Cambodia is a lower-middle income country of 17.42 million people. It has the youngest population in Southeast Asia, with roughly 65% of the population aged under 30 years old. According to the 2019 General Population Census, 4.9% of Cambodia's population aged five years and above experience some difficulty in performing basic functions due to disability. This is almost certainly an underestimate. According to the Information Needs Assessment for Persons with Disabilities in Cambodia, published by UNESCO in collaboration with the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI), approximately 24.4% of individuals aged 5 and above report having some form of disability. The needs assessment found that persons with disabilities, and particularly people living with intellectual disability, encounter considerable challenges in exercising rights and accessing services which hinders their full participation in society. 

Cambodia has officially ratified the UN Conventions on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) and has its own Disability Law and National Disability Strategic Plan (NDSP2). However, weak capacity among stakeholders to uphold the policies, unclear language throughout the policies regarding specific targets, objectives, and differentiation between types of disabilities, and a general lack of understanding about intellectual disability among key members of society have prevented meaningful implementation of key strategies outlined in these frameworks. Data and policies do not distinguish between disability types, meaning physical disability, which is easier to identify, receives most of the focus. Further, a lack of government and societal understanding of rights of people with intellectual disabilities limits policy implementation, especially marginalizing persons with intellectual disabilities.