Civil Society and Pro-Poor Markets
Roughly 85 percent of poor Cambodians live in rural areas and depend on rapidly depleting natural resources for their livelihoods. Their access to these resources is tenuous, and they have limited ability to influence local authorities. The challenge is to find ways to ensure that these vulnerable communities have a greater voice in how natural resources are used and protected, and that they have access to more diverse opportunities to generate income. We work to increase citizen engagement with government agencies and policymakers, particularly at the grassroots level, and encourage entrepreneurs and constructive engagement between citizens and state. Our Civil Society and Pro-Poor Markets program fosters greater participation by these groups in local policy and budget decisions, especially as they affect natural resource management and livelihoods. Last year, working with dozens of local partner organizations and more than 1,000 community-based organizations in over 300 communities, we helped build grassroots civil society, enhance rural livelihoods through market-driven advocacy and business development, and strengthen linkages between local interests and provincial and national policy and regulation. In total, we trained more than 6,000 leaders of these community-based organizations and provided hundreds of small grants to help more than 165,000 members launch income generating activities, establish community forestry and fishery advocacy groups, and protect the natural resource endowments of their communities. Three communes in Stung Trang District in Kampong Cham province, for example, have worked together to battle overfishing by large commercial fleets, which have caused a sharp reduction in the fisheries' available resources. Villagers now understand the fisheries law, including how to demarcate community fisheries, and have been trained to farm fish in ponds. Finally, they have encouraged the police to join patrols of community fisheries and these increased patrols have significantly curbed illegal fishing.