Citizens for Sustainable Development
In Cambodia, public participation in decision making processes has somewhat improved over the past two decades, mainly due to the constant efforts of civil society organisations. API has been at the forefront of this push, always insisting that citizens and communities should take an active part in planning and budgeting at the local level, and also in law-making or other more complex processes on a nationwide scale.
But the task is far from completed. Especially women, youth and disadvantaged groups are still not nearly as involved in public and political life as they should, if Cambodia is ever to become a consolidated democracy where development is sustainable.
This Is Where We Start
80%
of the Cambodians under 30 have never participated in a commune budgeting process
92%
of the low income citizens have not attended a council meeting in the past year
5%
of the local budget was spent, on average, on social services at the start of the project
There are many economic, social, institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of a higher and more substantial participation. Thus, although the country has experienced steady and impressive GDP growth ever since the turn of the new millennium, large segments of the population are still living just above the poverty line, and are therefore much more concerned with improving their fragile livelihoods than with attending local council meetings.
The decisions being made in their villages or districts do affect them, of course, yet both the general political culture and the current context are not exactly conducive to frequent, open discussions where everyone can share their opinions about what the priorities should be.
Lack of systematic access to public information only makes matters even more difficult. If citizens still want to get involved, but they happen to be women or young people, their desires are not likely to be taken seriously by the elderly men who are clearly overrepresented in local power structures, although, especially in the Cambodian context, they actually only represent a tiny minority. Obstacles are even bigger if persons with disabilities or with low incomes want to have a say.
Our Engaging Approach
When it comes to local democratic participation, API has a long history of commitment to the issue, and you can read more about this here, here, and especially here. We believe that the best way for citizens to make their voices heard is a more organised and structured one, where individual circumstances and worries play a lesser role. At the local level, this is achieved by founding and consolidating community based organisations (CBOs) that can take up the grassroots concerns, articulate them more efficiently and deliver the message more convincingly.
This is why, ever since API was established, we have been investing a lot of energy in building the capacity of CBOs and helping them become more professional. Learning from the experience with our completed project called “Pro-Citizens” and following our new strategic focus on women, youth and disadvantaged groups as key actors in social change, we have therefore decided to take an engaging approach where these categories of citizens and CBOs play the leading role.
The Project’s Idea
Thus, under the title “Citizens’ Voices and Actions for Sustainable Development in Cambodia” (2019-2022), our endeavour is concentrating on various trainings we are offering to 80 CBOs with around 4000 members in the provinces of Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Kandal, Kep, Kratie, Pursat and Takeo, as well as in Phnom Penh.
The overwhelming majority of the grassroots organisations we have selected are led by and often also mainly represent women, young, or disadvantaged citizens. We first wanted to hear from each and every one of them what their specific interests were, which is why we mapped their main issues and capacity building needs, based, in some cases, on our previous experience working with them, but also on a new, comprehensive online survey we carried out.
With this in mind, we have now proceeded to the training tasks, in an effort to help the CBOs overcome systemic obstacles and bring up their concerns in open and meaningful discussions with the local officials of their communities, as well as with representatives of public service delivery institutions, such as schools or health centres. This demand oriented initiative is complemented by a further project described here, which focuses on the supply side, often in the same provinces.
How We Work on It
Benefiting from the generous support of our core donors Bread for the World and DanChurchAid, our activities are primarily meant to encourage the CBOs to take part in planning and budgeting processes at the level of the 39 districts they are based in. Within the framework of the decentralisation reforms, starting from 2020, the government has committed to allocating more financial resources to local authorities, in order for the latter to be able to actually fulfil their newly delegated functions. While these steps are being taken, API is insisting that, with the real transfer of competences closer to the citizens, a new culture of openness and inclusion should also develop and be consolidated.
CBOs should be able to request and receive proper access to information regarding the district budgets, women and youth should be able to make their voices heard in planning meetings without being patronised by elderly male officials, and the interests of persons with disabilities or lower incomes should be really taken into account as legitimate concerns.
