Banteay Srei has been working with women and men in Battambang and Siem Reap provinces for over 19 years with the aim of empowering vulnerable women to improve their political, economic and social situation by implementing community development projects, advocacy work, and networking. This proposal sets out Banteay Srei’s plan to work with 53 communities over the next four years, with the aim of empowering vulnerable women to improve their political, economic and social situation.

Cambodia is a country of widespread poverty, with over 30% of the total population living on less than $1.25/day. The majority of the population also face limited access to education (particularly at secondary level and above), land and food insecurity. This poverty is even more pronounced in the rural areas where Banteay Srei works. Women face significant inequalities; there has been some improvement in recent years, particularly in girls access to education and women’s role in politics but the difference in opportunities and power between men and women is still very marked. One significant indicator of this is a continuing high rate of gender based violence (studies estimate around 23%). This problem is made worse by poor and unequal access to the justice system, which presents particular barriers to the poor. Increasing decentralisation and recent changes to the law have improved the framework and opportunities for rural communities to participate in development but these changes are, so far, poorly implemented in many areas and much education is needed in order for people to access their rights.

Banteay Srei has been tackling these issues in 27 villages for a long period of time, and has seen significant individual and community success in improving the position of women politically, economically and socially. In these villages it is focusing on further improvements, while increasingly handing over responsibility and ‘phasing out’ its involvement. This has given opportunity to extend its programme into a further 26 villages, and this number will be further increased as the phasing out process is completed. These target areas have a total population of nearly 12,000 families – over 63,000 people.

The programme that Banteay Srei is following (both in older and newer areas) seeks to achieve its vision, mission and goals (see box next page) through five main objectives over the next three years:

The programme has been developed with the full participation of staff, who have considered both the overall vision and strategy and developed the detailed activities that they will implement with target communities. The way in which the programme is implemented is as important as the activities undertaken. Banteay Srei seeks to be a values-driven organisation, using the following key approaches in its activity design and implementation:

A detailed monitoring methodology is used which uses ‘Most Significant Change’ techniques to capture qualitative information about the real differences the programmes are making in individual lives, as well as gathering quantitative information about the programmes impact. Much work has been done on developing this system, which is now beginning to be familiar to staff and yield richer information about the programme effects.

Banteay Srei continues to develop its own capacity as an organisation, training its staff in new tools and techniques and improving its internal systems to be more responsive and effective. A recent organisational evaluation recognised the strength of staff commitment and learning, while helping to prioritize areas for further development in the coming period.

This programme of activities represents a continuation of Banteay Srei’s commitment to the communities it works with, while identifying new areas to develop and new challenges to respond to, both locally and globally. Over the next four years, it is hoped that women and men in these communities can continue to be enabled to manage their own development and make positive changes to their livelihoods, relationships and society.