Cambodia
Development Challenges
Challenges
at
individual level
Time management issue
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There is an
imbalance between times allocated for working and for
learning. Most people, especially managers and top leaders
used to say "I am too busy" and I do not have times to
learn. Obviously, this seems a good reason, but actually
those leaders do have times, but they do not manage them
well
Difficult to learn and unlearn
Many Cambodians who
passed the Khmer Rouge regime are living with post trauma
effects, and thus they have limited ability to learn as they
face difficulties to unlearn (unlearn means to let go the old
unhelpful things and take one new helpful things). Many other
Cambodians can learn and get good knowledge and skills, but
often they find difficult to implement their learning into
actions to make a change. Some people know and understand about
specific subject, but they are reluctant to change as they feel
unsafe to do so.
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On the other hand, it was observed that Cambodian people have
different perspectives towards learning approaches, and often
Cambodian learners like an approach, which make them more easy
to follow and comfortable to join, e.g. a leaning process, in
which learners have less (or no) responsibility than
facilitator. It is an expectation of the “best answer” or a
“right or wrong answer” for any specific question or issue. It
is also expected that facilitator need to give answer right away
when a question is asked.
Learning about how to learn
When this term is introduced, a lot of Cambodian people seem not
taking it as serious. They might think that only child need to
learn about how to learn, but for them they feel they to learn.
However, there are many challenges in this context as many
people struggle to be an effectively learners, in which they
need to learn a range of “learning skills”, but often they
overlook these skills and jump to learn the subject or
professional skills. As result, no deep learning can be taken
place. In fact, learning skills such as (critical) thinking
skills, mind mapping, questioning, reading skills etc. are
prerequisites for effective professional learning.
Learning needs
My observation was that many Cambodians are still struggle in
identifying their own learning needs. Some of them said that
their supervisors should know about their learning needs and
send them to an appropriate training course. It is a Cambodian
pattern that people not like to express their weaknesses as they
might feel losing face by doing so. This creates a barrier for
identifying learning needs. Some people understand learning need
as similar to a “request” for a training or workshop.
During training, workshop or a learning process, participants
used to view their role as “customer”, and view the facilitator
as “supplier”. Based on this perspective, it creates an
expectation of participants for the facilitator to respond to
what the “customer” wants. Throughout my experience, the
customer used to say: we want the facilitator to give us more
handouts, good refreshment and lunch, good training room, good
per-diem and travel allowance etc. Are all of these the
important participants’ needs (for me they are strategies rather
than needs)? Some participants said: we pay so much money, so
the facilitator should tell us any answer we need instead of
asking us to think and work out ourselves.
Assessing the success
It is also one important challenge, in which an external
consultant is hired by an NGO director to evaluate effectives of
the organization and impact of its program. Often, we observed
that the consultant tries to give a diplomatic and acceptable
feedback to the NGO. The purpose of doing this is not to make
the NGO unhappy about the feedback, and at the same time having
completed an assigned task. One of m development colleague said:
if the consultant very critical and honest feedback, the NGO
director might feel not happy about this, and as result the
consultant will not be hired anymore in the future.
Practical experience vs. skills to transfer skills
For many years while I was performing my management role, I
constantly heard from my colleagues as trainers who were given
feedback by participants during management training "
...that
management trainers were not in the position to give concrete
examples regarding management matters as they lack of practical
experience (common participants' feedback)."
This feedback is very valid, i.e. learning facilitators can help
the learners to lean best when they can give real/concrete
examples related to the subject discussed, to deepen learners’
understanding and to make good connection between the theory and
practice. However, in the reality, many trainers do not have
practical working experience before they train other people.
In contradiction to that, a person, who has many practical
working experience does not automatically mean that s/he can
facilitate others to do or to learn doing a certain thing.
Often, a person is very skillful in performing a job, but as
s/he need to help other people to learn to do the same job, s/he
often struggle as s/he is lack of “skills to transfer skills” to
other people to do the job instead of doing the job for them.
This example occurred many times with the Advisor position in an
organization, in which the Technical Advisors (whether a
Cambodian or expatriate) supposed to help and facilitate
Cambodian staff to be capable to do the job on their own. Due to
the lack of transferring skills (or maybe other reasons), the
Advisors just keeping doing the job themselves and Cambodian
staff remain dependent from the Advisors. In summary, if you
want to facilitate other people to do a job, it should be best
when you have two kinds of skills, practical experience and
skills regarding to the subject (i.e. you can do the work), and
the transferring skills (the way or process that you help other
people to learn doing the work).
Difficulties in changing behaviors
Many Cambodian development practitioners have learned a lot of
knowledge and skills, but they have no willingness to change
themselves, so they prefer to keep status quo and doing the same
thing or doing things in the same (old) ways. All development
practitioners called themselves or were called as “change
agents”, but often they struggle in changing themselves.
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You can never change society
if
you have not changed yourself.
Nissan
main dealer Nelson Mandela
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Lack of individual good role modeling
My observation was that many Cambodians either not willing to be
a role modeler (for a variety of reasons) or they wait to see
others people (especially the powerful people) act as role
modeler so that they will follow. It is also my observation for
those (low status) people who try to act as good role modeler
were facing either the challenges from the society pressure or
the risks by powerful people. However, when we are doing
development work, we would like to see change, and the question
is “where to start the change”? One obvious and effective
solution is to start from ourselves.
In Cambodia, it is rare and hard to see good honest role
modeling from individual person, both in NGO and public sector,
but instead many “bad” models exist throughout the country such
as violence, dictatorship, rudeness etc. From time to time, I
heart many NGO staff said: my boss is so autocratic or even a
small thing like “I saw many people do not stop driving by red
traffic light”. My questions to development practitioners are:
if you see your boss is autocratic, will you copy this and do it
the same to other people below you, or will you do differently?
When you see people do not stop by red traffic light, will you
follow those people or you stop?
A subject that is very link to the role modeling is “walking the
talk”. Most people (both Cambodians and expatriates) find so
difficult in walking their talk. Walking the talk means doing
yourself first before asking other to do or practice what you
preach. In the development work, we often educate people to
change, but we often struggle to change ourselves. For example
NGO directors used to say “Government leaders stayed too long in
the power, and only the same persons (same face) are leading the
country, so there is no big positive change”, but at the same
time many NGO directors themselves stayed also very long (some
time for their life) in the director’s position in their
organization. Other example was that some development workers
try to promote development vales for participation and
empowerment to their target groups while autocratic leadership
style is being used in their own organization. Walk the talk
also need to be happened at organizational level.
When all of these remain the challenges in Cambodia’s
development sector, then the effectiveness of Cambodia’s
development is really questioned.
Expatriate technical advisors
My understanding was that, generally, in Cambodia, expatriate
technical advisors are hired to provide technical support to
Cambodians to build their capacity so that after a period of
times, the Cambodian will be able to manage the project /
organization themselves. In the reality, Cambodians view
expatriates as their boss, and advices often were seen as
“instructions” that they feel they need to implement. From the
Cambodian point of view, often we assume that expatriates have
the capacity to do every thing.
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An Asian wise man said:
When a person
is given a fish, s/he can make soup for once only,
but if a person
is tough to catch fish, s/he will have fish to eat forever.
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In the reality, the technical advisors, who come to work in
Cambodia’s development sector, have faced many challenges. First
is the communication barrier (language) as not many Cambodians
can speak good English and expatriates cannot speak Khmer
either. Second is the challenge with socio-cultural environment
as Cambodians have different history and culture that different
from theirs and often beyond the capacity of expatriates to
understand. This challenge also includes of the context how to
make their “western” useful and applicable to the Cambodian
context (many expatriates were struggle with this). Third is the
question of expatriate capacity in transferring their skills to
Cambodians as many expatriates have the practical working
experience, but not necessarily have the “skills to transfer
skills”. As conclusion, expatriates also need support for
themselves in order to provide support the Cambodians.
Furthermore, some organizations were not clear about the
expatriate roles in their organizations or some times they do
clarify the roles, but there are no clear strategies to achieve
those roles.
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Challenges
at
organizational level
There are many good
news from Cambodia development sector. Generally, NGOs were
recognized and trusted by the Communities and Cambodian people.
Many people indicated that NGOs have save their life from being
violent or exploit by powerful people. While the public services
in Cambodia are poor managed and accessed by the poor, NGOs play
an important role in filling that gaps. Even though, the impact
can be more significant if NGOs have improved their internal
development and management, and their programs. These challenges
include:
Lack of leaning and adaptation
A number of NGOs have learned many things, but they find
difficult to turn their learning into actions to improve their
practice. Often, there were no systematic and regular
reflections to review their current activities and strategies to
draw lessons learned to improve future practice. Some
organizations just do what the donors want rather than having
real commitment to be an effective and improved organization in
order to bring positive changes to the Cambodia’s development.
Furthermore, many western theories are good and they should have
been applied in Cambodia successfully. Even though the question
lies on how these theories are transferred or implemented in
Cambodia based on its context? It should be more effective if
they are adapted to the circumstances in Cambodia rather than
putting them as the whole “original” into Cambodian practice. It
would also helpful when they can be translated into Khmer and
make available for Cambodians.
Lack of good internal practice
While a number of NGOs are trying to demonstrate good practice
with their internal management, it was observed that a number of
NGOs established and functioned in a model like a family
business, in which the husband is the Director, wife as finance
manager, and son works as project officer. Many NGO directors
consider the organization as “own property”, or their own
“Kingdom” and they used to mention “the organization of Mr. A,
the organization of Mrs. B etc.” rather than view it as an
institution of a shared ownership to serve public interests.
Nepotism is a big issue, which prevents NGOs from doing good
practice. Based on the record of the Ministry of Interior,
currently, there are around 2000 NGOs registered in Cambodia,
but the numbers of active NGOs are unknown.
Not walking the talk
There is always problematic in Cambodia’s development regarding
“walking the talk”. There are so many talks, but seems little
practice “walks”. In the NGO context, not walking the talk means
an NGO, who supposed to work against a certain social issue,
often felt difficult to solve this issue within their
organization or their leaderships. For examples:
A number of NGOs educate people to use participatory approaches
and democracy while their own leadership style or
decision-making are very autocratic or top-down. Others are
working to combat violence while much (non-physical) violence
exists within their own organizations.
Organizations want to see changes in their targeted
beneficiaries, but often they struggle to make changes within
their own internal functioning and management.
Organizational staff members do not internalize the in-use
development values, and therefore, they act differently from
what they believe (behaviors at the work place and at home are
different).
Government officials even more struggle with walking the talk,
especially when they are working in a “controlled” system, which
make them difficult to have space and freedom to implement what
they have learned or wanted to do.
Cambodians and expatriates working together
As mentioned at individual level, there are challenges for
expatriates in working in Cambodia. In many organizations in
Cambodia, expatriates are needed for a number of reasons, and it
is going to need expatriates working in Cambodia’s development
sector in the future. Expatriates bring many varieties into the
development work to build multi-cultural organizations. They
brought many experiences (especially the western concepts) into
Cambodia, and Cambodians have gained a lot of benefits from
that. However, the questions are about their roles within an
organization and their relationships to the Cambodian
colleagues.
With regard to the roles of expatriates in an organization, it
was often stated that expatriates should build the Cambodian
capacity to do the work, but after a decade, many work, which
supposed to be done by Cambodian, is still undertaken by
expatriates, and many Cambodians are still very much depending
on expatriate support. Was the role not clear to expatriates and
their Cambodian colleagues? Were expatriates not in the position
to transfer skills and expertise to Cambodians (as lack of
skills to transfer the skills), or there was an issue of
Cambodian ability to learn? Was there a lack of expatriates’
willingness and commitment to “teach Cambodian to get fish” or
it was a weak commitment of Cambodian colleagues to change and
take their own responsibilities on Cambodia’s development? Was a
concrete mechanism in place to ensure effective skills transfer?
A further question is about the relationships between
expatriates and Cambodians in an organization. I have a positive
view of having expatriates working with Cambodians, but my
observation was that, not in every circumstance, the
relationships remain very “hierarchical” between the two them.
Often, the relationship looks seem a modern “patronage-client”,
in which the expatriates are patrons and the Cambodians are
clients. Here again, it is questioned whether the expatriates
have studied this kind of relationship in the old Cambodia
society, and want to practice it, or it is from the Cambodian
colleagues, who prefer to d so as they perceive expatriate
power. How does it say and link to development values such as
empowerment, dependency, sustainability etc.?
Localization
This topic is very link to the working relationships between
expatriates and Cambodians. Localization often refers to an
international organization, which has expatriate leader(s), and
wants to transfer leadership to Cambodians. It can mean that
expatriate management positions are replaced by Cambodians
and/or the highest level position (director, country
representative) is transferred to Cambodian.
Localization initiatives often come from donors, who wish to
effectively and efficiently use of local resources to achieve
more positive changes. Localization is a sensitive issue, and it
was always tension when discussing it. Fears and anxiety
feelings were shown. In a bad word, localization also means
“kicking expatriate out of the job”, and we can understand why
people have tension about it. For Cambodians, who wish to depend
on expatriates, localization brings a lot of fears for them as
they believe on expatriates’ ability to raise funds rather than
Cambodians’.
There are some successful examples of localization, in which
organizations have a clear commitment to the localization
process, and Cambodians were given the opportunity to learn
practicing the highest position in an organization during a
stable circumstance. On the other hand, it as often observed
that some expatriate leaders led the organization for a very long
period (e.g. more than 10 years) and they always have good
reasons to explain doors why their organization cannot be
localized. The organizational life continues with expatriate
leadership until its decay phase (e.g. internal management
crisis, donors stop funding etc.), then a localization plan was
thought.
A Cambodian, who is appointed to replace the expatriate Director
in that particular circumstance, will face many challenges and
crisis handed over by former expatriate director. In case, s/he
fails, then blames will certainly come to her/him for “not
strong enough” to lead.
Fighting against
symptoms rather than root causes
Many development interventions focused on symptoms rather than
the root causes of the problem. Many development practitioners
are still struggling (or lack of professional ability) in
identifying the root causes of the problems, and therefore their
interventions are not effective. It was observed, for instance,
that some NGOs working to help women to promote their rights,
often only work with women as their target groups (the victims),
and not have serious considered involving men, who often are
root causes of the problem.
Often, I heard many people (including some development agencies)
saying that “the cause of a certain issue is the poverty”, e.g.
“Many Cambodian youths are abusing drugs and domestic violence,
and poverty is the cause for that…”.
In my view, this analysis is somewhat useless for Cambodians.
How can we find a constructive solution if we view poverty as a
cause? Many Cambodians will say “so, we can’t do anything about
it as we are poor”. The perception of viewing poverty as a cause
rather than effect really makes Cambodians (including some
development practitioners) hopeless and struggle to find ways
forward. So, view poverty is an effect rather than a cause!!!
Moreover, as the Cambodian people believe in
Karma, often, the powerful people used to manipulate that “fate
and destiny” cause poverty. Many development workers do not
believe like this, but as many poor Cambodians were stuck with
their difficult life for such a long period, they have to live
with it.
Challenging the emergency needs
There are so many cases and situations that Cambodian people
requires immediate assistances such as foods, medical relief
etc., and this lead to a situation where people perceive
development as a “given”. When this perception will be
end? We don’t know!
Many development practitioners want to promote sustainable
development by encouraging Cambodian poor to depend on
themselves. When they go to the villages, they see many people
are so poor and need immediate helps, so the practitioners
struggle to implement their development strategy while seeing
people cannot meet their daily basis needs.
Power and empowerment
In
Cambodia, power is a significant issue in the development. When
this concept is introduced, people often understand in terms of
“getting the power” or “power over” rather than “power within”.
In Cambodian. A mean to get power is often the use of violence
and physical force. So, it sounds fearful when hearing the word
power.
The word “empowerment” is very common used in the current
Cambodian development sector. This word is translated into Khmer
as “to give power”, and often is very confused in its
application. Its meaning seems to persuade someone to fight
against other one, or to behave higher status than someone else.
Another word “building self-confidence” is more meaningful or
appropriate than to be translated “giving or providing power”.
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Challenges at
society level
Historical, socio-cultural forces
When talking about Cambodia’s development, we cannot afford not
to talk and to be aware of Cambodian historical context,
and socio-cultural factors that undermine it. After
Angkor glory, Cambodia has gone through several periods of
extreme negative changes, which led to develop many unhelpful
patterns such as lack of confidence, lack of trust, fearful
behaviors, expatriate dependency, short-terms thinking etc. In
other countries, they might face similar consequences when they
experienced such events. For development practitioners, failure
to recognize those aspects will result to non-effective
development interventions.
Unforgivable trauma
The trauma left by the Khmer Rouge blocks the Cambodians
to move forward constructively. This perception is not new to
anyone in the development sector. In my view, if the development
practitioners intend to make an effort to move Cambodian
development five steps forward (for example), the trauma would
hold it back four steps or even more (writer emphasis). The
fearful experience makes Cambodians difficult to unlearn, and
this is another root cause that hinders positive change.
Unhelpful patterns from Cambodian society
Many development practitioners try to do many good development
work including changing their own behaviors and practice. They
can do this very good within their organization, but when they
go back home to the community where they are living, they were
very much influenced by the socio-cultural forces, which are
more powerful than what they can do. This leads them to have
different beliefs and actions between their organization context
and in their community. For example, within the NGO work, we
promote “equitable relationships between people”, but when we
come home, we see that we are living in a society, which is
dominated by hierarchical status. So, the question is “what
should we follow?” Should we try to challenge all people around
our house and some times exclude ourselves from the community or
should we copy this pattern from community and take it back to
our organization? Often, their espoused values in the Cambodian
society and in their organization are different.
Corruption is a big issue in Cambodia, which always brings bad
Cambodian “face” to the world. People can’t believe that while
the Cambodian history indicates that the Khmer people used to be
honest and have integrity in the society, but there are such
many corruptions exist in the current Cambodian society. The
corruption seems being developed to be a constant practice or a
“pattern” in Cambodia as it happens everywhere in this society,
government, private sector, and also NGOs.
