Urban Social Sustainability Index to Assess 14 Districts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia

In a rapidly urbanized world, 2.5 billion people are projected to shift from rural to urban areas by 2050, with close to 90% of this shift occurring in Africa and Asia. Likewise, in Southeast Asia, the Phnom Penh capital city of Cambodia, is rapidly urbanizing, faces significant challenges in improving the quality of life and achieving social sustainability. Hence, this research aims to assess this capital on social sustainability aspects to find out the strong and weak points of its 14 districts in order to verify the improvement potentials for each district. The research developed and applied an urban social sustainability index based on national development priorities, SDG11, and the New Urban Agenda, and other SDGs that incorporated human wellbeing and social inclusiveness, such as SDGs1-6, SDG8, SDG10, and SDG12. The AHP technique has been used to prioritize the selected indicators, and the standard viable model has been used to assess the 14 districts of Phnom Penh, whereas the data were sourced from the Phnom Penh Capital Socio-Economic Data. The results showed that the most sustainable district was Chamkarmon, followed by Boeng Keng Kang and Doun Penh. Prek Pnov was found to be weak in income generation and welfare, while Kamboul was weak in gender inclusive. Prampir Makara was more resilient to vulnerability, while Sen Sok was weak in this dimension. Boeng Keng Kang was strong in welfare and sanitation, while Kamboul was weak in sanitation. Doun Penh was strong in water supply, while Mean Chey was weak in this dimension.