Theme: Access & Quality of Education
Location: Kandal, Pursat, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Banteay Meanchey, and Kep provinces
Duration: 2017-2023
Objectives: Our objectives are to increase the skills, knowledge and capacity of local authorities – the Association of Local Councils (ALCs) – to enable them to better serve their communities, specifically marginalized or vulnerable groups within the community such as women, children and persons with disabilities. At the heart of our work is education and a key tool to ensure its success is improving digital literacy and access to information for all.
Background:
To date, development interventions in the Cambodian education sector have proven to be insufficient to bring about comprehensive and sustainable improvement because they focused mainly on individual department functions without sufficient attention to the local authority and communities.
To address this, we have joined with other initiatives to promote and build the capacity of the community and local authority in development, monitoring and mobility resources for education. Our focus includes early childhood care and development, reading promotion, peace education, evidence-based policy formulation, comprehensive planning, competent leadership, coherent management, and frequent and consistent monitoring.
Key Activities:
- Improving digital literacy among commune council members through the provision of technology and training
- Increasing the capacity of commune councils to support citizens that are vulnerable or facing hardship, particularly in times of crisis such as during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Distributing emergency assistance to vulnerable families such as food aid during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Supporting small businesses through the provision of equipment and training
- KHMER LEARN – our suite of quality e-learning applications including Library, Educator, Reader, Writer and Rean An (Learn to Read).
- Developing printed and digital educational content and training modules
- Setting up/upgrading school libraries
- Providing training on library management
- Organizing/Supporting reading activities in schools
- Running mobile libraries that reach rural communities
- Awareness-raising in local communities on the value of education
Results in 2020: In 2020, we launched our Educator Hub website – an online resource for local authorities, teachers, caregivers and others to access information and training. Another key achievement was working with local authorities to organize emergency food distributions for struggling families during crises such as Covid-19 and flooding and developing in-kind and financial support for small scale businesses. In total, we reached 3,582 people in 2020.
Partners: The European Union, Advocacy Policy Institute, and Pursat Provincial Association of Local Councils.