Social Accountability

The training on Social Accountability was conducted on 16-17 October 2013 at the Open Institute office. The purpose of the training was to build the knowledge capacity and confidence of ordinary citizens, particularly in our target audiences of youth and commune/Sangkat councilors.

Furthermore, the Open Institute wish to educate these groups on important elements of social accountability in Cambodia, in order to increase public accountability so that Cambodia can effectively practice good governance, effective public service delivery, sustainable development, and empowerment of citizens. Social Accountability is an important mechanism that citizens, communities, independent media, and civil society organizations can use to hold public officials accountable for their actions. The use of social accountability can increase the effectiveness of our society by improving the accessibility of services to our citizens and increasing the empowerment of our population.

Participants of the training were councilors from both municipality and provinces such as Phnom Penh, Battambang, Siem Reap, and Kandal province; and students from Universities, Youth from People Health Development Association (PHD) and from Khmer Youth and Social Development Organization (KYSD) networks.

Ms. Chim ManavyIn her welcoming remarks to the participants, Ms. Manavy, Executive Director of the Open Institute explained that this was the first training on Social Accountability that had ever been conducted at the Open Institute. She spoke briefly about the full meaning of Social Accountability and refereed to both the duties of citizens and the authorities to take responsibility for ensuring socially accountability. There must be participation from ordinary citizens and civil society organizations, both directly and indirectly, in order to ensure real social accountability in Cambodia.

​Ms. Kasumi NakagawaIn her Opening Speech, Ms. Kasumi Nakagawa, Vice Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Open Institute, explained that she was really excited for opening speech and for the training course on Social Accountability. Though this is the first time the event has been held at OI, previously, the Open Institute has cooperated with National League of Communes/ Sangkats (NLC/S) to organize many training courses in Phnom Penh. She continued that through her talk with Mr. Chheav Nak, a Consultant of Demand for Good Governance Project (DFGG) at the Ministry of Interior, the trainer, the DFGG has tried to find a network partner so that they can continue to support the Open Institute and provide the training course on Social Accountability to other provinces in order to increase councilors’ knowledge of good governance in Cambodia and promote good governance to help citizens receive better public services. Ms. Kasumi Nakagawa continued by explaining that this training was organized for commune/ Songkat councilor and university students because they were the target group of the project “Promoting Youth Engagement in Development through the use of ICT”. After being trained on social accountability, Sangkat Councilor, NGOs, and the government have started to disseminate information on Social Accountability to all communes; however, because of an overall lack of education and information on this topic, the dissemination of such information have been limited. Even though youth were a significant factor to promote efficiency, social accountability, and development for the country, they still did not fully understand the concept of Social Accountability. Accordingly, the Open Institute decided to bring the topic of Social Accountability to commune / Sangkat councilor and university students in order to share knowledge and experience to one another. The Swedish program on ICT for Developing Regions (SPIDER) funded this program. At the end of her speech Ms. Kasumi Nakagawa thanked the National League for Commune/ Sangkat, councilors for their constant support and cooperation with Open Institute. She also thanked NGOs partners including KYSD and PHD who invited University students to be involved.

In his welcome remarks Mr. Chheav Nak—DFGG Consultant, Ministry of Interior, from2008 to 2009—explained that the training on Social Accountability has been conducted three times already, and 3000 participants have attended these sessions. Expert speakers from foreign countries such as The Philippines, Indonesia, etc facilitated those trainings. Mr. Chheav Nak continued by saying that youth played an important role in society in terms of making economic and political changes to the country.

រូបភាព​លម្អ 1៖រូបភាព​សកម្មភាព​វគ្គ​បណ្ដុះបណ្ដាល ដោយ​លោក ឈីវ ណាក់ ទីប្រឹក្សា​គម្រោង​អភិបាល​កិច្ច​ល្អ​មូលដ្ឋាន​នៃ​ក្រសួង​មហាផ្ទៃThe training was conducted for two days; there were nine sub topics such as (1) Concept of good governance, Social Accountability and Democratic development, (2) Experiences and Practice of Democratic Development in Cambodia especially experiences from other counties, (3) Structure and Accountability line of local Authorities at Sub-National level, (4) Role, Right, and Responsibilities of Citizenship and Civil Society Organizations in promoting good governance and social accountability, (5) Relationship between the council of Krong/ Sangkat,Khum, Sangkatand citizens, (6) Citizen Participation in Planning and Budgeting, Public Forum Organization using video case study for learning purpose, (9) Citizen Participation in Monthly Commune-Sangkat meeting.
Miss. Ham Sreynich, Cambodia University student and volunteer of KYSD, said that the training provided much benefit; because KYSD has provided her with an opportunity to receive knowledge related society. She gained a lot of understanding on the topics and processed the main points from the facilitator including, Social Accountability, the relationship between the council of Krong /Srok, khum sangkat and citizen. Before starting the training, she did not consider the citizens to be working closely with the authorities, but after the training she has earned about her important relationship and role between citizens and authorities: citizens play the role of demander and government plays the role of supplier, thus these seemingly disparate groups work closely together. The young woman said that she would share her newfound knowledge from the training course with her family and her friends. She suggested that they should provide more training courses to build capacity and provide new creative ideas for people in Cambodia.

Mr. Nov Bun, Sangkat Councilor at OreuseyI, said that he has learned lessons related to this topic as well. During the 2-day training, he gained a much stronger understanding about the roles, rights and responsibilities of Citizenship and Civil Society Organizations in promoting good governance and Social Accountability and Public forum organization using a video case study for learning purposes. In the past, we have never used video case studies, but this year we started using them to provide an opportunity for people who are not satisfied with their living standards to depict their problem in order to find a solution. Mr. Nov Bun suggested that government should provide more training courses related to good governance and social accountability in order to build the capacity of citizens as much as possible.

That training has provided a great amount of understanding to participants and has allowed both University students and Commune/Sangkat councilor to share ideas about the lessons they learned and their experiences. Beside this, they formed close relationships, cooperated well with each other, and served as good examples for each other to follow. Therefore, the training was completed smoothly and was, overall, very successful. Almost all participants were really appreciative and wanted to join the training in the future.

Mr. Chheav Nak DFGG Consultant, Ministry of Interior, gave the definition of Social Accountability Date: 17 October, 2013 Photo by Open Institute Mr. Nov Bun, Sangkat Councilor at OreuseyI, expressed about his feeling and told what he has learnt
Date: 17 October, 2013
Photo by Open Institute
Miss. Ham Sreynich, Cambodia University student, said that the training was provided much benefit to her.
Date: 17 October, 2013
Photo by Open Institute		 The participants took attention during learning on Social Accountability
Date: 17 October, 2013
Photo by Open Institute
Participants
Date : 17 Oct 2013
Photo bye Open Insitute		 Participants
Date : 17 Oct 2013
Photo bye Open Insitute
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