Commune cooperation eases villagers’ hardship

Three years ago, In Sok was on the verge of selling his rice field in Takeo province. At the time, property prices in Cambodia were in the midst of a boom, but the farmer wasn’t looking to make a quick fortune out of his traditional means of income. It was the hassle of the dirt road connecting his home and the paddy field that had him think about changing his occupation.

“The road was tiny and bumpy. During the rainy season you could hardly drive your bike through this road because it was so muddy, sticky and slippery,” said In Sok, 40.

The 6.5-kilometre stretch, which cuts through several villages and vast green rice fields, is now a life-safer for the local people. A joint project by three local councils has turned a former ox cart track into a five-metre wide road offering a smoother ride.

Such a teamwork was under the umbrella of Inter-Commune Cooperation, a venue where local councils, known as commune/sangkat, pool ideas, initiatives, and funds to build local infrastructure like road, irrigation canals, school for their residents.

ICC is a pilot scheme implemented in 12 provinces with support from UNDP and the European Union. It aims to set up a mechanism that allows and encourages commune councils, which normally operate with limited budget, to work together on prioritizing development plans that can bring the most benefits to their communities.

Norng Choun, the chief of Ang Prasad commune in Takeo, 75 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh capital, learned a good lesson of going it alone when he first initiated a plan to renovate a road in his commune in 2007. The road is part of the 6.5-km stretch, which connects other two neighboring communes. However, the proposal failed to win the ICC fund as it lacked of cooperation from other communes. He then invited two neighboring Chi Kmar and Sanlong communes to join the road project that would benefits their communes as well. Only then did the project get the funding support from the committee in 2009.

“The lack of cooperation and communications with the neighboring communes was the main reason behind the failure to secure the fund,” Norng Choun said.

Presently, there is no national guideline that allows local councilors to jointly use their respective commune’s funds with other communes’ yet. However, in Takeo – and in other provinces chosen for piloting the ICC – the councilors have managed to work together through priority setting of their shared communes’ development goals to win available funds from ICC to realize projects beyond their respective administrative areas. The cooperation has proven quite necessary so far.

The three Takeo’s communes won US$40,678 from the ICC fund plus US$70 from villagers’ contribution. However, the two sources of funds still couldn’t meet the costs of the project, which included installing 10 concrete culverts to channel water to the nearby rice fields. To complete the project, the three communes managed to bear the costs of six culverts located in their communes using their own respective commune funds.

“In the past, I did not think of doing anything outside my commune since there is no legal guideline. This project has helped me to communicate and cooperate with other communes on future projects,” said Meas Chorn, the chief of Chi Kmar commune.

Norng Choun, the chief of Ang Prasad commune, sees openness for communes to financially cooperate with each other a good way for a commune’s development.

“If there is a law that allows neighboring communes to use their funds to work on something together, I think it would be great,” he said.

The project is offering the villagers not just a more comfortable ride. The canals from which the earth was taken to construct it are now filled with water and provide the locals with a source of protein.

“We can catch fish, frogs or crabs from the canals for food if we don’t go to market to buy meat,” said Soeur Sreynouch, from Ang Prasad commune. Holding a plastic bag containing fish and frogs, which would then be food for her lunch, she paced along the embankment as her husband pushed his way through the knee-deep water to cast his fishing net.

Other villagers shared the difficult experiences they had with the road before it was renovated.

As for In Sok, he is now even thinking about buying more land to add to the two plots of farming land he already has.

“Now, I will not sell this land anymore,” he said, pointing to his paddy field. “With this smooth road, I won’t sell regardless how high land price may become. Buying more is more likely.”