Asia Times: Rural road leads to people power



	June 17, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Rural road leads to people power
By Debra Boyce

RATTANAKIRI, Cambodia - The road is simple, unpavedand only a kilometer long, but it has opened up a new world to thehill tribe community of Labang 1 in Cambodia's remote northeast. The Pheung community, part of one of Rattanakiri province's largest indigenous groups, was once accessible only by a narrow ox-cart path that was flooded for half of the year. Children were late for school, traders avoided the isolated villages and it was a struggle for villagers to get their goods to market.

Since the stretch of road was built in 1997, life has greatlyimproved in Labang 1. But more importantly, the villagers say, theroad was the first opportunity to plan their own future. ''We now have many ideas and many projects that we want,'' said resident Ruan Phay Poan. ''We knew what we needed but before noone asked us."

The road into Labang 1 is just one of hundreds of projects thathave resulted from a policy experiment in decentralization calledthe ''local planning process.'' First started in Cambodia's strife-torn northwest by the UnitedNations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the program placesdevelopment planning, financing and management at the provincialand local levels rather than at the national level hundreds of kilometers away in Phnom Penh.

The idea of local planning is gradually taking root around thecountry, helping to push ahead Cambodia's long-term developmentand social reconstruction. ''This has changed attitudes at the local level,'' stated SoparthPongquan of the Bangkok-based Asian Institute of Technology (AIT),which gave technical assistance to the UNCDF initiative on local planning. ''People say 'now we have clear plans and there is more understanding' or say 'before we decide anything, we have to ask the people','' said Soparth, who heads the AIT side of theproject.

''The local planning process provides empowerment,'' noted MinMuny, provincial program manager of the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) Carere project in Rattanakiri, which supports a national government decentralization scheme. ''It's time we bring the village to discuss with the higherlevels and the province will also have to respond. This is a bigchange in Cambodian society, usually you just have to acceptwhatever is offered,'' Min Muny added.

The first attempts at local governance began in 1996 in thestrife-torn provinces of Battambang and Banteay Meanchey. Withassistance in design and evaluation from AIT, UNCDF introduced thelocal planning process to two communes, the second-lowest level ofauthority in these provinces on the Thai border.

The process, while novel to Cambodia, is straightforward. Villagers elect development committees, whose members are trained in their roles and responsibilities. Villagers collectsocio-economic information, and together set goals for theircommunities. Commune development committees, headed by the commune chief andconsisting of respected leaders, then approve the projects. Theprovince provides the monitoring and financing from a localdevelopment fund set aside for each commune. Villagers arerequired to contribute to a portion of the project with eitherlabor or materials.

This new process varies from traditional governance structures in Cambodia. Local officialsare appointed, rather than elected, and all planning and financingis done at the national level in Phnom Penh, with littlecommunication or coordination with local authorities. The results, says Seng Pho, a UNDP staffer who works with village and commune development committees in Rattanakiri, were many projects, such as dams or irrigation schemes, that were eitherunnecessary or not a priority, and thus a waste of money.

But gradually that attitude is changing. In 1997, the nationalgovernment, with support from the UNDP's Carere project, made the local planning process the heart of a decentralization experiment. Known as ''Seila,'' which means foundation stone in Khmer, the program has brought local planning to three other provinces: Pursat in the west, Siem Reap in the north and Rattanakiri in the northeast.

The culmination of these new strategies and policies is agovernment commitment to hold first-time commune councilelections, scheduled for the end of this year. ''As a policy experiment, in this way it is a success,'' noted Bettina Fuhrmann, program manager of UNCDF. ''The fact that Carere took it up is a sign that it worked. Although the process has evolved and changed from Battambang toRattanakiri the basic principle is the same. People at thegrassroots level do what they want to do. We ask them to put onpaper a plan, and be sure the plan is implemented,'' she added.

Nationwide, more than 1,100 villages are now participating inlocal planning, with more than one million Cambodians, about 10percent of the population, benefitting from the project, saysBenoit Thierry, program manager and UNDP rural developmentadvisor in Phnom Penh. UNCDF is a major contributor to Seila and has continued to fundinfrastructure projects, such as roads and bridges, in Battambangand Banteay Meanchey, spending more than $4.5 million since1996. In Rattanakiri, where infrastructure is less critical, otherdonors have provided capital funding for projects such as ricemills and buffalo banks.

The idea of local planning was welcomed somewhat hesitantly bythe villagers of Labang 1 commune in Rattanakiri. Residents ofthree adjoining villages decided they wanted a road, but aftersubmitting their plan to the commune nothing happened, recallsNguy Houch, a village committee member. ''We thought at first we had been cheated,'' he said. ''After the proposal for the road was approved, everyone believed in theprocess."

The villagers built the road themselves, with materials providedby the local development fund. ''All the villagers are happy tocontribute material or labor because they are asking for theproject themselves,'' explained Nguy Houch. ''They think it isimportant to improve the situation in their village."

The next two projects in the commune were a buffalo bank, whichhas provided buffalo to the poorest families, and a rice mill.Villagers again contributed to the projects and pay a small sum ofmoney each time they use the rice mill for maintenance.

Sitting under the corrugated tin roof of the commune schoolrecently, representatives of the commune and four villagecommittees prepared a commune plan for their third round ofprojects. One village wants a well, another a school. A secondrice mill and buffalo bank have also been proposed.

Success is not measured only in the number of roads built, saysMin Muny, but also in villagers' increased ability to make goalsand plans. Village committees need also to be made up of 40percent women. ''The big challenge is not the tangible output,'' noted Min Muny.''It's changing the attitude, building the ability of the [village committee], so people can talk frankly and clearly. Communication is important for democracy."

(Inter Press Service)

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