evaluation of adolescent and youth participation in unicef ... · the study examined the level and...

i

Evaluation of

Adolescent and Youth Participation

in UNICEF Cambodia

Contact the Author:

Henry R. Ruiz, PhD

UNICEF Consultant

P106 South Star Plaza Condo

205 Osmena Highway, Makati City

Philippines 1233

[email protected]

Tel. 63-2-8942232

For further information, please contact:

Socheath Heang

Social Policy Specialist

#11 St. 75, Sangkat Sraschark, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

[email protected]

All opinions are of the author’s and do not reflect UNICEF Cambodia’s policies and

opinions. Any discrepancy in this report is the sole responsibility of the author.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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CONTENTS

ACRONYMS iv

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY v

1. INTRODUCTION

1

1.1 Background and Purpose 1

1.2 Objectives and Deliverables 3

1.3 Scope and Focus 4

1.4 Conceptual Framework 4

1.5 Methodology 8

1.6 Evaluation Ethics 10

1.7 Sampling Methodology 10

1.8 Profile of Respondents 10

1.9 Limitations

12

2. “WE CAN DO IT” Youth Communication Project

13

2.1 What is the project about? 13

2.2 Did the project facilitate effective participation of adolescents and youth? 14

2.3 Is the project relevant, effective, efficient, sustainable? What kind of impact has

it produced?

18

2.4 Summary of findings and conclusions and recommendation

22

3. “MAKING CHILD RIGHTS A REALITY” Project

24




it produced?

29


34

4. “YOUTH TV BUREAU” Project

36




it produced?

41

4.4 Summary of findings and conclusions and recommendations

44

5. “COMMUNE YOUTH GROUP” Project

46


5.2 Did the project facilitate effective participation of youth? 47

5.3 Is the project efficient, relevant, sustainable and effective, and what kind of

impact has it produced?

51


56

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6. AYP Programming in UNICEF and in the Government

58

6.1 AYP Programming in UNICEF Cambodia 58

6.2 The National Youth Policy: An opportunity for AYP in Government

59

7. Summative Analysis of Major Findings , Lessons Learned And

Recommendations

61

7.1 Major findings 61

7.2 Lessons Learned and Good Practices 65

7.3 Recommendations 67

7.3.1 Recommendations in Mainstreaming CYP in UNICEF Programme 68

7.3.2 Recommendations in Support of Discreet CYP Projects 68

7.3.3 Recommendations for Integrating CYP In Programme Management 70

7.3.4 Recommendations for Wider Promotion of CYP 72

7.3.5 Recommendations on Advancing the National Youth Policy 73

ANNEXES

73

I Terms of Reference 72

II Over-all Guide and Guide Questions for the Focus Group Discussion, Group

Interview, and Key Informant Interview

82

III Data Collection Scheme 106

IV List of Respondents 109

V Participants in the National Data Validation Conference, “Lessons from the

Ground for Programmes and Policies on Adolescent and Youth Participation”

124

VI Profile of Respondents, by agency and by sex 125

VII Distribution of Youth Respondents, by Agency and Single Age 126

VIII Total UNICEF Budget Releases to the Four Agencies, 2009 and 2010 127

IX Programme for the Conference on “Lessons from the Ground for Policies and

Programmes on Adolescent and Youth Participation( AYP)”

128

X References 129

TABLES

Table 1 Profile of Respondents 11

Table 2 UNICEF’s Financial Support to the Four Projects 2009-2010 63

Table 3 Steps in Integrating CYP in Programme Management Cycle 70

FIGURES

Figure 1 Analytical Plan Focused on the Four Participation Projects 8

Figure 2 Analytical Plan for UNICEF and Government 8

Figure 3 Organizing Structure of Commune Kleb Koma 29

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ACRONYMS

ASM Advocacy and Social Mobilization

AYP Adolescent and Youth Participation

AWP Annual Work Plan

BBC British Broadcasting Council

CAMP Child Assistance for Mobilization and Participation

CCWC Commune Committee for Women and Children

CNCC Cambodian National Committee for Children

CODEC Cooperation for Development of Cambodia

CPAP Country Programme Action Plan

CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child

CSSD Cambodian Students for Social Work and Development

CYG Commune Youth Group

CYP Child and Youth Participation

DR Documents Review

EA Equal Access

EAPRO East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office

FGD Focused Group Discussion

FO Focused Observation

KAP Knowledge, Attitude and Practice

KII Key Informants Interview

KRA Key Resul Area

MoEYS Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports

MOI Ministry of Interior

MTR Mid-Term Review

MTSP Medium Term Strategic Plan

NCYD National Council for Youth Development

NYP National Youth Policy

NYC National Youth Council

NGO Non-government Organization

OECD Organization of Economic-Cooperation Development

DAC Development Assistance Committee

PLAU Provincial Local Administration Unit

SCY Support Children and Young People

SMART Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound

TOR Terms of Reference

UN United Nations

UNCT United Nations Country Team

UNDAF UN Development Assistance Framework

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

YTB Youth TV Bureau

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Executive Summary

This evaluation aims to review and analyze the accomplishments and level and quality of

participation of four UNICEF-supported adolescent and youth participation projects

implemented within UNICEF-Cambodia’s Country Programme 2006-2010. The exercise

highlights the good practices and lessons learned for future improvement of the individual

projects and to inform the UNICEF Cambodia Office of the wider areas of work in the

promotion of adolescent and youth participation (AYP) within UNICEF, UN system and the

Cambodian Government.

The four UNICEF-supported AYP projects evaluated were: (1) “We Can Do It” Project –

implemented by Equal Access or EA (2) Making Child Rights A Reality” Project –

implemented by Child Assistance for Mobilization and Participation or CAMP, (3) “Youth

TV Bureau” Project – implemented by Support Children and Young People or SCY, (4)

“Commune Youth Groups” Project – implemented by Cooperation for Development of

Cambodia or CoDeC.

The study examined the level and quality of adolescent and youth participation in the five

roles of children - assessment and analysis, articulation and advocacy, planning, action and

monitoring and evaluation – along five criteria: efficiency, relevance, effectiveness,

sustainability and impact. It employed a mix of research strategies to gather information from

participants and stakeholders: focus group discussions, key informant interviews, focused

observations, and review of documentation. It was also guided by the principles of

triangulation and appreciative inquiry. The study involved a total of 107 respondents from

seven communes spread out in four provinces including Phnom Penh. The children and youth

sector made up the majority of the respondents (57 percent) of which boys and girls were

equally represented. The evaluation also covered a total of 15 parents, seven commune

leaders and 24 agency staff members.

The evaluation also engaged, in a one on one interview, the involvement of eight individuals

representing the International NGOs, the UN, government and the UNICEF Cambodia

Office. About thirty individuals representing various local and international NGOs, UN

agencies, a government agency and a private research firm participated in the national

conference to validate the findings of this evaluation.

Findings

The evaluation found that the four AYP projects generated adolescent and youth participation

in varying degrees of achievement despite cultural, economic, political factors seemingly

unfavorable to young Cambodian boys and girls. There were strong elements of participation

in some projects not present in others. In general, the strongest participation was in action or

accomplishment of their projects and weakest in assessment and analysis and in advocacy

and articulation. This may be attributed to the agency’s inadequate understanding of the

principles and practice of participation. Lack of relevant guide materials, manuals, or training

packages on the principles and standards of participation is another reason. There were

evidences showing that the four projects appeared to be adult-led and adult-driven.

The stories of adolescent and youth respondents showed that the impact of participation on

them was strongest in the enhancement of their skills related to the project, their expressive

ability, fighting off feelings of timidity and shyness leading to self-esteem and self-

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confidence, their social interaction skills and expansion of friends, better school performance,

and better relationship with adults particularly with parents.

The sustainability aspect of the projects is a big issue. Three projects discontinued upon

withdrawal of UNICEF assistance. One of them managed to persist because of an external

support. All of the projects appeared to be donor-dependent. The projects are limited to

participation in media and participation in the communes as opposed to many other types and

settings of participation such as school, family, caring institutions, etc.

There was not enough evidence to show that the projects fully addressed equity issues in the

project coverage. The four projects tend to focus on older adolescents and youth inadvertently

disregarding the participation of younger children under 15 years of age, who have the same

right as the older children based on the CRC. There is a strong tendency to create elite

groups of articulate and smart young boys and girls in the community because of preference

for the best members that could potentially produce the best results. This may have worked to

the disadvantage of disadvantaged groups who may have desired to get involved in the

projects but did not possess the qualifications. There was no particular gender issue in the

four projects.

The projects have no child protection policy. The protection and safety of the adolescents and

youth while engaged in project activities did not come out as a key concern among the

projects. One of the reasons given was that there has not been any protection issue happening

in the past and because of commonly perceived peace and safety in the kingdom.

Measuring the results of the interventions is a challenge because of the absence of baseline

data and that the statement of goals and objectives of all the four projects could have been

more results-oriented and formulated in “SMART” way.

AYP programming in UNICEF Cambodia

In the previous country programme of UNICEF Cambodia (CPAP 2006-2010), the evaluation

found that AYP appeared to be treated as “projects”, such as: youth in the radio, youth on

TV, youth in the commune council and youth in the promotion of child rights. AYP was

principally considered a responsibility of a specific section, the Advocacy and Social

Mobilization Programme. In the CPAP results matrix, AYP was not considered a key result

area. The mid-term evaluation of the same CPAP recommended greater attention to capacity

development of adolescents and youth groups particularly in taking community action in

analyzing their situation, finding local solutions, demanding basic services and monitoring

the delivery of quality basic services. The evaluation found that this was barely addressed in

the succeeding years.

In the current country programme of UNICEF Cambodia (CPAP 2011-2015), the evaluation

found that AYP has now been considered under cross-sector support to facilitate the

planning, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and operations of participation across sectors

in the entire country programme. However, AYP is still not regarded as a key progress

indicator and is still largely considered the responsibility of one section, namely, Policy

Advocacy and communication (PAC). A focal point has been designated and sent to training.

Currently, there are no discreet AYP projects being supported by the office. Based on the

questionnaires submitted by the various sections of the office, AYP has not yet been

effectively integrated into the current country programme. As a continuation of previous

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partnerships in the last Country Programme, AYP is presently focused on collaboration with

the UN system and the Youth Section of the MoEYS on the drafting and approval of the

National Youth Policy, at the initial stage, and now on the implementation of the Policy.

Summary of issues and concerns

The following is the summary of issues and concerns in the implementation of the four

UNICEF-supported projects that may have implications in the promotion of genuine AYP in

Cambodia particularly within the context of the National Youth Policy.

The four projects have no focal person on AYP who could ensure effective integration of

child participation in the project operation.

The staff had no formal training on AYP concepts and principles.

The four projects have limited coverage in terms of age group: 15-24 (Grades 10-12).

There was no consideration for evolving capacities of children.

Participation settings were limited to media and community activities. Participation in

school, family, institutions and other settings was not explored.

In the selection and involvement of participants, there was a tendency to create elite child

and youth groups.

The focus has been on those residing in the center, the most dynamic, educated and

expressive.

Other issues include the following:

absence of a national forum in Cambodia for sharing and exchange of experiences,

lessons, expertise, and resources on AYP.

absence of a national framework (policy or strategy) for AYP as guide for

implementation.

inadequate understanding of AYP due to absence of a full blown training on AYP.

lack of materials (handouts, manuals, training package) on AYP.

absence of sensitive outcome indicators on AYP.

need to review monitoring mechanism for AYP.

tendency to be fully donor–dependent affecting the sustainability of the project.

The National Youth Policy: an opportunity for AYP in Government

The Cambodian National Youth Policy (NYP) has just been signed when this evaluation

started in July 2011. The signing marked the emergence of a legal instrument that was hoped

to propel the empowerment of the Cambodian youth. Potentially, the Policy can provide an

opportunity for young Cambodian women and men to engage in meaningful participation in

governance and civic enterprise.

To date, there has not been any action yet as a follow up to the signing of the policy.

According to an official of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the immediate plans

will cover the translation of the policy from Kmer to English, printing and distribution of the

policy and meeting with the UNCT to request support for these activities. Part of the

intermediate plan is to develop the Action Youth Action Plan with the same technical

working group that drafted the Policy. The other important step is the development of a sub-

decree that will outline the implementing rules and regulations of the NYP which includes the

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establishment of National Council for Youth Development (NCYD). The NCYD is

envisioned to be a board to be chaired by the Prime Ministry with the line ministries. This is

the point where UN’s technical and financial support is strategically needed.

Lessons learned and good practices

The evaluation learned that despite cultural, economic and political barriers, Cambodian

adolescents and youth can have a meaningful participation in the commune council and

effectively engage with commune council leaders given enabling environment and

appropriate training and exposure. Although not fully successful, CoDeC and CAMP have

demonstrated that the commune council could be an excellent platform for youth

participation in local governance.

The positive impact of participation on adolescents and youth can serve as a natural advocacy

instrument to address cultural bias against the participation of young people in community

affairs and in decision making. Meanwhile, their parents, as well as, the commune leaders

could be effective advocacy allies if encouraged and trained to speak in support of adolescent

and youth participation.

The set of five roles that adolescents and youth could play in a rights-based development

programme is a useful evaluation lens but flexibility and creativity are needed to apply them

considering historical, political, economic and cultural differences affecting the level of AYP.

Treating AYP initiatives as discrete projects, and not as a general key progress indicator, can

get in the way of promoting coordination and synergy among sectors in UNICEF, as well as,

with government, non-government partners and the UN family.

Good practices in AYP from the four projects

Each of the four UNICEF-assisted projects, in their own uniqueness, has demonstrated some

good practices that could be widely applied in programming for AYP. EA has illustrated that

organizing radio listening groups could be a good entry point for the formation of commune

youth clubs. CAMP has shown that more spaces for AYP are created when they are

organized than when they act individually on their own. CoDeC has proven that forging an

agreement with the commune council leaders on the participation of organized youth in the

commune council meetings is a good strategy in “penetrating” the commune council. SCY

has proven that given opportunity, appropriate training, and communication resources, young

people could produce high quality youth-oriented television products on their own with

minimal adult guidance.

Recommendations

The evaluation recommends that the four project documents be redesigned to make them more rights-based, vision of adolescent youth and participation clearly articulated and well-defined, goals and objected stated using SMART as standards, outcome indicators consistent with the principles of genuine participation, and choice of strategies empowering. Targeting the project beneficiaries or participants should address the issues of equity, gender, age, educational attainment, and class origin. They also need to orient the project personnel at all levels on the guidelines, principles, theory and practice of meaningful AYP. They should continue the training of adolescents and

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youth leaders with more emphasis on assessment and analysis and advocacy and articulation. The projects also need to address the following gaps or inadequacies in: synergy among the four projects, protection measures, sustainability, awareness of adult stakeholders on AYP, and monitoring mechanism for AYP.

UNICEF needs to develop a comprehensive capability building and awareness raising

package on the theory and practice of AYP designed for adults. The package must be

accompanied with other necessary materials relevant to AYP such as a sample child

protection policy in AYP, minimum standards in working and consulting with children; and

documentation of good practices on participation in various settings.

Other recommended actions are:

Develop a system of monitoring project performance using key behavioral indicators on

genuine AYP including equity, gender and protection aspects.

Organize a national coalition that will serve as a forum for sharing and exchange of

expertise, experience and resources on the fulfillment of participation right of adolescents

and youth.

For the same coalition to develop a national Framework, Policy/Strategy for participation.

Develop a comprehensive capability building package in building the capacity of

children, adolescent and youth leaders in assessment and analysis, policy advocacy,

planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and leadership.

Explore the possibility of identifying and engaging a well known, influential but

reputable personality that can champion the participation right of children and youth.

On the implementation of NYP the following recommended actions may be undertaken:

Translation and printing of the NYP to a make the policy widely known.

The young reporters of “Youth Today TV” can make documentaries out of the policy for

its target audience composed of young people.

If allowed technically, there might be a need to redefine the vision, goals and objectives

of the NYP without veering away from the substance into a statement.

The planned NCYD should have provincial and District counterparts to allow for

coordination, provision of technical assistance, capacity building and monitoring of youth

development activities at sub-national levels.

Parallel to the national, provincial, and district councils for youth development should be

the organization of youth themselves that goes down to commune and even village level.

This is crucial as this is the tangible and practical expression of youth participation and

that will facilitate suitable and genuine adolescent and youth representation.

In each government level of the youth council, there should be adequate and appropriate

representation of the youth.

During the national conference held for the validation of findings of this exercise, the

evaluation found that there have been some initiatives on the child and youth participation in

the kingdom. It was also found that there was a lot of interest on the fulfilment of the

participation right of children and youth but there was a dearth of knowledge to pursue this

enthusiasm. UNICEF Cambodia can ride on this observation to strategically push

participation into the forefront of implementation of development programmes.

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background and Purpose

Cambodia has one of the youngest populations in Southeast Asia, with two out of every three

people aged below 25 and 32 1. This young population brings with it both enormous

possibilities and complex development challenges2. Despite its huge number, Cambodia’s

children and youth remain under-represented in many social undertakings at the national,

sub-national, commune and village levels because of a society predominantly characterized

by hierarchical and patron-client relationships. The voice of children and youth is rarely

heard or taken into consideration in planning, resource allocation, and decision-making

processes.3 At both national and sub-national levels, there are limited institutionalized

structures and mechanisms that allow their participation in these processes. Meanwhile, there

have not been many initiatives to promote child and youth participation (CYP) in informal

sectors such as home, play and work spaces, as well as schools.

UNICEF is committed to building partnerships that promote participation of children and

youth in programmes and decision-making processes that affect their lives. One of the key

result areas in the UNICEF 2006-2013 Medium-Term Strategic Plan’s is institutionalized

participation of children and young people in civic life which has two organisational targets:

Establishment of national child and youth policies that advance positive and holistic child

and adolescent development, and that institutionalise participation of young people in

policy development and community life; and

Improved capacity of children and adolescents to actively participate in decision-making

processes that affect them at policy and community levels.

These key result areas (KRA) and targets are parts of the fifth Focus Area of the UNICEF’s

Medium-Term Strategic Plan (MTSP) which is Policy Advocacy and Partnerships for

Children’s Rights.

In support of the above challenge and in consistency with the MTSP goals, UNICEF

Cambodia’s Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) 2006-2010 included a component on

children and youth participation under its Advocacy and Social Mobilization (ASM)

Programme. The component is committed to achieve the following expected output with a

corresponding indicator:

Increased opportunities for the participation of children and young people to exercise

their right to express their views and be involved in the decisions affecting their lives

under all the programmes.

Percentage of the projects having substantial child and youth participation

components/activities.

1Cambodia National Census, 2008.

2 Broderick, Douglas: Opening Remarks during the launch of “UN Joint Situation Analysis of Youth in

Cambodia”, 2009. 3 “Situation Analysis of Youth in Cambodia”, United Nations Country Team, May 2009.

2

UNICEF Cambodia has worked with government ministries and institutions4, development

partners and civil society groups on a number of fronts to address issues being faced by

adolescents and young people. Together with other UN agencies, UNICEF played a leading

role in the conduct of the Situation Analysis of Cambodian Youth and made significant

contribution to the development of the draft Cambodian National Youth Policy. UNICEF also

supports the work of the UN Youth Advisory Panel, which advises the United Nations

Country Team (UNCT) on youth issues, and NGO partners on a number of youth

programmes.

The report of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of UNICEF Cambodia’s CPAP 2006-2010

conducted in October 2008 recommended that greater attention should be paid to capacity

development of community groups, including children and youth groups, so that they could

interact with village leaders, service providers and the commune council, take community

action in analyzing their situation, find local solutions, demand basic services and monitor the

delivery of quality basic services. It went on to recommend that the successor of ASM

“works more closely with the programme sections to promote children and youth

participation for example harnessing the ‘youth commune’ structure initiated by Seth Koma

or through closer collaboration with the existing youth programme structure within the

MoEYS5.

The UN Joint Situation Analysis of Cambodia Youth, 2009, has documented a wide spectrum

of hurdles and issues relating to education, health, employment, migration, vulnerability, and

participation.6 Because of this, the United Nations family in Cambodia considers the youth as

one of its work priorities as highlighted in its UN Development Assistance Framework

(UNDA2011-2015 and a UN Common Advocacy Point for 2011.

Part of the Concluding Observations to the Combined 2nd

and 3rd

Periodic Report of

Cambodia reads, “The Committee reminds the State party of its obligation to undertake

appropriate measures to fully implement the right of the child to be heard and urges it to

actively combat negative attitudes and conceptions of the child which impede the full

realization of her or his right to be heard, through public educational programmes, including

campaigns organized in cooperation with opinion leaders, families and media.”7

A major milestone in the advancement of the youth as a key sector in the country happened

on 24 June 2011 when the Cambodian National Youth Policy was signed by the Prime

Minister of Cambodia. The document aptly begins with recognizing the youth as the “vital

sources and the keys of economic changes. They are currently the effective partners, and they

are the future leaders. Youth participation makes a prosperous society. Therefore, education

and training for every youth is needed and urgent for each society. “8

One of the aims of the Cambodian National Youth Policy is “to make the society recognize

and promote youth participation in country development by integrating ‘youth development’

4 Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS), Ministry of Interior (MOI), Ministry of Health, Ministry

of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation, National Aids Authority. 5 MTR, October 2008. Page 1 & 66.

6UNCT, 2009. Situation Analysis of Cambodia Youth, p. 97

7 Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under Article 44 of the Convention. Concluding

Observations: Cambodia, 1620th

and 1621st meetings held 3 June 2011 and adopted at its 1639

th meeting held

on 17 June 2011. 8 Draft Cambodian National youth Policy

3

and ‘youth empowerment’ into national budgets and programs.” This aim resonates well

with the findings of a study supported by the UNDP-Cambodia, 2001, which revealed that

one of the key challenges that the Cambodian youth face today is achieving a meaningful and

effective participation in the political and socio-economic life due to lack of knowledge and

understanding of democratic processes and lack of capacity to express the various issues and

concerns affecting them.9 The study entitled, “Youth Civic Participation: Knowledge,

Attitudes, Practices and Media”, was conducted in 2010 by the BBC World Service Trust-

Research and Learning Group.

1.2 Objectives and Deliverables

The evaluation aims to respond to a number of questions related to effectiveness and impact

of the programmes against stated objectives and of programming approaches employed. The

evaluation also examines the links of these programmes to national and UNICEF strategic

priorities related to child and youth participation, as well as, quality of partnership. This

exercise specifically seeks to address the following objectives:

1.2.1 To review and analyze the accomplishments and level and quality of participation of

the four UNICEF-supported adolescent and youth participation projects implemented

within UNICEF-Cambodia’s CPAP 2006-2010.

1.2.2 To evaluate the above four programmes with focus on:

Relevance to national and UNICEF priorities

Effectiveness in achieving stated objectives

Impact of each of the projects

Efficiency of approaches (as appropriate)

Sustainability of the projects

The evaluation of the four projects was also guided by the extent of application of

UNICEF’s general standard and principles in working with children and youth, as

follows:

equity

gender

protection

child-friendly environment

1.2.3 To identify and highlight the best practices from each of the four projects, if any, and

lessons learned for future documentation

1.2.4 To generate recommendations for future improvement of the individual project,

including recommendations on what and how UNICEF could engage with areas of

work addressing issues of adolescents and young people with UN and the

government.

9 BBC World Service Trust – Research and Learning Group, with support from UNDP, Youth Civic

Participation in Cambodia: Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Media. 2010

4

1.3 Scope and Focus

The evaluation reviewed the level and quality of participation of children and youth in the

four UNICEF-supported programmes implemented under the UNICEF Cambodia’s CPAP

2006-2010, derived lessons and drew out strategic recommendations to advance child and

youth programming within UNICEF and within the government structure.

The research looked for answers to the evaluation questions across the four UNICEF-supported programmes, as follows:

We Can Do It – implemented by Equal Access

Making Child Rights A Reality – implemented by Child Assistance for Mobilization and

Participation (CAMP)

Youth TV Bureau – implemented by Support Children and Young People (SCY)

Commune Youth Groups – implemented by Cooperation for Development of Cambodia

(CODEC) and the Planning Authority of Kompong Thom

The exercise specifically addressed the following evaluation questions:

To what extent did the projects facilitate effective child and youth participation?

Were the projects efficient, relevant, sustainable and effective, and what kind of impact

have they produced?

What were the issues encountered in the project implementation and what lessons were

drawn from these experiences?

What recommendations can be made to effectively weave in AYP into the current CPAP

and to inform the current partnership on the effective promotion and integration of AYP

in the UN system and government?

The evaluation covered the implementation of the four discreet AYP projects during the last

RGC-UNICEF Country Programme for Children 2006-2010 particularly during its last two

years. The whole evaluation exercise, excluding the review of the draft report by UNICEF

Cambodia and the four NGO partners and the submission of final report, was conducted from

17 July 2011 to 24 September 2011 or for a period of 50 working days as specified in the

Terms of Reference (TOR).

1.4 Conceptual Framework

The exercise was guided by the following concepts, criteria and standards on child and youth

participation.

Participation is a fundamental human right enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the

Child. “Children have the right to take part in discussions on matters that affect them. They

have the right to be heard and their views seriously considered” (UN CRC 1989). According

to UNICEF, “Participation represents the right of rights holders, including children, to

demand their rights and to hold duty bearers to account. Rights holder participation and duty

bearer accountability are complementary parts of a human rights-based approach, which

develops the capacity of rights holders to claim their rights and of duty bearers to meet their

obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights in society.”

5

The CRC specifically articulates child participation in the following provisions:

Article 12 – the right to express views freely in all matters affecting the child…the views of

the child be given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity

Article 13 – the right to freedom of expression

Article 14 – the right of the child to freedom of thought conscience and religion

Article 15 – rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly

The concepts above basically cover children under 18 but they are certainly applicable to

adolescents and youth as well. To be specific about it, youth participation is understood as “a

programme strategy or an attitude that encourages youth to express their opinions, to become

involved, and to be part of the decision-making process at different levels”. 10

There is not

much difference in the application of the criteria and standards for participation except that

the expected tasks and roles are performed by the children based on their evolving capacity.

Adolescent and youth participation can take place at all levels, from community life to the

global level. It can become effective in various degrees of formalisation: from entirely

informal settings e.g. in the family and among peers, to institutionalised participation in

different spheres of society. (See also Factsheet “Establishment of Structures for Youth

Participation and Youth Promotion”). The Situation Analysis of Youth in Cambodia 2009:

Participation and Rights, young people is defined as Cambodians ages 10-24 years old. This

study is adopting the same definition and will be applied, as appropriate, in the whole

exercise.

Both the quality and value of children’s participation were assessed according to Hart’s and Lansdown’s minimum standards and principles which this researcher combined.

11 The

standards specify that: Children understand the intentions of the project, what it is for and their role in it.

Power relations and decision-making structures are transparent.

Children have a meaningful (rather than “decorative”) role, and are involved from the

earliest possible stage of any initiative.

All children are treated with equal respect regardless of age, situation, ethnicity, abilities,

or other factors.

Ground rules are established with all the children from the beginning.

Participation is voluntary and children are allowed to leave at any stage.

Children are respected for their views and experiences.

They volunteer for the project after the project was made clear to them.

The evaluation specifically employed two lenses to analyse the level and quality of the AYP

interventions in Cambodia.

10

Golombek, S. (2002): What Works in Youth Participation: Case Studies from Around the World, p. 8 11

Hart, Roger. Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship, UNICEF, 1992, 11 and Lansdown,

Gerison. Promoting Children’s Participation in Democratic Decision Making, UNICEF, 2001, 9-10.

6

1.4.1 Five Participation Roles in a Rights-Based Programme

Given the above general statements, the level and quality of participation in the UNICEF supported projects were reviewed based on the principles, considerations, and approaches to participation interventions, reflected in the “Guidance Note on Promoting Participation of Children and Young People”

12

To do this the evaluation answered questions pertaining to the programmes’ status and results from the perspective of the five roles that children can play in a rights-based approach to programming:

1.4.1.1 Assessment and Analysis: participating in establishing the existence and magnitude

of a problem and analysing its causes; participating in research

Were the children and youth directly involved or consulted in identifying what

issues/topics/agenda/concerns that they will tackle in their programme? How?

Were they involved in analyzing and assessing their situation? To what extent?

1.4.1.2 Articulation and Advocacy: demanding the attention of decision-makers,

advocating, petitioning.

Were they engaged in making a point, speaking up, petitioning, campaigning,

demonstrating? Explain?

Were children organised (represented) to speak up collectively? How?

Were opportunities/platforms for advocacy identified/created? How?

1.4.1.3 Planning: participating in developing plans of action; negotiating; making or

improving plans

Were children consulted on strategic choices and priorities? How?

Were they consulted when plans were being drawn? How?

Did they identify/suggest improvements to plans or situations? How?

1.4.1.4 Action: fulfilling a role; becoming an actor

What designated role did they fulfil? Were they prepared to perform this role?

Did they participate in committees or consultations? How?

Were they better organised to do actions?

1.4.1.5 Monitoring and Reporting : Monitoring, evaluating, and reporting progress on the

implementation of plans and commitments

Were they engaged in monitoring their plans or their situation? How?

Did they provide feedback to programme planners and officials? How?

Did they contribute to reports? Did they prepare their own reports? How?

12

Chapter Six, Section 15 of the UNICEF Programme Policies and Procedures Manual

7

1.4.2 The Five Evaluation Measures

The evaluation report also applied the following criteria used by the OECD-DAC

13 in

evaluating development assistance, as follows: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability.

1.4.2.1 Relevance

Were the projects relevant? Are the projects still relevant?

Are they relevant to UNICEF and country priorities?

1.4.2.2 Effectiveness

Did the project achieve satisfactory progress towards stated objectives?

What were the outputs and outcomes?

1.4.2.3 Efficiency

Were the services delivered or achieved at the lowest practicable cost and at the

shortest practicable time.

Were the effects achieved at an acceptable cost and time? (Ask the implementers if

they were to do it again? Would they have saved money and time?)

1.4.2.4 Sustainability

Where is the project now? Is it continuing?

What have they sustained fully or partially? Explain? What have they not sustained?

1.4.2.5 Impact

What were the immediate and long range impacts?

What were the intended and unintended results?

What were the impact on the children and youth? Their families? Their ccommunes?

13

Organization of Economic-Cooperation Development-Development Assistance Committee

8

1.5 Methodology

1.5.1 Analytical Plan

The evaluation process was guided by the following diagrams below which describe the

analytical framework considering the objectives of the exercise, the analytical lenses that will

be used, the procedures, and expected outputs. Figure 1 covers the four participation

projects. Figure 2 is focused on the review of UNICEF’s integration of participation in the

programmes.

Figure 1

Analytical Plan focused on the four participation project

Figure 2

Analytical Plan for UNICEF and Government

9

1.5.2 Evaluation Approaches

The evaluation was participative and analytical in both qualitative and quantitative aspects. It

employed interactive processes that significantly engaged the stakeholders and those affected

by adolescent and youth participation. The aim was for the researcher to have a

comprehensive, holistic and precise view of the impact of the projects. The following

approaches were observed:

Stakeholders’ participation – Comprehensive involvement of the stakeholders (adolescent

and youth and adults they interact with), particularly in the data collection stage. Attention

was given to the impact of participation on adult perception of children’s right to participate

meaningfully, and how the perception affected practice.

Principles of appreciative inquiry – As subjects of evaluation, the respondents were engaged

not only as sources of data but also as proactive participants in the search for answers to the

evaluation questions. The report highlighte the positive and notable aspects of the projects as

much as possible and the innovative practices, lessons learned, implementation issues and

challenges that could inform succeeding programming exercises.

Principles of triangulation – The data collection phase will employ at least three means of

obtaining information and three or more different sources. Triangulation allowed for a

comparison of research findings across different approaches, types or sources of information,

and methods of data collection. The results of the exercises were cross-checked in the

evaluation research.

1.5.3 Data Collection Instruments

The research exercise employed a mix of data collection instruments to obtain primary and

secondary data and information and from three or more sets of respondents:

Documents review (DR) – This involved a review of relevant documents such the office’s

Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) for 2006-2010 and for 2011-2015., project

inception documents, UNICEF Annual Reports, minutes of meetings, monitoring reports,

annual reports, mid-term and terminal evaluation reports, relevant studies, and relevant policy

papers and publications.

Key informant interviews (KII) – This involved an in-depth interview of key informants, or

persons who could provide deeper insights on specific issues. The key informants were:

children and youth leaders in various interventions, programme officers and focal persons in

UNICEF and other partner agencies, community leaders, and concerned government

functionaries.

Focus group discussion (FGD) – This involved a structured group process with homogenous

groups of participants, where detailed information (mostly opinion, attitudes and feelings)

about particular issues were obtained. A Khmer-speaking Cambodian UNICEF staff helped

manage the FGDs and interviews.

Focused observation (FO) –This exercise involved the observation of children’s behavior,

attitudes, actions, verbal and nonverbal communication as they engaged in group activities.

10

The method obtained data in field situations that were not easily captured by the other tools

or techniques. This is also called direct or structured observation.

1.6 Evaluation Ethics

Before the conduct of field review, UNICEF should be able to seek authorization from

concerned agencies in conducting interviews with children which is a requirement in

Cambodia. Throughout the conduct of data collection in the field, the following ethical

principles in evaluation involving children will be observed:

Transparency – The respondents in FGD, KII and FGD were made aware of the objectives

of the data collection exercise from the outset.

Participants-centered – The FGD guide questions were pre-tested and revised twice to

ensure they relate appropriately to the children’s own realm of experience and understanding.

Confidentiality – The respondents were assured that the information were to be used solely

for the purpose of the evaluation and that no self-incriminating statements will be put in the

report.

Child protection – The interviews were conducted at daytime in open areas with the

presence of an adult, so the children can return home before dark and avoid any untoward

incident.

Child-friendly schedule – The meetings were conducted when school was over. No child

participant had to miss school to be present in the FGD.

Voluntary participation – The children and youth participated inthe FGDs purely on

voluntary basis. No child was forced to attend the meetings.

No promises – The evaluation reminded the FGD organizers that no promises will be made

in exchange for the participation of the respondents.

1.7 Sampling Methodology

The selection of evaluation sites and respondents employed a combination of purposive and

stratified sampling methodology to ensure that substantial information were generated from

the data collection approaches used. The criteria for the selection of sites and respondents

were agreed on with UNICEF and partners. The process had to deal with the fact that these

projects ended six months ago so that it was easy to gather the adolescents and youth in one

meeting. The level of difficulty in gathering the respondents to a FGD was greater amongst

the parents who had to work in the rice fields to take advantage of the rainy season. The other

difficulty was tracking down the field workers who may have been employed elsewhere.

1.8 Profile of Respondents

A total of 107 respondents participated in the focus group discussions, group or individual

interviews and focused observations in seven communes spread out in four provinces and

Phnom Penh. The children and youth sector made up the majority of the respondents (57

percent). The evaluation also covered a total of 15 parents, seven commune leaders and 24

11

agency staff members. Please see table below. CoDeC was able to mobilize the most number

of respondents at 37 per cent. This was followed by Equal Access with 26 percent of the

total respondents, CAMP accounted for 20 percent of the respondents. SCY mobilized 18

individuals, mostly young people.

Table 1

Profile of Respondents

In total number and percentage

Group of

Respondents

CAMP CoDeC Equal

Access SCY Total Percentage

M F T M F T M F T M F T M F T M F T

Youth

9 4 13 8 11 19 6 13 19 7 3 10 30 31 61 49 51 57

Parents

1 6 7 2 4 6 0 2 2 0 0 0 3 12 15 20 80 14

Commune

Leaders

0 1 1 3 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 4 7 43 57 7

Agency

Staff

3 0 3 5 2 7 5 1 6 5 3 8 18 6 24 75 25 22

Total

13 11 24 18 20 38 11 16 27 12 6 18 54 53 107

50

50

100

M – Male F – Female T – Total

In general, there was no difference between the representation of boys and girls in the FGDs.

Only 15 percent of total respondents were children. The youngest FGD participant was 16

years old while the oldest was 30. Please see Annex G for details.

The evaluation also engaged the involvement of eight individuals in one on one interviews.

They represented the International NGOs, the UN, government and the UNICEF Cambodia

Office. About thirty individuals representing various local and international NGOs, UN

agencies, a government agency and a private research firm participated in the national

validation workshop entitled “Lessons from the Ground for Programmes and Policies on

Adolescent and Youth Participation.”

The questionnaires sent to UNICEF staff yielded responses from four sections, namely, child

protection, health, local governance and Policy Advocacy and Communication.

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1.9 Limitations

The evaluation exercise was confronted with the following limitations

The absence of baseline, lack of measurable indicators, and the incomplete information in

the stated goals and objectives made it difficult to measure the effectiveness and impact of the four discreet AYP projects.

The evaluation was conducted during the planting season which made it difficult for the evaluation to gather the parents and commune leaders in a focus group discussion. Many of the adult respondents work in the farms. A few of the young respondents had to pull out from the rice fields to participate in the FGD.

The exercise used two evaluation lenses to assess the level and quality of child and youth

participation which may not have been the prevailing norms and which they may not have been aware of at the time the projects were developed. The evaluation made this assumption on the basis of the quality of responses that were generated during the interview of staff members of the agencies.

The evaluation had to rely on honesty of the young respondents in terms of the impact of

participation that were meaningful to them. Ideally, a longer process of observation would have generated more “valid” results. To address the issue of validity, the respondents’ perceptions were triangulated with the perceptions of the parents and commune leaders, where applicable.

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2. “WE CAN DO IT” Youth Communication Project

The analysis of this project is based on interviews with the national staff of Equal Access

(EA), two master facilitators, three commune council leaders in Samroang Yea (Pouk

District) in Siem Reap and two parents with children members of radio listening clubs in

Samroang Knong in Battambang. There were two focus group discussions conducted with

adolescent and youth radio listening club leaders in Battambang and Siem Reap representing

13 radio listening clubs from various communes. Before the FGDs, the youth respondents in

both areas simulated the listening group exercises using a recorded radio program provided

by Equal Access. These provided the researcher an opportunity to observe how a listening

session normally takes place. This was an important exercise because the evaluation was

conducted after the fact which means that the project has been terminated since UNICEF

support was discontinued. The researcher also made reference to a number of relevant

documents provided by the UNICEF Cambodia Office and Equal Access.

This project was reviewed mainly as a discreet UNICEF-supported adolescent and youth

participation project, which this exercise is all about, and therefore, the two key evaluation

lenses and standards and principles of participation as explained in Chapter 1 were used as

analytical tools.

2.1 What is the project about?

We Can Do It was a youth-oriented weekly radio programme produced by a team of radio

production technical experts from an international NGO called Equal Access. The 30-minute

radio programs mixed educational and entertainment formats revolving around a mini drama

with subtle delivery of key messages and discussion points. “The mini dramas were also

designed to reinforce key didactic messages in a non-threatening and non-confrontational

manner.“14

The objective of the project was to increase the understanding and awareness of

key life skills and health issues of young Cambodians.

The radio programmes, mixed in the recording studio of Equal Access were aired in 12 FM

radio stations spread across the country. The radio programs delivered in Kmer language,

went on broadcast once a month. Through regular announcements in the programs, Equal

Access has been able to spark the formation of youth listening clubs in some communes.

On specific days of broadcasting the program, which varied based on the schedule of the

individual FM stations, members of the youth listening clubs gathered together in a place,

usually the house of the club leader, where they listened together to the 30-minute “We can

do it” radio program. At the end of the broadcast, club members then talked about the

contents of the program using a discussion guide provided by Equal Access with the club

leader facilitating the discussion. They usually discuss the characters and the situation in the

drama embedded in the program. The dialogue normally lasted for about an hour or so. The

program themes were divided into three categories: employment and jobs, life skills and

health.

14

Final Report on “We Can Do It Youth Communication Programme”, February 2009 to February 2011 Equal

Access Cambodia, Phnom Pehn, April 8, 2011.

14

The group leaders, who acted as discussion facilitators, have been trained on communication

and facilitation skills by the Master Trainers, who in turn, were trained in Phnom Penh by

Equal Access. The club leaders and master trainers were all volunteers.

The Master Trainer served as the link between the youth listening clubs and Equal Access.

He/She was in charge of ensuring that the clubs meet and submit the feedback forms to

him/her regularly. The week before the scheduled broadcasting of the radio program, the

Master Trainer received the discussion guides and blank feedback forms and distributed them

to all listening club leaders. After the scheduled broadcasting, he/she collected the

accomplished feedback forms, read them for consistency with the month’s topics and

forwarded them to Equal Access office via a bus terminal’s package delivery system.

There were also local call-in programs happening through provincial partner radio stations.

The listening groups and the phone-in system served as inter-active feedback mechanisms to

the radio programme. According to the final report of EA, the program has facilitated the

organization of 300 youth listening groups in 10 provinces. EA claimed it has been

considered Cambodia’s first nationwide youth radio show.

UNICEF signed an agreement with Equal Access on December 2007 Cambodia to support

this project. The aim of the collaboration is “to build upon the existing youth activities of

both organizations, including support for the integration of life skills, youth empowerment

and health messaging into weekly episodes of “We Can Do It” and the expansion of

community-level outreach activities to include UNICEF supported youth clubs in Prey Veng

province and elsewhere.” UNICEF’s support to Equal Access ended in 2010 upon the

termination of the previous country program in Cambodia.

2.2 Did the project facilitate effective participation of adolescents and youth?

This section analyzes the level of participation of the adolescents and youth along five roles

that they can play in a development cycle. (1) Participation in assessment and analysis is the

ability to identify issues and problems affecting them, establishing the magnitude of the

issues and problems and analysing its causes; (2) Participation in articulation and advocacy

involves speaking up as organized group, advocating, or petitioning, to get the attention of

decision-makers; (3) Participation in planning entails identifying solutions, activities,

projects, brainstorming what actions they could undertake to address identified issues; (4)

Participation in action means involvement in the implementation of plans, fulfilling an

assigned role, volunteering, or joining committees; (5) Participation in monitoring and

reporting involves following-up action, monitoring the plan, and reporting progress on the

implementation of plans.

The analysis tried as much as possible to stay away from strict application of the five

participation roles as they are technically used in a full blown funded development

programme. The exercise endeavoured to recognize positively whatever initiatives of the

adolescents and youth that resemble the five participation roles.

2.2.1 Participation in assessment and analysis

From the way the respondents described what they did in the listening clubs, the researcher

surmised that there was not much assessment and analysis about the situation of the youth in

the commune. When asked about the issues and problems affecting them in the village, they

15

could hardly identify any. With further probing, they pinpointed alcoholism, drug addiction

and formation of gangs in the village. They also appeared to be clueless in terms of national

issues affecting the society. This is consistent with the findings of the recently concluded

Study “Youth Civic Participation: Knowledge, Attitudes and Media” which disclosed, “Many

young people had difficulty identifying problems, answering ‘don’t know’ a number of

times.”i

During the FGDs, the adolescents and youth described what usually happens in a listening

session. Using a discussion guide provided by EA, the youth listening club members engaged

in analysis of the drama which was a regular portion of the radio program. They made a stand

on certain issues relevant to the show depending on the drama characters they identified with.

According to the respondents’ sharing, the discussions rarely traversed beyond the topic of

the radio programme. In some few cases, the discussions have led to a decision to engage in

group activities such as helping in the cleaning of the surroundings of the village or provide

labor in on-going road construction. On an individual basis, some of them have decided to

engage in savings activity. From the way the youth talked about it, savings and financial

management appeared to be an important value they have imbibed from radio listening.

On the production side, the themes or topics discussed on the radio program were normally

identified by the technical team in EA. The respondents said that they could suggest topics

for the radio in the feedback forms which they fill up and submit to EA every after listening

session. However, they said that the submission has been a one-way process and that they

have not received feedback on their submissions.

Discussion

Evidence from interviews and observations of leaders from 11 youth listening clubs and their

two master facilitators seemed to suggest that the youth listening groups served as the

receiving end of a communication line between them and EA with EA providing the

stimulus. In the process, the listening groups were expected to acquire knowledge and

develop practices related to health and life skills as suggested by the radio program.

However, on the basis of participation parameters, the evaluation infers that the adult-defined

topics in the radio programme and the reliance on the adult-designed discussion guides have

not been able to provide the youth with opportunities to develop critical thinking that will

allow them to assess and analyze the issues and problems they face.

2.2.2 Participation in advocacy and articulation

When asked if they have been able to share the information they have acquired from the

listening clubs with their neighbors, families and friends, the youth members said that this has

happened not deliberately but in some instances when it was appropriate for them to share

relevant information learned from the radio.

When asked if they have tried meeting with the commune leader as a result of the listening

sessions, the youth in Battambang said, “no” because they were afraid of the commune leader

and that there was nobody to guide them how to do it. The youth in Siem Reap have not tried

it either because they said they were too busy in school. Given a chance to talk with the

commune leaders, the youth respondents said maybe they would raise the issue of

environment and how they could help in addressing this issue. They thought that the

16

commune leader will give them a chance to talk but they were uncertain whether the

commune leader will listen and take action on their request.

Discussion:

The youth listening clubs could have been a golden opportunity for the young people to

discuss issues affecting them and collectively share these issues with the commune leaders

for whatever appropriate action. Through his interaction with the youth, this researcher felt

that the youth were not yet ready for such an occasion. The Commune Council Leader in

Samroang Yea of Pouk District in Siem Reap mentioned a group of young people who came

to meet with him about the issue of irrigation. Through their persistence and patience to meet

with the commune leaders, a partnership was developed between the youth group and the

council to build an irrigation system with the youth providing the labor. The youth group

belonged to an association organized by another NGO.

2.2.3 Participation in planning

Generally, the members of the youth listening clubs had no knowledge of planning exercises

or planning tools because the groups were not actually engaged in any project or activity that

would require planning. When this researcher illustrated on a paper what a planning matrix

normally looked like, the youth listening club leaders appeared unfamiliar with the tool. In

addition, not one has gone through training on planning.

For those who have conducted activities beyond the listening sessions, planning exercise was

usually done verbally. For example, after a decision has been reached to help in the road

construction in the community, the members agreed who will join the activity, when to meet,

with whom to coordinate and up to what time they will volunteer as part of the labor force.

Another activity emanating from the listening club involved money savings which did not

require planning because it was mainly individual savings. In Siem Reap, some listening

clubs claimed to be engaged in group savings but they could hardly explain the mechanics.

Discussion

The productivity of any organization is usually measured by activities and projects

undertaken and their impact on the members and the surroundings. But anything that the

organization wishes to achieve begins with planning which is based on assessment, analysis

and identification of issues and concerns. As gathered from the FGDs and interviews, the

youth listening clubs were limited by their inability to identify issues affecting them and lack

of exposure to planning activities.

2.2.4 Participation in action

As described by Equal Access, there were a number actions happening in this project

particularly on the production side which involved meetings and brainstorming for the

selection of topic, gathering data for program content, writing the script, directing the drama,

interviewing, recording, etc. However, this production part of the radio programme was

mainly undertaken by the technical team of Equal Access. The researcher noted some

participation windows where young people came in to play some roles such as in the drama

portion of the show or data gathering through the youth field reporters.

17

The main action involving youth in this project seemed to be confined to group listening and

group discussion at the end of the radio programme. Some of the listening groups reported

some decisions to engage in environment-related activities such as cleaning the surroundings

of the commune, helping in road construction and putting up irrigation. In both Battambang

and Siem Reap, the youth members of the clubs said they were engaged in disseminating

information about the bad effects of drug addiction.

Discussion

As gathered from the stories of the youth themselves, the activities they have undertaken

appeared to be too event-centered, sporadic, and not sustainable. This means that their

actions emanating from the listening clubs have not been significant enough as to create an

impact on them in terms of behavior or attitudinal change or an impression on the

community.

Due to their seeming inability to conduct a robust assessment and analysis of their situation

and to plan for projects and activities, the youth listening clubs have not been able to engage

in activities that may be considered meaningful, effective and sustainable. The youth in

Cambodia compose the majority of the populace. The evaluator feels that it would be such a

huge waste for the Cambodian society to allow the adolescent and youth sector to genetically

outgrow the abundance of energies and idealism that could be harnessed for a positive and

productive advocacy and mobilization.

2.2.5 Participation in monitoring and reporting

If the youth were not familiar with the social development cycle, i.e., assessment and

analysis, planning, implementation, and so on, the evaluator assumed that they were also

oblivious of monitoring and evaluation. The assumption was confirmed when everyone

appeared puzzled when asked if they were engaged in any activity that resembled monitoring

and evaluation. There was, however, an activity, that the youth did not recognize but the

evaluator thought to be a monitoring activity, i.e., the completion and submission of the radio

listening feedback form.

After the discussion, the listening group leader usually accomplishes a reporting form about

the activity and submits it to the Master Facilitator. The Master facilitator collects the

feedback forms, reads them if they actually did the scheduled topic and finished the

discussion guide and then he/she submits them to Equal Access using a bus terminal station.

When asked what they get from out of the accomplishment and submission of the reports, the

Master facilitators said they learned how to fill up the form. Despite more probing, the

researcher could not derive answers that could respond directly to the question of real

benefits from the report form.

Discussion

The researcher surmised that the feedback forms from the listening clubs were used primarily

as a monitoring tool for the benefit of Equal Access and not so much for the adolescents and

youth. The forms ensured the agency that the listening groups met, listened and discussed the

radio topics based on their discussion guides. The feedback forms were important to Equal

Access to determine whether the purposes of the radio programmes broadcasted on air were

18

achieved or not. They also informed the agency of feedback directly from listeners of the

technical merits and content of the production. One of the master facilitators revealed that

they have not been able to receive comments or feedback on their feedback forms.


it produced?

Relevance

This project may be considered relevant in two ways. The radio is an appropriate

communication vehicle for delivering relevant messages to the youth. According to the KAP

study on Youth Civic Participation in Cambodia, more than half of the sampled youth

respondents are radio listeners. Most of them, though, tune in to music (87%) and about a

half to news (46%).

The project is potentially relevant as an adolescent and youth participation intervention but

this has not yet been optimized to produce results that may be considered genuine and

meaningful participation. The adolescents and youth can get actively engaged both in the

production and on the listening sides if fully trusted, given a chance and properly trained.

Effectiveness

As far as the stated objectives of the project are concerned, “We Can Do It Youth

Communication Project” may be considered effective in a way that it has been able to

provide opportunities for the Cambodian youth to listen collectively to EA-initiated radio

programme on life skills and health issues affecting young Cambodians. The project has

produced a total of twenty-four episodes put on air over 12 FM radio stations around

Cambodia. EA estimated that these 12 stations have reached approximately 14 provinces plus

Phnom Penh municipality. The recorded programs created by EA producers, scriptwriters and

technicians were distributed on CDs to each station. The 12 partner radio stations broadcast

We Can Do It for a total of 288 times. Additionally, seven partner radio stations among the

12 broadcast 168 live call-in programs.15

Based on EA records, a total of 300 youth listening clubs in 14 provinces and Phnom Penh

have been organized. These clubs were managed by 20 provincial “Master Trainers” trained

by EA outreach coordinators in effective communication, facilitation, and general life skills.

As of this review, broadcasting has been terminated due to financial reasons. Provincial

master trainers were encouraged, with support from EAC, to organize and lead the training

for other listening and dialogue group facilitators in their province.

Whether or not the project has engendered the intended outcomes of the project is a different

question. The youth respondents mentioned health issues, sanitation, personal hygiene,

savings and relationships as topics that they could remember from the radio listening

activities. However, these were not enough to measure the level of increase of the youth’s

awareness on the topics mentioned. Local governance, civic participation, and the Khmer

Rouge Tribunal were issues relevant to adolescent and youth participation for which not one

of the informants mentioned or made reference to.

15



19

In its final report, EA wrote, “According to feedback and interactions with EA staff,

audiences felt that the We Can Do It communications program provided opportunities for

youth to have a stronger voice in their communities and to learn about important topics that

affect their lives.” 16

The evaluation agrees that there were important topic learned by the

youth from the radio programme but whether or not the project has provided the youth a

“stronger voice” in the community is quite doubtful on the basis of the sharing of the

adolescents and youth interviewed.

Efficiency

EA has reported some efficiency measures such as recruiting and training of volunteer Master

Trainers who in turn train club leaders to facilitate the youth listening clubs in the communes.

The researcher, however, saw some missed opportunity in the training of Master Trainers for

the promotion of effective and meaningful participation. As a discreet adolescent and youth

participation intervention, the training participants could have been trained on the concept

and practice of participation and these could have been cascaded down to the listening club

leaders. This could have been the opening gates towards empowerment and mobilization of

the adolescents and youth. Pointing out this gap is not only directed at EA but also for

UNICEF who should have foreseen this opportunity.

The system of distributing the discussion guides and the feedback forms and the way they

were collected after the listening/discussing exercises was indeed an efficient way of moving

the documents from EZ to listening clubs and back to EA. There seems to be a danger,

however, in imposing adult-designed discussion guides and office-oriented feedback forms in

that they have a tendency to format the adolescent and youth thinking process. Subjecting the

adolescent and youth to an adult-created radio production and confining them to an adult

structured discussion layout do not sound facilitative in participatory processes where the

subjects are hoped to sharpen up their creativity and engage in critical thinking.

The production side of the project could have been much more meaningful and productive,

from the point of view of participation standards, if the adolescents and youth were trained

and actually involved as producers, scriptwriter, sound mixers, researchers, and presenters.

Sustainability

This project appeared to be donor-dependent. As far as the clubs leaders interviewed, the

youth listening clubs have ceased their operations. They said there was no reason to meet

anymore because they were informed by EA that radio programming was going to be stopped

temporarily for an undisclosed period. This is clearly indicative of the apparent weakness of

the project in terms of sustainability.

Impact

Technically, the evaluation should be measuring the extent of accomplishment of the project

goals or its expected outcomes as it was envisioned. However, there are a number of gaps that

make this difficult to perform. First, the way the expected outcomes were stated appeared to

16



20

be rather vague with no concrete measurable indicators and no time frame. Second, there was

no baseline data to begin with which would make it difficult to arrive at a conclusive

statement of accomplishment

The impact of this project therefore was determined through observable changes among the

adolescents and youth, the way the community and friends regard them since they joined the

listening clubs and the impact of the clubs to the commune.

When asked about qualitative changes in their knowledge, behavior and attitudes as results of

their participation in the youth listening clubs, the informants in both Battambang and Siem

Reap referred to changes in their personality characterized by increased confidence and

expressiveness. The following are some examples of what they were saying:

Lalene, 26, “I feel more confident now as a listening club leader. I feel I can face any

problem that comes my way.”

Sophoan, 19, “I am more courageous now in expressing my opinion with others. I

used to keep my opinion to myself.”

Pisey, 20, “I used to be shy. Now I am expressive and talkative.”

A number of them demonstrated signs of maturity, as these young people testified:

Marine, 20,” I was childish before, now I feel more mature.”

Pisey, 20, “I feel more responsible now for my actions.”

Chantha, 26, “I used to go out a lot playing around with friends. Now I stay at home

most of the time helping in the house hold chores.”

Pirom, 18, “I was not serious about study before. Now I study a lot and get higher

grades.”

Seyya, 18, “I know now how to save money. I used to spend everything my mother

gave me”.

The clubs that allowed collective listening and discussions may have increased the

respondents’ relationship skills as reflected in the following quotes:

Lita, 19, “I could not relate well with other people before. Now I can talk directly

with friends.”

Sopheat, 21, “I never paid respect to elders before. Now I respect them all the time.”

Srey Van,18, “I have learned to respect elders. Before, I was too impolite then.”

Sara, 22, I was not conscious about personal hygiene before. Now I realized how

important it is.”

Vibol, 21, I was very aggressive then. I am peaceful man now.”

When asked if the listening clubs have had any direct impact in the community, the

informants chorused, “No!” The same response was derived from the adolescents and youths

in Battambong.

21

2.4 Other important programmatic dimensions

Rights-based approach

It is rather unusual for a UNICEF-supported communication-related project, not to mention

the promotion of child rights or aspect of child rights as its core message. To start with, the

project is not so much anchored on rights perspective. Nowhere in the inception document

were rights or child rights mentioned except in the beginning paragraph which defines the

world-wide commitment of UNICEF to advance child rights and how it is guided by the

Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant international legal instruments. The

way the objectives and as well as the outcomes were formulated was rather far from being

rights-based. There seemed to be a lack of technical guidance in the way the strategies were

developed to reach the objectives of the project.

Equity

For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop, and

reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias, or favouritism. This interpretation is

consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which guarantees the

fundamental rights of every child, regardless of gender, race, religious beliefs, income,

physical attributes, geographical location, or other status.17

Equity is applicable to children

and young people as well, particularly for the youth sector who experience some forms of

exclusion in access to information and being able to express own opinion.

Applying the above principle, there seems to be some unintended forms of inequity in the

radio programme operations, “We Can Do It”, in a way that it was able to reach only the

youth listeners covered by the radio frequency of the FM stations broadcasting the

programme. For sure there are technologies now that could possibly reach the unreached so

as not to deprive them of the right to have access to information that is important for them.

The adolescent and youth groups unreached by the radio frequency are the adolescents and

youth who reside in remote villages. They happen to be the group who are most in need of

information and the most deprived of resources. This is an intervention worth piloting.

Inability to access the radio programme of EA also technically, but inadvertently for sure,

deprived these unreached adolescents and youth of the possibility of joining the youth

listening clubs and the possibility of interacting meaningfully with their peers.

Gender

Gender did not come out so much as an issue although the boys appeared to be the more

disadvantaged sector in this case because there were more girls involved in the listening clubs

than the boys. Of seven listening clubs in Siem Reap for example, there were more girls (60

per cent) than boys (40 percent). The informants explained the disparity by saying that the

boys had to work in the fields and that some boys were less attracted to radio listening for

some reasons. During the interaction in the listening groups, the respondents all agreed that

the girls tend to be more articulate than boys. The boys appeared to be more cautious with

what they say than the girls. No further explanation was offered in this aspect.

17 Re-Focusing On Equity: Questions And Answers, UNICEF, NYHQ, November 2010.

22

In terms of leadership, girls tend to dominate the listening clubs than boys in both

Battambang and Siem Reap. Of the FGD participants who were generally listening group

leaders, 68 per cent were girls while 32 per cent were boys. The girl’s leadership role was

also observed during the focus group discussions, as well as, in the listening sessions. The

Master trainer in Battambang was a boy while the one on Siem Reap was a girl.

Protection and safety

All the respondents did not express any sense of danger or risk associated with what they do

with the listening clubs. Protection issue did not appear to be a concern nor were talked about

as a precautionary measure. There was no protection policy or conscious effort to prevent

possible abuse, exploitation, neglect or any form of discrimination.

The project cooperation agreement between UNICEF and Equal Access stipulates though that

that the latter “will not expose intended beneficiaries, including children to any form of

discrimination, abuse and exploitation”.


2.5.1 Summary of findings and conclusion

Equal Access has largely achieved its objectives as stated based on its reports. The 24

episodes of “We Can Do It” youth-oriented radio program aired on 12 FM radio stations

for about two years (2009-2010) have been instrumental in facilitating the self-formation

of 300 youth listening clubs in 19 of 23 provinces in Cambodia.

The youth listening clubs provided the adolescents and youth with opportunities to listen

and learn collectively about life skills, financial management and health issues. The

involvement of adolescents and youth based on participation principles and standards

appeared to be limited to these actions.

There were a number of positive observable impacts on behavior and attitudes described

by the adolescents and youth respondents which were triangulated by their parents and

the Master Trainers. However, they stated that the listening clubs had no significant

impact in the community.

Capacity building of leaders concerned was limited to communication and facilitation

skills and financial management, overlooking, inadvertently perhaps, other important

skills and competencies relevant to effective and meaningful participation such as

assessment and analysis, articulation and advocacy, planning, actions and monitoring.

From the way the project operated, as described and written, the adolescents and youth

appeared to be sitting on the receiving end of the communication line with Equal Access

fully responsible for the production side of the project.

The project did not appear to be rights-based in its programming and operations.

Although it was not discriminating, it did not effectively address equity issue. Gender,

apparently was not an issue as observed. Child protection was noted in the project

cooperation agreement and no related issue came out during the interview. However,

there was also no conscious effort mentioned to prevent it from happening.

23

Although the project was effective in achieving its stated objectives, the same cannot be

fully said in terms of generating effective and meaningful adolescent and youth

participation. Whether this project has effectively contributed to the fulfilment of the

relevant intended outcome indicators of the UNICEF’s MTSP and Cambodia CPAP is

highly questionable.

2.5.2 Recommendations

For UNICEF to continue supporting this project, it should be able to see changes along the

following recommendations:

1. Inception document must be rights-based in orientation with well-defined vision, goals,

strategies, and outcome indicators consistent with the standards and principles of genuine

participation. Targeting the adolescent and youth participants of the project should

address the issue of equity, gender and age balance and child protection.

2. The project must be consistent with and directly contribute to the fulfilment of the

UNICEF’s MTSP 2006-2013 and Cambodia’s current CPAP. This should be made clear

with the partner in the spirit of transparency.

3. Train/orient staff on the principles and standards of genuine participation to allow the

adolescents and youth more involvement as equal partners and control of the project

without necessarily leaving them on their own.

4. Improve the adolescents and youth participation by providing them an opportunity to be

actively involved in the production side of the project such as deciding what topic to

tackle, script writing, data gathering, interviewing, presenting, recording, sound mixing,

editing, etc. This is one way of realizing the project theme: “We Can Do It!”

5. Explore less expensive and more inclusive radio delivery mode to allow adolescents and

youth to listen to the radio programme and get organized as well. This is making the

name of the NGO a reality– Equal Access.

6. Continue the concept and structure of listening clubs but progressively integrate

awareness raising and capacity building. Redesign training modules for master trainers

and club leaders to include skills development in assessment and analysis, articulation

and advocacy, planning, action and monitoring and evaluation.

7. Build a support base in the community by advocating for a more open attitude to the

adolescents and youth participation using the radio and targeting the adult commune

leaders and other stakeholders. Linking up with the commune council structure is a

desirable end with caution on possible partisan political interference.

8. Hook up the project with other youth-oriented groups to achieve optimal results in

participation and to create an effective synergy. It would be good to see other youth

groups organizing listening sessions and discussions.

9. Efforts must be exerted to harmonize the project with the newly approved Cambodian

National Youth Council as necessary and as appropriate.

24

3. “MAKING CHILD RIGHTS A REALITY” Project

The researcher analyzed this project based on interviews with children and youth leaders in

the provinces of Kampong Thom and Kampong Speu. The FGD in the Kampong Thom was

attended by seven youth leaders from Toul Kreul Commune. There were six children and

youth leaders present in the FGD held in Sodok Commune. The leaders are referred hereto

sometimes as youth because majority of them were already over 18, the oldest being 23,

when the FGDs were conducted. A total of seven parents from the two communes were

interviewed separately. Only the Commune Council Chief of one commune was interviewed

because the other one was indisposed at the time of the field visit.

The youth leaders organized children’s activities during the FGD schedule which allowed the

researcher to become familiar with the type of activities that the youth leaders were doing in

the villages covered by their project. The three staff members of CAMP were interviewed in

the UNICEF office. The analysis of the project was also based on relevant programme

documents reviewed such as the project proposal, progress reports and annual

implementation reports.


“Making Child Rights A Reality” is the title of the project implemented by Child Assistance

for Mobilization and Participation (CAMP). This was a project that sought to contribute to

the realization of child rights in Cambodia, with special focus on the right to participation.

CAMP’s goal was recognition of children and youth in the target communities by adults as

key partners in the promotion of child rights and as protagonists in making positive changes

in the lives of children in the communities they served.

In the pursuit of this goal, CAMP organized children’s clubs in the communes and Village

Network of Children in the villages to engage them in project activities for children and

young people. The main project activities were development and management of mobile

libraries, child rights awareness activities for children, conduct of other relevant community

services, and reporting to the Commune Council.

CAMP was a local NGO established in 2000 with the aim of promoting the rights of children

and young people. The project they managed with UNICEF support were located in four

target communes in four target provinces, namely, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom,

Battambang ang Ratanakiri. CAMP’s name has since been changed to Cambodian Students

for Social Work and Development (CSSD) but its operations and staffing remains.

The main strategy in this project was organizing children’s clubs or kleb koma at the village

and commune levels. In coordination with the village chief, CAMP organized children’s

assemblies where leaders were elected to lead the village network of children. These village

leaders were then gathered at the commune level to form the commune kleb koma. The kleb

koma in Kampong Thom was called “Peer Education Group” while the group in Kampong

Speu was called “Youth and Children Volunteer Community Group.” According to the

leaders interviewed, these were names given by CAMP.

Each commune kleb koma was composed of about 8 to10 members from 4 selected village

networks from the commune. From among the members, they elected a leader, two project

officers and one person in charge of accounting. In Kampong Speu for example, the kleb

25

koma was composed of 10 members with three girls and seven boys coming from four out of

a total of 18 villages in the commune. These villages happened to be contiguously clustered

around the center of the commune.

The commune kleb koma met once a week on their own but sometimes with CAMP staff

especially when there were scheduled workshops or when they had to explain their projects

for funding. One or two of the leaders used to attend the regular monthly commune council

meetings on a rotation basis.

The elected leaders of commune kleb koma received training from CAMP on project

management, child rights, child participation, facilitating and communication skills, fund

raising and democracy, decentralization and de-concentration concepts of the government.

CAMP has been in partnership with UNICEF since 2005. UNICEF’s support to the project

included salaries and allowances of project staff, conduct of activities, supplies and materials,

computers and support for transportation. At the field level, CAMP worked closely with two

main partners, namely World Vision and “Out Teacher” Center particularly in the

mobilization of children.

The community activities of the clubs, particularly with the children, have stopped

temporarily since UNICEF terminated its support in November, 2010. The members of

commune kleb koma, as they reported, continued to meet occasionally. But they have stopped

attending the commune council meetings because according to them, “There was nothing to

report in the meeting anymore.”


This section analyzes the level of participation of the youth along five roles that they can play in a development cycle. (1) Participation in assessment and analysis is the ability to identify issues and problems affecting them, establishing the magnitude of the issues and problems and analysing its causes; (2) Participation in articulation and advocacy involves speaking up as organized group, advocating, or petitioning, to get the attention of decision-makers; (3) Participation in planning entails identifying solutions, activities, projects, brainstorming what actions they could undertake to address identified issues; (4) Participation in action means involvement in the implementation of plans, fulfilling an assigned role, volunteering, or joining committees; (5) Participation in monitoring and reporting involves following-up action, monitoring the plan, and reporting progress on the implementation of plans.

The analysis tried as much as possible to stay away from strict application of the five participation roles as they are technically used in a full blown funded development programme. The exercise endeavoured to recognize positively whatever initiatives of the youth that resemble the five participation roles.


When asked if there were meetings or occasions where they discuss and analyze the problems

and issues affecting children in the commune, the members of the commune kleb koma in

both provinces visited said, “No.” They said that the only time they heard topics like

domestic violence, child abuse, trafficking and others issues were during training activities

with CAMP where they listened to lectures.

26

When the researcher asked about the problems that Cambodia was experiencing, they

mentioned violence, land grabbing, child labor, corruption, drug abuse and poverty. They

said they heard about these issues from the radio or from casual conversation of adults or

from the trainings they have attended. When asked what they thought of the social problems

they just mentioned, not one of the respondents could respond to explain. Some of them said

they never remembered discussing these topics in the meetings. When asked what they

normally talked about in their meetings, they said that they discussed their work plans, the

activities they have conducted, and the activities scheduled for implementation.

Discussion

Evidences from the interviews and observations seem to suggest that the youth leaders

confined themselves to the promotion of child rights and discussion of activities with the

children in the villages. From the FGDs, the researcher felt that they seemed to lack training

and experience in identifying and discussing issues and concerns affecting them. The CAMP

project officer who joined the field visit seemed to confirm this observation when he

enumerated the trainings they have given the young leaders. Assessment and Analysis or

similar activity was not included in the training activities he enumerated.


The project was generally consistent with its objective of promoting child rights by

organizing children’s activities and by delivering important information related to their

health, education, protection and participation. The researcher witnessed the energy and

creativity of the young leaders in using a variety of mediums to communicate the messages.

The audiences in both provinces appeared to be enjoying the presentations and the key

messages were delivered clearly. Curious adults who were watching by the sidelines must

have also benefitted from the show as they also appeared to be enjoying the presentation and

maybe getting the messages.

In its project document, it was indicated, “CAMP strongly believes that the children can be

empowered to defend their rights when they have opportunity to speak up and their voices

can be heard. It is also believed that children and youth will possess the greatest power of

change.” The quote actually emphasized the word change in capital letters. In the interviews

and observation, the researcher did not see much evidence pointing to the fulfillment of this

declaration of mission. The kleb koma and village networks of children appeared to be too-

activity focused and the children and youth did not make any reference to any discussion of

actual child rights issue in the village where they had to speak up and raise their voice against

it.

Discussion

The main project of the commune kleb koma with the village networks was indeed a very

important endeavour as far as child rights promotion is concerned. However, the group

appeared to have gotten stuck in the activity and have not gone beyond it to address the real

stated goal of the project which was “realization of child rights”. The title of the project, in

fact, was “ Making Child Rights a Reality”. The researcher thought that what the young

leaders have done, which they have stopped due to absence of funds, was only the first stage

in fulfilling the rights of the child.

27

The question to mind was, “Were the leaders in a position to fulfill the rights of the child?”

The answer is, “yes” particularly along advocacy and articulation. As leaders of the village

networks of children, they could serve as the mouthpiece of their sector in the commune

council meeting. Given training, experiences and back up support from CAMP and partner

agencies, the kleb koma leaders could articulate the issues and concerns affecting the

children. They could advocate for commune ordinances or policies that are protective and for

the benefit of children. They could request the council to allocate specific amount for

children’s activities on a sustained basis.

The researcher surmised that the two groups interviewed have not reached a level where they

critically assess issues in the villages affecting children and where they mobilize community

action to address it.


The youth leaders in the commune kleb koma in both project sites were generally engaged in

planning exercises. They said they prepared their plans using a planning format provided by

CAMP, where they identified the activities, resource requirements, the tasks to do and who

will do them and time frame. Some of the activities they put in their plans were meetings,

monitoring, visit to the villages covered by the organization and report writing. Because of

the training provided by CAMP, the youth leaders have been able to prepare their plans on

their own.

For specific activities with children, they had to develop a project proposal which CAMP

trained them how to prepare. The project proposals were submitted to CAMP for review,

approval and funding. The projects were generally activities with children related to the

promotion of child rights. The items they usually requested for support were snacks, papers

and pencils, packed lunch, props and materials for drama and presentation. In most cases,

CAMP staff would come to meet with the youth team to discuss the proposal.

Discussion

One of the positive points of this project was the youth leaders’ involvement in preparing

their work plans and in planning their projects. As observed during the field review in the

evaluation sites, the youth leaders were pretty much on their own and in control of the

programme from beginning to end. This researcher felt that it must have been because they

were trained to prepare their own plans which in turn established “ownership” of the projects

and activities. More importantly, the self-planning exercise developed a sense of

accountability on the part of those who prepared the plans, those who “owned” the plans. It

would be good to see them planning for projects borne out of their assessment and analysis of

the situation of children in the villages and communes.


The kleb koma appeared to be actively involved and very much accustomed with activities

involving children that promote child rights. This was consistently observed in the kleb koma

in the two communes. The two groups also appeared to be following a prototype set of

activities which were quite similar from beginning to end although the topics were different.

The two presentations began with games with children. Both used story telling using drama

depicting the topic followed by question and answer with the audience as part of the open

28

discussion. Both ended with snacks for children. The activities were organized obviously for

the researcher to have a glimpse of what the project usually did before it folded up in

November last year. Funding for the snacks of children came from the pocket of the CAMP

project officer because there was no more left in the coffers of the sponsoring organization.

Expenses were later on reimbursed by the researcher.

The activities showed the commitment to and ease of the youth leaders in the promotion of

child rights. The drama presentations, according to the leaders, were created and directed by

themselves. In both commune kleb koma, the village leaders were also involved in the

preparation and actual presentations. They were also observed to be having fun as well while

doing their work.

As described and as reported, the kleb koma also managed mobile libraries aimed at

providing young students in the village access to books and play toys. These were placed in

boxes and moved from village to village based on schedule of activities with children.

Discussion

The kleb koma in the two communes visited appeared to be doing well in terms of actions as

reported and as observed. This must have been the benefit of planning which the children

learned and applied. During the FGD, the youth leaders expressed their fulfillment in what

they have done because they said they felt they owned the projects which may have been the

reason why they seemed to have fun doing it.

It would have been good for the researcher to actually witness the mobile libraries being used

by the children but this activity, too, was discontinued when UNICEF stopped sending

financial support.


The youth leaders used the same work plan cum proposal that they have prepared to monitor

their project. They reviewed the implementation of their plan among themselves during their

regular meetings. In their work plan, they said they indicated village visit as one of their

activities which was aimed at monitoring what the children’s network were doing particularly

with regards their mobile library.

In terms of reporting, they used to prepare two documents. One was similar to a liquidation

report which reflected their expenses based on their funded projects. The other was on the

conduct of the same funded activities. On top of this, the group had to prepare a separate

monthly report for CAMP and for their presentation to the commune council meeting.

They added that they also had sessions where they conducted a review of activities

identifying their strengths and weaknesses, what they should continue doing and what they

should stop doing. They said it was important to look back at the past to see if they had done

the activities they planned or not.

Discussion

It looked like this project had provided the youth leaders of kleb koma with opportunities to

learn and practice planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation which were

29

evidenced by their reports, sharing and as observed in the activities they conducted during the

field review visit. This must also be the reason why the youth leaders in the commune kleb

koma appeared to be smart, expressive and confident. As reflected in their sharing, the impact

of participation on these youth leaders had been greater by comparison with other projects.


it produced?

Relevance

The project was relevant within the context of UNICEF’s MTSP and CPAP 2006-2010

because it provided a lot of opportunities for children and youth to engage in meaningful

participation. It provided a platform for children and youth to organize themselves and

collectively plan, implement and monitor worthwhile activities for younger children in the

villages. What made it even more relevant was that the focus of the project was child rights

promotion, the mandate of UNICEF.

Efficiency

Working with the commune leadership and coordinating with other agencies, as this project

did, was an efficient way of organizing children and youth. CAMP was not a big NGO with

very few committed student volunteers based in Phnom Penh. Linking up with well

established institutions provided a good way of maintaining the groups they have organized

in the communes and villages.

The formation of children in the villages as a network was an efficient strategy of distributing

direct work with children beneficiaries of the project. The youth leaders at the kleb koma

were not too many to reach out to the villages covered by the communes. Although they still

facilitated children’s activities occasionally, the leaders of commune kleb koma also served as

monitors who conducted periodic village visits to ensure that the village networks were doing

their work and to provide support to the network leaders in the conduct of activities.

Meanwhile, organizing a network of children in the village level with their own leaders was

also a good way of honing their facilitating skills and building up a second line of leaders

who could become the commune kleb koma leaders in the future.

Figure 3

Organizing Structure of Commune Kleb Koma

30

Figure 3 above shows the structure of the commune kleb koma in the sites assisted by

CAMP. The arrows from the villages to the commune illustrate the source of leadership at

kleb koma level which are from the village networks of children. These networks have their

own leadership structure. The arrows from the commune to the villages show the monitoring

and capability functions of the commune kleb koma.

Effectiveness

The project has been effective in achieving its goal of organizing 8 commune kleb koma

covering 32 villages in four provinces. Two of the provincial project sites covering 16

villages were communities of indigenous peoples. Each commune kleb koma managed 4

children’s clubs called “village network” for a total project coverage of 32 children’s clubs.

The village networks run and coordinated the operation of mobile libraries which benefitted

an estimated total 1,242 children on a weekly basis.

The project was also effective in building the children and youth leaders the knowledge of

child rights, project management, and communication which allowed them to plan,

implement and monitor their awareness-raising project activities on child rights. As

observed, there were some weaknesses in the area of assessment and analysis, advocacy and

articulation. In general, the children and youth leaders in this project still need guidance to

facilitate their full empowerment and full realization of their participation right.

The commune kleb koma’s involvement in the commune council meetings would have been

considered an effectiveness point for this project but the kleb koma’s participation appeared

to be too limited to reporting of their activities. It was, however, a good beginning because

the organization has already “penetrated” the council, so to speak, for an eventual meaningful

and effective engagement of children and youth in local governance. Unfortunately, this was

affected by the pull out of the agency.

Sustainability

The village networks of children were the most affected by the pull out of CAMP in the

project sites because of its seeming total dependence on UNICEF for financial support. As a

result, the operations of the mobile libraries and the conduct of child rights activities for

children were all discontinued. The commune kleb koma claimed to have continued on with

their meetings but no longer as often and as regular as before. This must have been the reason

why they suspended their participation in the commune council meetings because according

to them, “there was nothing more to report to the commune council.” The researcher felt that

reporting appeared to be the main reason for the kleb kloma’s involvement in the council.

It would be a difficult task for CAMP to sustain the project because they lacked full time staff

and the agency appeared to be donor-dependent. On the community level, the children

leaders of kleb koma said they learned fund raising during one of the trainings conducted by

CAMP but they were unable to practice the skill. They said they never attempted to conduct

fund raising in the communities because the families in the communes were generally too

poor to contribute for their projects. They added that they have not tried to request the

commune council to allocate funds for their group because they assumed that there were

other priority issues that the council leaders had to deal with.

31

A parent of one youth leader confirmed the researcher’s observation, “I know that they used

to meet regularly as a group and with the commune council but they suddenly stopped. I

don’t know why.”

Impact

The impact of this project was strongest on the children’s self-confidence which was

developed from out of their meetings, trainings and interaction among themselves and with

other stakeholders including the children they worked with. In Kampong Thom, Pum,

Sokorn and Seyha spoke about how the project built up their self-assurance:

Pum, 23, “Before, I was so scared of joining meetings because I was a bit timid. The training

activities I have attended in this project gave me confidence to interact with others.”

Sokhorn, 20, I was so inhibited before but I have eventually gained courage to speak out. I

have also learned the value of education so I study more now.”

Seyha, 20, “I was shy, dared not to speak or participate in any social activity. All that

changed when I joined the group.”

Three young leaders in the commune kleb koma in Kampomg Speu (Yeourn, Savuth and

Raborn) shared the same changes in the way they felt among themselves as a result of their

participation in the project activities:

Yeourn,18, “I was shy and a quiet person. I never had a chance to join any meeting before.

My daily routine was school-home-school-home in my primary years. Now I have developed

my confidence because I have gained a lot of knowledge. I have also made many friends. I

can talk with people of higher positions in government.”

Savuth, 17, “In my class now, I have more confidence to express myself . The project has

made me want to study some more. Before, I was so shy and quiet. Now I am really enjoying

my group.“

Raborn, “ I was scared of meeting anyone I did not know. I looked up highly at everyone

because I felt, I was unimportant as a person. I had many changes since I joined this group.

Now I have gained a lot of friends.”

The project has also impacted on the personality and character of the youth leaders based on

their anecdotes. Vutha, 18, narrated how he changed his behavior “I was a bully before I

joined the organization. I have stopped being a bully since then.” Leakena, 19, testified that

through this project, she has changed the way she related with her mother. She admitted, “I

learned a lot about child rights. This has made me respect my parents more. I now listen to

their advice which I did not do before.” Chamroeum, 18, opened himself with pride that he

was a different person before joining the kleb koma, “Before, I was generally impolite. Since

I joined the children’s club, I have become mild mannered. I respect girls now.” Sok kin, 18,

swore, “I used to go out a lot for no reason at all. I have stopped doing that since I joined the

kleb koma. Many children know me now because of our activities with them and I like it.”

All the young leaders in the two provinces showed their appreciation of the knowledge and

experience they gained from the project particularly in terms of awareness of child rights and

32

being able to help promote it through various activities with children in the villages. They

acknowledged the lessons they learned from training activities and from directly working

with children.

Valuing education and doing good on their studies was another realization that the youth

leaders emphasized during the FGD. Chandy, 17, said, “I wanted to work in Phnom Penh to

follow my friends who now work as factory workers. But I also wanted to study so I stayed.

That’s what I learned from the project. Raborn said the same thing, “When I joined this

project, I learned to value education.”

These changes were confirmed by the majority of the parents of the leaders who were also

asked about the impact of the project to their children. In Kampong Thom, Sochom, 57

spoke about how her daughter Sokhorn has changed her study habits since she joined the

group, “Before she had no focus on what she was doing and never listened to my advice.

Now, she has changed. She listens to me more now and she has been doing good in her

studies.” She added that she knew her daughter was the Deputy Chief of the commune kleb

koma and that she was excited and proud about her.

When asked about how their parents and friends felt about their involvement in the activities

for children, the youth respondents said all their impressions were positive. Raborn said his

parents were happy about him because of his opportunity to make visits to places outside his

village. Yourn shared that his parents were proud of him because he has become a smart

person. Savuth thought his friends were happy about what he has been doing in the club.

Chandy believed that her friends were pleased with her achievements.

It would need a separate exercise to measure the impact of the project on the community. The

researcher surmises that the impact of the project would be directly on the children’s

knowledge of child rights and other issues and indirectly among parents who seemed to be

the “unintended listeners and spectators” of drama presentations of the youth leaders for

children. In the two communes visited for this study, there were always several parents all

the time.

The Commune Village Chief of Kampong Thom appeared to be happy with the projects of

children in the community and their participation in the commune council meetings. He said

they looked confident when they presented their activities to the council leaders. He said he

welcomed the participation of the youth in the council because they would make good leaders

in the future. According to him, the youth leaders have a higher level of educational

attainment than many of the village chiefs and they have more ideas.



This project is clearly focused on the promotion of child rights with especial focus on

participation right of children and youth. From among the four projects reviewed, this is the

one that has a clear and discreet articulation of child rights as a programme foundation.

However, having child rights as a project focus does not make a project rights-based in terms

of programming.

33

What made it child rights, based on its project documents, was the fact that there was

acknowledgment of children as rights holders. But there was no recognition of stakeholders

(parents, commune council leaders, etc) as duty bearers. The project rationale, including the

formulation of goals and objectives, was not so much aligned with rights-based programming

principles. There was not much analysis of the child rights issue being addressed. The goals

and objectives were not results-oriented and lacking the basic elements of SMART

formulation of goals, objectives, and monitoring indicators. The positive point of this project

is the use of organizing and anchoring the project in the village and commune grounds. These

were deed empowering at a certain point. The strategies were empowering in the sense that

the children and youth leaders were able to manage their own projects. However, it was

clearly observed that the leaders needed more capacity building in depth and scope of their

involvement in the village and in the commune council.

Equity

Although it was not categorically articulated in the document, the project recognized equity

application in as far as they chose provinces that were indeed far from the center of the

country and that Phnom Penh was not one of the targets.

The commune kleb koma and the village networks of children were basically managed by

8 to 10 adolescent and youth leaders who were already leaders in their villages. These were

the leaders who thought they were elected because they were active, good mannered, and

articulate. The rest of the members of the village networks of children were recipients of

services and participants in child rights activities. The researcher fears that, without the

knowledge of CAMP, the project may have created an elite youth group in the commune.

Limiting the number of leaders in the village networks and commune kleb koma to a select

few, may have prevented other equally deserving children and youth from becoming leaders.

Gender

The young respondents reported that there were more members of the village network of

children who were boys than girls because there were not too many girls in the villages.

Many of them have migrated to Phnom Penh to work in factories. Boys would prefer to stay

in the villages and work in the field. Other than the difference in the memberships, there was

no other gender differentiation including the roles assigned to boys and girls when they were

in action. Some of the girls even exclaimed, “whatever the boys could do, we, girls, could

also do.”

Protection and Safety

All the respondents did not express concern over protection issue while they were engaged in

participatory activities. The agency does not have any child protection measure to avert

potential incidence of abuse, violence, exploitation or neglect because there has never been

any previous reported case in the past.

34


3.5.1 Summary of Findings and Conclusions

The project was effective in achieving its numerical goal of organizing 8 commune kleb

koma covering 32 village networks of children in four provinces in Cambodia. The

village networks ran the operation of mobile libraries benefitting an estimated total of

1,242 children.

The children and youth leaders of commune kleb koma project had effective participation

in planning, implementation and monitoring awareness-raising project activities on child

rights but with observed weaknesses in assessment and analysis and advocacy and

articulation.

The commune kleb koma has been successfully integrated into the commune council

structure in the initial stages of the project but the participation of children was very

limited. This was short lived because of the untimely pull out of the sponsoring agency.

The project is relevant to the UNICEF’s MTSP and to the objectives of the Advocacy and

Social Mobilization Programme of CPAP 2006-2010 because the project has been able to

lay the grounds for the participation of children and youth leaders in commune kleb koma

and in community activities.

The impact of this project was strongest on the children’s self-confidence, knowledge

gained on child rights, character building, personality development which were direct

results of their participation in meetings, trainings and interaction among themselves and

with other stakeholders including the children they worked with. They learned to value

education which led to improvement in their studies. These changes were confirmed by

the parents of the children and youth leaders.

This project had some elements of rights-based programming but with observed

weaknesses in applying causality analysis in its project document; in the formulation of

its goals and objectives; in defining results-oriented monitoring indicators; and in using

more empowering project strategies.

The commune kleb koma and the village networks of children had a tendency to become

elite groups with the new consciousness, self-confidence, leadership skills, and exposure

they have developed from training and experience. This exclusivity may have prevented

other children and youth from becoming leaders.

Other than the difference in the memberships in village networks (where there more boys

than girls), there was no other gender differentiation in the project including the roles

assigned to boys and girls when they were in action.

Child protection was not expressed as a concern. The agency does not have any child

protection measure to avert potential incidence of abuse, violence, exploitation or neglect

because there has never been any previous reported case in the past.

35


Because the project has successfully demonstrated child and youth participation, the study

highly recommends this project for future support by UNICEF. This recommendation,

however, comes with a number of suggestions for the project to harvest optimal results as

expected of a child and youth participation project. The organization may have disbanded as

reported but the study is focusing here on the approach employed to solicit intended results.

Define the vision, goals, strategies, and outcome indicators of the project based on the

standards and principles of human rights based approach to programming and that will

reflect effective rights-based approach programming.

Strengthen further the participation of children and youth leaders of commune kleb koma

in effective in planning, implementation and monitoring based on solid assessment and

analysis of issues affecting the rights of children.

Provide opportunities for children and youth to build their capacity in advocacy and

reporting to maximize their presence in the commune council. Challenge the young

leaders to collectively and convincingly express the problems and issues affecting the

children in the commune council meeting and to propose policies and measures to

effectively address theses issue affecting children whether through policy formulation of

direct service delivery.

Although there has been no reported case of abuse, violence, exploitation or neglect

happening in the project, child protection measures must be established by the sponsoring

organization with the full knowledge of the children and youth leaders of commune kleb

koma and all stakeholders.

Train/orient all CAMP staff and commune council leaders on the principles and standards

of genuine participation to allow the adolescents and youth more involvement as equal

partners and full control of their project without necessarily leaving the youth on their

own.

Build in a strategic sustainability plan into the programme design that will allow the

commune council to take on the Commune Kleb Koma as a regular component of the

structure with own annual budget and that will allow the youth leaders to develop a

leadership succession plans within their ranks with a rational capacity building plan.

Develop a monitoring and reporting system, with relevant “smart” outcome and results

indicators that will benefit not only the sponsoring agency and the commune council but

more importantly the youth themselves.

36

4. “YOUTH TV BUREAU” Project

This chapter’s findings and analysis were drawn from interviews with a focus group

discussion with eight young TV producers, script writers and camera persons belonging to

about six production teams all based in Phnom Penh. Some of these young people have been

hired by SCY as regular staff in charge of various assignments. Another new youth

production talents have been recruited to replace the former young reporters under a new

funding arrangement.

Another group of two production talents were interviewed in Kampong Thom. A team of

eight staff members of SCY with the Executive Director were also engaged in a group

discussion. The past Executive Director who now works in his own agency provided some

important historical background of the project. Because of the nature of this activity and its

location, the researcher did not bother to interview the parents. The staff of SCY who works

in proximity and frequency with the youth reporters were sufficient enough to validate the

impact of the project on them.

The researcher spent some time in the office of SCY to observe the youth reporters working

in groups of three on their documentaries. The observation helped the researcher understand

how SCY operates. The analysis of the project was also based on relevant programme

documents reviewed such as the project proposal, progress reports and annual

implementation reports.


“Youth TV Bureau” (YTB) is the title of the project implemented by a local NGO called

Support Children and Young People (SCY). The project is more well-known for its TV

Programme called “Youth Today” which has been in operation since 2004. The Program

seeks to promote child and youth participation and provide space for their voices through

television as a medium. This is also an effort to promote and realize the rights of children

and young people.

The “Youth Today” TV programme usually runs for 30 minutes using a TV magazine format

with discussion of issues, presentation of 10 to 15 minutes documentary prepared by young

TV production teams on various issues on children and youth. The production of

documentaries engaged the so called “young reporters” in planning, implementation,

monitoring and reporting on their media products. The process involves research on the

topics they themselves choose, story writing, scriptwriting, shooting relevant footages on

location, interviewing authorities such as teachers, health staff, government officials, parents

and other personalities and post-production work.

The TV show, hosted by two trained and experienced young people, tackles issues such as

child labor, education, culture, technology, tourism, environment, and other youth issues and

concerns that interest the production teams. The TV programme is shown on TV twice a

week, one on Monday afternoon at prime time with a replay on Sunday at 10 am through

Cambodia TV Network or CTN/MYTV Channel and daily on APSARA TV Channel.

SCY was organized in 2003 by a group of young Cambodians who were passionate about the

promotion of child rights through TV. Its project called “Youth TV Bureau” was designed to

provide opportunities for children and youth to exercise their participation right and to

37

engage them in media advocacy. The indirect beneficiaries of this project are the viewers

who get to know about issues and concern in the society particularly those affecting the

children and youth. They also learn about child rights concepts and issues. The third group of

beneficiaries is the interviewees or respondents of the interviews either in the documentary or

in the talk show. Some these interviewees are young people who get the chance to express

their opinion and feelings on certain issues on TV.

The main feature of YTB is the

recruitment and training of young

people in TV documentary

production and broadcast, as well as

debate on issues pertaining to

concerns and interests of

Cambodia’s young people. This

project is engaged in the production

of TV production materials by the

children and the youth, for the

children and the youth with guidance

from adult technical experts.

Production teams are composed of

three trained reporters who work

collectively on the production of a

documentary. One of them is assigned as production, one as scriptwriter and another as

camera person. All trained by SCY, the young reporters do their work during their free time

and during vacation seasons. There have been about 12 production teams trained on various

aspects of producing a TV programme.

In cooperation with local NGOs, SCY have also organized young production teams in the

provinces, namely, Kampong Thom, Prey Veng and Kandal. This was an attempt of the

agency to establish Youth Media Centers and to provide the youth in the provinces an

opportunity to be engaged in TV production. Also called young reporters’ network, the

members of these teams were also provided the same training as their counterparts in Phnom

Penh.

UNICEF assistance to this project started in 2004 with support for its administrative and

operations requirements including direct programme support costs, supplies, materials, TV

production equipment, meetings, trainings and transportation. UNICEF support ended in

2010 based on agreement but the project still exists under a different funding arrangement.


This section analyzes the level of participation of the youth along five roles that they can play in a development cycle. (1) Participation in assessment and analysis is the ability to identify issues and problems affecting them, establishing the magnitude of the issues and problems and analysing its causes; (2) Participation in articulation and advocacy involves speaking up as organized group, advocating, or petitioning, to get the attention of decision-makers; (3) Participation in planning entails identifying solutions, activities, projects, brainstorming what actions they could undertake to address identified issues; (4) Participation in action means involvement in the implementation of plans, fulfilling an assigned role, volunteering, or

In action: Young TV reporters of SCY editing their documentaries while the evaluator watches. Picture by Sanoz Lim

38

joining committees; (5) Participation in monitoring and reporting involves following-up action, monitoring the plan, and reporting progress on the implementation of plans.

The analysis tried as much as possible to stay away from strict application of the five participation roles as they are technically used in a full blown funded development programme. The exercise endeavoured to recognize positively whatever initiatives of the youth that resemble the five participation roles.


The young reporters indicated during the FGD that the members of the production team

brainstorm and agree on the topic they will produce. They normally choose the subjects that

are currently happening and that are easy to produce. They relied on the newspapers, radio,

magazines, their parents and the internet for sources of information. Five of the eight FGD

participants have access to the internet. The other three have not tried the computer. They

also admitted that the SCY in some cases “suggested” some topics which they could not

refuse such as girl education, school enrolment, education for the indigenous children, and

safety measures in the commune. They added though that SCY staff suggested the topics but

they had to work on developing their materials for the production.

When asked if they could choose any topic that they could fancy, they said, “no.” They

enumerated some examples like children begging, children in the garbage dump, children

with mental difficulties and all other issues that will give Cambodia a bad image. The

researcher also learned that a authorization of the government is need when there is interview

of children for TV. They said they were afraid to discuss this because they might displease

the authorities which might lead to the closure of SCY.

Discussion

The project is right in allowing the young TV documentary producers to choose the topics

they will produce. The researcher thinks that suggesting themes for them to tackle is not bad

as long as the young reporters, in the end, have liberty to accept or turn down the suggestions.

But within the context of Cambodian culture, it would be difficult for young people to decline

suggestions coming from the elders.

When asked if they do a critical analysis of the topics they have chosen, they said yes but

changed their response when probed about the issues they have chosen for their show. For

example one of the topics chosen was birth registration but, upon probing, they could not

relate it with the right of the child to a name and nationality. On the topic related to milking

the cow, they could not connect it to a possible response to malnutrition of children and

indirectly to breastfeeding. Most of all, they appeared clueless in the possibility of linking

the topic to the right of the child to health. The researcher thinks that it is the task of the SCY

staff to engage the young reporters into critical assessment of their topics by asking questions

that will make them think. They should also be reminded of the ultimate goals of the project

which is directly link to the promotion of child rights. Therefore, everything that they

produce must be linked up with the main purpose of the YTB, as appropriate and as

necessary.

39


When asked who their intended audiences were and what they expected from them after

viewing their documentaries, the young reporters mentioned the children, youth and the

general public as their primary audience. Their responses on expected reaction from the

audience were generally along the level of awareness such as “to know, to remind, to be

aware, and to tell.” It could be surmised from the responses of the young reporter that their

primary aim was for them to articulate their concerns and to deliver messages to their

audiences. YTB is doing a good service here of providing these young reporters with space

for self expression and communication which is in line with the objective of the project and

relevant to child rights.

However, in terms of advocacy, awareness raising is only the first step of the whole process

of changing mindsets and influencing decisions. The young reporters failed to mentioned the

policy makers and programme planners specific target audience. In advocacy work, the

people who have control over important policy and programme decisions are the central

focus of attention.

Discussion

As can be gleaned from the responses of the young reporters, it would seem that influencing

decisions of programme planners and policy makers was not so much in their minds. The

possibility of changing mind sets and behavior and persuading audiences to adopt certain

desirable practices related to child rights also appeared to be overlooked or remotely

forgotten. But these were all articulated expectations in the project document.

Within the Cambodian context, it would be difficult for a younger person to offend or

displease the elderly, much more the authorities. This is where the SCY staff could come in

to challenge the creativity of the young reporters to express their concerns and to solicit

appropriate actions from the authorities and other stakeholders in an inconspicuous way. The

way they currently operate, the YTB is still in the level of awareness raising.


The YTB has exposed the young reporters to a rigid planning exercise and experience which

the youth take seriously. As members of a production team, the young reporters plan

collectively to produce a documentary. They use a planning format designed by SCY to

guide their production activity. The planning exercise includes identification of the topic,

purpose, target audience, duration, story flow, script and shoot list. The plan also includes

resource requirements and comes with a request for the use of limited communication

equipment such as the video cameras which the 12 production teams share based on schedule

of shooting. Without a plan, the young reporters could not move and become productive.

The plans are submitted to the SCY focal person who reviews the contents and provides

technical suggestions. Once approved, the team sets off to accomplish the plan.

Discussion

Training the children on the rudiments of planning is one of the strengths of this project. This

is apparent in the way children confidently performed their tasks as observed during the

40

researcher’s visit to SCY office. Skills gained in planning ensured effective production of

documentaries worthy of inclusion in the Youth TV programmes. Planning exercise provides

opportunities for children and youth to engage in participatory activities and to learn the

value of teamwork. This will prove handy when they move to a more community-oriented

development endeavor or any project they might get involved in.


The researcher personally witnessed the young reporters engaged in action and seriously

focused on the documentary materials they were working on. The production team, led by the

producer, carries on with their activities using the plan they have prepared. They shared that

their work is much easier because everybody has a specific task to accomplish and everybody

knows what to do. The young reporters use the SCY as their work space and the UNICEF-

donated vehicle to travel to their shooting destinations. They work 2 to 3 hours per day

during school days and more time during the vacation.

During the observation, the children appeared to be adept at the use of camera and computer

which were their basic equipment in the production. Despite their quality products, the

young reporters felt that they needed more training to sharpen up even more their skills.

The researcher later on learned that the task of the production teams was to produce a 10 to

15 minutes documentary which forms part of a whole 30 minutes show which are usually

planned and hosted by two young leaders together with the SCY technical persons. They

narrated that the process of producing documentaries involves research, scriptwriting,

shooting relevant footages on location, interviewing their resource persons or government

authorities and other stakeholders such as teachers, health staff, government officials, parents

and post-production work.

Discussion

There is not much to comment on this aspect. The documentaries that the young reporters

have produced can best describe their participation in action. Many of their media products

have been shown on TV.

The only other issue here is the seeming monopoly of two young reporters, one boy, one girl,

in the task of producing and hosting the talk shows.


The young reporters meet every month to report on the status of the implementation of their

plans and to identify the gaps, weaknesses and difficulties encountered. This is the forum

where the children and youth, with the guidance of the SCY staff rectify their mistakes and

address the technical troubles in the production.

Each production team is also expected to submit a monthly progress report to the SCY to

allow the staff to make comments and render technical assistance, when necessary, to

improve their documentaries.

41


it produced?

Relevance

This project is particularly relevant because it has been able to provide children and youth

with opportunities to engage in activities that allow them to exercise their participation right.

It has also allowed them to creatively express how they view the world around them through

the documentaries that they have produced with support and technical assistance of adults.

There are some areas that need to be polished but this project is moving forward along the

path of UNICEF’s MTSP and CPAP 2006-2010.

Efficiency

Working in production teams of three is an efficient strategy to ensure that children learn and

appreciate working in teams and at the same time be productive. Utilizing the

communication equipment and project vehicle on the basis of a commonly agreed schedule is

the most logical way to maximize whatever limited resources are available. The researcher

sees no other ways of doing it to make the project more efficient in terms of use of resource

and amount time utilized to deliver results.

The project though needs to address efficiency and sustainability of broadcasting young

reporters’ programme or show on TV. The other issue is reaching the children and youth who

are in remote villages and those who do not have access to TV.

Effectiveness

SCY’s main output since 2004 has been the production of a weekly TV show “Youth Today”

created by volunteer young reporters who were trained and supported by SCY’s experienced

staff. In its 6 years of operation, SCY has trained more than 150 young people in media

production, produced over 250 documentaries for broadcasting and organized high profile

youth forums and events in partnership with various international development agencies and

government.18

As far as the latest agreement with UNICEF, which was signed in 2010, the project has been

able to organize 10 production teams with 30 young reporters recruited and trained as

producers, script writers and camera persons. It has also expanded the coverage of the

project to include one production team each from the provinces of Kampong Thom, Prey

Veng and Kandal with a total number of ten young reporters. Kandal had four while the

other two provinces had three youth members per team.

The new production teams organized in 2010 created a total of 29 new documentaries, 21 of

which were shown in the actual TV talk show with the involvement of resource persons

coming from government, non-government organizations, schools and communities. Some

of the guests are young people who get the chance to communicate their views on various

matters in their lives.

18

Youth Today TV Show Report, SCY Narrative Report June to December 2010.

42

There is, however, a need to look at the technical and moral support to the provincial

production teams. Unlike their counterparts in Phnom Penh, they do not have technical staff

to consult and no access to communication equipment. This is where the project may seem to

have failed. During the interview, the young reporters raised the issue of inadequate support

from SCY. SCY should be able to find a way to mobilize local resources and system of

support for the production teams in the provinces in order to sustain their operations.

It is worth mentioning here that that some of the trained and experienced young reporters

have been absorbed by the SCY.

Sustainability

This project continues to operate after the pull out of UNICEF assistance in 2010. At present,

many of the previously trained young reporters have graduated from school or have decided

to leave the project and move on but new enthusiastic young boys and girls have been

recruited and trained in the production of documentaries. For the agency to sustain the

project on its own is out of the question because as an NGO, it is dependent on donors.

Because of the resource requirements of the activities involved and the nature of young

people’s involvement, which is voluntary, the project will continue to depend on external

support unless SCY is able to creatively devise a community support scheme.

There seems to be a need to look at the sustainability of the TV youth field reporters at the

provincial level due to the issue of supervision, control and reporting. There seems to be a

need as well to tighten links and clarify expectations with the local agencies in charge of

organizing And monitoring the field reporters.

Impact

The impact of the project was evidently revealed on the young reporters who exude

confidence during the FGD and who appeared smart and expressive. When asked what

changes they have observed of themselves as a result of their participation in this project, the

young reporters confirmed the first earlier statement.

In Kampong Tom, Bunchheurn, 20, said, “I never tried to express my opinion before. I could

not talk with people without fear. Now I am more confident in facing people.” Based in

Phnom Penh, Champa, 19, declared, “I am no longer scared of talking with people like

before.” In the same FGD as Champa, Tola, 21, added, “I have more confidence in myself

now in like before when I was always unsure of myself.”

Somroeun, 23, who is the regular host of the Youth Today Show , admitted, “ I had no idea

how to communicate before. Now I am confident in communicating. Before, I was afraid to

stand in front of many people. This has been my work now, speaking in front of camera with

many people.”

The other young reporters made reference to their additional knowledge and skills as benefits

they earned from SCY. Sat Ei, 21, “I never knew anything about camera, now at least I know

how to handle it. My friends say I am lucky for having this opportunity to produce a

documentary.” Vutha, 21, said the same thing, “I did not know how to use the camera like

now.” Nary, 21, confessed, “I preferred to work alone before. Now I have learned how to

work in a team.” Povna and Somroeun both agreed, that they did not value volunteer work

43

before. But both of them enjoy being volunteers now.” Somroeun declared , “Sometimes I

think this work is more important than schooling because I have learned a lot here.”

When asked how their parents and friends feel about their participation in SCY, Champa said

her parent tried to stop her from joining this project because it could get in the way of her

studies. “But I tried to prove myself. When they saw my documentaries on TV, they changed

their minds.” She confessed though, “ I did not listen to my parents before like now. I have a

lot of respect for them now.” Living in Kampong Tom, Bunchheurn said, “ My family is

happy and proud of me because they think I am better than my peers.”

“My friend envied me and wanted to be in my shoes because I had the opportunity to produce

documentaries,“ said Nary. Povna lamented, “Nobody paid attention to me in my village.

My neighbors thought I was just escaping from household work. Now they greet me when

they see me because they have seen our work.”

When asked if they were aware of the impact of what they have shown on TV to the

community and society, the young reporters said they were concerned about the impact of

their documentaries but they have no way of determining how the audience feel and think

about them.



This project is anchored on Articles 13 to 17 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

(CRC) which collectively indicate the right of the child to information, freedom of expression

and association. This is consistent with SCY’s mission of promoting child rights among

decision makers, parents/teachers, the general population and among young people and

children themselves.

The project’s strategy of building the capacity of the young reporters to engage in creative

production of documentaries among themselves with little supervision from adults is

empowering and aligned with the standards of rights-based programming.

However, there has been no deliberate and conscious effort in soliciting the involvement of

the most disadvantaged groups of young people and effort to strike a gender balance in terms

of membership in the production teams. This will be dealt with separately in the same

section.

The way the goals and objectives of the project as reflected in the inception plan were

formulated did not seem to reflect the principles and standards of rights-based programming

They were not results-oriented and lacking the basic elements of SMART formulation of

goals, objectives, and monitoring indicators.

Equity

Because of the nature of the project, the project for a long time has been centralized on

Phnom Penh which out rightly excluded the young people outside the capital of the country.

There was, however, an attempt to include other children and youth by putting up “satellites”

44

in three provinces. However, it was observed that the quality of their involvement were very

limited because of distance, inadequate video equipment and lack of technical staff

Gender

There was no gender issue found in the project except that there were more boys involved in

this project than girls. Of the 10 young reporters interviewed, seven were boys while 3 were

girls.

Protection and Safety

When asked if they had any fear or potential danger or risk that they face while doing their

documentaries in the office or on location, or on the way to the SCF office and back home,

the young reporters said, “No!” and wondering about the reason for asking the question.

No protection incident has been reported. The agency has no child protection policy although

the agency’s contract with UNICEF stipulates relevant provisions.

Summary of findings and conclusions and recommendation


The project has been able to generate genuine participation from children and youth involved

in the project. Some participation roles though can still be improved particularly in the area

of assessment and analysis and advocacy and articulation.

SCY was responsible for the production of a weekly TV show “Youth Today” created by

volunteer young reporters with support from its technical staff. In 6 years, SCY has trained

150 young people which has produced over 250 documentaries.

As far as its contract in 2010, the project has been able to organize 10 production teams with

30 young reporters including 10 young reporters from three expansion provinces. In the

same year, 29 new documentaries were produced of which 21 were actually shown on TV.

The project needs to address the issue of equity particularly in terms of providing

opportunities for the most disadvantaged groups to join the production teams. As it is now,

the criteria appear to be a little selective. The other related issue is reaching the children and

youth who have no access to TV.

The project has as strong positive impact among the young reporters in terms of their self-

confidence, expressiveness, attitude and respect for parents, knowledge acquisition, new

skills acquired.

This project is equally important because it offers the young reporters a prospect for

employment as most of them have already been absorbed by SCY and increased civic

engagement.

No significant gender issue or age difference was found in the project. Child Protection

appears to be not a concern even if it was stipulated in the contract with UNICEF. No

protection incident has been reported. The agency has no child protection policy.


45

This project is highly recommended for continued UNICEF support because of its direct

relevance to UNICEF’s MTSP and UNICEF Cambodia’s CPAP goals. It has also

successfully solicited the effective participation of children and young people in media

production. There are however a number of issues that this project needs to address

particularly the issue of exclusivity, gender imbalance and accessibility of the media product

by children and youth in remote areas and those with no access to TV the specific

recommendations are as follows:

Redefine the vision, goals and outcome indicators of the project based on the standards and

principles of human rights based approach to programming.

Continue the existing practice of allowing the young reporters to choose the topics they want

to produce but strengthen their capacity in assessment and analysis that will allow them to

explore the issues thoroughly using causality analysis tools. Without necessarily dictating the

young reporters, engage them in a brainstorming session where potential issues related to

child rights may be identified which can then be the basis for their productions.

Train them in preparing and implementing an effective advocacy plan. Challenge their

creativity in influencing decision makers without being offensive and confrontational.

Develop a mechanism that will allow disadvantaged children and youth to become a young

reporter. The age limit for the selection of young reporters may be a bit restrictive.

Pro-actively address the membership imbalance that will allow more girls to become part of

the production teams.

Develop a child protection policy even if there has been no reported case of abuse, violence,

exploitation or neglect happening in the project. Involve the young reporters in addressing

this issue.

Train/orient all SCY staff on the principles and standards of genuine participation to allow

the young reporters more involvement as equal partners in development.


production teams to operate even without funding.

Develop a monitoring and reporting system, with relevant “SMART” outcome and results

indicators that will benefit the young reporters primarily and other groups secondarily.

46

“COMMUNE YOUTH GROUP” Project

The analysis of this project is based on the researcher’s interaction with youth, their parents

and commune council officials in two communes, namely Sambo Prey Kuk and Achar Leak

both in the province of Khampong Thom. Two separate focus group discussions with the

young people and four group interviews with adult informants were conducted in their

respective communes. One FGD group had 10 youth respondents while the other had nine.

In both communes, the researcher witnessed the commune youth groups engaged in their

regular activities which are of different nature. Four staff membes of CoDeC, including the

Executive Director, were interviewed in their office located in the same province.

During the field visit in one commune called Sambo Prey Kuk, the members of the commune

youth group (CYG) and other members of the community were patching up the roads in the

Pagoda which was requested by the monks. The project was conducted with the Commune

Council and the commune youth group. In Achar Leak, the researcher visited the commune at

the time when the members of the commune youth group were undertaking their monthly

accounting of their communal savings system. It was also the time for them to deposit their

individual savings and loans payments to their communal savings. These were essential

events for the study because in both instances, the researcher witnessed how the young

people actually managed their social activities.

What is the project about?

Commune Youth Group (CYG) is a youth-oriented project designed to provide young people

with opportunities to conduct their own “youth planning, review their activities, and to share

information , as well as, understanding of the process of democracy, decentralization and

deconcentration and do a good sample between youth to youth”19

. As described in the terms

of reference, the main activities of the CYGs were vocational and life skills training,

community activities or services, and participation in commune development planning.

Historically, the project, which was implemented by Cooperation for Development of

Cambodia (CoDeC), was initially supported by the Seth Koma Section of UNICEF

Cambodia through the Provincial Local Administration Unit (PLAU) of Khampong Thom. In

2010, the project coordination and support was handed over to the Advocacy and Social

Mobilization Programme in the same office of UNICEF. The project was then referred to as

Commune Youth Group (CYG). From 10 targeted Youth Commune Teams (its original

name), the project was then expanded to cover a total of 12 CYGs lodged in the commune

council structure particularly within the Commune Committee for Women and Children

(CCWC ).

Each CYG is composed of 12 to 15 youth leaders from different villages where they were

elected by their peers to represent their respective villages in the commune youth team. In

coordination with the Commune Council Leaders, CoDeC facilitated the election of the youth

leaders at two levels. The first level was the election of leaders from the villages. The second

level was the election of leaders from among the village leaders, i.e., the Commune Youth

Chief, Deputy Commune Youth Chief, Treasurer and two members. Through the election

19

“Youth Commune Teams in Kampong Thm Province”, Co-operation for Development of Cambodia’s

proposal to UNICEF, January 10 to December 10, 2010.

47

process, a CoDeC staff said the youth had a chance to exercise their democratic and civil

rights.

The commune youth leaders represent the youth sector in the commune council meetings

where they are given a space to express their opinion on commune projects in limited

capacities and where they report regularly their activities and accomplishments. At the start

of the project, CoDeC forged an agreement with the Commune Council on the involvement

of the youth in the commune council meetings. Part of this agreement is the commitment of

the Commune Council to allocate a certain amount (about $500) per year to support the

activities of the CYGs.

Aside from facilitating the organization of CYGs, CoDeC was also responsible for building

the capacity of the adolescent youth leaders to effectively participate in the Commune

Council and to face the realities of being youth through life skills programme. They are also

trained to manage communal savings system and to engage in income generating activities.

As an NGO, CoDeC has created a reputation and has been well respected by provincial and

commune authorities.

UNICEF has been supporting this project since 2007 particularly in the conduct of meetings,

training, various activities and special events of the CYGs, monitoring, transportation, office

equipment and administrative support to CoDeC and other stakeholders. As mentioned,

supervision from UNICEF side was initially through Seth Koma Section and eventually

through the Advocacy and Social Mobilization Programme.

Did the project facilitate effective participation of youth?

This section analyzes the level of participation of the youth along five roles that they can play

in a development cycle. (1) Participation in assessment and analysis is the ability to identify

issues and problems affecting them, establishing the magnitude of the issues and problems

and analysing its causes; (2) Participation in articulation and advocacy involves speaking up

as organized group, advocating, or petitioning, to get the attention of decision-makers; (3)

Participation in planning entails identifying solutions, activities, projects, brainstorming what

actions they could undertake to address identified issues; (4) Participation in action means

involvement in the implementation of plans, fulfilling an assigned role, volunteering, or

joining committees; (5) Participation in monitoring and reporting involves following-up

action, monitoring the plan, and reporting progress on the implementation of plans.

The analysis tried as much as possible to stay away from strict application of the five

participation roles as they are technically used in a full blown funded development

programme. The exercise endeavoured to recognize positively whatever initiatives of the

youth that resemble the five participation roles.


When the youth leaders in the CYGs were asked if they have had a meeting where they

discussed the problems and issues affecting the youth, they said “no”. In Sambo Prey Kuk,

they all raised their yellow card at the same time to signify their answer. A white card meant

“yes”. Before the FGD session, each respondent was given two cards, one yellow and one

white, to use when the question of the facilitator/researcher was answerable by yes or no.

48

The researcher gathered that the only time the youth discussed the issues and problems

affecting them were during training activities where they listened to lectures on drug abuse,

domestic violence, trafficking, reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, and traffic laws. They

added that they also learned communal credit system, poultry-raising, piggery, weaving, and

haircut. The responses were almost the same in both FGDs.

When asked if they were aware of the problems that their country is facing today, they said

yes and began enumerating them: trafficking, rape, child labor, drug addiction, traffic

accidents, domestic violence. Most of these issues happened to be the same topics discussed

during training activities provided by CoDeC. One or two of them mentioned poverty,

flooding and conflict between Thailand and Cambodia on border issue. But when asked to

explain these issues or discuss why Cambodia experiences these issues, silence among the

respondents followed.

Discussion

The project scores high in terms of exposing the youth to awareness of problems and issues

affecting them such as the topics mentioned above which otherwise they would never have a

chance to learn elsewhere. The CYG members were openly appreciative of this. However,

the topics they engaged in, noticeably, were pre-identified and generally adult-dictated. The

researcher noticed that the agenda appeared to be almost the same for both CYGs observed

and were consistent with the agency’s AWPs.

From the way they explained how and what they discussed in their meetings and what they

learned from trainings, it looked like the youth leaders had very little opportunity to decide

what topic they wanted to learn or do something about. The CYG members appeared to be

happy with what they have been learning though and with what have been happening. One

reason could be that the youth leaders were not even aware of their own interests. Many of

the questions during the FGD were met with silence or hesitance. The other was because

they were not trained to be critical of their surroundings, as can be gleaned from the

interviews conducted.


The closest that the members of the Commune Youth Group have done along advocacy and

articulation was their participation in community awareness-raising activities on the topics

they have discussed. The youth in Sambo Prey Kuk said they used to go around the villages,

going house to house to talk with parents and their peers on household violence, trafficking

bullying, traffic laws using flipcharts, posters and pamphlets provided by CoDeC and

UNICEF. The members of CYG in Achar Leak said they promoted personal hygiene, hand

washing, and cleaning the surroundings.

The CYGs presence in the commune council meetings was a huge opportunity for the youth

to raise their concerns and express their opinion on matters affecting them in the commune.

However, the researcher gathered in the FGDs that the respondents participation were limited

to discussion and reporting of their own projects from the amount allotted for them by the

commune.

The CoDeC Executive herself, during the group interview admitted, “There was not much

happening in terms of opportunity for the youth in the council because of limited

49

participation. This was not according to what CoDeC wanted it to happen.” They added that

there were actually two kinds of commune council meetings. One is an open meeting where

they discuss projects and updates on these projects. This is where the CYG present their

intended project and report about their activities. The CYGs are no longer invited in closed

door meetings where money matters and other decisions are made.

Discussion

It was good enough to know that the youth were interacting with the community residents

and with their peers to talk about important community issues and delivering health and

sanitation messages. However, in advocacy work, this is only one of the first steps. In terms

of the issues and messages they deliver, the researcher thought they were topics that were

apparently standard, commonly known , safe to discuss and that they were seemingly

comfortable to discuss because they have been tackled in their meetings and training

activities with CoDeC.

During the FGD, the researcher did not get a sense of the youth engaged in discussing real

issues affecting them, critically analyzing these issues from different angles and exploring

ways to address these issues. Assessment and analysis and advocacy are important skills for

the youth to acquire so that they could meaningfully participate in the commune council

meetings particularly in decision making or policy making. The researcher could only

presume that the respondents have not gone into training to build these capacities.


When asked how they planned their activities or if there were any semblance of planning

happening before they engage in their activities, the CYG members in both communes could

not clearly describe any planning activity. The researcher surmised that the youth did not get

much training in planning.

The researcher later found out that the CYG had an allotment of 2,000,000 Riel or an

equivalent of about USD 500 to USD 600 to support their activities for the year. However,

the commune council leaders themselves admitted that the youth could not plan for the

amount because they said, “they don’t know what to do with the money”. This was

according to the commune council leaders in Sambo Prey Kuk. The CYG had to discuss with

the council leaders what they want to do and how they will do it. Whatever planning activity,

or semblance of it, that actually happened, they all took place in the commune council office

because the activities had to be approved by the council leaders. The youth respondents in

Achar Leak shared the same sentiment of not having liberty in using the money intended for

them.

Discussion

It was a big victory for CoDeC and PLAU for having persuaded the Commune Councils in

selected communes in Khampong Thom to allow the youth to sit in the meetings of the

Commune Councils and to allocate funds for the CYG. These are important milestones and a

good indication of the recognition of the youth as a sector. The researcher feels that what

was needed was a good sense of analysis and planning on the part of the youth to make full

use of the allotted budget for projects that will benefit the youth and for projects that will

50

really interest them. As observed, the CYGs appeared to be dependent on the CCWC of the

Commune Council and CoDeC staff.


The CYG in Sambo Prey Kuk appeared to be active in mobilizing action among their peers

and parents in the community. When this researcher arrived in the commune for the

scheduled interviews, the youth were engaged in a road construction in the pagoda. There

were about 40 children, youth and adults who were shoveling gravel and sands and

transporting them manually with improvised carriers to holes and gaps in the road, flattening

them with their feet and rakes. It turned out to be a project of the commune council as

requested by the monks. The commune council through the CCWC mobilized the CYG to

help which the members willingly agreed.

Aside from road repair, the members of the CYG were also engaged in cleaning the

surroundings of the primary school in the commune, destroying and cleaning the breeding

grounds of mosquitoes, and helping in birth registration. At one time, the young people

helped a poor family in building a house. This must have been a big deal in the commune

because the young people shared the anecdote with a lot of interest and pride. Meanwhile, the

commune leaders, during the interview spoke highly of the youth in helping the poor family.

In Achar Leak, the researcher witnessed the members of the CYG engaged in cash

transaction for their communal savings projects. The Deputy Chief of the Commune Council

was present during the meeting which indicated the commune support but it was the CoDeC

staff who was actively guiding the young leaders in the process. From the money deposited

by the youth members, they were able to loan money which they used to fund personal

livelihood projects, buy books or pay for other school expenses. The low interest they pay for

their loans are used to defray cost of group activities. Loans are limited only to the members.

Aside from the communal savings scheme, the members were also engaged in other

community activities such as cleaning the environment, road repair, promoting hygiene,

information dissemination, cleaning the pagoda especially during religious occasions, and

helping the poor families. Like the members of the CYG in Sambo Prey Kuk, the youth in

Achar Leak were proud to share about how they helped a poor disadvantaged families with

rice, salt, fish sauce and other household needs, especially when somebody died in the family.

They used the budget they received from the Commune for the purchase of goods. They also

saved the snacks allotted for their meetings to augment their resources for the poor.

Discussion

The study found that the strength of the organization appeared to be on the action segment of

development cycle perhaps because of their energy and their willingness to be useful and to

be of service to the community. The culture of obedience and respect for elders has also

made it easier for the adults to attract them to whatever they wish the young people to

perform. The Commune Council leaders of Achar Leak put in fittingly by saying, “They are

very good because any activity you tell them to do they do it successfully.” Reading between

the lines, it could mean that the young people were good followers of the adult’s dictates.

This has strengthened the sense that even in terms of activities, the youth had to be guided by

the adults. This was particularly observed in Sambo Prey Kuk where the youth leaders

51

apparently took directions from the CCWC chairwoman of the commune council who was

giving directions. During the road construction she deliberately showed she was in charge.

The members of the CYG in Achar Leak appeared to be more independent as they went with

their tasks with confidence and with the adults leaders watching on the sides. In either case,

the activities provided the adolescent and youth members of the CYG with opportunities to

engage in community improvement activities. The activities were also good training ground

for developing social awareness.


After explaining what monitoring meant and what it involved, the CYG members in two

communes were asked if they were engaged in any monitoring activity. All the responses fell

in the negative territory. However, the researcher learned that they had to prepare a report

regularly by filling up a reporting form designed by CoDeC. When asked about the

importance of the report, the respondents said that the Commune Council leaders and CoDeC

needed to know what the CYG was doing and what they have accomplished. They said it was

important because of the accounting of activities related to the allotted budget for the youth.

When asked how important the reports were for them and they were able to use the reports in

their meetings, the groups interviewed in separate FGDs fell into silence including those who

appeared to be more articulate members of the two groups.

Discussion

Writing a report on the activities they have undertaken would have been a good exercise for

the youth to monitor their projects, to look back at what they have accomplished and what

they have not done, to determine where they have been and where they were going.

Unfortunately, motivation for report writing appeared to be due to reasons external to their

interests. The CYGs submit reports to inform adults of their activities.

Is the project efficient, relevant, sustainable and effective, and what kind of impact has

it produced?

Relevance

This project is directly relevant to UNICEF’s MTSP and to the objectives of the Advocacy

and Social Mobilization Programme of CPAP 2006-2010. As described in the earlier

sections, the project has already put the youth in the right place, so to speak, i.e., right in the

village and commune structure. The village and commune council leaders already recognize

the members of the CYG as leaders of their sector. The respondents have also expressed that

the people in the neighborhood are familiar with the good things that the CYGs are doing in

the community. So the potential for a meaningful participation of youth in this project is

already there. If provided with more training and experience on appropriate capacities along

the five participation roles, the adolescent and youth of CYGs could achieve a more

productive and significant participation in the commune council.

The project, as it is now, also offers a potential space for the realization of the newly

approved National Youth Policy. Details of this will be provided towards the end of the

report.

52

Effectiveness

The project has been able to organize 12 Commune Youth Groups (CYG), as per this

project’s numerical targets, with 135 village youth groups covering a grand total of 2,123

youth of which 1,117 were girls and 1,006 were boys. By its statistical accomplishments

alone, this project called, “Commune Youth Group”, may be considered effective. What

made this more notable was the fact that the agency is quite small, personnel wise and the

project areas were quite far apart from each other.

On another plane, the project is also effective in a way that it has been able to connect the

adolescent and youth to the village and commune structure thus paving a way for them to

come face to face with adult leaders of the commune during meetings. This was a big plus

point for the project although it was more an accomplishment of the agency than the youth

themselves. Another remarkable victory of the agency was forging an agreement with the

commune council to allot a certain amount for the young people’s projects. The way this

allocation was planned for and disposed may not have been ideal but the recognition of the

youth by the council has already been established.

The results harvested by the project in terms of quality and level of participation may not be

remarkable as yet but the stage has already been set, so to speak, for a more critical and active

performance of the youth in the future. In addition, the project needs to work more on

deepening the understanding of the youth on the process of democracy, decentralization and

de-concentration which was part of the project objectives. Even if there was no direct

question on these principles, the youth respondents did not make any reference to any of

these even in terms of knowledge learned from the project.

Efficiency

In general, community-based projects, such as this project, involving mobilization of people

and coordination with community-based structures, such as the village and commune

structures in Cambodia, require a lot of community immersion and interaction with

stakeholders, which this project actually performed. There was no other way or short way of

doing it. For this purpose, CoDeC has been able to demonstrate efficiency in its project

operations.

The NGO’s office site in the same province where the projects are located made the project

operation even more efficient particularly as it made the project visits more frequent due to

relative proximity. The fact that the CYG was lodged at the CCWC of the commune council

would have made it convenient for CoDeC to monitor the groups except that the CYG

operations were awkwardly put under the “control” of the commune council. However, in

terms of coverage of youth leaders, the project may not be regarded as efficient because it has

been able to empower only a few privileged groups of youth leaders, i.e., 12 to 15 members

per commune. These members are already leaders in their own right from the villages where

they come from.

In terms of time efficiency, this is quite difficult to apply as a measuring stick over an amount

of time necessary to attain a certain level or quality of participation. There are several

variables to consider in this aspect such as the readiness of the youth to participate, readiness

of the adults to accept adolescent and youth participation, presence or absence of enabling

policy and structure for participation, cultural and educational influence, and adequacy of

53

resources for participation. In the case of this project, it looks like there are some aspects that

the sponsoring agency needs to struggle with in order to attain a desired level of youth

participation. These aspects are discussed further down this report.

Sustainability

As a community-based intervention, this project would have been sustainable because the

project has already been anchored in the commune council complete with an annual

budgetary allocation. However, there are some sustainability issues that CoDeC should have

anticipated. On the part of the youth, many of them will soon graduate, and leave the

community to study in a university or work elsewhere.

Training a second line of young leaders from the villages would have been useful to replace

the outgoing CYG leaders. Orienting the Commune Council leaders, particularly the chair of

CCWC, would have given the young leaders more liberty to manage their group on their own

and would have lessened dependency on adult control. This is not to say though that adult

guidance is not need. The researcher believes that youth can benefit a lot from the wisdom

and experience of adults including their blunders and slip-ups that young people could avoid

repeating.

The amount of money allotted by the commune councils for the CYGs would have been used

to fund the administrative requirements of the group including support for their regular

meetings and community projects. This was not explored and optimized.

When asked if they were ready to move forward even without CoDeC, the CYG leaders in

both communes said they were not ready to wean away from support they get from their

sponsoring agency. They said they needed more training and experience. Training on

leadership was a common response when asked what training they needed most. On the part

of CoDeC, they said they were not yet ready to leave the CYGs on their own judging from

the way they performed and from the sub-optimal results generated in tying them up with the

Commune Council. Given this scenario, CoDeC felt that it would need three more years

before the project could attain a desirable sustainability level.

Impact

From the interviews conducted during the field review, the most notable impact of CYG was

observed among the adolescent and youth themselves particularly in terms of knowledge

gained, skills learned and attitudes developed. These qualitative changes were generally

borne out of their involvement in the activities of CYG.

From amongst the youth interviewed, the strongest impact was on the respondents’

expressive ability. Informants in Sambo Prey Kuk were emphatic about the communication

and relation relations abilities they have acquired. Sreyheach, 25, shared, “Before joining the

group, I was very shy. I could hardly speak with other people. Now I can openly express my

opinion with anybody.” Sokim, 17, shared the same feeling. He too has learned how to deal

with other people. Poeur, 24, explained, “I never dared to speak with anyone, until I joined

the youth group.” Kim Roo, 24, was also very hesitant to relate with other before. He added

that because of his interaction skills gained from the project, he now have many friends than

before.

54

In Achar Leak, the boys and girls interviewed also shared what they thought were changes in

the way they deal with people due to their participation in CYG. Srey Tak,19, emphasized, “I

never tried to express myself before. Now I am able to do so because in our group every

member has to express opinion, everybody has to participate.” Laykour, 22, added, “I used to

stay safe all the time by not speaking. When I joined this group, I realized it was not good to

do it all the time. I had to speak.” Chan Sey, 20, said “I was very shy before. Since joining

the group, I have gathered some courage to speak.” Kim Ang, 18, shared the same

experience as Chan Sey.

Another strong impact of the project on the children’s behavior was along building their

sense of social responsibility. Kim Roo, said he was happy to belong to a group that help

solve problems than to be in a group that cause problems in the community. Phon, 17, added,

“Before, I have never done anything I could be proud of. I am happy that I am able to help

now like in destroying the breeding places of mosquitoes.” So Phak, 18, of Achar Leak said

almost the same thing, “I did not know about the social problems before. Now I think I have

known a lot because of the trainings and meetings I have attended.”

Chheurn, 20, from Achar Leak said, “Before joining the group, I did not bother about my

neighbors. I did not care whether they were rich or poor. Now I feel I have the responsibility

to help in whatever way I can particularly those who are really poor, the vulnerable groups,

those with HIV and AIDS and those with handicap.”

Knowledge acquisition was another impact that the informants mentioned. Polin, 17: “I had

no experience or knowledge in agriculture. I learned a lot about this subject in this group.”

Loeu, 25: “Without the group, I would never have the chance to learn about drug abuse, road

accidents, and other important subjects.” Kimsan, 16: “I spend all the money that my parents

gave me. I never saved. Now I know how to do it!”

Interestingly, some youth mentioned respect for elders as a behavior or practice that they

acquired from the group. Chhunghong,24, said, “I had an opportunity to join social activities,

and meetings. My experience has made me more respectful of others. Meanwhile,

Sophoeun, 17, shared, “I don’t know why but I never listened to my Mom before joining the

group. But afterwards I changed and began listening to her advice. Now I respect her more.”

When asked what their parents think about their participation in the CYG, Kim Rou said her

mother is very proud of her and respect her more now than before. Sokim, 17, said, “My

Mother is very happy to see me interacting well with our neighbors. She is happy to see me

respect other people. My mother listens to me more now. Shreyheach, 25, expressed with

pride, “My mother is happy to see me helping in the household chores now even if I have

work to do in the group.” Sheag, happily shared, “My parents are happy that I don’t go out

that much anymore.”

In terms of impact of the project in the community, the evaluator thinks it would need a

commune-wide survey to determine this in terms of people’s acquisition of knowledge,

development of attitude, and adoption of practices due to the CYGs’ communication

strategies. The members of the CYGs were basically engaged in community awareness-

raising activities on not-so-easy agenda as household violence, trafficking, bullying, traffic

laws, personal hygiene, and hand washing using flipcharts, posters and pamphlets provided

by CoDeC and UNICEF. The process itself would require a comprehensive communication

for development (C4D) strategy.

55



This project appeared to be packaged as youth-oriented with some awareness raising, service

delivery, capacity building and participation elements. Child rights or human rights, in

general, were hardly mentioned in the inception document. The project vision and set of goals

seem to lack the elements of right-based programming. The expected results, articulated well

some important participation-related indicators such as “overall increase in confidence,

attitude and ability of the youth to engage in challenges and opportunities in their lives” and

“overall increase in the participation and engagement of young people in civil society,

commune development plan and commune investment plan and making decisions.” However,

it was not explained how these could be attained and measured.

Equity

From its inception document to actual implementation, the project was clearly silent on

equity application. There was no description of project areas as the most vulnerable or the

neediest communes. Selection of leaders from the villages, although conducted through

election, was not inclusive at all. The leaders of the CYGs, when asked why they were

selected to be leaders of their villages said that they were more articulate than the others, no

bad record, has good behavior, has good relationship with others and have time to volunteer,

and have good educational background.

The CYGs basically revolved around the empowerment of 12 to 15 already articulate youth

representatives of different villagers as commune youth leaders. Although they have been

able to mobilize some of their peers in community activities, the commune youth leaders

were clearly the focus of the project. This researcher sensed that the project has created,

although inadvertently, an elite youth group in the commune.

Gender

In this project, gender dimension did not come out as an issue. Membership was open to all.

There were slightly more girls than boys. Of 2,123 youth members of the village youth

groups, 1,117 (53 percent) were girls while 1,006 were boys (47 percent). Although there

was an instruction to invite an equal number of boys and girls to the focus group discussion,

more girls showed up than boys. During the FGD interaction, the girls appeared to be as

expressive and as open as the boys. When asked if there was any role differentiation in the

tasks assigned to the members of the CYG, the young people said, “no”.

Protection and safety

Protection of the youth from possible violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation while they are

engaged in the project did not come out as a concern among the young girls and boys or even

with the sponsoring agency. When asked if there was any danger, risk or fear that the boys

and girls feel whenever they do their work together whether in meetings or in the community,

the respondents replied with a quizzical look, a smile and a “no”. The researcher took it to

mean that the youth heard the question for the first time and there was no reason for them to

feel that way. One youth said that the commune is peaceful and there has been no case of

56

violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation happening in their organization. The agency has no

policy related to this issue.

Summary of findings and conclusions and recommendation


The project was effective in reaching its numerical target of organizing 12 Commune Youth

Groups in five Districts with trained youth leaders actively engaged in various community

project activities.

The project has been able to connect the youth group to the village and commune structure

paving a way for their participation in the council meetings even in a limited way. An amount

of about USD 500 to USD 600 has been allotted by the commune council for the project

activities of CYGs. Although the CYGs have no full control yet of its disposal, that was

already a big plus point for the project. This was, however, a big missed opportunity because

the money could have been optimized to sustain the CYGs.

The results harvested by the project in terms of quality and level of participation may not be

remarkable as yet but the stage has already been set, so to speak, for a more critical and active

performance of the youth in the future. Currently, the CYGs met by the researcher appeared

to be adult-led particularly by the CCWC of the Communce Council and still very much

dependent on CoDeC’s assistance

The project’s strength was in mobilizing the youth in action but needs to strengthen their

capacity to conduct assessment and analysis, articulation and advocacy, planning and

monitoring and evaluation. These competencies will be the youth’s best assets in building a

more self-reliant, independent and productive CYGs and will make them truly youth-led and

youth-oriented.

The CYG is particularly relevant to the UNICEF’s MTSP and to the objectives of the

Advocacy and Social Mobilization Programme of CPAP 2006-2010 because of the potential

spaces that that project has opened for a meaningful participation of the youth in local

governance and policy advocacy.

The impact of the project among the youth was demonstrated in terms of new knowledge

gained, new skills acquired and new attitudes developed. These qualitative changes were

generally borne out of their involvement in the activities of CYG. The project impact was

particularly remarkable in building the expressive capacity of the youth and in enhancing

their social skills and social development orientation. The parents and commune council

members confirmed these changes.

Rights-based programming principles appeared to be absent in the operations of this project.

From its inception document to actual implementation, the project was clearly silent on

equity application. The CYGs basically revolved around the empowerment of 12 to 15 youth

leader in each target commune which had a tendency to become an elite youth group in the

community.

57

In this project, gender dimension did not come out as an issue. Membership was open to all.

The difference in membership and leadership patterns of girls and boys in the CYGs was not

significant. There was no observed gender role differentiation in assignment of tasks.

.

Protection of the youth from possible violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation while they are

engaged in the project did not come out as a concern among the youth and even with the

sponsoring agency. The agency and the youth organization have no policy related to this

issue not so much because there has been no previous protection case but because of mere

ignorance of the need to develop a child and youth protection measure.


The project is recommended for continuous support by UNICEF mainly because of its

relevance to UNICEF MTSP and the potentials it offers for realizing the newly approved

National Youth Policy. However, the project must be modified to address some important

aspects of programming consistent with UNICEF standards and with the principles of

participation. The study recommends the following actions:

Clearly articulate the vision, goals, strategies, and outcome indicators of the project to reflect

the standards and principles of genuine youth participation. This means that the project

should be able to create spaces for youth to develop and put to effective use their knowledge

skills in assessment and analysis, advocacy and articulation, planning, action and monitoring

and reporting. The results should reflect a vision of youth able to effectively express their

views and opinion on matters affecting their life and to meaningfully participate in decision

making in different settings of action, i.e., home, community, school, provincial structure.

Rights-based programming principles must permeate the new design of this project such that

the objectives and targets of the project will correctly address the issue of equity, gender,

ethnicity, and age balance, and focus on the most disadvantaged groups. The strategies should

empower all stakeholders to coordinate effectively towards building an enabling environment

for meaningful and effective children and youth participation.

Although there has been no reported case of abuse, violence, exploitation or neglect

happening in the group, child protection measures must be established by the sponsoring

organization with the full knowledge of the youth members of CYG and all stakeholders.

Train/orient all CoDeC staff and commune council leaders on the principles and standards of

genuine participation to allow the adolescents and youth more involvement as equal partners

and full control of their project without necessarily leaving the youth on their own.


commune council to take on the CYGs as a regular component of the structure with own

annual budget and that will allow the youth leaders to develop a leadership succession

plans within their ranks with a rational capacity building plan.

Develop a monitoring and reporting system, with relevant “smart” outcome and results

indicators that will benefit not only the sponsoring agency and the commune council but

more importantly the youth themselves.

58

6. AYP Programming in UNICEF and in the Government

The analysis of how child and youth participation is treated in the UNICEF Cambodia Office

is based on the CPAP 2006-2010 and CPAP 2011-2015 and their corresponding CPDs,

including the results matrix, and annual reports, as well as, on the responses of some sections

to a questionnaire distributed by this evaluation. A UNICEF staff member who was formerly

in charge of child and youth participation was interviewed

6.1 AYP Programming in UNICEF Cambodia

In the previous country programme (CPAP 2006-2010) of UNICEF Cambodia, the

evaluation gathered that:

There was a tendency to treat adolescent and youth participation (AYP) as projects, such

as: youth in the radio, youth on TV, youth in the commune council and youth in the

promotion of child rights.

AYP was principally considered a responsibility of a specific section, the Advocacy and

Social Mobilization Programme.

AYP was not found to be in list of key result area. The expected outputs of AYP

indicated in the CPAP lacked details that could facilitate measurement of results in the

future.

The mid-term evaluation of the same CPAP recommended greater attention to capacity

development of adolescents and youth groups particularly in take community action in

analyzing their situation, finding local solutions, demanding basic services and

monitoring the delivery of quality basic services. The evaluation found that this was

hardly addressed.

In the current country programme (CPAP 2011-2015), the evaluation found that:

In an apparent compliance to the MTR of the previous country programme, the current,

adolescent and youth participation has been considered under cross-sector support to

facilitate the planning, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and operations of

participation across sectors in the entire country programme.

Adolescent and youth participation is still not regarded as a KRA and is still largely

considered the responsibility of one section, namely, Policy Advocacy and

communication. A focal point for AYP has been designated and sent to training.

A concrete plan to integrate participation in the existing programme has yet to be

developed pending the results of this evaluation. AYP has yet to be included in the

Country Programme Document and in the CPAP Key results matrix.

59

Based on a questionnaire distributed to the sectors, AYP has not yet been effectively

integrated into the current country programme and that there has not yet been a discussion

on this issue in the sections.

Following the results of this evaluation, the following are being planned to be

accomplished: a set of guidelines for the integration of AYP into sector programme, a

coordinated plan to achieve possible synergies with health, education, protection, water

and sanitation sections along AYP and a set of measurable and attainable AYP

monitoring indicators.

As a continuation of previous partnerships in the last Country Programme, the AYP

currently works in collaboration with the UN system and the Youth Section of the

MoEYS on the drafting and approval of the National Youth Policy, at the initial stage,

and now on the implementation of the Policy.

6.2 The National Youth Policy: An opportunity for AYP in Government

The Cambodian National Youth Policy has just been signed when this evaluation started in

July 2011. In the interviews conducted and activities attended by the researcher, the Policy

came out as a key concern because of the huge opportunities it offers to the Cambodia youth

and the prospect for a meaningful youth participation in decision making in governance. The

evaluation saw that UNICEF can capitalize on the policy to promote genuine adolescent

youth and development and youth participation in the kingdom and in the UN system. The

evaluation believes that this study is a good entry point for this purpose, thus this separate

chapter.

Background

On 24 June 2011, the Prime Minister of Cambodia signed the “National Youth Policy”

(NYP) which marked the emergence of a legal instrument that was hoped to propel the

empowerment of the Cambodian youth. Potentially, the Policy can provide an opportunity

for young Cambodian women and men to engage in meaningful participation in governance

and civic enterprise.

“The National Youth Policy represents a partnership between Government and the youth of

Cambodia to both encourage the participation of young men and women in their communities

and in national development, and to address the challenges the youth are facing today. The

Royal Government recognizes that Cambodia’s youth need access to equal opportunities in

order to fully develop their potential. Supporting economic opportunities, choices,

communication, and integrating support from families and communities, the Royal

Government has underlined the importance of Cambodia’s youth to the country’s future

development.” 20

20

The UN Resident Coordinator’s Speech at the 4th

National Consultation on the National Youth Policy

Development, the Douglas Broderick, UN Resident Coordinator, Imperial Gardens Hotel, Phnom Penh, 29

April 2010.

60

The policy embodies the vision and hope of the Cambodian government for the youth and the

key strategic intentions along education and training, health, economic participation, youth

enterprise, safety, security and justice, welfare and community development, sport and

recreation, arts and culture, environment and tourism, science and technology, volunteerism,

The policy specifically defines the objectives, values and principles and rights,

responsibilities of the youth and obligations of parents, priority target groups, youth services

and key strategic areas of concern.

The NYP is a product of a series of consultations in Cambodia under the leadership and

coordination of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport ship together with Technical

Youth Focal Points of the Government and UN system, as well as development partners.

According to an official of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the immediate plans

will cover the translation of the Policy from Kmer to English, printing and distribution of the

policy and meeting with the UNCT to request support for these activities. Part of the

intermediate plan is to develop the Action Youth Action Plan with the same technical

working group that drafted the Policy.

The other important step is the development of a sub-decree that will outline the

implementing rules and regulations of the NYP which includes the establishment of National

Council for Youth Development (NCYD). The NCYD is envisioned to be a board to be

chaired by the Prime Ministry with the line ministries.

Discussion

The National Youth Policy is an important milestone in the promotion of youth participation

in governance in the Cambodian society given cultural and economic barriers and strong

influence of partisan politics. The evaluation thinks that the translation and printing of the

NYP should include popularization of the policy to a make the existence of the policy known

widely amongst stakeholders in all levels.

The policy is good in itself but it could still be improved, if allowed technically since the

policy has already been signed, to make some revisions in the translation such as the

restatement of the vision without veering away from the substance and intentions of the

document. The researcher thinks that the vision statement should be clearly articulated to

illustrate a powerful image of the youth that is compelling and that will provide overall

directions for all youth-oriented programmes. The same is true with the goals and objectives

which may be restated to articulate the policy’s desired outcomes expressed in terms of

change in knowledge, behavior, practices, state of being with explicit time frame. This will

facilitate the development of the action plan and appraisal of the implementation of the policy

later on.

The researcher believes that the planned NCYD should have provincial and District

counterparts to allow for coordination, provision of technical assistance, capacity building

and monitoring of youth development activities at sub-national levels. Parallel to the

national, provincial, and district councils for youth development should be the organization of

youth themselves that goes down to commune and even village level.

61

7. Summative Analysis of Major Findings , Lessons Learned And

Recommendations

This chapter analyzes the summaries of findings in the four individual UNICEF-supported

adolescent and youth participation projects in 2006-2010 found in chapters 2-5. The

summary statements speak of the general accomplishments of the projects, the general

assessment of the level and quality of child and youth participation that have been

demonstrated, participation issues and challenges common to the projects, and other

important UNICEF dimensions such as rights-based programming, equity, gender and

protection.

This chapter also outlines the lessons learned and recommendations across the four projects

under study and proposes strategic policy, programmatic and organizational actions to further

advance genuine child and youth participation country-wide.

7.1 Major findings

Accomplishments of numerical targets

The evaluation found that the four UNICEF-supported projects have successfully reached

their numerical targets as far as their individual stated project objectives are concerned. They

all made their contributions to the production of expected results of the adolescent and youth

participation component of the Advocacy and Social Mobilization Programme reflected in

the UNICEF Cambodia’s CPAP 2006-2010.

Generating Adolescent and Youth Participation

The evaluation found that the these projects generated adolescent and youth participation in

varying degrees of achievement despite cultural, economic, political factors seemingly

unfavorable to young Cambodian boys and girls.

In general, the strongest participation of the adolescents and youth was in action or

accomplishment of their projects. There were activities that resembled monitoring and

reporting but they seemed to be more intended for the information of the sponsoring agencies

rather than for practical use the adolescents and youth themselves. The four projects were

weakest in facilitating the development of the young people in assessment and analysis and in

advocacy and articulation.

Three of the four projects created the most spaces for participation in planning, action,

monitoring and reporting. The project, “We Can Do It” has a big potential in harvesting

genuine participation if the adolescents and youth would be involved in the production of

radio programmes and if the youth listening groups would be given more capability building.

Against the standards and principles of participation, the four UNICEF supported projects

appear to adult-led, and adult driven, although there were strong elements of participation in

some projects not present in others. These strong elements need to be studied further and

documented as best practices (more on these in the section on lessons learned and good

practices). The adolescents and youth covered by the projects have not been empowered

enough to directly influences decision making.

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Reasons for sub-optimal results in participation

The sub-optimal results in assessment and analysis and advocacy and articulation may be

attributed to the agency’s lack of understanding of the principles and practice of participation.

This may be due to the lack of the implementers’ inadequate understanding of child and

youth participation. This has led the evaluation to conclude that they did not receive

orientation or training on programming on genuine adolescent and youth participation. Or if

they did, it was not sufficient enough for them to effectively translate the principles and

standards of participation into practice. Lack of hand books, guide materials, manuals, or

training packages on the principles and standards of participation could also be a reason for

inadequate understanding of participation.

The participation roles the young people in planning, implementation or action, monitoring

and reporting appeared to be a general knowledge among the adult implementers and

therefore they were generally provided to the children as skills through training and coaching.

However, it seemed like assessment and analysis and advocacy and articulation were roles

that were less understood as integral parts of CYP and therefore the children and youth

respondents were less conversant of them and did not actually perform these roles.

Many of the implementers appeared to be familiar with the concept of adolescent and youth

participation but could not distinguish meaningful from merely symbolic participation. Most

of them associate it with opportunities to express views and opinion but the adolescents and

youth appear to be in need of guidance to become more analytical of their situation and to use

collective views to influence decisions.

Impact of participation on adolescents and youth

The impact of the participation of adolescents and youth in the four projects ranges from the

enhancement of skills related to the project, expressive ability, fighting off previous feelings

of timidity and shyness leading to self-esteem and self-confidence, social interaction skills

and expansion of friends, better school performance, and better relationship with adults

particularly with parents. Parents interviewed confirmed these changes among adolescents

and youth. Some of them changed their initial dislike for their children’s participation in the

project when they saw these positive changes.

As far as the adolescents and youth interviewed, they all appeared to be engaged in the

projects voluntarily and that they all seemed to be happy with what they were doing as clearly

observed. Voluntary involvement and the spirit of fun are important aspects of genuine

participation.

There is a need for a longer time to assess the impact of the participation of adolescents and

youth in the community. Available information were not enough to make any qualitative

description on the impact of participation in the immediate surroundings of the adolescents

and youth .

The evaluation did not find advocacy materials or observe activities directly addressing the

restrictive cultural mindsets of adults on the participation of children and youth in decision

making. It is important for adults, particularly decision makers to understand the concept and

principles of genuine participation so that they could be receptive of young people’s views.

63

Cost-Efficiency Analysis

Table 2

UNICEF’s Financial Support to the Four Projects 2009-2010

Agencies

2009 2010 2010-2011

Project

Activities Supplies/

Equipment Total

Project

Activities Supplies/

Equipment

Car/

Motor-

cycle Total

Grand

Total %

Equal

Access 42,722 0 42,722 46,472 1,840 0 48,312 91,034 35

CAMP 33,818 2,366 36,184 32,344 1,825 0 34,169 70,353 27

SCY 49,993 6,160 56,153 25,042 9,224 0 34,266 90,419 35

CoDec 0 0 0 0 2,346 2,540 4,886 4,886 2

Total 126,533 8,526 135,059 103,858 15,235 2,540 121,633 256,692 100

In the last two years of operation of the Cambodia-UNICEF Country Programme 2006-2010,

a total of USD256,692 was released to four NGOs implementing CYP projects. About 53

percent of the total budget was released in 2009 while the rest was in 2010. Data show a

decrease of UNICEF’s financial assistance to the projects by about six per cent from 2009 to

2010.

Of the total amount of USD 256,692, a sum of USD 91,034 or 35 percent went to Equal

Access. A huge chunk of the budget released to Equal Access (80 %) went to project

activities. A big contradiction was noted here because the same agency that consumed the

majority of the budget showed the least quality of results in terms of genuine child and youth

participation as evidenced by the evaluation results. Considering that Equal Access has been

receiving UNICEF support since 2007, the evaluation noted that the over-all operation of this

project was clearly inefficient in terms of cost and time.

Conversely, CoDeC, the agency that had the least amount received from UNICEF (2 percent)

showed the strongest form of child and youth participation and the highest potential for

genuine CYP. CoDeC was previously supported by another section in UNICEF and received

financial assistance through the ASM section only in 2010. CAMP which received 27 percent

of the total budget also showed a lot of potentials in terms of generating genuine and

meaningful participation of children and youth. Both CoDeC and CAMP are commune-

based which could potentially demonstrate the highest form of participation. These

observations seem to show that the strategies employed by these two small locally grown

NGOs, namely, CoDeC and CAMP, have been cost-efficient.

SCY cornered about the same percentage share of the total budget as Equal Access but the

evaluation noted more elements of genuine child and youth participation in the former. Both

agencies are focused on participation of children and youth in the media, one on radio (EA)

and another on TV (SCY). Seventeen percent of the total budget of SCY went to equipment

which is understandable because of the required audio-video equipment in the production of

TV documentaries. The project has been very efficient in the use of its resources considering

64

the volume of documentaries that the youth production teams have produced and actually

shown on TV. Of the four projects, SCY has been the only one which is still in operation.

Sustainability of the Projects

Three of the four projects discontinued upon withdrawal of UNICEF assistance. One of them

has managed to continue because of another external support. All of the projects appeared to

be donor-dependent. Community support was far from easy because the families are

generally poor in the first place. The Commune Youth Groups organized by CoDeC could

have capitalized on the budget allocation of the commune councils in Kompong Thom for

their operations but the situation was not managed well enough for the youth to have full

control of the funds.

Equity in participation

There was not enough evidence to show that the projects fully recognize equity issues in the

project coverage. There may have been some initial attempts but there was generally no

concrete, deliberate and conscious effort to engage the most disadvantaged groups of

adolescents and youth such as those with disabilities, out of school, those in remote areas, and

those affected by various protection issues.

In terms of age, the four projects tend to focus on adolescents and youth inadvertently

disregarding the participation of younger children under 10 years of age, who have the same

right as the older children based on the CRC. In “Making Child Rights a Reality”, there were

children involved in project activities but only as passive recipients of the project services.

The projects have a strong tendency to create elite groups of articulate and smart young boys

and girls in the community because of their tendency to select the best members that could

potentially produce the best results but to the disadvantage of other adolescents and youth

who may have the desire to get involved in the projects but do not have the requirements.

There is a need to review and consider the process of selection of young leaders in the

villages in “Making Child Rights a Reality” and “Commune Youth Group”. A gathering of

children and youth for an election of leaders, even if it looks like a democratic exercise does

not guarantee genuine representation of adolescents and youth.

Gender in participation

Although Cambodian culture traditionally favors boys than girls in the family and

community, practices and beliefs must have gradually changed because there was no

particular gender issue that came out of the four projects. Some projects have more girls than

boys while some have more boys than girls but the difference is negligible in terms of

proportion of membership. There was also no particular gender role issue mentioned by the

respondents or observed by this evaluation.

Protection in participation

The protection and safety of the adolescents and youth while engaged in project activities is

not a key concern among the projects mainly because there has not been any protection issue

happening and because of commonly perceived general peace and safety in the kingdom.

65

This could be one the reasons for the absence of a child protection policy and standards for

working with children. The other reason could be ignorance of the need for these policies and

standards. The evaluation took note of the child protection provision in the project

cooperation agreement between UNICEF and the projects stipulating that the project “will

not expose intended beneficiaries, including children to any form of discrimination, abuse

and exploitation”.

Monitoring and evaluating participation

One of the major challenges in these four projects is measuring the results of the

interventions. The reasons were two fold. One, there was no baseline data to begin with. Two,

the statement of goals and objectives of all the four projects were not results-oriented and

lacking the elements of SMART formulation of goals and objectives. The evaluation sensed

that the projects did not receive adequate and thorough programme monitoring that could

have identified the programmatic gaps earlier on.

Missed opportunities

The evaluation assumes that the four projects never had a forum to meet together on a regular

basis to share experiences, identify common issues and challenges, come up with corrective

solutions, and share good practices and lessons learned. Exchange visits could have been a

good practice but the opportunity to do this, apparently, was missed.

If a coordinated planning, implementation and monitoring were established among the four

projects, a productive synergy would have been established. For example, commune youth

groups and commune kleb koma could have been mobilized as listening groups. The two

structures could have been the source of Youth TV field reporters. The adolescent and youth

leaders of the four projects could have been a potent force for a nationwide advocacy for

child rights issues.

The participation projects are limited to institutionalized settings such as participation in

media (“We Can Do it” and “Youth TV Bureau” projects and participation in the communes

(“Commune Youth Group” and “Making Child Rights a reality”) as opposed to many other

types of participation and non formal but equally important participation settings such as

school, family, sports, place of worship, etc.

7.2 Lessons Learned and Good Practices

7.2.1 Lessons learned

From the interviews, observations and analysis of the projects’ documents, the evaluation

yielded the following lessons that may be useful for future programming:

Despite cultural, economic and political barriers, Cambodian adolescents and youth can

have a meaningful participation in the commune council and effectively engage with

commune council leaders given enabling environment and appropriate training and

exposure and appropriate guidance from adults .

Although they did not harvest optimum results, CoDeC and CAMP have demonstrated

that the commune council could be an excellent platform for youth participation in local

66

governance. The approaches they used though could be made more effective in the future

through more capability building interventions for the youth and for the commune council

leaders. The evaluation believes that genuine participation in Cambodia should transpire

at the level where the children and youth are geographically situated.

The positive impact among the adolescents and youth attributed to their participation in

the UNICEF-supported projects can serve as natural and effective advocacy instrument to

address cultural bias against the participation of young people in community affairs and

in decision making. This was evident in the way parents and commune leaders have

progressively become supportive of the involvement of the youth in the commune as a

result of what they have observed among them.

In direct connection with the above, parents of adolescents and youth involved in the

projects, as well as, the commune leaders who witnessed the active engagement of young

people in the commune could be natural advocacy allies if encouraged and trained to

speak in support of adolescent and youth participation.

The knowledge of project implementers on the theory and practice of participation is an

important factor in facilitating the achievement of a meaningful adolescent and youth

participation. With adequate knowledge, the project could lead to genuine empowerment

of the subjects, minimize tokenism and sub-optimal results, and address other

participation issues such as vulnerability, exclusivity and exposure to protection risks.

Treating AYP initiatives as discrete projects, and not as a general key result area, can get

in the way of promoting coordination and synergy among sectors in UNICEF, as well as,

with government and non-government partners.

7.2.2 Good AYP practices from the Four Projects

Each of the four UNICEF-assisted projects, in their own uniqueness, have demonstrated some

good practices that could be widely applied programming for AYP.

Equal Access (EA) through its “We Can Do It “ project has illustrated that organizing

radio listening could be an organized activity and that it could lead to organization of

groups such as youth clubs. The evaluation found that this could be a good entry point

for as long as they are given capability building in effective and meaningful participation.

Child Assistance for Mobilization and Participation (CAMP) through its “Making Child

Rights a Reality” project has shown that more spaces for adolescent and youth

participation are created when they are organized than when they act individually on their

own.

Cooperation for Development of Cambodia (CoDeC) through its “Commune Youth

Groups” project has proven that forging an agreement with the commune council leaders

on the participation of organized youth in the commune council meetings is a good

strategy in making a way into (“penetrating”) the commune council.

67

Support Children and Young People (SCY) through its “Youth TV Programme” project

has proven that given opportunity, appropriate training, and communication resources,

young people could produce high quality youth-oriented television products on their own

with minimal adult guidance.

7.3 Recommendations

Following the national conference to validate the findings, issues and lessons learned from

this evaluation, what seems to be coming out clearly was the need for the UNICEF Cambodia

Office to amplify its commitment to advance the participation right of children and youth in a

more systematic way with more vigor along three participation tracks. Given this observation,

the title of this key UNICEF concern should now be “child and youth participation” to cover

all children, instead of merely covering the “adolescents and youth”.

The first participation track is to promote mainstreaming of genuine child and youth

participation (CYP) in the implementation of the existing CPAP 2011-2015 particularly in

the sectoral programmes by treating it as a strategy or a cross sectoral theme that should

permeate all UNICEF activities in a synergistic manner where appropriate and applicable.

The current CPAP 2011-2016 has neatly placed CYP as a cross sectoral dimension.

Meanwhile, a focal person for CYP has already been designated and the person has

undergone initial training. Following this evaluation, UNICEF should be ready to forward

along this track.

The second participation track is to continue supporting discreet CYP projects in selected

institutionalized settings such as the projects that UNICEF Cambodia has already supported

in the previous country programme. Supporting this track is important in the continuous

challenge to evolve an effective and meaningful CYP in the Cambodian context at the level

where the child and youth are situated and where they could make sustainable impact and

greater influence among decision makers. Participation of children and youth in the

Commune Councils and the media are such settings. The other important consideration here

is the conduct of national and sub-national consultations with children and youth usually

organized for special events. These are also important because of wide coverage, low

maintenance cost and high impact. Big events involving children and youth, although piece

meal in nature, are usually high profile and impactful which are very useful ingredients for

advocacy because of its potential to reach and attract the attention of decision makers.

The third participation track is to pursue a wider area of work in the national level on the

promotion of CYP piggybacking on the newly approved National Youth Policy where some

key provisions resonate well with youth participation and empowerment. It must not be

forgotten that the participation concern must be strongly grounded on the relevant provisions

of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This track could only be done meaningfully and

effectively in close coordination with the National Government, the UN family, international

and local NGOs, donor agencies, the civil society, and organized adolescent and youth

groups. As highlighted in the national conference for this evaluation, it is important for the

national government to take the lead and have ownership of the process to ensure

institutionalization, horizontal and vertical integration of CYP across the government

structure and sustainability.

68

There are no short cuts in pursuing these tracks that will hopefully lead to a meaningful

exercise of participation right by children and by the youth in Cambodia. The specific actions

recommended by this evaluation are discussed along the three programmatic pathways

elucidated above. It must be reminded though that these tracks are not to be seen as mutually

exclusive as there are strategies or events that intersect and cut across them.

7.3.1 Recommendations in Mainstreaming CYP in UNICEF Programme

The purpose of the first participation track is to ensure effective mainstreaming of CYP into

the existing programme of cooperation between UNICEF and the government. Towards this

end, the following general actions are recommended:

For the UNICEF Representative to issue a directive within the office placing a higher

value on CYP and highlighting the importance of weaving in CYP as a key strategy into

the existing country programme and designating CYP focal points in each sector who will

serve as members of a Committee on CYP with the leadership of the existing CYP focal

point currently based in the Policy Advocacy and Communication Section. The issuance

should be able to define its overall tasks and expected outcomes as they relate to the

relevant provisions in Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the

Child on the Cambodian’s combined 2nd

and 3rd

Report CRC Compliance Report (cf. para

34 and 35) and to the NYP.

For the Committee on CYP to meet regular, discuss CYP issues and concerns in the

office and come up with guidelines in mainstreaming CYP into the sectoral programme.

For the same CYP to come up with measurable indicators and to integrate them into

existing sector monitoring schemes. There is no need to develop a new and separate

monitoring system for CYP but the committee should be able to find a way to consolidate

the information and use them for programming, as appropriate.

For the members of the Committee on CYP to work closely with their separate sectoral

counterparts in the government ministries and the NGOs to influence key decision makers

and build the capacity of direct implementers on CYP. Specifically for the UNICEF CYP

focal point to work closely with government counterparts in the Cambodian National

Committee for Children (CNCC) and the MoEYS’s General Department on Youth on the

promotion and integration of CYP into the government structures. UNICEF should be

ready to provide support that may include human, technical and financial assistance for

both agencies to build capacity to fulfill their coordinative functions along CYP.

7.3.2 Recommendations in Support of Discreet CYP Projects

The second participation track is looking at meaningful fulfilment of the participation right of

children and youth in discreet projects. If UNICEF continues its financial support to the four

projects evaluated, UNICEF should be able to guide the agency staff in fulfilling the

following general recommended actions.21

21

Specific recommendations for each of the projects are indicated in the relevant chapters, i.e., chapter 2 to 5 of

this report.

69

Redesign the project to make them more rights-based, and where the vision of adolescent youth and participation is clearly articulated and well-defined, goals and objected are stated using SMART as standards, outcome indicators are consistent with the principles of genuine participation, and the choice of strategies are indeed empowering. Targeting the project beneficiaries or participants should address the issues of equity, gender, age, rural and urban origin, educational attainment. Particularly in terms of age, the projects should now expand beyond its former coverage to provide greater attention to children under 15 in accordance to their evolving capacities.

Orient the project personnel at all levels on the guidelines, principles, theory and practice

of meaningful child and youth participation. Source out materials for the orientation in UNICEF’s Child and Youth Participation Resource Guide.

22

Continue the training of children and youth leaders in planning, implementation,

monitoring, evaluation and reporting with more emphasis on assessment and analysis and advocacy and articulation with practical exercises and examples.

Maximize opportunities for learning among the children, youth and adult organizers by

organizing a forum where they meet and exchange experiences, difficulties, successful practices, and lessons learned. The young people could also undertake joint planning and evaluation, or exchange field visits.

Create synergy among the four projects, e.g., Commune Youth Groups and Commune

Kleb Koma members organizing listening groups using the radio programmes and discussion guides produced by Equal Access. The listening groups can also serve as TV watching groups using the television shows and documentaries produced by the youth reporters of SCY.

Address the child and youth protection and safety requirements in the projects. Define

measures in terms of code of conduct and standard behavior in working and consulting with children

23 to prevent potential abuse, exploitation, violence or neglect from

happening. The measures should have clear protection rules of conduct, accountabilities and possible sanctions for corresponding violations in accordance with Cambodian context.

The list of multi-sectoral advocacy messages designed for the Commune Councils which UNICEF Cambodia has recently developed internally may also be provided to the four projects as potential topics of interest for the children and youth without imposing them.

Efforts must be exerted to harmonize the projects with the newly approved National

Youth Policy as necessary and as appropriate. The four projects should serve as mouthpieces in making the policy more widely known in the communes as well as throughout the country through the participation of children and youth in radio and TV.

Develop sustainability plans or phase out plans with the goal of improving the prospects

of sustaining the projects and expanding the project coverage in due course.

22

The UNICEF’s Child and Youth Participation Resource Guide, include materials from Asia, Europe, North

America, Latin America, Africa, Australia and the Pacific in electronic form and have been included in the CD-

ROM that is part of this guide. Compiled by Junita Upadhyay with support from UNICEF East Asia and Pacific

Regional Office, 2006.

23

Available in the UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO)

70

Develop a system of monitoring the progress of the projects by including the five roles of

children and performance measures of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. Performance indicators based on these standards are more meaningful and useful than mere numbers of children involved and activities undertaken.

7.3.3 Recommendation for Integrating CYP In Programme Management Cycle

There really is nothing prescriptive about integrating child and youth participation in

programming as there is no blueprint for genuine and meaningful participation. What might

be integrated are the concepts and principles of participation which must be taken within the

varying situation of the children and their unique cultural, economic and political

environment.

First, it has to be remembered that child participation can happen both in formal (commune,

school, media) and informal settings (home, playground, community). UNICEF promotes

the full exercise of child participation right in all settings with emphasis on opportunities for

free articulation of opinion, ideas and feelings, as well as, meaningful and effective

participation in decision making in whatever setting on matters affecting his/her life.

In mainstreaming child and youth participation in development programming, what is

important is basic understanding and appreciation of the concepts and standards of CYP

which may be summarized as follows:

Children understand the intentions of the project, what it is for and their role in it;

Power relations and decision making structures are transparent;

They have a meaningful (rather than “decorative”) role.

Children are involved from the earliest possible stage of any initiative;

All children are treated with equal respect regardless of age, situation, ethnicity, abilities

or other factors;

Ground rules established with all the children from the beginning;

Participation is voluntary and children are allowed to leave at any stage;

Children are respected for their views and experiences; and

They volunteer for the project after the project was made clear to them

The following practical steps may be applied at the national or project level. Depending on

the level of intervention, care must be taken to ensure that disadvantaged and under resource

groups of children are well represented and empowered to speak out their minds individually

and collectively. The CRC is indeed universal but the provision of opportunities to exercise

these rights by development-oriented cannot be equal. It must be biased towards children who

are considered powerless, those who are marginalized, disadvantaged, and under resource.

Table 3

Proposed Practical Steps in Integrating CYP in

Programme management Cycle

Programme

Management Cycle

Clear concrete, practical steps

Situation Analysis Organize children’s forum where children articulate in

creative fashion, the issues and problems negatively affecting

71

the fulfilment of their rights. In a workshop session, provide

clear instructions where the children identify concrete

manifestations of these issues and problems obtaining in the

homes/families, in the community and in the bigger society.

This can be depicted through drawings, collage making, card

writing, pantomime, role play, drama, puppetry, etc. In their

own simple language and according to their evolving

capacity, the children can engage in what is termed as

causality analysis where they identify the causes of the

issues/problems they identified.

Support the conduct of situation analysis using participatory

research methodology – where children are consulted on

what needs to be researched and in the design of data

collection; assist in data collection; validate findings;

contribute to data analysis? And participate in the

presentation and dissemination of results. Training is

essential in every step of the way.

Formulation of vision

mission and goals In the same gathering as above, the children participants may

be asked to depict, in a creative fashion, situations at home,

school, community, playground, work place etc. that is

promotive of child rights. They can also create a collage of a

world fit for children.

Planning There are two ways to achieve a meaningful participation of

children in planning. In situations or settings where children

are organized (institutions, schools, people’s org.s etc), the

children must be given capacity building so that they could

develop their own plans. This means they formulate their

objectives, identify the activities they like to undertake to

achieve their objectives, enumerate possible sources of

support, assign tasks, prepare schedules, etc.

In institutions requiring high technical skills and

engagements, a forum may be organized where children are

provided opportunities to raise suggestions for improvement

or propose new ideas that professionals can later on develop

for implementation.

Implementation

In providing for children’s participation in implementation, it is important that children understand what they are getting into; that they volunteer to perform a designated function; and that they get instructions or training to better perform assigned roles. Here are some of the things they could do:

be a member in a committee

do fund-raising

community mobilization

conduct awareness raising

pack supplies

prepare IEC materials

72

run errands

write articles

Monitoring and evaluation

In monitoring and evaluation, children may be involved in the following:

deciding what needs to be monitored and evaluated

designing the monitoring and evaluation scheme

identifying indicators

data collection and data analysis

report writing

provide feedback to programme planners and officials

7.3.4 Recommendations for Wider Promotion of CYP

While pursuing the first and the second participation tracks, UNICEF should not lose sight of

its critical role in pursuing a wider area of work on the promotion of CYP at the national

level. The evaluation sees that this could only be done meaningfully and effectively in close

coordination with the National Government, the UN family, international and local NGOs,

donor agencies, the civil society, and organized adolescent and youth groups. The

coordination could be built on the common concern for the successful implementation of the

National Youth Policy, as well as, of one of the Concluding Observations of the Committee

on Child Rights which refers to “absence of a policy and supportive mechanism to promote

child participation in the state party”.24

To ensure institutionalization, wider application, and sustainability, and as the major player in

both references mentioned above (the NYP and the CRC Committee’s Concluding

Observation), it is but proper and natural for the National Government to take the lead in this

endeavor. For this purpose, the evaluation recommends the following actions:

For the MoEYS and the CNCC to take the lead in organizing a gathering of UN, INGOs,

civil society groups and children and youth associations to establish a national coalition

that will provide a national forum for sharing and exchange of expertise, experience and

resources on the effective and meaningful fulfillment on CYP. Ensure that children and

youth are represented adequately.

The coalition to develop and popularize a Cambodian National Strategy for Child and

Youth Participation that will guide the government agencies, UN, NGOs, civil society,

children and youth groups in CYP programming and implementation, monitoring and

evaluation. The Framework should be founded on the Convention on the Rights of the

Child in general and the NYC and the CRC Committee’s Concluding Observation on

24 Part of the Concluding Observations reads, “The Committee reminds the State party of its obligation to

undertake appropriate measures to fully implement the right of the child to be heard and urges it to actively

combat negative attitudes and conceptions of the child which impede the full realization of her or his right to be

heard, through public educational programmes, including campaigns organized in cooperation with opinion

leaders , families and media.”

73

child participation in particular. It should also directly and clearly address the

participation issues and concerns mentioned in this study.

For the coalition to convene national and sub-national conferences/workshops among

practitioners on good practices along the fulfillment of CYP such as integrating CYP in

sectoral programmes, in capability building processes, in the commune structure, in

schools, and in other undertaking involving children. The coalition should be able to

coordinate the documentation of these good practices and its dissemination to

implementing groups.

For the coalition to develop a comprehensive capability building and awareness raising package on the theory and practice of child and youth participation designed for adults engaged in projects involving children, children and youth. This package must be adaptable to fit the needs of various audiences at different levels from national down to the village levels. It must also be made available in various appropriate forms. The package must be accompanied with other necessary materials relevant to CYP such as a sample child protection measure in CYP, minimum standards in working and consulting with children, and documentation of good practices on participation in various settings.

For the coalition to develop and implement a system of monitoring project performance

on a regular basis using key behavioral indicators that could sensitively measure genuine CYP including equity, gender and protection aspects.

For the coalition to continue supporting national events on children and youth to provide

maximum visibility for children and youth ensuring that their voices will reach the policy makers and decision makers. Children and youth involved in discreet CYP projects in media should be able to capitalize on these events for optimum coverage.

For the coalition to develop and implement a comprehensive capability building package

in building the capacity of children and youth leaders in assessment and analysis, policy

advocacy, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and leadership.

Empowerment of the children and youth on these aspects will ensure meaningful and

effective participation.

For the coalition to ensure the integration of CYP concerns into the Cambodian National

Plan of Action for the implementation of the CRC.

For the coalition to develop and implement a comprehensive advocacy plan to promote

CYP in all settings, formal and non-formal, across all age groups and with greater focus

on disadvantaged and marginalized children and youth. Along with this, the coalition

should explore the possibility of identifying and engaging well known, influential but

reputable personalities that can champion the participation right of children and youth in

Cambodia.

7.3.5 Recommendations on Advancing the National Youth Policy

As an important milestone in youth and development, the evaluation recommends the

following immediate actions for the future coalition to ensure smooth implementation of the

NYP across the country:

74

Popularize the NYP to a make its existence more widely known amongst stakeholders in

all levels. The young reporters of “Youth Today TV” can make documentaries out of the

policy for its target audience composed of young people. Production and distribution of

pamphlets, posters, comics, leaflets and other programme communication material will be

useful.

If it will be allowed technically, the evaluation is suggesting that the vision in the NYP be

reformulated without veering away from the substance into a statement that will capture

how the government wishes to see the youth in ideal situation in the future. A statement

that clearly illustrates a powerful image of the youth, that is compelling, and that will

provide overall directions for all youth-oriented programmes.

Again, if allowed, the goals and objectives of the policy may also be restated to articulate

the policy’s desired outcomes expressed in terms of change in knowledge, behavior,

practices, state of being with explicit time frame. This will facilitate the development of

the action plan and appraisal of the implementation of the policy later on.

The planned NCYD should have provincial and District counterparts to allow for

coordination, provision of technical assistance, capacity building and monitoring of youth

development activities at sub-national levels.

Parallel to the national, provincial, and district councils for youth development should be

the organization of youth themselves that goes down to commune and even village level.

This is crucial as this is the tangible and practical expression of youth participation and

that will facilitate suitable and genuine youth representation. In each government level of

the youth council, there should be adequate representation of the youth. Cognizant of the

cultural and political background in Cambodia, the evaluation recommends to engage the

NGOs, civil society groups in organizing commune youth groups to deter possible

interference of partisan politics. Develop a separate set of programme communication

materials that will address changing mindsets of adults on the participation of the youth in

decision making.

During the national conference held for the validation of findings of this exercise, the

evaluation found that there have been some initiatives on the child and youth participation in

the kingdom. It was also found that there was a lot of interest on the fulfilment of the

participation right of children and youth but there was a dearth of knowledge to pursue this

enthusiasm. UNICEF Cambodia can ride on this observation to strategically push

participation into the forefront of implementation of development programmes.

In the pursuit of the above recommended actions, it is important to continue the engagement

of the Prime Minister who has demonstrated its strong support to the Policy. Again this is a

way of establishing ownership of the process and a way to ensure institutionalization and

sustainability.

75

ANNEXES

76

ANNEX I

Terms of Reference

Consultancy

To evaluate UNICEF supported adolescent and youth participation programmes

Requesting Section: Policy, Advocacy and Communication (PAC)

1. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Cambodia has one of the youngest populations in Southeast Asia, with two out of every three people

aged below 25 and 32.73% aged between 15 and 3025

. This young population brings with it both

enormous possibilities and complex development challenges26

.

Cambodia’s young men and women are facing a wide array of challenges. While recovering from

three decades of civil war and strife, the country is undergoing rapid economic growth, which in turn

brings with it tremendous social change. The UN Joint Situation Analysis of Cambodia Youth, 2009,

has documented a wide spectrum of hurdles and issues relating to education, health, employment,

migration, vulnerability, and participation. Unemployment is the single most critical issue, with about

300,000 young job seekers leaving schools every year, and this is not matched by job opportunities, in

number or discipline. The same study concludes that the extent of the interrelation between the

problems faced by Cambodian youth is striking. While rural poverty diminishes the likelihood of

obtaining an education, uneducated people are more likely tohave large families. The rural poor who

migrate for work are more likely than others to be homeless and unemployed, and thus more likely to

turn to criminal behaviour or to seek employment as unskilled labourers in urban areas or other

countries. Those who remain in rural communities are more likely to live onsubsistence farming,

perpetuating the cycle of poverty and stress that lead to sexual and physical abuse27

.

Despite this extent of sub-population and their challenges, Cambodia’s youth remain under-

represented. Because Cambodian society is predominantly characterized by hierarchical and patron-

client relationships - voices, perspective, and needs of young people are rarely heard or taken into

consideration in planning, resource allocation, and decision-making processes. At both national and

sub-national levels, there are very limited institutionalized structures and mechanisms that allow

youth participation in these processes.

UNICEF Cambodia has worked with government ministries and institutions28

, development partners

and civil society groups on a number of fronts to address issues being faced by adolescents and young

people. Together with other UN agencies, UNICEF played a leading role in the conduct of the

Situation Analysis of Cambodian Youth and made significant contribution to the development of the

draft national youth policy. UNICEF also supports the work of the UN Youth Advisory Panel, which

advises the UNCT on youth issues, and NGO partners on a number of youth programmes.

The UNICEF Mid-term evaluation report (October 2008) recommended that greater attention should

be paid to capacity development of community groups, including youth groups, so that they can

interact with village leaders, service providers and the commune council, and to take community

action in analyzing their situation, finding local solutions, demanding basic services and monitoring

the delivery of quality basic services. It went on to recommend that the successor of ASM “works

more closely with the programme sections to promote children and youth participation for example

25

Cambodia census, 2008. 26

Broderick, Douglas: Opening Remarks during the launch of UN Joint Situation Analysis of Youth in

Cambodia, 2009. 27

UNCT, 2009. Situation Analysis of Cambodia Youth, p. 97 28

Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS), Ministry of Interior (MOI), Ministry of Health, Ministry

of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation, National Aids Authority.

77

harnessing the ‘youth commune’ structure initiated by Seth Koma or through closer collaboration with

the existing youth programme structure within the MoEYS29

.

UNICEF’s partnership with NGOs on adolescents and youth-related programmes reflects part of the

efforts to address issues being faced by Cambodian young men and women. This evaluation is to

examine the following programmes:

1) We Can Do It – implemented by Equal Access

UNICEF has been working in partnership with Equal Access on “We Can Do It” project since

2007. The project seeks to promote young Cambodians’ understanding and awareness of, and

action upon key life skills and health issues affecting their life. To this end, the project strategy

includes (i) the establishment and functioning of about 250 listening and dialogue clubs in 13

provinces and Phnom Penh30

involving about 2170 club members31

on a regular basis; (ii)

Monthly radio programmes and radio live call-in shows broadcast in 12 FM stations and reaching

19 provinces and Phnom Penh; (iii) Interaction between and among club members through letters,

contest, quiz, feedback form, and SMS/IVR32

; and (iv) Capacity development for provincial

master trainers, club leaders and facilitators on a number necessary topics.

2) Making Child Rights A Reality – implemented by Child Assistance for Mobilization and


Having been in partnership with UNICEF since 2005, Making Child Rights a Reality seeks to

contribute to realization of child rights, especially rights to participation. To this end, CAMP runs

child clubs and engages community young people and children themselves in the project

activities. Child clubs, mobile libraries, and other community services represent the main project

activities.

The programme approach being employed by CAMP is unique for it facilitates involvement of

young adolescents, youth and children in the efforts to promote and protect child rights. Through

this involvement, these groups benefit in terms of knowledge of child rights, project management,

communication, and confidence in advocacy. The project is being implemented in 8 communes

(32 villages) of four provinces. Two of the provincial project sites (covering 16 villages) include

ethnic minority communities. 288 adolescents (121 girls) are fully involved in the implementation

of the Project on a voluntary basis. They are managing 32 child clubs and other mobile libraries

with an attendance of 1,242 children (498 girls) on a weekly basis.

3) Youth TV Bureau – implemented by Support Children and Young People (SCY)

Youth TV Bureau, also typically known by its TV Program as Youth Today, has been

implemented by SCY in partnership with UNICEF since 2004. The Program seeks to promote

participation and voices of children and young people through media as an effort to realize rights

of children and young people. The main feature of Youth TV Bureau is the training of annually

recruited group of young people on media, TV documentary production and broadcast, as well as

debate on issues pertaining to issues of Cambodia’s young people. The Program is by youth, for

youth and with youth.

29

MTR, October 2008. Page 1 & 66. 30

Takeo, Koh Kong, Prey Veng, Pailin, Banteay Mean Chey, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Thom, SvayRieng,

Kampong Cham, Siem Reap, PreahVihear, Battambang, Kampot, and Phnom Penh. 31

Both number of clubs and members fluctuates from time to time. 32

Short Message Services/Interactive Voice Response (SMS/IVR) –SMS/IVR is the first of its kind of web-

based communication and data management system to be piloted in Cambodia in 2010.

78

4) Commune Youth Groups – implemented by Cooperation for Development of Cambodia

(CODEC) and PLAU of Kompong Thom

Commune Youth Group (CYG) project is being implemented by CODEC and PLAU of

Kompong Thom province. The Project is the first of its kind in the sense that the commune youth

groups are housed under commune council structure. With financial and technical support from

Seth Koma of UNICEF and provincial PLAU, the CYGs were established in 12communes where

village young representatives come together to form commune youth groups.Main activities of the

CYGs would include vocational and life skills training, community activities or services, and

participation in commune development planning.

2. OVERALL OBJECTIVES

The evaluation will seek to respond to a number of questions related to effectiveness and impact

of the programmes against stated objectives and of programming approaches employed. The

evaluation will also examine the links of these programmes to national and UNICEF strategic

priorities related to adolescents and young people as well as quality of partnership. Therefore, the

evaluation specifically seeks:

1. To evaluate the above four programmes with focus on (1) relevance to national and (2)

UNICEF priorities, (3) effectiveness in achieving stated objectives, and (4) impacts of each of

the programmes (5) level and quality of participation, as well as (6) form and quality of

partnership.

2. To assess the effectiveness of programming approaches employed by each of the

programmes above, taking into consideration their respective stated objectives and guiding

principles of equity, gender, reaching the unreached, sustainability, capacity development,

and democratic development.

3. To highlight best practices, if any, and/or lessons learned from each of these programmes.

4. To generate recommendations for future improvement of the individual organisational

programmes, including recommendations on what and how UNICEF could engage with areas

of work addressing issues of adolescents and young people.

3. WORK ASSIGNMENT

1) Desk review including, but not limited to:

Situation Analysis

Baseline surveys and reports from implementing organizations

Programme documents of each of the implementing organizations.

Project proposal of each of the programmes;

Progress and annual reports from each of the implementing organizations;

UNDAF 2006-2010; 2011 - 2015

UNICEF CPAP 2006-2010; 2011 – 2015

UNICEF Annual work-plans;

Mid-term review report (MTR) 2008;

UNICEF Global evaluation on Adolescents Development and Participation

UNICEF Cambodia draft strategy on adolescents 2010

Draft National Youth Policy march 2010

UNICEF Global position on adolescents and youth and SOWCR 2010

Review of adolescent participation assessment in Seth Koma.

NGOCRC Finding - the MiddleWay, 2009 …

79

2) Development of a conceptual framework for the evaluation. A framework which articulates

a. The general parameters of the evaluation

b. The definitions used for participation as well as levels and quality participation

c. Management approaches adopted towards participatory working approaches and their

measurement

d. The proposed methodological approach and tools

3) Consultations with implementing organizations and relevant stakeholders;

a. Children, adolescents and youth, especially those involved in the programmes.

b. Management and staff of the implementing organizations.

c. Community people and/or families of the young people.

d. Commune councillors – male and female.

e. UN and other partners of the programmes.

4) Undertake field visits to collect information (location to be determined.)

5) Conduct two half-day consultative workshops to disseminate and discuss findings at:.

a. National level, including relevant children and young people, and,

b. Sub national level, including children and young people

6) Based on the outcomes of the review, data collection and consultations, provide

recommendations to:

a. each of the programmes and to

b. UNICEF on how it could work more effectively with adolescents and young people for

greater participation as (a) a learning approach,(b) a process of inclusion and (c) to be

enabled to influence local decision making.

c. Identify good practices in the above areas of participation and lessons learned.

7) Prepare a Power Point presentation on the initial findings with disaggregated data based on

gender, age, wealth status, and locations (urban vs. rural).

8) Present draft report.

9) Produce a final evaluation report.

4. OUTCOMES OF THE CONSULTANCY

Final report of the evaluation which includes sections as mentioned in No. 9 below.

5. PARTNERS OF THE CONSULTANCY

The consultant will work in close collaboration with the four main implementing agencies of the

programmes and main stakeholders of those implementing organizations as well as groups of young

people who are meant to benefit from the programmes.

UNICEF will assist the consultant in coordinating meetings with the implementing agencies. The

consultant will develop a plan, coordinate the review, conduct the evaluation, and produce the draft

and final report.

6. QUALIFICATIONS OR SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

a. Advanced university degree, preferably in social sciences, education, development studies,

International Relations, and similar fields;

80

b. Eight years progressively responsible work experience in programme management and

leadership.

c. Demonstrated, strong analytical and evaluation skills;

d. Knowledge of adolescent and youth development and participation an asset;

e. Excellent writing skills and communication skills.

f. Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment (specific knowledge of Khmer,

ethnic minority languages of Cambodia, and working experiences in Cambodia are an asset).

7. ESTIMATED DURATION OF CONTRACT (DATES AND PERIOD)

It is estimated that the consultant will require 50 working days to complete the assignment. Main

activities include:

Desk review of relevant documents(7 days);

Development of the conceptual framework and evaluation plan, methodology, data collection

proposals and timeline (5 days).Consultations with main stakeholders(8 days)

Field visits(12 days);

Analysis (5 days)

Consultative workshops atnational and sub-national levels to present preliminary findings of

the study (5 days);

Draft and finalization of the report(8 days)

8. WORK SCHEDULE

The consultant will develop a work plan agreed by contract supervisor.

9. DELIVERABLES WITH DUE DATE

Consultancy Plan and desk review - to be started immediately after signing the contract;

Conceptual framework and evaluation plan, methodology, data collection proposals and

timeline – by the end of second week

Consultations and field visits– by the end of the fifth week.

Submission of first draft of evaluation report for review and comments by the end of seventh

week.

Submit the final report – by end of 10th week. The soft and hard copies of the final report as

well as the final Power Point presentation should be submitted to UNICEF. The final report

should be prepared in English and include the following chapters:

- executive summary;

- description of the approach to the evaluation (evaluation methods and tools);

- description/overviews of each programme;

- evaluation findings;

- analysis of programming approach;

- recommendations;

- references listed as per UNICEF writing style guide

- annexes, including TOR, work schedule; conceptual framework, evaluation tools; list of

interviews, places visited.

The length of the report should be up to 30 pages (without annexes).

10. PAYMENT SCHEDULE

The consultant will be paid as follows:

30% upon agreement on the consultancy plan

70% upon submission of the final report, accepted by UNICEF.

81

11. OFFICIAL TRAVEL INVOLVED

The consultant will travel to provinces in Cambodia to collect information and visit these

programmes. Travel expenses will be covered by UNICEF. The consultant will need to work out

with UNICEF colleagues on selection of provinces to go to and amount of time to spend for field

work.

12. CONTRACT SUPERVISOR

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Unicef Policy Advocacy and

Communication (PAC) Chief (Ms.Usha Mishra) with the support of Social Policy Specialist (Mr.

Socheath Heng) and Statistics and Monitoring Officer (Ms. Bossadine Uy)

13. TYPE OF SUPERVISION THAT WILL BE PROVIDED

Regular meetings to ensure compliance with the TOR and overall progress as per agreed work

plan. Consultants are expected to work closely with M&E Officer and Social Policy Specialist.

14. CONSULTANT’S WORK PLACE/ANY FACILITIES TO BE PROVIDED BY OFFICE

The Consultant will be expected to use his/her laptop. If needed, UNICEF will provide space.

15. NATURE OF “PENALTY CLAUSE” TO BE STIPULATED IN CONTRACT

Governing Rules on Unsatisfactory Performance or Non-complete Assignment

In all cases, consultant may only be paid their fees upon satisfactory completion of services. In

such cases where payment of fees is to be made in a lump sum, this may only be payable upon

completion of the services to UNICEF’s satisfaction and certification to that effect, and any

advance on the lump sum may not exceed 30% of the fees. In such cases where payment of fees is

to be made in instalments, the final instalment may not be less than ten per cent (10%) of the total

value of the contract, and will only be payable upon completion of the services to UNICEF’s

satisfaction and certification to that effect.

82

ANNEX II

Over-all Guide

and

Guide Questions

for the Conduct of

Focus Group Discussion,

Group Interview, and

Key Informant Interview

83

Over all Guide for the

Conduct of Data Collection

Standard Introduction:

Objective: To review UNICEF Cambodia’s AYP projects implemented from 2006-

2010 in the hope of deriving lessons that will inform UNICEF’s pro `gramme

directions along adolescent and youth participation in the next four and a half years.

Will involve agency heads, direct implementers (staff), adolescent and youth

participants of the projects.

Will talk about the project, processes, level of participation, impact, issues, lessons

and recommendations.

Feel free to make any comment. Be as candid, as honest, and as open as you can.

We will take the interview confidentially.

This will take about an hour or so.

Note for facilitating the FGD

Have the attendance list circulated. Make sure to remember that participants are free to

put their names or any made up name if they feel more comfortable, but all the other info

should be accurate. Start with a brief self-introduction (Name, sex, age, grade/year level,

years in the club/organization/theatre/radio) of the participants. The researcher/facilitator

will also introduce himself and whoever is with him. Engage the participants in a small

talk about the weather or any topic of interest. Ask them how they feel and what their

expectations are. Discuss the objectives of the FGD. Inquire whether everyone agrees

with the objectives and/or want to add anything.)

Note for documentation

Take note how boys’ response differ from girls’. Take note how young adolescents’

response (under 15) differ from the older ones (15-24).

84

Generic FGD Guide Questions

for Adolescents and Youth

Variable 1 - Introductory/Background Information

1. How do you call your group/club/organization?

2. How and why did you join this group?

3. How did you know about this?

4. What are the criteria for joining the group? Can anybody join the group?

5. What are the objectives of this group/club/organization?

6. Did you attain these objectives?

7. Describe what you actually do in the group?

8. How are you organized? Are there committees?

9. Are you happy with that?

10. Do you feel safe from possible abuse, exploitation and from other dangers?

Variable 2 - Five participation roles of adolescents and youth

1. Children’s Role in Assessment and Analysis

1.1 Who identify the issues that you will tackle in the group? Were you consulted on what

you will tackle in the group? How?

1.2 Have you been involved in any activity that surveys what issues you intend to tackle?

1.3 What role/s did you play?

2. Articulation and Advocacy

2.1 Did you get involve in speaking up, petitioning, campaigning, demonstrating? Explain?

2.2 Were you organised (represented) to speak up collectively? How?

2.3 Did they participate in networks, conferences? How?

2.4 Were there opportunities for advocacy? How?

3. Children’s Role in Planning

3.1 Have you been involved in any planning exercises in the group? Describe?

3.2 What was your involvement in the planning exercise?

3.3 Do boys and girls have different roles?

3.4. Were you consulted when plans were being drawn? How?

4. Children’s Role in Action

4.1 What is your role in the implementation of your group plan in the clubs?

4.2 Did you volunteer to do specific roles or where you assigned roles to play?

4.3 Were you organized to perform your roles/tasks?

4.4 Were you given orientation/training to perform your roles/tasks?

85

5. Children’s Role in Monitoring and Evaluation

5.1 Have you been involved in any monitoring or evaluation activity? What role?

5.2 Did you monitor/evaluate your plans? Describe it?

5.3 Did you prepare your own reports?

Variable 3 - Impact

3.1 What benefits did you get from your involvement in this project?

3.2 Describe yourself before and now after joining the group? What changes did you

notice of yourself after joining the group?

3.3 Can you tell us how life has changed for you as a student?

3.4 Can you tell us how life has changed for you as a son/daughter?

3.5 Look at your peers now. Can you name anybody who has observable change from

what he/she was before joining the group and after getting involved in the group?

3.6 As a result of your involvement in the group, did you notice some changes in the way

people regard you?

3.7 How does your family and friends feel about it? (anecdotes)

3.8 Do your parents/friends appreciate/ support what you are doing? (anecdotes)

3.9 How has the group influenced/changed life in the community? In school? In what

concrete way, can you cite?

Variable 4 - Factors that facilitate and hinder meaningful participation

4.1 What are the gaps/issues/challenges/ difficulties you face in the group?

4.2 What do you consider to be the contributing factors or the proper environment that

encourage you to get actively involved in matters affecting your life?

4.3 What do you consider to be the limiting factors or improper environment that

discourages you from getting involved?

4.4 What qualities of the adults in group encourage you to express yourself and participate

in decision making?

4.5 What qualities of the adults in Group discourage you to express yourself and

participate in decision making?

Variables 5 and 6 - Relevance and Sustainability

5.1 Do you feel that the Group should be continued? Why?

5.2 Overall based on your experience in group, would you recommend your friends to join

Group? Why?

5.3 What actions will you undertake to ensure the continuity of the Group?

Variables 7 and 8 - Lessons learned and Recommendations

6. What important lessons have you learned from your involvement in the Group in terms of

making the children’s voices heard?

7. What are your recommendations to improve the Project?

86

Generic Guide Questions

For parents of adolescents and youth

1. What can you say about your community?

2. What can you say about the youth in the community?

3. What do you hope your son/daughter to be?

4. Is this going to happen? If yes, Why? If no, why?

5. Is there a difference in the way boys/girls are regarded in the family/community?

6. Do you know about the commune youth group? What do you know about it?

7. Is it important for the youth to be involved in the community? Why?

8. In what ways can the youth be of healp to the community?

9. What can you say about your son’s/daughter’s involvement in the commune youth

group?

10. Did you observe some changes in his/her ways or behavior with your children son or

daughter since s/he joined the group? What were these changes?

11. Have you learned anything from your son/daughter since she joined the group?

12. How has this project influenced/changed life in the community?

13. What changes do you want to see happen to improve the operation of this project?

14. Is there any other external support needed to improve it? What support?

87

FGD Guide Questions

Agency Heads and Staff

1. Start up

1.1 Please tell us your name, profession, designation, what you do/did in the project

1.2 Tell us briefly about your Agency

1.3 Over all vision, mission and goals (VMG) of the agency

1.4 Vision on AYP? What do you hope to see happening in terms of AYP?

2. About the project?

2.1 Tell us about the project funded by UNICEF? (Objectives, project sites, strategies,

activities)

2.2 Who were the target beneficiaries/Partners (age, gender, ethnicity, urban-rural, religion,

education, social/economic status, level of education).

2.3 What criteria did you use to select the participants? How many targets and how many

reached?

2.4 Please explain how the project operates?

3. Nature/extent of AYP based on 5 roles in a rights-based programme

To what extent were the AY involved in the following (explain each)

3.1 Assessment and Analysis (research/identification of problems/issues)

3.2 Articulation and Advocacy (awareness raising, letter writing, lobbying)

3.3 Planning (decision making, suggesting)

3.4 Action (implementation, membership in committees, volunteering)

3.5 Monitoring and Evaluation (data gathering, analyzing and reporting)

4. On project operations,

4.1 Who among the staff were involved in this project?

4.2 Did you have focal person (expert) on AYP?

4.3 Were staff trained on AYP? What training modules/materials did you use?

4.4 How often did you do monitoring, who were involved. How did they do it?

4.5 What monitoring indicators on AYP did you use? Enumerate please?

4.6 Did you expect technical guidance on AYP from UNICEF? Did you get it?

5. Analysis of the projects based on OECD measures

5.1 Effectiveness – Did you achieve your goals at stated? Why? Why not?

5.2 Efficiency – If you were to replicate the project, what would you change to save

resources and time to achieve the golas?

5.3 Relevance – Do you see the need to continue this project? Why?

5.4 Sustainability – At what point do you think you can do the project on your own?

5.5 Impact – What impact did you observe among the youth, community and society?

6. Factors that facilitate and hinder meaningful participation

6.1 What did you observe to be the factors that facilitate AY participation?

6.2 What did you observe to be the factors that hinder AY participation?

7. Lessons learned and recommendations

7.1 What can you say would be your most notable accomplishments?

7.2 What lessons can you draw from your experience?

88

7.3 Looking back, what could you have done to improve your project & increase the level

of AYP?

89

Guide Questions

UNICEF Programme Officers

To : Programme Section Chiefs

From : Usha Misrah, Chief of PAC Section

Subject: Questionnaire on Adolescent and Youth Participation For UNICEF Sections

Pleased to inform that the on-going “Evaluation of UNICEF-Supported Projects on

Adolescent and Youth Participation in Cambodia” is proceeding as scheduled with Henry

Ruiz as consultant. Part of this exercise is assessing the extent of integration of adolescent

and youth participation in our sector programme. In connection with this, may I request your

section to kindly respond to the following questions below which Henry has prepared? They

are also meant to establish how UNICEF promotes the creation of an enabling environment

for participation with our counterpart ministry. Henry will be happy to receive your reply by

Friday next week. Please respond directly to the following questions and send by replying to

this email:

1. In your section meetings, have you talked about integrating adolescent and youth

participation in your programme? Yes___ NO ___. If yes, what have been the results of

your discussions?

2. In your current sectoral programme now, can you say that you have effectively integrated

adolescent and youth participation? Yes ____No ____Somehow____. Please explain your

answer.

3. If yes, kindly list down the specific strategies and activities that your section supports and

the name of ministry or partners implementing them, if any. If none please skip and

proceed to the next question.

4. Please provide examples of evidence and good practices of adolescent and youth

participation in your section that you think might be worth documenting and sharing, if

any? If none, please skip and proceed to the next question.

5. If you have not been able to effectively integrate participation, what seems to be

precluding you from doing so:

3.1 Do not know how to do it (lack of expertise to integrate participation)

3.2 No clear guidelines for integration of adolescent and youth participation

3.3 No resources, No budget

3.4 Difficult to do it

3.5 Not a priority of government counterpart

3.6 No time

3.7 Not a section priority

______ 3.8 Others_________________________________________________

6. In your current programme, what has your section done to create an enabling environment

for adolescent and youth participation in the ministry or other sections of government?

90

7. Describe what actual changes in the enabling environment for participation of adolescents

and youth occurred as a result of the actions and advocacy efforts of UNICEF?

8. How do you think can the UNICEF Cambodia Office strengthen the institutionalization of

adolescent and youth participation in the current country programme.

Many thanks,

Usha

91

FGD Guide Questions for Adolescents and Youth

(CAMP)

Questions Answers

11. What do you call your Kleb Koma?

12. Are you still active as a group? Yes?

No? Why?

13. How were you organized?

14. What are the requirements to become a member of the

Kleb Koma?

15. What are the objectives of your Kleb Koma?

16. How were the leaders selected? Are there

committees?

17. Describe what you actually do in Kleb Koma?

18. How often do you meet? What do you talk about in

the meeting?

Questions Answers

1.4 Have you had a meeting where you & discussed your

problems as children and youth? Yes

No

1.5 What are the problems that the youth usually

experience? (Follow up – Why?)

1.6 What are the problems that your country is

experiencing at present?

1.7 Why do you think Cambodia experience these

problems?

Questions Answers

2.5 How often do you meet with the commune leaders? Once a month ______

Once a Year __________

Once a quarter _____

Others _______________

2.6 When was the last time you met with the commune

leaders?

What happened in the meeting? What was the topic?

Last year_______

Last __________

2.7 Have you talked with the commune leaders about the

problems of children/youth?

Yes

No

2.8 What problems did you speak about?

2.9 What did they say about your problems?

Questions Answers

3.1. Have you done some projects in Kleb Koma? Yes _____

No _____

3.2 What are these projects

3.3 How did you plan your projects?

3.4 After you finished your plan, what did you do?

3.5 What were the results of these projects?

5.1 How did you know if your plans were working or not?

5.3 Did you prepare your own report about what

happened with your project? Yes _____

No _____

92

3.5 In assigning what to do in the group were boys and

girls given different roles?

Yes _____

No _____

4.1 Have you attended any training by CAMP? Yes _____

No _____

4.4 What trainings have you attended?

4.5 What can you say about these trainings you attended?

Questions Answers

3.10 What changes did you notice of yourself after

joining the Kleb Koma? Compare yourself before and

now after joining the Kleb Koma?

3.11 How do your family and friends say about what

you do in Kleb Koma?

3.12 Has your group done anything for the community?

What are these? Yes _____

No _____

Questions Answers

4.6 Did you regularly/attend the meetings/activities of the

group?

Yes _____

No _____

4.7 What did you like most about attending the meetings

and activities of the group?

4.3 Is there anything that you don’t likle about your Kleb

Koma? What are these?

4.4 Do you feel any fear or danger in the group? What

are these fears or dangers?

Yes _____

No _____

4.5 Sometimes youth in some groups are abused, raped, or

get hurt. Is this possible to happen in your Kleb

Koma?

Yes _____

No _____

Questions Answers

5.4 Do you feel that the kleb koma should be continued?

Why?

5.5 What actions will you undertake to ensure the

continuity of the Kleb Koma?

Questions Answers

8. What important lessons have you learned from your

involvement in the Kleb Koma?

9. What are your recommendations to improve the Kleb

Koma?

93

Guide Questions for Commune Chief

CAMP

Questions Answers

15. What can you say about your life in the commune?

16. What can you say about the youth in the commune?

17. What do you think can the youth do to help in the

commune?

18. Is this going to happen? If yes, Why?

If no, why?

19. Is it important for the youth to be involved in the

community? Why?

20. Is there a difference in the way boys/girls are regarded

in the family/community?

21. Do you know about the Kleb Koma organized by

CAMP? What do you know about it?

22. What can you say about the commune kleb koma?

23. Has this groups helped the commune?

24. What can the youth do to help the commune?

94

Guide Questions for Parents of Adolescents And Youth

CAMP

Questions Answers

25. What can you say about your commune?

26. What can you say about the youth in the commune?

27. What are your dreams for your son/daughter?


If no, why?

29. Is there a difference in the way boys/girls are regarded

in the family/community?

Yes.

No.

What is the difference?

30. Do you know about the Kleb Koma? Yes.

No.

31. Do you know CAMP?

Yes.

No.

32. What do you know about it?


commune? Why?

Yes.

No.

34. In what ways can the youth be of help to the

community?

35. What can you say about your son’s/daughter’s

involvement in the Kleb Koma?

36. Did you observe some changes in his/her ways or

behavior with your children son or daughter since s/he

joined the Kle Koma? What were these changes?

37. Have you learned anything from your son/daughter since

she joined the Kleb Koma?

38. What has the Kleb Koma done anything for the

commune?

39. What can the children and youth do to help the

commune?

95


CODEC

Questions Answers

19. What do you call your group?

20. Are you still active as a group?

Yes?

No? Why?

21. How were you organized?

22. What are the requirements to become a member of

the group?

23. What are the objectives of the group?

24. How were the leaders selected? Are there

committees?

25. Describe what you actually do in the group?

26. How often do you meet? What do you talk about

in the meeting?

Questions Answers

1.8 Have you had a meeting where you & discussed

your problems as children and youth? Yes

No

1.9 What are the problems that the youth usually

experience?

(Follow up – Why?)

1.10 What are the problems that your country is

experiencing at present?

1.11 Why do you think Cambodia experience these

problems?

Questions Answers

2.10 How often do you meet with the commune

leaders? Once a month ______ Once a

Year __________

Once a quarter _____ Others

_______________

2.11 When was the last time you met with the

commune leaders?

What happened in the meeting? What was the

topic?

Last year_______

Last __________

2.12 Have you talked with the commune leaders

about the problems of children/youth?

Yes

No

2.13 What problems did you speak about?

2.14 What did they say about your problems?

2.15 What do you feel when you are in a meeting

with commune leaders? Do you feel at ease? Are

you nervous?

Questions Answers

3.1. Have you done some projects in your group? Yes _____

No _____

3.2 How did you plan your activities?

3.3 After you finished your plan, what did you do?

3.4 What were the results of these projects?

96

5.1 How did you know if your plans were working or

not?

5.3 Did you prepare your own report about what

happened with your project?

3.5 In assigning what to do in the group were boys and

girls given different roles? Yes _____

No _____

4.1 Have you attended any training by CODEC? Yes _____

No _____

4.4 What trainings have you attended?

4.5 What can you say about these trainings you

attended?

Questions Answers

3.13 What changes did you notice of yourself after

joining the group? Describe yourself before and

now after joining the group?

3.14 As a result of your involvement in the group,

did you notice some changes in the way people

regard you?

3.15 How do your family and friends say about

what you do?

3.16 Do your parents/friends/ village leaders

support what you are doing?

3.17 Has your group done anything for the

community?

What are these?

Yes _____

No _____

Questions Answers

4.8 Did you regularly attend the meetings/activities of

the group?

Yes _____

No _____

4.9 What did you like about attending the meetings

and activities of the group?

4.3 Do you feel any fear or danger in the group?

What are these fears or dangers?

Yes _____

No _____

27. Sometimes youth in some groups are abused,

raped, or get hurt. Is this possible to happen in

your group?

Yes _____

No _____

Questions Answers

5.6 Do you feel that the Group should be continued?

Why?


continuity of the Group?

Questions Answers

10. What important lessons have you learned from

your involvement in the Group?

11. What are your recommendations to improve your

group?

97

Key questions for commune leader

CODEC

Questions Answers


41. What can you say about the youth in the

commune?

42. What do you think can the youth do to help in

the commune?

43. Is this going to happen? If yes,

Why? If no, why?

44. Is it important for the youth to be involved in

the community? Why?

45. Is there a difference in the way boys/girls are

regarded in the family/community?

46. Do you know about the youth commune

group? What do you know about it?

47. What can you say about the youth commune

group?

48. Has this groups helped the commune?


98

Guide Questions for Parents of Adolescents And Youth

CODEC

Questions Answers



commune?

52. What are your dreams for your son/daughter?


If no, why?



Yes.

No.

What is the difference?

55. Do you know about the youth commune group? Yes.

No.

56. What do you know about it?


commune? Why?

Yes.

No.


community?


involvement in the commune youth group?

60. Did you observe some changes in his/her ways or

behavior with your children son or daughter since

s/he joined the group? What were these changes?

61. Have you learned anything from your son/daughter

since she joined the group?

62. What has the youth group done anything for the

commune?


99


EQUAL ACCESS

Questions Answers

28. What do you call your radio listening group?

29. Why did you join this group?

30. What do you think is the role of the youth in the

community?

31. How do you think the community look at the

youth? What do they expect from the youth?

Questions Answers

1.1 Describe what do you actually do in the group?

1.2 Aside from the radio, where else do you get

information for discussion?

Questions Answers

2.16 Do you share the information you get from the

radio with other people? With whom? How?

2.17 Have you tried to meet with the Commune

Council leaders as a result of your discussion?

Questions Answers

3.1 What activities or projects have you done as a

result of the listening group?

3.2 Do you prepare a plan for your projects? How?

Questions Answers

4.1 How do you implement your projects?

4.4 Were the trainings you received enough for you to

perform your work well? What trainings have you

received


Questions Answers

5.1 How do you know if your plans are being

implemented?

5.2 Have do you know if you did a good job with your

show?

Questions Answers

3.1 What benefits did you get from what you are

doing?

3.2 Describe yourself before and now after joining the

group? What changes did you notice of yourself

after joining the group?

3.3 As a result of your involvement in the group, did

you notice some changes in the way people regard

you?

3.4 How do your family and friends feel about what

you do in the listening group?

3.5 What do you think has been your impact in the

community?

Questions Answers

100

4.10 What are the things that inspire you to do what

you are doing in this project?

4.11 What are that things that discourage you from

doing your work in this project?

4.3 Is there anything that you fear in what you do

here? Do you sense any danger in what you are

doing?

Questions Answers

5.8 Do you feel that what you do should be continued?

Why?


continuity of the project?

Questions Answers

12. What lessons have you learned from your

involvement in the listening group?

13. What are your recommendations to improve the

Project?

101

Guide Questions for Commune Leader

Equal Access

Questions Answers



commune?

66. What do you think are the problems they face?


community?

68. Is this happening? If yes, Why?

If no, why?


the community? Why?


community?



72. Do you know about the youth listening group?

What do you know about it?

73. What can you say about the youth listening

group?

74. How has this project influenced/changed life in

the community?

75. Is there any other external support needed to

encourage youth to be involved in the

community?

102

FGD Guide Questions for Master Facilitator

EQUAL ACCESS

Questions Answers

32. How were you chosen?

33. Why were you chosen?

34. What are your functions?

35. What trainings did you receive to

perform your role?

36. How did you organize the listening

group?

37. Are you happy with the way you are

functioning now? Why? Why not?

38. What are the problems you have

encountered in organizing the group?

39. In what ways do you think can the

listening group improve?

40. What benefits do you get from what you

are doing?

41. How else do you think can the youth

become more involved in the

community?

103

Key Questions or Parents of Adolescents and Youth

EQUAL ACCESS

Questions Answers



commune?

78. What do you think are the problems they face?


community?

80. Is this happening? If yes, Why?

If no, why?


the community? Why?


community?

83. Do you know about the youth listening group?

What do you know about it?


involvement in the commune youth group?

85. Did you observe some changes in his/her ways

or behavior with your children son or daughter

since s/he joined the group? What were these

changes?

86. Have you learned anything from your

son/daughter since she joined the group?

87. How has this project influenced/changed life in

the community?

88. What changes do you want to see happen to

improve the operation of this project?

89. Is there any other external support needed to

improve it? What support?

104


SCY

Questions Answers

42. What do you call your group/club/ organization?

43. Why did you join this group?


community?

45. How do you think the community look at the

youth? What do they expect from the youth?

Questions Answers

1.12 Describe what you actually do in the group,

beginning to end?

1.13 How do you decide what topic to take up in

your TV production?

1.14 Where and how do you get your information

for your production?

Questions Answers

2.18 Who are you expecting to watch your TV

show? Who are your audience?

2.19 What kind of reaction do you expect from

those who watch your show?

Questions Answers

3.1 Explain how you prepare your plan for your show?

Questions Answers

4.1 When the plan is done, explain how you do your

production?

4.4 Were the trainings you received enough for you to

perform your work well?


4.7 How many shows have you produced? What were

the topics?

Questions Answers

5.1 How do you know if your plan are being

implemented? (monitoring)

5.2 Have do you know if you did a good job with your

show? (Eval)

Questions Answers

3.6 What benefits did you get from what you are

doing?

3.7 Describe yourself before and now after joining the

group? What changes did you notice of yourself

after joining the group?

3.8 As a result of your involvement in the group, did

you notice some changes in the way people regard

you?

105

3.9 How do your family and friends feel about it?

3.10 What has been your impact in the audience?

Questions Answers

4.12 What are the things that inspire you to do what

you are doing in this project?

4.13 What are the qualities of adults that

encourage/inspire you to do your work?

4.14 What are that things that discourage/frustrate

you from doing your work in this project?

4.15 What are the qualities of adults that discourage

you to do your work?

4.5 Is there anything that you fear in what you do

here? Is there any danger in what you are doing?

Questions Answers

5.10 Do you feel that what you do should be

continued? Why?


continuity of the project?

Questions Answers

14. What important lessons have you learned from

your involvement in this project?

15. What are your recommendations to improve the

Project?

106

ANNEX III

Data Collection Scheme

The following table enumerates the data categories and research lenses which generally

guided the data collection process and the corresponding specific data sets/variable to be

gathered, the sources of data and the data collection instruments that will be sued.

Data categories/

Research lenses Data sets/variables Data sources

Data collection

technique/instrum

ent

8. Identifying

Data

1.5 Name of Agency

1.6 Brief History of the

Agency

1.7 Brief description of

project/s and funding

source (UNICEF/non-

UNICEF)

1.8 Project Sites

1.9 Description of AY

Beneficiaries/Partners

(age, gender, ethnicity,

urban-rural, religion,

social/economic status,

level of education)


organizational

structure (staff,

assignments and size)

1.11 Relevant Project

Accomplishments

(based on reports)

Agency Head,

Executive Director

Inception Document

KII/KII Guide

Desk Review

9. Vision/Policy

of the

organization

on child

participation

2.1 Over all vision,

mission and goals

(VMG) of the agency

2.2 Vision, mission, goals

of the agency specific

to AYP


project/s, strategies,

activities, campaigns

on AYP

2.4 Specific budget on

AYP (funded and

counterpart)

2.5 Availability of AYP

focal person

2.6 Staff trained on AYP

2.7 Monitoring indicators

on AYP

Agency Head,

Executive Director

Inception Document

KII/KII Guide

Desk Review

107

Data categories/


Data collection

technique/instrum

ent

10. Five

Participation

Roles in rights-

based

programming

Measures of level and

quality along the

following variables:

3.1 Assessment and

Analysis: participating

in establishing the

existence and

magnitude of a problem

and analysing its

causes; participating in

research

3.2 Articulation and

advocacy: demanding

the attention of

decision-makers,

advocating; petitioning

3.3 Planning: participating

in developing plans of

action; negotiating;

making or improving

plans

3.4 Action: fulfilling a role;

becoming an actor

3.5 Monitoring and

Reporting :

Monitoring, evaluating,

and reporting progress

on the implementation

of plans and

commitments

Adolescents and youth

Their parents

Field staff

Documents/Reports

FGD/FGD Guide

FGD/FGD/Guide

KII/KII Guide

Desk Review

11. Five OECD-

DAC

Evaluation

Measures

Measures of level and

quality along the

following variables:

4.1 Relevance – relevance

to UNICEF and

country priorities?

4.2 Effectiveness- progress

towards stated

objectives? Outputs

and outcomes?

4.3 Efficiency –


Their parents

Field staff

Documents/Reports

Agency Head,

Executive Director

Inception Document

FGD/FGD Guide

FGD/FGD/Guide

KII/KII Guide

Desk Review

KII/KII Guide

Desk Review

Guide

108

achievement of effects

at acceptable cost and

time?

4.4 Sustainability - Where

is the project now.

Full/partial

sustainanability

4.5 Impact - immediate

and long range

impacts, intended and

unintended results,

impact on adolescents

and youth, impact on

the families,

communities,

communes?

Data categories/


Data collection

technique/instrum

ent

12. Other

programmatic

concerns/

themes

Description and analysis:

5.1 gender

5.2 equity

5.3 reaching the unreached

5.4 protection

5.5 child-friendly

environment

5.6 rights-based

programming (as

appropriate)


Their parents

Field staff

Documents/Reports

Agency Head

(Executive Director)

Inception Document

Focused observation

FGD/FGD Guide

FGD/FGD/Guide

KII/KII Guide

Desk Review

KII/KII Guide

Desk Review

Guide

FO checklist

109

ANNEX IV

List of Respondents

Respondents

From

Child Assistance for

Mobilization and


110

Attendance Sheet

FGD Participants: Youth

Province: Khampong Thom Agency: CAMP

Commune: Toul Kreul Date: 25

August

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Femal

e)

Education

Number of

years in the

project

Student/Wor

k/Job

1. Heak Seyha

20 M G-12 2 Club Chief

2. Luon Chamrouem

20 M G-12 2 Group Leader

3. Leat Vutha

18 F G-10 2 Group Leader

4. Leat Vutha

19 F G12 2 Group Leader

5. Morn Sokhorn

20 F University

Student

3 Finance Mgt

6. Samol Pum

23 M G-12 5 Member

7. Yon Yuth

20 M G-12 2 Chief Village

Network

Attendance Sheet

FGD Participants: Parents

Province: Khampong Thom Agency:

CAMP


August

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Education

1. Lat Eau 71

M Father of Sokhorn

2. Chhean Sokhom 57 F

Mother of Sokhorn

3. Heang Vuth 58 F

Syha’ Auntie

4. Chheng Sao 31 F

Mother

111

Attendance Sheet

Interviewee: Commune Chief


CAMP


August

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Education Position

1. Khun Chhor 55 M

Commune Chief

Attendance Sheet

FGD Participants: Adolescents and Youth

Province : Khompong Speu Agency:

CAMP

Commune: Sdok, Tramkong Village Date: 29

August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

deEducation

Number

of years

in the

project

1. Nang Nach

21 M 12th

Grade 3 year

2. Senchan Dy

3.

17 F 12th

2 year

4. Choub Savuth

.

17 M 12h 1 year

5. Sok Kin

18 M 12th

1

6. Nhen Yourn

18 M 12th

1

7. Sun Raborn

18 M 12th 2

112

Attendance Sheet


Province: Khampong Speu Agency:

CAMP

Commune: Sdok, Tramkong Village Date: 29

August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

1. Leang Sophal 45 F

2. You Youb Yub 51 F

3. Sun Koeun 42 F

Attendance Sheet

Province Phnom Penh Agency:

CAMP

Date:

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female

)

Education Designation

1. Nget Sokha

28 M Master of Arts in Social

Work

Program Director

2. Leang

Chantou

25 M National University of

Management

Program Manager

3. Tho Doeun

22 M Royal University of Law and

Economics

Project Officer

113

Respondents

From

Cooperation for

Development of Cambodia

(CoDeC)

114

Attendance Sheet



CODEC

Commune: Achar Leak,

District: Province: Khampong Thom Date: 24

August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Education Number of years

in the project

1. Phea Sopheum 17 F G 10

3

2. Von Kimang 18 F G10

3

3. Korn Laycour 22 F University 3

4. Korn Sreytak 19 F 10 3

5. Chhem Bun Chheurn 20 M 12 3

6. Ly Kimsan 16 M 12 3

7. Say Chansey 20 F 12 3

8. Leav Maly 20 F 12 3

9. Kheng So Phak 18 M 12 3

Attendance Sheet


Province: Khampong Thom Agency: CODEC


Province: Khampong Thom Date: 24 August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Education

1. Om Chhem 56 M

Father of Om Chhoeum

2. Than Kim 55 F Father of Om Chhoeum

3. Noun Sichan 41 F Mother of Maly

4. Chab Korn 72 M Father of Srey Tak

115

Attendance Sheet

FGD Participants: Commune Council Members


CODEC


Province: Khampong Thom Date: 24

August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Education

Number of

years in the

project

1. Ang Hok Pheng

71 M ComMune Chief

2. Om Yann 78 M

Deputy Commune Chief

3. Le Vor Leap 35 F

Council Member

4. Sray Kim Seng 55 F

Council Member CCWC

Attendance Sheet



CODEC

Commune: Sambo,

District: Prasat Sambo


August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)


in the project

1. Hourt Sreyheach

25 F

2. HTM Chhunghong

24 F

3. Met Kimroo

24 F

4. Lim Sokrim

17 F

5. Sem Loeu

25 F

6. KhySokim

17 M

7. Heng Poli 17 M

116

8. Sreag Sheag

17 M

9. Phoem Phon

17 M

10. Pon Poeur

24 M

Attendance Sheet

Group Interview Participants: Parents


CODEC

Commune: Sambo,



August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Designation

1. Heb Srieg

2. Khay Khoung

Attendance Sheet

Interviewees: Commune Council Leaders


CODEC

Commune: Sambo,



August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Designation

3. Touk Tin 58 M

Commune Council

Member

4. Tep Tang Oeun 56 F Commune, Chair of

CCWC

117

Respondents

From

EQUAL ACCESS (EA)

118

Attendance Sheet

Equal Access Youth

Province: Battambong Province Agency: Equal

Access

Commune: Samroang Knong Date: 9 August

2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Education

Number of years in

the project

1. Sok Saroth

21 F 12 2 years

2. Neam Synuon

22 F 11 2 years

3. Ky Lalene

26 MF 12 3 months

4. Loeun Srey Van

18 F 11 2 years

5. Chhouk Seyya

18 F 11 2 years

6. Iteng Lita

19 F 11 2 years

7. So Pirom

18 F 10 2 years

8. Phin Chantha

26 M 12 2 years

9. Chhean Chhot

30 M 10 2 years

Attendance Sheet

Equal Access Parents

Province: Battambang Province Agency: Equal

Access

Commune: Samroang Knong Date: 9 August

2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Work/Job

1. Khoun Von

50

F

Housekeeper

2. Oeun Loeub 65 F Housekeeper

119

Attendance Sheet

Equal Access Youth

Province: Siem Reap Province Agency: Equal

Access

Commune: Samroang Yea (Pouk District) Date: 10 August

2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)

Education

Number of years in

the project

1. Hot Sopheat

21 M Grade 12 2 years

2. Lon Vibol

21 M Grade 12 1 year

3. Moun Thida

19 F Grade 12 2 years

4. Moun Pisey


5. Tun Bunte

20 M Grade 12 2 years

6. IY Marine

20 F Grade 12 1 year

7. Soeung Sophoan


8. Moeung Sara


9. Nhoy Sophoan


10. Tit Kesor


Attendance Sheet

Group Interview Participants: Commune Leaders

Province: Siem Reap Province Agency: Equal

Access

Commune: Samroang Yea (Pouk District) Date: 10 August

2011

Name

Position

1. Mr. Lach Soeun

2. Ms. Pat Sophea

3. Mr. Hoeung Hut

Commune Leader

Deputy Commune Leader

Commune Council

120

Attendance Sheet

Group Interview Participants: Agency Staff

Province: Phnom Penh Agency :

Equal Access

Date :

Name

Position

1. Mr. Monte Achenbach

2. Mr. Graham Gardner

3. Mr. Seng Sopheap

4. Mr. Nuon Sao

5. Mr. Koy Borey

6. Mrs. At Sotheavy

Country Director

International Program Manager

Programs Director

Manager of Capacity Building

Manager of Metrics and Knowledge

Management Executive Producer

121

Respondents

From

Support Children and

Young People (SCY)

122

Attendance Sheet

Group Interview Participants: Youth

Province : Khompong Thom Agency:

SCY

Commune: Two communes Date: 12

August 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female)


in the project

1. Sat Ei

21 M 12 completed 1 year

2. Chhem

Bunchheurn

20 M 12 completed 1year

Attendance Sheet

Group Interview Participants: Youth

Province : Phnom Penh Agency: SCY

Date: 05

September 2011

Name

Age

Sex

(Male/

Female

)

Education

Number of

years in the

project

Work/Job

1. Khorn Champa

19 F University 1 Producer

2. Koy Channary

21 F University 2 Scriptwriter

3. Chan Vutha

21 M Universwit

y

2 Camera man

4. Suong Tola

21 M University 1 Producer

5. Kun Pouna

19 M High

School

Graduate

1 Producer

6. Sarocun Dacis

19 F Universityu 1 Scriptwriter

7. Ream Chamroeun

18 M High

School

5 Scriptwriter,

Producer ,

Camera

8. Chhe Somroeun

23 M University 1.9 Camera man

123

Attendance Sheet

FGD Participants: Agency Staff

Province: Phnom Penh Agency :

SCY

Date :

Name

Position

1. Mr. Sar Lynet

2. Mr. OK Sang

3. Mr. Kann Sophal

4. Ms. Jessica Burrow

5. Mr. Sok Thy

6. Mr. Ream Chamroeun

7. Ms. Koy Channary,

8. Ms. Em Amrith,

Project Office

Finance Officer

Executive Director

Volunteer

Regional Coordinator

Asst. Project Officer

Asst. Project Officer

Asst. project Officer

124

ANNEX V

Participants in the

National Conference

“Lessons from the Ground for Programmes and Policies on Adolescent and Youth

Participation”

20 September 2011

Hotel Cambodiana

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Name

Designation Agency

1. Mr. Chanthou Leang

2. Mr. Sokha Ngeth

3. Ms. Savan Yan

4. Mr. Seila Vihan

5. Mr. Graham Guardner

6. Mr. Sopheap Seng

7. Mr. Koy Borey

8. Mr. Chek Lim

9. Lody Peng

10. Henk van Beers

11. Ty Sovannary

12. Mr. Sophal Kann

13. Mr. Lyneth Sar

14. Freya Larsen

15. Ruby Johnson

16. Mr. Gregory Lavender

17. Mr. Nimol Soth

18. Ms. Casey McCarthy

19. Sokha YET

20. Usha Mishra

21. Richard Bridle

22. Socheath Heng

23. Sanoz Lim

24. Nelson Rodrigues

25. Ranjini Paskarasingam

26. Try Tan

27. Henry Ruiz

28. Sen Vicheth

29. Chong Vandara

30. Penny C.

Programme Officer

Representatative

Executive Director

Administrative Officer

Consultant

Programme Director

Manger Matrix and KM

Deputy Director General

Programme Assistant

Program Director

Child Rights Manager

Executive Director

Programme Officer

Programme and Advocacy

Officer

Governance Programme Officer

Youth Advocacy Officer

Education Technical Assistant

UN Comm. and Advocacy

Officer

UN Youth Officer

Chief of Policy, Advocacy

&Comm

Representatative

Social Policy Specialist

Senior Programme Assistant

Social Policy Officer

Social Policy Officer

C4D Specialist

AYP Consultant

Programme Coordinator

Programme Officer

Programme Officer

CAMP

CAMP

CoDeC

CoDeC

Equal Access

Equal Access

Equal Access

General Dpt of

Youth, MoEYS

ILO Joint Projects

Office

Save the Children

Save the Children

SCY

SCY

UN Women

UN Women

UNDP

UNESCO

UNRC

UNRC

UNICEF

UNICEF

UNICEF

UNICEF

UNICEF, Siem

Reap

UNICEF, Kg.

Cham

UNICEF

UNICEF

CDRI

UNFPA

UNICEF

125

ANNEX VI

Profile of Respondents

by agency and by sex

Group of

Respondents

CAMP CoDeC Equal


M F T M F T M F T M F T M F T M F T

Youth

9 4 13 8 1

1 19 6

1

3

1

9 7 3 10

3

0

3

1 61

4

9

5

1 57

Parents

1 6 7 2 4 6 0 2 2 0 0 0 3 1

2 15

2

0

8

0 14

Commune

Leaders

0 1 1 3 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 4 7 4

3

5

7 7

Agency

Staff

3 0 3 5 2 7 5 1 6 5 3 8 1

8 6 24

7

5

2

5 22

Total

13 11 24 18 2

0 38

1

1

1

6

2

7

1

2 6 18

5

4

5

3 107

5

0

5

0

100

M – Male F – Female T – Total

126

ANNEX VII

Distribution of Youth Respondents

by Agency and Single Age

Age of

Respondents

CAMP CoDeC Equal


M F M F M F M F M F M F

16 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 3 3

17 1 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 5 3 16 10

18 3 0 1 1 0 3 1 0 5 5 16 17

19 1 1 0 1 0 3 1 2 2 6 6 20

20 3 0 1 2 1 3 1 0 6 6 19 20

21 1 0 0 0 2 1 3 1 6 2 19 7

22 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 10

23 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 6 0

24 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 7

25 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 7

26 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 6 0

27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

30 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 0

Total

10 3 8 11 6 13 7 3 31 30 100 100

127

ANNEX VIII

Total UNICEF Budget Releases to the Four Agencies

2009 and 2010

Agencies

Releases for 2009

Releases for 2010

Project

Activities

Supplies/

Equipment

Total

Project

Activities

Supplies/

Equipment

Car/

Motorcycle

Total

%

Equal

Access 42,722.00 0.00 42,722.00 46,472.00 1,840.00 0.00 48,312.00

40

CAMP 33,818.00 2,366.00 36,184.00 32,344.00 1,825.00 0.00 34,169.00

28

SCY 49,993.00 6,160.00 56,153.00 25,042.00 9,224.00 0.00 34,266.00

28

CoDec 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,346.00 2,540.00 4,886.00

4

Total 126,533.00 8,526.00 135,059.00 103,858.00 15,235.00 2,540.00 121,633.00

100

128

ANNEX IX

Conference on

“Lessons from the Ground for Policies and Programmes

on Adolescent and Youth Participation( AYP)”

20 September 2011

Hotel Cambodiana

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

P R O G R A M M E

Purpose

1. Present and validate the findings of the “Evaluation of UNICEF-Supported Adolescent

and Youth Participation” including the good practices and lessons learned from the

projects.

2. Discuss the implications of the study with the National Youth Policy including future

steps in implementing it.

Schedule

Part 1

8:00 Registration

8:30 - 9:00 Welcome Usha Mishra, Chief Child

Protection of UNICEF

Cambodia

Presentation: Background on the

evaluation, general findings and

recommendations

Henry R. Ruiz, Consultant

Mechanics of the Workshop

9:00 -10:00 Workshop: Validation of the findings Project implementers, others

10:00 -10:30 Coffee/Tea Break

Part 2

10:30 -11:00 Welcome Richard Bridle, UNICEF

Representative

Presentation: Background on the

evaluation, issues and concerns, lessons

learned and updates on the National Youth

Policy

Henry R. Ruiz, Consultant

11:00 – 11:50 Plenary Discussion:

Focus: National Youth Policy –

Implications and next Steps

Usha Mishra, Chief Child

Protection of UNICEF

Cambodia

Moderato

11:50 – 12:00 Summary and Synthesis Socheat Heng, Policy Advocacy

Specialist and UNICEF Focal

Point for AYP

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch

Attached: Synopsis of the “Evaluation of UNICEF-Supported AYP

129

ANNEX X

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Eng, Yong Kim. Force of the Future, Youth Participation in politics in Cambodia. 2000.

Feinstein, C. and C. O’Kane. Children’s and Adolescents’ Participation and Protection from

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