Monthly Archives: September 2016

Legal Identity and Inclusive Development in Cambodia

dsc05856_29614306766_o23 September 2016

The Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) organised a roundtable of key stakeholders to initiate a discussion about how to engage with sustainable development goal (SDG) 16.9 on legal identity in Cambodia on September 13, 2016. The focus was on vulnerable, marginalized and hard-to-reach populations, especially minority groups. While SDG 16.9 carries a promise of inclusion by making the invisible legally visible, insisting on legal identity requirements for accessing rights and services could have the unintended effect of further excluding the most marginalized as these groups may face serious obstacles in obtaining legal identity. … More >>>

 

Legal Identity and Inclusive Development in Cambodia

dsc05856_29614306766_o23 September 2016

The Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) organised a roundtable of key stakeholders to initiate a discussion about how to engage with sustainable development goal (SDG) 16.9 on legal identity in Cambodia on September 13, 2016. The focus was on vulnerable, marginalized and hard-to-reach populations, especially minority groups. While SDG 16.9 carries a promise of inclusion by making the invisible legally visible, insisting on legal identity requirements for accessing rights and services could have the unintended effect of further excluding the most marginalized as these groups may face serious obstacles in obtaining legal identity. Against this background, the roundtable with around 20 participants from local NGOs, UN agencies and development partners provided a venue to consider SDG 16.9 in the context of Cambodia, including identifying gaps, especially in relation to minority groups, and discussing strategies to reduce barriers to a legal identity.

The SDGs aim under goal 16.9 “by 2030 provide legal identity for all including birth registration”. When adopting the SDGs in September 2015, the UN General Assembly acknowledged that means to prove legal identity are a global development issue and thus linked to development opportunities and outcomes. Suggestions for indicators on legal identity currently focus on birth registration. Lack of birth registration creates a particularly high risk of statelessness for specific groups, including minority groups, and often inhibits children to gain access to public education and other services.

dsc05885_29614285406_oThe Royal Government of Cambodia has undertaken reforms in the past years that are of relevance to SDG 16.9, including the creation of a General Department of Identification within the Ministry of Interior. It has adopted a National Strategic Plan of Identification (2017-2026), which has the long-term vision “every person is to have an identity”. Roundtable participants proposed a number of recommendations for how to consider marginalized populations and minorities in these initiatives, including enhancing cooperation between the government and civil society, more coordinated data-gathering and data-sharing to get a clearer picture about left-behind populations and the gaps and barriers relating to SDG 16.9, as well as more targeted outreach and awareness-raising strategies that consider the specific circumstances of marginalized groups.

The roundtable was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) by way of the Civil Peace Service (CPS) of GIZ in Cambodia. The CPS program aims at promoting conflict-sensitive (re-) integration of long-term minority populations, including the ethnic Vietnamese minority communities, strengthening social cohesion and reducing the risk of violent conflict.

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Theater can be more than fun!

Actors mime a brawl between young Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese men

Actors mime a brawl between young Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese men

14 September 2016

The Civil Peace Service (CPS) partner organization Khmer Community Development (KCD) runs a program that makes use of theater as a tool to transform conflict between interethnic groups in a commune inhabited by Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese in Kandal province. Applying the methodological approach of Forum Theater, which developed out of Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed, … More >>>

Theater can be more than fun!

Actors mime a brawl between young Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese men

Actors mime a brawl between young Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese men

14 September 2016

The Civil Peace Service (CPS) partner organization Khmer Community Development (KCD) runs a program that makes use of theater as a tool to transform conflict between interethnic groups in a commune inhabited by Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese in Kandal province. Applying the methodological approach of Forum Theater, which developed out of Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed, KCD particularly invites the young generation to develop their own ideas on how to find peaceful solutions to problems that arise on a day-to-day basis in an ethnically mixed commune.

On 28 August 2016, KCD conducted a Forum Theater session in Khnar Tang Yu Village. When Khmer actors with painted faces got on the improvised stage to mime a brawl between young Khmer and Vietnamese men – acting non-verbally in order to overcome language barriers – they were greeted by the giggles and laughter of up to 40 children of the ethnic Vietnamese community aged 10 to 14. But KCD junior staff, mostly originating from ethnically mixed families in the same commune, were well-prepared to catch the attention of the youngsters and draw them to the issue at hand: What would you do to change the course of the story? The children suggested that the bar owner and the police should intervene, and then they watched the actors improvise the scene with a new, non-violent outcome. One boy called for ethnic groups to live together harmoniously. The serious expression on his face seemed to indicate that he had given the issue quite some thought already.

Ethnic Vietnamese children are engaged in discussing alternative solutions to interethnic conflict

Ethnic Vietnamese children are engaged in discussing alternative solutions to interethnic conflict

Then it was the turn of the children to think of their own experiences of conflicts between communities. Some of the children came to the stage and played Vietnamese characters having a conflict with Khmer authorities. Again the children discussed possible solutions and came up with ideas how to solve the problem in a peaceful and legal way.

By actively engaging the audience, Forum Theater is a creative approach to playfully encourage reflection on alternative outcomes to well-known problems and then trying them out in a protected environment.

Since 2014, the CPS has been supporting a number of local organizations that work on the integration of ethnic Vietnamese who have lived in Cambodia for several generations. Many were expelled by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and experience social and economic exclusion since their return during the 1980s.  The CPS program contributes to comprehensive peace-building in Cambodia which needs to include marginalized groups and minorities, and promotes their access to development opportunities, community empowerment and conflict transformation.

For further information see www.kcd-ngo.org

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PRESS RELEASE – Boosting organic production and consumption in Cambodia

Signature of the Agreement

Signature of the Agreement

02 September 2016

Germany enters a partnership with Khmer Organic Cooperative Co., Ltd to promote production schemes for organic agriculture and link producers into ASEAN markets

The Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), enters a cooperation agreement with the Khmer Organic Cooperative Co., Ltd (KOC) until February 2018, to establish two organic certified demonstration farms, focusing on fruits and vegetables. The prepared farms later on will be used as a national organic training center for Cambodia. More >>>

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All activities are implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).