In Preah Sihanouk province, villagers have their say in community planning

Yoeun Sothea had just got off his fishing boat and could have certainly used a rest. But knowing that a meeting with local councilors was underway to discuss community planning, he rushed to join it – shirtless, with just a towel wrapped around his fishing shorts.

“For me, I would very much like to have an expert to teach us techniques to do fish farming and raise livestock,” said Yoeun Sothea, 50, a resident of Ream village in Preah Sihanouk province in southwestern Cambodia.

There was no shortage of ideas on how to improve their community from the 40 men and women in the meeting. Defying a morning downpour, they brainstormed what should be included in the Commune Investment Plan, a mechanism now used to draw up development projects to respond to the needs of the local population.

The process is part of the wider effort by Cambodia to advance sub-national level democratic reform known as decentralization and deconcentration. UNDP supports the effort, which aims to enable local council authorities – known as commune/sangkat – to be more responsive and accountable to the local residents who voted them into office.

Concerns and needs expressed by the residents help to form the basis for proposed projects. But the commune/sangkat offices will screen them first to determine their priorities. In the process, they also hold workshops with relevant government’s departments at provincial levels, and with representatives of development partners and non-governmental organisations to present their projects – and to enlist their support. Funds for implementation could come from various sources such as budget allocated by the central government or from development partners and non-governmental organisations with interests in any of the proposed projects.

As a coastal province, Preah Sihanouk is famed for its sandy beaches that attract both national and foreign tourists. But up and away from the beaches, the challenges the residents face are quite common across Cambodia: few households have access to basic needs such as sanitation, clean drinking water, and health care facilities.

O’chrov commune, about 30 kilometres from the provincial town, has only one health centre with just a single bed. It serves this commune as well as an adjacent one – a combined population of more than 2,000 families. The lack of health services has created a difficult situation for women, especially those who are pregnant, Yoan Chhieng, the commune chief, said.

“If two or three pregnant women come to seek service at one particular moment, there is little this centre can do,” he said, pointing to the centre opposite his office.

One might ask why the villagers need to be part of the community planning process. Why don’t they just let the people they already put in office run things for them?

“A commune chief may have 10 ideas (for projects) but we the people may have even more. Sometimes our needs are different from what he thinks for us, and we have to tell him,” villager Heng Vipheak, 48, said.

“Any (development) issues directly concern us. The needs are ours, and so are any problems we might face,” she added.

Huddling together under a zinc-roofed extension of their village chief’s home that shielded them from the morning rain, the resident of Ream village were eager to make their voices heard. A man demanded pavement of a village road to ease travel. Another said gutters also needed to be carved out to channel flood water. Several ladies, speaking in chorus, wanted more information on how to increase rice yield and on fish farming.

Some of them squatted on the ground while others were squeezed on a bamboo bed with chickens roaming by their feet.

A local councilor was busy jotting down all the ideas on flip-chart sheets held to a wall by tape.

The wish lists were long. Also high were the expectations.

Preap Khunary, 60, let her frustration out during a meeting inside a primary school classroom in Preah Sihanouk provincial town. Last year, her village asked the commune to widen a village road she said was too narrow to let in any ambulance or fire truck in an emergency. Since then the road remains as it is.

“I’m so jealous because road building happened in other villages but not in mine. Now, I’m waiting to see if nothing still happens in 2011, I will go and cry before the commune office,” she said.

At O’chrov commune, Yoan Chhieng, the commune chief, was well aware of the challenge in trying to find funds to fulfill his residents’ wishes. As for the request for another health centre, he said all he could do is “hope” that one day it will come true.

The villagers went home with a similar hope. Once again they have made their local leaders listen to their concerns and needs – and shown that they have ownership over planning for their community development.

“Decentralization and de-concentration must have people’s participation. Without it, everything will be stuck because development is for all people, not just for one or two village and commune chiefs,” Yoeun Sothea, the fisherman, said.