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Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Local Governance through Civic Engagement

Background

Various strategic documents such as the Rectangular Strategy Phase IV, United Nations Development Assistance Framework, and UNDP Country Programme Document informed that development challenges concerning ‘Peace’ of the 2030 Agenda include obstacles to participate effectively in development and public institutions, limited performance in transparency and responsiveness to the public, and lack of trust from the people in public services. Limited accountabilities and many remaining challenges in public sector reforms are identified as part of the causes.

The project will address limited accountability and many remaining challenges in public sector reform by supporting the Sub-National Democratic Development reform. The National Programme on Sub-National Democratic Development from 2021 to 2030 identified remaining key challenges and relevant ones for the project as follows.  

  • Vertical accountability and trust (National–Sub-National Administrations-People).

  • People’s knowledge about their rights and how to hold SNA councils and SNA accountable.

  • Mainstreaming of cross-cutting issues such as digital governance, climate change, gender equality and social equality and inclusiveness. 

  • Monitoring and reporting of Cambodia Sustainable Development Goals at the sub-national level. 

Key Expected Outputs

Output 1 - Women and men, including the under-represented, marginalized, and vulnerable have more accessible information, especially on local services, development projects, and rights to hold SNA accountable in three provinces.

Output 2 - Women and men, including the under-represented, marginalized, and vulnerable have more opportunities and increased capacity and confidence to express their needs in local planning and monitoring.
 

Achievements to Date (December 2024)

The Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Local Governance through Civic Engagement (STA) project has made significant strides during the third quarter of 2024. Here are some key achievements: 

Evaluation of the National Program on Sub-National Democratic Development Phase 1 (NP1): Data collection for the NP1 Evaluation was successfully completed, reaching 1,425 informants, including 430 women. A consultative workshop was held in October 2024 with 70 representatives from Sub-National Administrations (SNAs), ministries, and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) to discuss the draft report and provide recommendations for its finalization. A report outlining key findings, achievements, and challenges from NP1 implementation will be shared shortly.

Governance Survey: The inception report for the Governance Survey was submitted in September 2024.  The survey aims to evaluate five key dimensions of governance practices: service delivery, responsiveness, civic engagement, transparency, and accountability to inform improvements in governance practices and strengthen institutional accountability.  The survey will exceed its projected informant target, reaching 3,915 respondents (compared to the original target of 3,886), prioritizing citizen perspectives (67%) over official views (33%). The survey will be conducted in 25 capital/provinces, 96 districts/municipalities/khans, 192 communes/sangkats and 384 villages.

Digital Information Sharing Platform for Municipalities: A successful dissemination workshop was held on August 21, 2024, in Kampong Thom Province, with 48 participants, including 17 women. The workshop marked the official launch of the digital platform following the signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between NCDDS and targeted municipalities. The event aimed to enhance municipal officials' understanding of the STA project’s objectives and facilitated discussions on the functionalities and prototypes of the digital platform.

Youth Training: During the third quarter of 2024, 120 individuals from the three municipalities of Siem Reap, Kampong Cham and Banlung were trained, including 87 women, 911 youth, of whom 70 women, 17 indigenous women and 3 LGBTQI+ individuals, across various programs designed to empower communities, improve gender equality, and enhance participation in local governance and decision-making processes. They are now actively raising awareness within their communities and gathering feedback on public services.

Awareness-raising: 893 participants, including 608 women, 333 youth (215 women), 144 Indigenous People (112 women), and 3 LGBTQI+ individuals, benefited from awareness-raising activities, through door-to-door awareness campaign and community outreach sessions. Participants gained critical information on public services, civic participation, and SDGs localization.

Opportunities to advocate in meeting with local authorities: The project provided 100 individuals, including 77 women, 85 youth (53 women), and 4 LGBTQI+ individuals, with the opportunity to participate in local governance meetings, including municipality consultations, Sangkat council meetings, and Sangkat investment planning sessions. These platforms allowed participants to voice their concerns directly to local authorities and gain hands-on experience in local governance processes.

Yobol.org platform: Since its launch, the Yobol.org platform has collected 1,304 feedback responses. A total of 1,590 individuals—including 1,121 women, 195 Indigenous people (155 of whom are women), and 4 individuals with disabilities (3 women) have been introduced to the platform. Awareness efforts have included door-to-door dissemination of flyers, social media videos, and audio messages broadcast in local villages to ensure broad outreach.

These achievements reflect the project’s commitment to fostering positive change and empowering communities in local governance processes. Moving forward, the STA project will continue to build on these successes and work towards a more transparent, accountable, and inclusive local governance system.

 

Next 2024 Quarter Work Plan:

Moving forward, the project will continue to focus on achieving its outputs, ensuring accessibility to information and opportunities for marginalized communities to participate actively in local planning and monitoring processes. 

  • Development and launching of information-sharing platforms in the three target municipalities, including the design and development of the platforms, training on the platform management, content creation, and video production to create information products for citizens.

  • MIDL training, focusing on Minority groups (Cham), Women/girls, Youth (with limited digital literacy), and Marginalized groups (persons with disabilities, poor, migrants, stateless persons, LGBTQ groups.)

  • Promotion of Yobol.org and feedbacks analysis to gather recommendations aiming to improve public services.

  • Continued process of Governance Survey.

  • Publication of the report on NP1 Evaluation.

  • Continued support for CSOs sub-grantees, with a focus on women and vulnerable groups, will drive sustainable change at the grassroots level. 

     

Find the reports:

Impact

START DATE

April 2022

END DATE

March 2025

STATUS

Ongoing

PROJECT OFFICE

Cambodia

IMPLEMENTING PARTNER

United Nations Development Programme

DONORS

GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS

$2,968,587

DELIVERY IN PREVIOUS YEARS

2022$69,445

2023$296,587

2024$1,032,718

2025$9,682

Full Project information