Phnom Penh (February 26, 2013) – Representatives from three Non-Government Organizations and government line agencies working on Social Land Concession Projects met to share achievements, lessons learned and challenges of the project implementation at a joint workshop held on February 26-27 in Phnom Penh.
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In his opening speech, H.E Dr. Sareth Boramy, Permanent Deputy Secretary General, National Committee for Social Land Concession, recognized that during the implementation of the project over the past years, beyond significant achievements, the three NGOs—Life With Dignity (LWD), Habitat for Humanity and Wathnakpeap—faced a lot of challenges in implementing their tasks for the interest of the people. “However, we have turned these challenges into opportunities. As we have strong commitment, good cooperation and communications, and common understanding about the overall goal of the project, together, we addressed all the challenges and made today’s success,” he said.
Mr. Shinichi Tamitsu, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan to Cambodia, said in his remarks that the SLC project had a great potential to bring about positive impacts on both economic and social development. The project became a good example for future implementation of land allocation and settlement.
“Land is the most important base for our lives. For farmers, it is an indispensible resource for their livelihood, and for city dwellers, it is a place to live. In Cambodia where the majority of citizen is engaged in agriculture, land allocation to farmers has a special meaning to the society,” he said, adding that Japan conducted agricultural land reform between 1947 and 1950 to allocate land to landless farmers, and as a result, the farmers’ living standard improved and the society stabilized.
Ms. Mudita Chamroeun, Senior Rural Development Specialist, EASTS for World Bank and Task Team Leader of LASED, said LASED was the first pilot project designed to assist the Royal Government of Cambodia in its efforts to address land allocation for the poor. “I hope that the government will pay attention to enhance the stability of this project and ensure the success we have made to date. And I hope that there will be more donors to focus on supporting the LASED,” she said.
LWD Executive Director Dr. Sam Inn, said in his remarks that 1,293 poor families (equaled to 5,902 people) were granted access to land under the Community Empowerment Through Access to Land Project, funded by Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) through World Bank. The project has been implemented by LWD since October 2008 with technical support from the national and sub-national SLC Working Groups under the framework of Land Allocation for Social and Economic Development Project (LASED).
The project will be completed in mid-June 2013. It covers two locations—Kampong Speu’s Aoral and Phnom Sruoch districts where 400 landless and land-poor families were selected and Kampong Chhnang’s Sameakki Meanchey district where 893 families of the same criteria were selected to get the land.
Each selected land recipient family in Sameakki Meanchey received one hectare of agricultural land and a residential land of 30m by 40m, while those in Aroal got 1.5 hectares of agricultural land and the residential land of the same size.
Dr. Inn expressed his deep thanks to JSDF/World Bank for funding the project. He also sincerely thanked Finn Church Aid for its complementary financial support to the project, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC), SLC Technical Working Groups at the sub-national level, concerned departments and local authorities at all levels for their strong technical support to the project.
“We have made significant achievements to date, but challenges remain. They included land clearance for agriculture purpose and road construction have not yet started,” he said, adding that these need to be solved together. “However, LWD will try its best to address all these challenges by the end of the project in mid-June 2013. We are strongly committed to further mobilizing resources to support their livings on the new land in the two locations,” he said.
According to the report presented by Mr. Nuon Borin, LWD Area Program Manager, 43km of soil roads, 21 deep wells, 4 community ponds, 4 culverts, 2 health posts, 3 school buildings of 15 classrooms, and 648 latrines were constructed on the new land in both locations.
Other achievements of the project included (1) provision of farming kits and some house construction materials for all families; (2) provision of 400 water purifiers for 400 families, a subsidy of $80 for 400 families to support the clearance cost on their residential land; (3) provision of crop and vegetable seeds and chicken breeds for 997 families; (4) provision of a 180-liter water container for each of the families; and (5) provision of training courses on land rights; health, sanitation and hygiene; and farming skills.
The emerging challenges the new settlers are facing included lack of food, infrastructure, health care service, security/safety, clean water, crop seeds, water for agricultural activity and delay in providing access to education for children, and so on.
Key action plans to be taken included (1) construction of 20km of soil roads linking to other areas, 9km of soil roads in the villages, culverts at 27 locations, 15 deep wells, 5 meeting halls, 25 shallow wells, 2 spillways for water catchment, 2 water supply systems, 2 community ponds, 5 community kindergartens, (3) equipping the newly-constructed school buildings with furniture; and (4) clearing the agricultural land for all families.
There were about 100 participants attending the workshop. They are representatives from the communities under the SLC project, local authorities, and local and international NGOs, as well as UN systems working for poverty reduction in Cambodia.
In his closing remarks, H.E Chan Dara, Deputy Governor of Kampong Speu province, highly appreciated the support of all NGOs working in Cambodia and appealed to all local authorities at all levels to continue strengthening good cooperation with all development actors.
He said the sustainability of the project closely linked to the ownership of the beneficiaries and the government and the community plays a key role in maintaining all the achievements handed over by the NGOs.
For more information, please, contact Leak Ratna (Mr.), LWD Communication Coordinator | E-mail:ratna@lwd.org.kh | Phone: 012 819 121