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

introduction
This report aims to identify lessons learned from the advocacy experience
in Cambodia that can be shared with advocates working in various sectors.
Analysis is based on review of advocacy activities in eight sectors: fisheries, land,
labor, commune council elections, women’s movement, urban poor, HIV/AIDS,
and child rights. This selection is intended to be illustrative rather than
comprehensive. The selection of a limited number of illustrative case studies
has led to the omission of some issues, which are no less important such as
lobbying of multilateral banks and donors, forestry reform, lobbying for judicial
reform, the anti-corruption campaign, and the health and education sectors.
Campaigns to reform the land law, introduce a community fisheries subdecree,
commune council election law, or domestic violence law have much to
teach all advocacy stakeholders about successful advocacy strategies and
mistakes made in designing and implementing advocacy campaigns. Among
the case studies presented, advocacy in the fisheries sector illustrates a
streamlined approach that extends from the grassroots to the national policymaking
level and benefits from the arguments collected during the preparation
of the land law legislation. The organized garment labor movement involves
three sectors of society: a government monitoring and mediation agency, the
garment factories, and the labor unions. The commune council election law
lobbying presents a concerted approach and high profile lobbying, as does the
domestic violence law campaign within the women’s movement. HIV/AIDS and
child rights sectors illustrate strong networking techniques and provide examples
of advocacy that allows people affected by the issues to participate more in policy
decision-making.
In addition to identifying general successes and failures in advocacy, this
report aims to ascertain how civil society organizations and elected
representatives can assist in the process of strengthening democratization and
increasing accountability within the Cambodian government. Facilitating
stronger democracy will increase the likelihood that future advocacy efforts will
result in responsive policy changes that consider the needs of the people affected
by policies.