NGOs acknowledge the significant progress made in enhancing partnerships and aid coordination, particularly in strengthening national leadership, enhancing partnerships with NGOs and the private sector, and developing sector-wide management approaches.
The NGO community believes that a partnership approach to development efforts should include not just donors, but also direct on-going dialogue between the people and the government. Thus, NGOs applaud and encourage the increasingly participatory approach of the government, and the latter’s efforts to engage NGOs and civil society in its implementation of reform measures. These efforts have materialized into the drafting of important plans, such as the ESP and ESSP within the education sector. However, the NGOs have not seen progress in their recommendation given to the last CG Meeting to draft and implement a law on the legislative process to ensure effective participation of civil society. Currently, the consultative processes are not always transparent and are uneven from ministry to ministry.
¨ NGOs stress the need for adopting enforceable government procedures on the consultative process for all new and modified legislation (laws, sub-decrees and circulars). The procedures should explicitly mandate that government agencies actively seek consultation. These procedures should be standardized for all government agencies, including specific timeframes for consultation at each stage of legislative review (department, ministry, Council of Ministers, National Assembly). Finally, these procedures as well as all draft laws, sub-decrees, and circulars should be widely and openly distributed to civil society organizations.
NGOs have extensive experience working with the poor but cannot speak as the representative of the poor. Consultations should include the people directly affected by poverty reduction policies -that is, poor people themselves- as well as civil society groups such as the Buddhist clergy, wat committees, farmers cooperatives, women’s associations, trade unions, garment workers, and ethnic associations. The poor and other organized civil society groups have their own voice, and that voice needs to be heard by all those involved in poverty reduction efforts.
NGOs encourage the provision for real, effective participation by the public in reform efforts. The growth of a critical mass of Cambodians who understand and support the development strategies and reforms becomes crucial to the success in partnership and participation. The public needs to be informed of reform efforts, but at the same time the government must actively solicit and take seriously the input of the public in decision-making processes. Only then will there be shared ownership over the development and reform process in Cambodia.