Concept Note Project Title: Integrated Support Community Development for vulnerable people Target Location: Districts of Ou Chum; Lum Phat; Bar Kaev; Ou Ya Dav; Andoung Meas; Vern Sai and 21 Communes, Rattanakiri Province, Cambodia. Project Period: 24 months 1. Relevance of the Action SIDO in Cambodia has conducted several researches in different provinces that one research in particularly which we take, Rattanakiri province. It is one of the 24 provinces in Cambodia, located up Northeast, about 600km from Phnom Penh by national road, has diverse populations with 13 different ethnic groups. Pnong, Toum Poun, Jarai and Kreoung have lower education and are dominantly vulnerable and face all forms of human right abuses, especially domestic violent, child trafficking, rape, land grabbing and human rights abuse. The total population of this province is 120,036 1. Furthermore, Ratanakiri is an area rich in rainforest and luscious scenery which is newly attracting ecotourists. A road from Phnom Penh to Rattanakiri province has been recently restored which has greatly improved access to the region providing greater opportunities for business and tourism. Without necessary support structures in place, it is a concern that with the increased accessibility and demand in the area will come increased vulnerability of the community and especially women and children to problems such as labor exploitation, human trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. According to economic and business situation, this province is depend on the goods that import from Vietnam and other province in country and Phnom Penh, so in Banloung district it have a lot of Vietnamese family that live and do business in here including legal and illegal in the field of laundry, seller, worker, prostitutes... Furthermore, all of them some migrated with their family and some migrated by trafficker for business in this area and to other country by across Cambodia border. Rattanakiri Province is a province which has 80% of ethnic minorities. Their living depends on different custom and tradition. Before, in Rattanakiri rarely has domestic violence or rape even they were drunk. But in this recent 5 years ago, after there is flowing of external culture, there are many people increasingly, and economic situation is better, we see that people living in Rattanakiri has changed in many different ways such as it has domestic violence, drug trafficking, rape, crime, etc. On the other hand, Exploitation of indigenous populations or Highlanders traditionally discriminated against in Cambodian society, Highlanders way of life is eroding. The surrounding deforestation is threatening the Highlanders traditional habits as forest gatherers, bush meat hunters and healers. Highlanders heavy reliance on forest products means their food security and health is directly affected. The culture shock between the Highlanders way of life and newcomers has meant that Highlanders are often exploited. Their intimate forest knowledge is used to identify the best tropical hardwoods tracts. They are often tricked into selling their land at low prices or are forcefully removed to other less productive land. Their lack of understanding of business and employment standards is used to exploit them. Indeed their labour is often paid in kind or at a low rate. The widening of the economic gap between Highlanders and Newcomers traditionally reliant on a system of bartering or exchange, Highlanders standards of living have fallen below that of the Newcomers. The target communities are composed of women headed households, farmers with little land and poor indigenous groups. They earn 0.8 US$ per day; an annual income of 208US$ per year. The target communities are farming communities involved in upland rice, cashew crop, growing traditional vegetable, raising animal (chicken, pig, cow), collecting wild vegetable in the forest. Low income combined with indigenous practices colliding with commercial realities have meant that the Highlanders are more sensitive to their community economic and other fields of work such as educational literacy, human right, women s right and child s right, the respect of law, gender equality and their health care related to HIV/AIDS. As a result, Highlanders may indebt themselves to expensive money lenders to pay for living materials and health treatment; falling further into the poverty gap that is the big concern for this proposed action. 1 MCH s report, March 2005, Health Net Organization office in Ratanakiri province
2. Description of the action and its effectiveness The proposed action below is relevant to the beneficiaries needs as the research. They fall under the following categories: Due to social factor and following by context and development program in Rattanakiri today, see that in this province is changing and have many problems for children and women like described above. The problems which described above are just little problems that Women Affair Department got. It means that there are a lot of problems which we did not solve. SIDO found that there are many problems that this province is facing and effect seriously to vulnerable people especially women and ethnic minorities. The most problem are domestic violence, sexual abuse, labor exploitation, rape, theft, and swindle. The local ethnic minorities or "Highlanders" make up the majority of the province's population, but are traditionally discriminated against in Cambodian society. Communities live in lush and rich surrounding; however are the last to get monetary benefits from those bordering Laos to the North and Vietnam to the East, Rattanakiri province is also known for its lush forest, rich biodiversity and natural resources. Many of the indigenous people depend on the forest and jungle for their living, but these are now at risk as forest companies and settlers move into the area to take trees and clear land for cash crops. Communities live in remote areas where human right and other related laws, gender norm worst than in the cities. Wealth from the forest and natural resources siphoned elsewhere and the gap between rich and poor is widening. The consequences of poverty, lack of effective law enforcement, lack of protection against human rights abuses, lack of respect for the rights of the child, lack of education and economic burden provides opportunities for child abuse to be fostered and largely ignored in communities The target groups include: Direct Beneficiaries: 3,286 Vulnerable Indigenous Women Headed Households ( 17,087 individuals) will be improved through enhanced Their Traditional Agricultural Productions and Technical Skill Training which will take their both Self-Incomes and Building Knowledge above or equal to the national poverty line and attainment of new skills through this action. Community Based Organisations Staff: 180 Individuals will be trained. Final beneficiaries: 3,458 indigenous peoples who are the member of Community Based Organisation(s) and group of the women. These activities have been designed with the target communities taking into account of SIDO and our working partner s experience, lessons learnt and recommendations. The proposed action is aimed to address these problems with the following two main activities as in brief below: Main Activity 1: Increase Self-Incomes In order to reach up the proposed action, first we think that to build their income more sustainable at the same time we are implementing the Main Activity 2. These would go with the following Sub-activities as below: Home/Family Garden and vegetable garden: Home gardens are a system whereby small scale farmers receive grants to prepare farming land and purchase seeds and crops at the beginning of the planting season and after consumption or sale then afford to keep capital or inputs after harvesting for the next cultivation cycle. This project will contribute to the change of their habit of buying everything from Thai markets to the start of growing for household consumption as well as to supply the local market for their household income. Animal raising & natural fish ponds: This activity is designed to both enhance community and household asset levels and thus improve their living by increasing agricultural production levels in the villages that they are situated. They are also designed to be community managed assets that are easy to maintain and manage after initial training. This is to ensure that the flow of benefits continues long after the project period, that the women take responsibility for its own and that there is no need for additional external inputs. Its aim is to ensure sustainable incomes through maintaining healthy animal on the long term. Our past experience and project evaluations have shown that this training is an important element in the long term success of the agriculture banks. Pigs are supplementary animals for ensuring increased income within rural communities. Strengthening community forestry for non-timber product collection: Most of the vulnerable/disadvantage people are living in newly cleared areas surrounded by forest. They depend for their living on the wild forest products nearby their villages, making it their second source of income. The project includes an environmental education, building local community based organizations in forest management, organisational governance and management as well as advocacy and lobbying skills. Main Activity 2: Capacity Building: Page 2 of 5
The training has a dual purpose: to equip the recipients with the necessary skills to implement the project and its activities effectively and efficiently and, secondly, to develop their capacity as civil society organisations in supporting the community development. Based on the implementation of Main Activity 1, we hope that the participation and the involvement the local communities would be in a high volume in attending a variety of training. We will provide training to following target communities in this province through the topic of human right and child s right, gender equality and gender mainstreaming, rule of law, primary health care (HIV/AIDS) and will conducting various informal community educational classes including small agrobusiness enterprise and vocational skills. A brief detail of Sub-activities are as follow: Human right, Child s right and Rules of law - Providing trainings to target groups in relevant guidelines, policies and laws which will be detailed in full application. This sub-activity will be reduced the criminal, domestic violence and un-law respect by its transfer and increasing the knowledge to local communities. Gender equality and Gender mainstreaming - It is also similarity sub-activity in providing training to general target groups that most of them are women of awareness and increase knowledge about the equality between men and women in the society at every field of work including job opportunity, sharing responsibility and accountability, participating decision-making on policy, action plan and to promote them as to build up a profile of Women in Leadership including Strengthens the Economy, Improves Living Standards, Promotes Women s Rights, Changes Perceptions of Traditional Gender Norms, Stops exploitation and Persistent discrimination against women. Vocational Skills - This activity is designed to increase the range of off-farm activities on hairdressing available to vulnerable people. They will also be provided with formal and informal training and advice on how to run a business, including marketing and book keeping. Therefore, jobless women will be enhanced in small scale of income processing which can bring them in a better situation in life intakes who mostly are women and children often women especially pregnant women and children at risk to drop-out school. Health care (HIV/AIDS) - It is also providing trainings ion a Basic Health Education and Nutrition. These will enable them to reduce diseases from malaria and dengue and nutrition intakes related to difference groups of vitamins as well as containing by vegetable which are simple taken by poor families. We can expected that if we ran the Basic Health Education and Nutrition training course before start up other programmes, then women will be less worries and she will be able to make a lot of changes for the family s health. In addition to this course the community will try to appoint and encourages women not only individuals but also the community as a whole to take on roles of management community health care and gives them the experience under careful consultation doing so. Involvement of implementing partners, their role and relationship to the applicant, if applicable and the applicant's relationship with them; SIDO will work in partnership with two local NGO partners that they are responsible for implementing all aspects of the project implementation and accountable to beneficiaries and SIDO Cambodia. The partners will select beneficiaries through a way which has been determined by joint agreement between SIDO, NGO partners and the CBOs. They will explain to the beneficiaries how the project works. SIDO and its NGO and CBO partners will hold regular coordination meetings to discuss problems, find common solutions and share experience with regard to the implementation process. This is part of the cross organisation learning process in this project. CBOs will be responsible and accountable for leadership of the two main activities for our target vulnerable women groups as well as provide access to services and opportunities. SIDO staff members will provide a monitoring service, formal and informal training to these partners in the development of their capacity in implementing the project. In addition, SIDO will play a coordination and networking role with relevant government and NGO communities at regional and national level in order to support the work more effectively. Other possible stakeholders (national, local government, private sector, etc.), their anticipated role and/or potential attitudes towards the project. The target communities, village development committees and local authorities have expressed their strong willingness in support of this proposed project as it fits within their priority needs. They will participate in all aspects of project implementation when they are required to. SIDO and its NGO partners will strengthen collaboration and networking with the Provincial Departments who play a big role in providing technical assistant to the beneficiaries, with also INGO and LNGO organisations at the regional level. This will allow SIDO and its partners to share information and learning, exchange technical assistance and have effective cooperation in implementing the work. At the national level, SIDO and its Page 3 of 5
partners will participate in relevant networks particularly in related laws, rights for human, child and women including gender norms, related networks in sharing information and learning to adapt to policy context in Cambodia. 3. Sustainability of the action Provide an initial risk analysis and eventual contingency plans. This should include at minimum a list of risks associated for each action proposed accompanied by a relevant mitigation measures. A good risk analysis would include a range of risk types including physical, environmental, political, economic and social risks. There will be no worry about these kinds of risk as Cambodia at this moment as it fully has peace both the political stability and economical developing. Give the main preconditions and assumptions during and after the implementation phase. The project makes the following assumptions: That the security situation in Rattanakiri province and in Cambodia remains stable and with its improvement. That there are no environmental shocks. Given that the project focuses around supporting community development production. The impact of drought or excessive flooding would have a detrimental impact upon the success of the programme. However aspects of the programme are also designed to increase off-farm income levels and a few agricultural activities are designed not simply to increase cultivation but also yield through the training in best practice as well as other capacity building sub-activities. That the communities are able to mobilize and work together in a spirit of cooperation for their mutual benefit (non-partisanship). It is SIDO's experience that a sense of community and togetherness is vital if communities are to effectively manage and develop assets after the intervention of an outside agency is completed. Therefore, SIDO s community development workers will spend a considerable period of time working with those communities to enthuse and encourage them to work together in an open and transparent manner. There is no large scale of land economic concession and land grabbing issues in the target areas. In the mean time a mobilised and collective voice of the community will minimise possible effects on people s interests. More importantly, the integration of the community s plan into Commune Investment Plan and Commune Development Plan process will surely reduce these kinds of risks. That Decentralisation & De-concentration (D&D) reforming process of the government will go smoothly. The project will be implemented in line with this reforming process. Current collaboration and network with the Provincial Local Administration Unit, NGO network on D&D and NGO liaison office of the Ministry of Interior will help convey messages about any changes to the grassroots for them to adapt to any possible changes for their interests. Natural resources have declined sharply in recent years. On the other hand, current inflation (24-27%) in Cambodia in particular is on the highest rise ever. Therefore, the project will encourage the community to undertake a self-supply strategy by increasing their short and long term home grown productivities, yields and access to markets by themselves. Explain how sustainability will be secured after completion of the action. This can include aspects of necessary follow-up activities, built-in strategies, ownership etc., if any. Management Committees (CBO Structures) are set up within the communities to manage the activity even before SIDO departs. These committees are representative of, and accountable to, the communities in which they are situated. The communities are made aware of the roles and responsibilities of the management structure and that these structures are not only responsible to external bodies but, as importantly are responsible and accountable to the communities. This prevents misuse of assets or activity by the management committee after the oversight of an external agency has finished. SIDO and the two partners will meet at regular intervals with the communities as well as the management committee (CBO structures) to ensure that communities are informed as to the purpose, progress and agreed implementation strategy of an activity. Management committee members will be elected by the communities through direct election and will have to report to them on a regular basis. This will guarantee that whilst the management committee is responsible for the implementation of an activity it is also aware that its activities are being scrutinized by the communities. The community will expect the management committee to continue to manage the activity in an appropriate manner after the project period. Critical to ensuring that the committees continue to function effectively at the end of the project is the level of investment in the committee members in terms of training and support. Page 4 of 5
SIDO and its two partners will provide training to committee members in all aspects of the particular activity for which they are responsible. Management responsibility will be handed over to the communities at the earliest possible opportunity so that the management committees can learn by doing and be provided extensive and extended support during this process. The activities described within this programme will be handed over to the community management committees for implementation at the latest by Month 12 of the programme. This will mean that they will have 18 months in which to develop their management skills and experience under the support and consultation of SIDO and its partners' staff. This support will decrease over this period, as and when appropriate and dependent upon the level of professionalism demonstrated by the committee members, so that by the last year of project implementation the committees are solely responsible for the management of the activities. SIDO and its two partner s roles are monitoring and data collection. Page 5 of 5