Mekong Institute of Cambodia (MIC) is a non-governmental organization, which was officially registered at the Ministry of Interior in April 2011. It has been founded by a high-caliber cohort of Cambodian intellectuals with longstanding experience in development work, research and education in Cambodia as well as in the Mekong region. The goal of the Institute is to contribute to social and economic development through delivery of quality research, training, and advisory services and through associated outreach activities.
Vision
MIC is envisioned to promote a knowledge-based and innovative society striving for sustainable development in Cambodia as well as in the Mekong region.
Mission
MIC is tasked to:
- Deliver quality research, training, and advisory services;
- Build capacity of individuals and institutions through research, training and advisory services and through outreach activities; and
- Foster research skills and knowledge on development through mutual learning, mentoring, coaching and networking.
Executive and Administration Staff
- Dr. Yin Soriya, Executive Director
- Dr. Khem Sothea, Research Coordinator
- Mr. Men Prachvuthy, Training Coordinator
- Ms. Lay Davy, Administrator& Accountant
Board of Directors
MIC is advised and monitored by a competent Board of Directors which encompasses a high level of professional education and work experiences in development schemes, research, training, advisement, and instruction. The experiences, skills, and qualifications of the Board of Directors are entailed below:
- Dr. Thun Vathana, Chairman, Agricultural Economics and Rural Development Expert
- Mr. So Sovannarith, Rural Development, and Poverty Expert
- Dr. Ngin Chanrith, Civil Society, and Local Government Expert
- Dr. Thim Ly, Social and Environmental Expert
- Dr. Thath Rido, Economist
- Mr. Phon Sampha, Microfinance and Risk Management Expert
- Mr. Ngeth Chou, Business and Marketing Expert
Research Associates & Fellows
- Dr. Cheng Savuth
Brief Profile of Executive Staffs and Board of Directors
Executive Staff:
Dr. Yin Soriya, Executive Director
He has pursued his higher education through different scholarship and assistantship programs from Cambodia and the United States. He receives his B.A. in Education from the Institute of Foreign Language, M.A. in Tourism Development from the Royal University of Phnom Penh and Ph.D. in Recreation Natural Resource Science and Management from the University of Minnesota, USA. He has taught and worked as a consultant and an advisor for various well-known national and international research institute and organizations including the Royal University of Phnom Penh, the University of Minnesota, UNWTO, UNDP, WWF, IUCN, ADB, and SNV. He has published several academic papers on poverty reduction strategies, regional collaboration, sustainable tourism, ecotourism, environment, climate change and community-based tourism. He is competent to conduct research projects/surveys relating to economic, environment and social development especially in Cambodia and the Greater Mekong Sub-region. His national and international working experiences show he can work in a cross-cultural environment and possesses strong human communication and management skills.
Dr. Khem Sothea, Research Coordinator
Sothea has over 15 years of working experience with the International Organizations including the Japanese ODA projects; the USAID supported programs, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and recently is working with the Mekong Institute of Cambodia (MIC) as a research coordinator. He is also working for National Flood Forecasting Center (NFFC) of the ADB project for Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He is a holder of a Ph.D. degree in Water Resource and Environmental Engineering from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan, which a final dissertation was focused on the Development of Flood Inundation Model for Agricultural Development in the Mekong Floodplain Area. He worked intensively on improving capacity building for most relevant National Staffs on Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of the hydro-met network including, quality assurance and quality control of all collected hydro-met data. His work also focused on strategic planning, analyzing on the hydrological condition in the Mekong member countries, including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, Vietnam, and China. Dr. KHEM expertise and experience also included: water resources and environmental engineering with institutional and organizational development; regional and international levels for researching and developing on watershed managements. [View full profile]
Men Prachvuthy, Training Coordinator
Prachvuthy has 16 years of experience in research and community development programs. He has carried out a number of research projects for Social Research Institute of Chiang Mai University (Thailand), International Finance Cooperation/Mekong, Partnership Development Funds (IFC/MPDF), SNV Netherlands Development Organization, Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism, Asia Foundation, and Heinrich Böll Foundation of Germany. His research interests are tourism marketing, community-based ecotourism, pro-poor tourism, and value chains, and land governance and livelihoods. He has experience working in culturally diverse and multi-disciplinary workplaces, including UNV, UNESCO, assorted NGOs as well as government Ministries. He obtained a Master of Arts in Sustainable Tourism Development from the Royal University of Phnom Penh in collaboration with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia, and the University of Bologna, Italy, in 2003.
Board of Directors:
Vathana is an agricultural economist who has been lecturing at the Royal University of Agriculture since 1996. He also works for Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK) Co. Ltd as the Head of Research Department. Before joining AMK, Dr. Thun worked as a Research Manager at Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI). He has a significant experience with a wide range of NGOs, UNDP and government’s organizations. He has been involved directly or indirectly in many research projects. So far, he has done some major projects on Irrigation Water Management, Child Poverty funded, Agricultural Trade in the GMS, Poverty Outreach by Microfinance and Poverty Dynamics Study. He obtained a Doctor of Agricultural Science in the field of socioeconomics and food production from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2005. He received a Master of Agricultural Environmental Science in the field of international rural development from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan, in 2002.
Sovannarith has 24 years of professional experiences in research, training and teaching, monitoring, and evaluation of development programmes. Agricultural and rural development and poverty reduction are the fields of his interest, educational background, and professional development. He has been working as a research fellow for Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) since 1996, worked as a Team Leader of Agricultural Extension Training Team for Australian Catholic Relief (ACR) in collaboration with Department of Agricultural Extension from 1990 to 1996, and worked as a lecturer of animal health and production for Prek Leap National School of Agriculture from 1987 to 1990. Since 1996, he has gained his professional recognition from the Government, World Bank, UNDP and civil society for his outstanding research papers. His analytical capacity covers a wide range of subjects including government reform policies such as decentralization and deconcentration (D&D), land, forestry and fisheries reforms; poverty dynamics and determinants; social, economic, cultural and institutional factors that influence community development and growth and household mobility in and out of poverty; sustainable agricultural and rural development, marketing constraints and linkage; livelihood sustainability in relations to access, control and management of productive assets and natural resources including land, water and forestry as well as conflict resolution in the current legal, social and economic setting and development. He obtained a Master of Science in Environment and Development from the University of Reading, UK, in 2003. He received a diploma in Rural Extension and Training from Larenstein International Agricultural College, Deventer, The Netherlands, in 1995. He gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Extension Training, co-conducted by the New South Wales Agricultural Department, Australia, and the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries-CMAFF, in 1994.
Chanrith is Director of Graduate Program in Development Studies at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and Post-doc Researcher (part-time) at VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is well-versed about community organization and development, development approaches of civil society entities, project management, and multi-stakeholder engagement in development work. He has researched, supervised research and published in the areas of community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, participation, decentralization, local government, and development aid. He has consultancy stints in the areas of decentralization, deconcentration, and education with UNDP and ADB in Cambodia. Chanrith received a Ph.D. in International Development from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2004. He also serves as a country member of Research Advisory Committee of Mekong Institute, an inter-governmental organization of GMS countries based in Thailand. Furthermore, he sits on editorial boards of some regional academic journals. [View full profile]
Ly has more than 15 years of professional experience in the field of social and environmental development, with more than 7 years in project development intervention from a policy research design to monitoring and evaluation. He has worked for various well-known international organizations, including Oxfam America, Mekong River Commission (MRC), World Meteorological Organization of the United Nations in Switzerland, and Center for Development Research in Germany. He got a Ph.D. in Development Studies in the field of social and political sciences in water resources management from University of Bonn, Germany, in 2010, and a Master of Science in Regional Development Planning and Management from University of Dortmund, Germany, and University of Philippines, the Philippines, in 2002.
Chou worked as Microfinance Manager for a leading US-based Consulting Firm Fintrac, which is implementing HARVEST program funded by USAID.Prior to joining Fintrac, he had served a number of leadership roles such as Head of Product Development Department and Chairman of Product Development Committee at Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK) Co. Ltd, and Senior Business Analyst at Emerging Markets Consulting (EMC), a leading regional consulting firm, which was actively involved in many consulting projects for the World Bank, UNDP, USAID/DAI, Israeli Embassy, AusAID and a few leading MFIs on strategic advisory.Chou is also a founding member of Cambodian Centre for Applied Philosophy and Ethics (CAMCAPE).He holds a BA in Philosophy from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, a BBA in Marketing and an MBA in Management from National University of Management, Cambodia, and a Certificate of Executive Education on Strategic Leadership for Microfinance from Harvard Business School, USA.
Sampha has 16 years of experience working with international and local NGOs and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) in the areas of governance, leadership, technical support, operations management, assessment and evaluation, planning (strategic, business, and performance plans), community development, training, project management, customer service, quality assurance management, hospitality service, marketing research, and project implementation. He has been working as a Saving for Change/Access to Finance Program Coordinator of East Asia Regional Office of Oxfam America since October 2010. Previously, he had worked as Head of Human Resources and Training Department, Head of Operations Department, Risk and Quality Assurance Manager, and Provincial Branch Manager of World Vision/VisionFund for 11 years. Moreover, he had also worked for Buddhism For Development, a secondary school, and a hotel for 5 years. Sampha is a Ph.D. Candidate in Business Development (Dissertation has been accepted for examination) at Irish University, UK. He received a Master of Arts in Banking Management from Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Development Institute, the Philippines, in 2007.
Rido is a development economist. He received his BSc in Mathematics from the Royal University of Phnom Penh, MA and Ph.D. in Economic Development from Nagoya University, Japan. He has involved in a wide range of research and consulting works pertinent to Cambodia socio-economic development including indigenous tourism, rural and agricultural development, and disaster management. He is also a lecturer at the Department of Economic Development, Royal University of Phnom Penh. [View full profile]
