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

Increasing Democratic Space
A number of NGOs are becoming
strong advocacy organizations,
but most NGOs have not matured
to the point where they can do
strong advocacy.
advocacy organizations, but most NGOs have not
matured to the point where they can do strong
advocacy. Their primary concern remains with the
development of their organization and programs.
Areas in which NGOs have developed some
capacity include research, planning, networking
and lobbying, though there is room for
improvement. Lack of experience explains some
easily made mistakes and advocates in Cambodia
are quickly learning from these mistakes. For
example, the various NGOs involved in the
monitoring the widening of National Route 1 were
not used to having different agencies working on
the same issue. Some were doing monitoring for
the Asia Development Bank and others were doing
independent monitoring. It took some time for the
NGOs to realize that each group had an important
and separate role to play. Another example of
shortsighted lobbying is in the case of the
community fisheries lobbying, where lobbying
efforts did not stay far enough ahead in the
legislative process. Both types of mistakes are
unlikely to be repeated by the organizations
involved in these efforts and carry important
lessons learned for other sectors.
There is a need for advocacy intermediaries
and institutions that focus on policy formulation.
Very few NGOs have this specialization and are
better at collecting information from communities
that is important for policy formulation.
Networking
Civil society organizations in Cambodia have
developed numerous networks, but most of these
focus on information sharing and do not have
action plans or advocacy agendas. The most
effective networks are those that come together
for special events and groups like the Human
Rights Action Committee that meets to solve
particularly challenging human rights cases.
Problems regarding networks include the
difficulty in understanding when a network has
outlived its usefulness, lack of coordination
between networks, and lack of experience in
building alliances. Critics of networks also cite the
absence of community leaders at network
meetings and failure to build in consultation with
the constituencies that the networks represent.
Networking at the provincial level tends to
be relatively strong, probably because NGOs gain
a sense of solidarity from the meetings, there is a
greater probability of informal interaction, and the
networks encounter difficult challenges that
directly affect their work with communities.
Network meetings tend to focus on information
sharing, although there are occasionally examples
of group advocacy, particularly among NGOs in
Battambang. In one case of illegal land
appropriation in Kompong Thom, NGOs
successfully lobbied at the provincial and national
levels to put a stop to violations.
There are a number of examples of
Cambodian NGOs participating in regional and
international networks, although most activities
center on conferences and information exchange.
It is only in a few isolated cases that NGOs from
Cambodia have been able to advocate for change
outside of the country, as in the aforementioned
example of adding trafficking to the agenda of the
ASEAN Confederation of Women’s Associations.
NGOs in Cambodia are learning to work with
international actors, such as garment companies,
donors, and international networks and beginning
to earn international recognition in the form of
honorary awards, particularly in the field of
human rights. At the same time, there are risks
involved in international representation and NGO
representatives need to be sure that they are well
prepared and strategic when doing international
lobbying, particularly in forums that affect the
government, such as the annual Consultative
Group meeting of donors on Cambodia that
carries sufficient legitimacy for their
recommendations.
It is important for civil society organizations
to understand the central role of networking and
to avoid limiting advocacy activities to their own
programs or to participating in fragmented or
weak networks. Without effective networks, it is
impossible for NGOs to address larger problems
that affect communities at the local level.
Development organizations do not need to do
advocacy themselves. By being a member of a
strong network they can stay informed and lend
legitimacy to an advocacy campaign.
Another important strategy is to build
alliances with organizations that are working on
different aspects or levels of a problem. For
example in the case of land disputes, some
agencies work at the grassroots level assisting
communities with disputes, others provide legal
assistance and yet others assist with the
documentation of the problem. Once a change
objective has been achieved, the network or
alliance can disband. The strengthening of
effective advocacy networks through specific
activities like creating sectoral maps and an
advocacy action plan can be considered an
important strategy for agencies aiming to
strengthen advocacy in Cambodia.
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