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SummaryMaternal death remains high in low resource settings. Current literature on obstetric referral that sets out to tackle maternal death tends to focus on problematization. We took an alternative approach and rather asked what works in contemporary obstetric referral in a low income setting to find out if positive inquiry could generate original insights on referral that could be transformative. We documented and analysed instances of successful referral in a rural province of Cambodia that took place within the last year. Thirty women, their families, healthcare staff and community volunteers were purposively sampled for in‐depth interviews, conducted using an appreciative inquiry lens. We found that referral at its best is an active partnership between families, community and clinicians that co‐constructs care for labouring women during referral and delivery. Given the short time frame of the project we cannot conclude if this new understanding was transformative. However, we can show that acknowledging positive resources within contemporary referral systems enables health system stakeholders to widen their understanding of the kinds of resources that are available to them to direct and implement constructive change for maternal health. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Though the rice sector has demonstrated rapid growth in Cambodia in the past decade, many studies show that there are significant issues in production and post-harvest operations to do with the cost of production, rice quality, storage capacity, the structure and performance of the milling sector, and the management of cross-border trade with Thailand and

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Contract farming is seen as one of the policies to overcome current impediments to commercialisation in the Cambodian rice sector. The Angkor Kasekam Roongroeung Co. Ltd. (AKR) was the first agribusiness firm to implement contract farming of rice, beginning in 1999 with about 100 farmers; it currently claims to have over 50,000 contracted farmers in four provinces (AKM 2015). The approach was later adopted by other development organisations, such as the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC). A study by Cai et al. (2008), for the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), on the impacts of AKR's rice contract farming scheme on farmers' performance provides some useful insights. In general, however, little is known about rice contract farming N. Keosothea (*) National Committee, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific,