Advocacy in Cambodia: Increasing Democratic ... - Pact Cambodia

Increasing Democratic Space
advocacy campaigns reviewed were able to identify
decision-makers who are in influential positions.
Decision-makers targeted included party leaders,
members of parliament, members of the royal
family, ministers and other high government
officials, the Mayor of Phnom Penh, provincial
governors, and local authorities in the urban and
rural districts and communes. Organizations have
also lobbied the Council of Jurists at the Council
of Ministers, judges, and other officials at the
Ministry of Justice.
Representatives from more experienced
advocacy sectors who have developed a degree of
legitimacy with officials and lawmakers (for
example human rights groups) are able to use
group lobbying and individual diplomacy to
approach high-ranking figures. However, younger
development professionals find it more difficult
to access these individuals, as elaborated upon in
the section on strategies.
Advocates in Cambodia are also able to
identify individuals or organizations that have
power or influence over decision-makers. Human
rights agencies tend to lobby donors and
embassies to pressure the government on human
rights abuses. The urban groups, for example,
target the Municipality by asking the UNCHS
representative to intercede on their behalf in
weekly meetings with the Mayor of Phnom Penh.
UN agencies play a similar interceding role,
because politicians will more seriously consider
draft legislation if it is passed from an NGO to a
ministry through UNCHR, for example, rather
than directly. NGOs are clearly aware of this added
strength in their lobbying efforts and make a point
of coordinating with the UN to influence
government policy. In another example, during
the drafting of the labor law in the mid 1990s, AFL-
CIO invited the Ministry of Labor to attend a
workshop on the labor code by asking a committee
of the National Assembly to extend the invitation,
making it impossible for the Ministry to decline.
Occasionally in cases of natural resource
violations when open confrontation with
authorities would make a situation too tense,
advocates will use a different technique. Instead
of overtly implicating the authorities, they will
target a perpetrator whom they know is a
symptom of the problem. In an interesting
example in Kompong Chhnang, advocates found
a way to interrupt illegal pumping of a pond
without directly implicating the authorities in the
violation (see box).
Including Affected Constituencies in the
Campaign
There is a general perception within the
development community that while NGOs are able
to implement development activities in a
community and transfer management of
development activities to community leaders, they
have yet to develop the capacity to fully include
community members in advocacy efforts. As
mentioned earlier, concerned individuals or
agencies outside the community who have
experience in a particular sector have set much of
the advocacy agenda to date. Some of the needsbased
campaigns like land, forestry, and fisheries
are exceptions to this, though it is certainly true
that a number of advocacy networks at the
national level include no community participation.
While not all advocacy issues require mass
organizing, in order to maintain their legitimacy
advocacy or policy formulation agencies need to
maintain some ties to the grassroots level. It is not
unheard of for agencies to become skilled at
formulating policy but remain isolated from
communities. Elected officials are astute
politicians who quickly perceive when criticism or
a policy proposal is not backed by popular support.
When this is the case, there is a risk that officials
will ignore an agency’s arguments, even if they are
valid. Similarly, when donors realize that advocacy
groups do not have popular support they are quick
to redirect assistance to other agencies or issues,
a situation that is currently occurring today in the
Philippines.
The Commune Council Election Law
lobbying presents an interesting example of the
relationship between an advocacy campaign and
popular support. Human rights organizations and
In Kompong Chhnang a lot owner
was illegally pumping water from
a pond to catch fish. Villagers
complained, but the authorities
did nothing. Finally, the
villagers removed the illegal pump
and deposited it in the Department
of Fisheries office. Faced with
the evidence, it was difficult
for local authorities to deny that
illegal action was taking place
and the lot owner was reluctant
to claim the pump since it
admitted to illegal activity.
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