shut off from the rest of the world during the years of socialist rule. Cambodia had started developing in those years, but an international embargo preventing outside support from the UN and Western countries had left the task to be done with no infrastructure and only residual scraps of knowledge from the period before 1975. Cambodia remained unexposed to 30 years of dramatic changes in all domains and especially in technology. The 1991 Paris Peace Agreements and the establishment of a framework for democracy led to a new, more promising phase of rebuilding.
In early 2002, Pact Cambodia, under the guidance of an Advocacy Advisory Committee composed of representatives from nine Cambodian and international NGOs, initiated research into advocacy campaigns conducted in Cambodia from 1997 to 2001. This research highlighted the pressing need for Cambodian civil society actors to increase their advocacy skills and to create stronger relationships with Government. In order to respond to this need, the Advocacy and Policy programme (APP) was established in July 2003.
The APP was housed with Pact, an international NGO with headquarters in Washington D.C., USA. The goal of the Advisory Committee however had always been for the APP to ultimately localise and become a sustainable and independent Cambodian organisation. In 2007, APP finally changed its name to “Advocacy and Policy Institute” (API) and registered with the Royal Government of Cambodia as a non-profit, non-governmental organisation. The following year, it gained full organisational independence from Pact Cambodia, becoming the first local NGO dedicated to Cambodia's specific advocacy needs through capacity building, direct campaign action and policy development.
Since then, API has established itself as one of the leading NGOs in Cambodia. A summary of its most recent accomplishments can be found here.
