Overseas Fieldwork Report 2018:

Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia

Graduate School of International Development
Nagoya University

Overseas Fieldwork Report 2018

Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia

March 2019
Graduate School of International Development
Nagoya University
Nagoya, Japan

Overseas Fieldwork Report 2018
Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia
Copyright © GSID 2019

Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University
Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan 464-8601
https://www.gsid.nagoya-u.ac.jp/index-en.html

Acknowledgments
Like all the previous years, Overseas Fieldwork 2018 could not have been realized without the kindand heartfelt support from many people and offices. It is my honour, on behalf of the Overseas
Fieldwork Project faculty and students of the Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya
University, to express our sincerest gratitude to all the people who supported us by making kindarrangements and sharing their knowledge.
We are indebted to the Governor of Kampong Chhnang Province and his staff for accepting ourfieldwork project, making the necessary arrangements with local stakeholders and patiently listening
and giving useful advice to students regarding their preliminary findings. We are also grateful to thevillage chiefs, staff members of government offices, and all the people who generously shared theirtime and knowledge to help with our fieldwork.
We are also heavily indebted to the faculty and students of the Royal University of Phnom Penh
(RUPP). Without hesitation, our biggest “thank you” goes to Prof. Sam Ath Chin. Without his support,
OFW 2018 would not have been as smooth as it was. Our warm appreciation, of course, goes to thefaculty members of RUPP, Prof. Youhan Hor and Prof. Vin Spoann who, despite their busy schedules,
made time to come with us to Kampong Chhnang and gave valuable advice and support to ourstudents. Our gratitude also goes to the three students from RUPP, Mr. Vichara Lay, Mr. Seyha Kry,
and Mr. Chanthol Soth, who assisted OFW 2018. Last but not least, I would like to express warm
appreciation to Dr. Penghuy Ngov. His warm support and joyous company always lifted up our spirits,
and his thoughtful tips enabled us to navigate a safer path.
Takeshi Higashimura
Professor
Chair of OFW 2018 Committee
Graduate School of International Development
Nagoya UniversityiIntroduction
The twenty-sixth Overseas Fieldwork (OFW 2018) of the Graduate School of International
Development (GSID), Nagoya University, was carried out in Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia,
from September 16 to September 30, 2018. OFW is an important part of GSID’s curriculum, designed
to provide students with exposure to the “real world” development issues of a developing country.
This experience will help students seeking future careers in international development obtain practicalinsights to complement their theoretical orientation. OFW also enables students to understand theimportance of an inter-disciplinary/comprehensive approach when tackling practical development
issues that often arise among stakeholders with conflicting interests. Such an approach is particularly
important to make the development process fully participatory and sustainable in practice, and its
importance can only be well learnt in the field.
Each year, GSID carries out OFW in a developing country in Asia in cooperation with a local
partner university of GSID. This year, the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) once again kindly
accepted to host the OFW, adding to the past successful collaborations in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2012,2013, 2014 and 2017. Building on many years of cherished relationships between the two universities,
OFW 2018 was managed smoothly and it contributed to further strengthening GSID’s ties ofacademic exchange and collaboration with this prestigious university in Cambodia.
Considering the relevance of topics to Kampong Chhnang’s local development context, we
divided 13 graduate students into three thematic working groups: Economics (WG1), Governance(WG2), and Education (WG3), to study and observe various dimensions of development in that area
in a holistic manner. Students conducted their research in Khong Rang Commune communities ofBaribour District and Kampong Chhnang City, Kampong Chhnang Province. On September 27, theteams of OFW 2018 had the honour to present their preliminary research findings to the provincial
governor and local officials. On September 28, before departure from Phnom Penh, they shared theirfindings at RUPP to receive feedback from faculty and students. On October 31, we also held apresentation session at GSID.
This report is the outcome of all the efforts mentioned above. Students of all working groups
worked very hard, polishing their analyses and incorporating the comments and advice received at
the presentations and in the course of their fieldwork. It is my hope that the entire experience of OFW
made the students draw closer to the complexity of reality and made them realize the excitement ofworking with people. I also would like to thank Prof. Adam Smith for the English editing of thisvolume.
Takeshi Higashimura
Professor
Chair of OFW 2018 Committee
Graduate School of International Development
Nagoya UniversityiiTable of Contents
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................ i
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... ii
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................iii
List of Participants .......................................................................................................................... v
Program of OFW 2018................................................................................................................... vi
Kampong Chhnang Province of Cambodia .................................................................................. 1
Working Group 1
Income Diversification in Rural Area: A Case Study in Khon Rang Commune in Kampong
Chhnang Province ........................................................................................................................... 4
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 6
2. Literature Review ....................................................................................................................................... 6
3. Problem Statement...................................................................................................................................... 7
4. Research Objectives ................................................................................................................................... 8
5. Research Questions .................................................................................................................................... 8
6. Research Significance ................................................................................................................................ 9
7. Hypothesis .................................................................................................................................................. 9
8. Methodology............................................................................................................................................... 9
9. Findings .................................................................................................................................................... 11
10. Discussion............................................................................................................................................... 18
11. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 19
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................................ 21
References ................................................................................................................................................... 22
Appendix: Questionnaire .............................................................................................................................. 24

Working Group 2
Solid Waste Management in Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia: The Collaborative Roles of the
Local Government and the Private Sector ................................................................................. 26
1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 28
2. Literature Review ..................................................................................................................................... 28
3. Problem Statement.................................................................................................................................... 30
4. Research Objectives ................................................................................................................................. 31
5. Research Questions .................................................................................................................................. 32
6. Hypotheses ............................................................................................................................................... 32
7. Methodology............................................................................................................................................. 32
8. Significance of the Study.......................................................................................................................... 33iii

9. Findings .................................................................................................................................................... 34
10. Discussion............................................................................................................................................... 38
11. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 42
12. Recommendation .................................................................................................................................... 43
Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................................ 43
References .................................................................................................................................................... 44
Appendices ................................................................................................................................................... 46

Working Group 3
The Evaluation of Program Organization and Parental Support of Early Childhood
Education: A case study of Kampong Chhnang City................................................................. 50
1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 52
2. Literature review............................................................................................................................................... 53
3. Problem statement ............................................................................................................................................ 54
4. Research objective and questionnaire ............................................................................................................. 55
5. Methodology..................................................................................................................................................... 56
6. Findings ............................................................................................................................................................ 57
7. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................ 65
Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................. 68
References ............................................................................................................................................................ 69

List of Individual and Company Donors to the Overseas Fieldwork Fund .................................................. 70
海外実地研修基金に拠出いただいた個人・企業一覧................................................................................... 71

iv

List of Participants
Faculty Members (7)Working Group

GSID, Nagoya University

Royal University of Phnom Penh

WG1

Takeshi Higashimura

Youhan Hor

WG2

Yuzuru Shimada

Vin Spoann

WG3

Sho Masaki

Sam Ath Chin

Logistics/Coordination

Yuki Shimazu

Assistants from RUPP (3)Working Group

Name

Sex

WG1

Vichara Lay

M

WG2

Seyha Kry

M

WG3

Chanthol SothM

GSID Students (13)Working Group

WG1

WG2

WG3

Name

Nationality

Sex

Yuki Kawasaki

Japanese

M

Kotaro Shimada *JapaneseM

Meng Ren

ChineseF

Eve Hida Morei

Palau

F

Huili Lai

ChineseF

Yui Asaoka *JapaneseF

Akinori Imada

JapaneseM

Kexiao Cao

ChineseM

Yosuke Mukaide

JapaneseM

Misora Ohara

JapaneseF

Ting He

ChineseM

Simon Narayan

FijianM

Ledan Yu *ChineseF* Group leaderv

Program of OFW 2018
Preparatory Seminar at GSID
Date
Apr. 25(Wed)
May. 2(Wed)
May. 9(Wed)
May. 23(Wed)

May. 30(Wed)

Jun. 6(Wed)
Jun. 13(Wed)
Jun. 20(Wed)
Jun. 27(Wed)
Jul. 4(Wed)
Jul. 11(Wed)
Jul. 18(Wed)
Jul. 25(Wed)
Sept. 14
(Fri)

Time
14:45-16:15

Title of the Lecture
Introduction & Teambuilding
OFW2017 presentations

14:45-16:15

About Cambodia and Kampong Chhnang Province

14:45-16:15

An Introduction to Cambodian Community

14:45-16:15

Education Development in Cambodia

Lecturer
OFW Committee
Prof. Sam Ath Chin,
RUPP
Prof. Satoru Kobayashi,
Kyoto University
Prof. Sam Ath Chin,
RUPP

Contemporary History and Administration System ofProf. Kuong Teilee,

Cambodia

Nagoya University

Research Methodology

Prof. Satoru Kobayashi,(Joint session with DFW seminar)

Kyoto University

Interim Presentation

OFW Committee

How to Make Research Proposal

Prof. Robert Croker,(Joint session with DFW seminar)

Nanzan University

Research Ethics

Prof. Wataru Kusaka,(Joint session with DFW seminar)

Nagoya University

Community Development in Cambodia:

Prof. Ayako Ido,

Issues and Challenges

Nagoya University

14:45-16:15

Consultation/Group Discussion

OFW Committee

14:45-16:15

Presentation on Research Proposal

OFW Committee

14:45-16:15
16:30-18:00
14:45-16:15
14:45-16:15
16:30-18:00
14:45-16:15

Prof. Akinari Hoshino,
14:45-16:15

Risk Management

Prof. Takashi Sakai,
Nagoya University
Mr. Vannpoly Chhay,

14:45-16:15

Khmer Language

13:00-14:00

Pre-departure Orientation

Nagoya Universityvi

OFW Committee

Schedule of Fieldwork in Cambodia
Date
Sept. 16 (Sun)Sept. 17 (Mon)

Sept. 18 (Tue)Time

Activity

10:00-13:40

Nagoya – Ho Chi Minh City (VN341)

15:55-16:50

Ho Chi Minh City – Phnom Penh (VN920)

10:00-11:30

Lecture by Dr. Sok Soth at RUPP

13:30-

Move to Kampong Chhnang Province

18:00-20:00

Get to know each other party

9:00-11:30

Courtesy visit at Provincial governor’s office

13:00-

Group work (planning)

Sept. 19 (Wed)Group work (data collection & data analysis)

Sept. 20 (Thu)Group work (data collection & data analysis)

Sept. 21 (Fri)Group work (data collection & data analysis)

Sept. 22 (Sat)Free time / Group work (data collection & data analysis)

Sept. 23 (Sun)Free time

Sept. 24 (Mon)Group work (data collection & data analysis)

Sept. 25 (Tue)Group work (data collection & data analysis)

Sept. 26 (Wed)Group work (presentation preparation)

Sept. 27 (Thu)

Sept. 28 (Fri)

Sept. 29 (Sat)
Sept. 30 (Sun)15:00-17:00

Interim Presentation of Research Findings

17:30-19:30

Thank you party

10:00-

Move to Phnom Penh

14:00-16:00

Presentation at RUPP

10:00-

City tour with group members

21:10-22:10

Phnom Penh – Ho Chi Minh City (VN3850)

0:05-7:30

Ho Chi Minh City – Nagoya (VN340)

Interim Presentations of Research Findings
The interim presentation of research findings was held at Kampong Chhnang province on September 27th,
2018. Based on the comments received in Kampong Chhnang, participants made another interim presentationin the Royal University of Phnom Penh on September 28th, 2018. Each working group presented for 20 minutes
and followed by Q&A session by the participants.

Presentation of Research Findings at GSID
The presentation of research findings was held at GSID by each working group to disseminate and to collectfeedback from colleagues on October 31st, 2018.

vii

Kampong Chhnang Province of Cambodia
Sam Ath Chin
Geographical Area and Demographic Situation:
Kampong Chhnang is a province of Cambodia
which is located on National Road 5 about 91 km
from the capital city, Phnom Penh. This province isbordered by Kampong Thom to the north, Kampong
Cham to the east, Kampong Speu to the south andPursat to the west. The total population of thisprovince is 538,945 with an annual population
growth rate of 0.27 in 2015.
Situation next to the great Tonle Sap Lake, theprovince is renowned for its irrigation system
consisting of rivers, canals and streams that is used
for paddy rice plantations, livestock, and agro-industry crops. Further development of this irrigation system
will contribute to the further development of these industries.
Economic:
Kampong Chhnang is also famous for making fine clay
pottery; the meaning of the province name in the Khmer
language is the Port of Pottery. Traditionally, the people ofthis province spend time making pots, vases and numerous
other types of ceramics during the off-harvest seasons.
Pottery craft products is a specialized industry in thisprovince which contributes to economic growth for the local people.

Tourism development in this province has great potential, particularly as regards eco-tourism around Tonle
Sap Lake, as many local and international visitors are attracted by the floating villages and the legendary Kong
Rei Mountain.
1

Education:
Within the past decade, the education sector in Kampong Chhnang Province has grown noticeably both interms of quantity and quality. As shown in the Table 1, the gross enrollment rate is 104.6%, 60.3% and 26.7%
in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary level respectively.
Table 1: Number of schools, students and teachers in Kampong Chhnang Province
Number of

Number ofEnrollment

Students

Teachers

Rates

105

6160

140

Primary school

273

74059

1803

104.6

Lower secondary school

60

24120

591

60.3

Upper secondary school

16

10,963

976

26.7

Total

454

115302

3510

Education level

Number of Schools

Pre-school

Source: (MoEYS, 2017)
References
Kampong Chhnang Provincial Office. (2016). Situational Information, Economic, Social, Scoring and Poverty
Rate in 2016 for Local Development and Management based on the village, commune data in 2015.
Kampong Chhnang Planning Department.
MoEYS. (2017). Education Statistics and indicators 2016-2017. MoEYS, Department of Education
Management Information System, Phnom Penh.

2

3

Working Group 1
Economics

Income Diversification in Rural Area:
A Case Study in Khon Rang Commune in Kampong Chhnang ProvinceGroup Members:
Yuki Kawasaki
Kotaro Shimada *Meng Ren
Eve Hida Morei
Huili LaiRUPP Research Assistant:Vichara Lay
Advisors:
Professor Takeshi Higashimura
Mr. Youhan Hor* Group Leader

4

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Problem Statement
4. Research Objectives
5. Research Questions
6. Research Significance7. Hypothesis
8. Methodology
8.1 Basic information of the field workplace
8.2 Before the interviews -discussion with the commune’s and the villages’ chiefs8.3 Description of interviews
8.4 Analyzing the data and limitations of this research
9. Findings
9.1 Economic level and income diversification
9.1.1 Job choices between different groups
9.1.2 Cases in which income diversification contributes to a stable and better life
9.2 Challenges for both groups
9.3 Expenditure traits for different groups
9.4 Agricultural products
10. Discussion
11. Conclusion
Acknowledgments
References
Appendix: Questionnaire51. Introduction
Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, has been praised for its astonishing economic growth(Economics and Research Department, 2014). The share of the population below the national poverty line has
declined from 45% to 21%, with most of the remaining poor found in the countryside. This decline in poverty
is due to at least two reasons: an increase in both farm and nonfarm income, and the growth of the agricultural
economy. Tong et al. (2013) assert that Cambodia has experienced relatively even economic growth in bothrural and urban areas. Although rural households still depend mainly on the agricultural sector, its share ofhousehold income has declined significantly. Whether a household will become dependent on nonfarm income
generating activities, depends on household economic levels. The relatively rich in a rural area have more
nonfarm income sources; meanwhile the relatively poor still depend mainly on agriculture.
Although the population below the national poverty line has dramatically declined, most of these
individuals are still close to poverty. This means that these individuals are still vulnerable; if they experiencea crisis, they will suffer a huge loss, via being deprived of their assets or means of income, and eventually will
return to poverty (World Bank, 2014). Various risks surround life in rural areas, such as climate change, natural
disasters, lack of access to financing, and lack of clean water supply. Natural disasters, in particular, pose amajor threat.
From the experience of reducing poverty, two lessons can be learned. One is that poverty reduction needs
to reach rural areas, and the other is that in order for measurement to be effective, it should be focused on theactivities the poor are currently engaged in (World Bank, 2014). Because income coming from agriculture is
too volatile, more and more rural citizens try to combine agricultural activities with non-agricultural activities.
The diversification of income in developing countries plays an important role in livelihood strategies,
especially in rural areas. By diversifying their income sources, rural households can mitigate the risks derivingfrom both foreseen and unforeseen impacts. Since non-agricultural activities are less affected by adverse
natural conditions than agricultural activities, non-agricultural activities have the potential to play a crucialrole in improving livelihoods.
This paper examines the impact of income diversification on the lives of various people in Knon Rang
Commune, a rural area in Cambodia. Types of income sources, expenses, and the challenges these individuals
face will be measured to assess the impact of income diversification.

2. Literature Review
Income diversification is a strategy of employment commonly found in developing countries. Usually, by
specializing in one income source, a person can attain high efficiency and earn a high income. But life indeveloping countries, especially in rural areas, contains multiple risks, such as natural disasters, lack of capital,
animal diseases, climate issues, etc. These risks may damage income sources and harm products, therefore
individuals tend to have multiple of income means to hedge the risks.
There are several forms of income diversification. Some studies define it as an increase in the number ofincome-generating activities or the balance among them. A second definition concentrates on thediversification of income-generating activities from farming into non-farming activities. Barrett et al. (2001)
6

states that the more non-farming income sources a family depends on, the better-off and more stable the lifeof the family will be. A third definition refers to income diversification as a change in the income-generating
activities from ones which generate low returns to ones which generate high returns. For example, in
agriculture, people stop cultivating staple food crops and start cultivating commercial crops.
In summary, income diversification has two roles: One is livelihood distress, also called push factors, andthe other is progressive success, also called pull factors (Martin and Lorenzen, 2016). In the theory of pushfactors, people select a wide portfolio in order to stabilize their income sources and decrease the risk comingfrom unpredictable threats. Even though some of the jobs in the portfolio can be low-reward, they contributeto fulfill the overall purpose.
According to this theory, people in a rural area who get richer should decrease their level of diversification,
because their lives would be less vulnerable and they should concentrate on fewer jobs which are high-reward
in order to attain efficiency in their jobs. However, diversification is found amongst the rich in rural areas andurban areas. This situation can be explained by the theory of pull factors. Because the relatively rich have morefinancial capacity, skills, or capacities, they tend to try multiple jobs which contain some risks but have a large
reward. Therefore, the jobs in pull factor income diversification have different characteristics to ones in pushfactor income diversification.
Pull factor theory suggests that the income disparity in rural areas is wider than in urban areas. Those whohave physical and non-physical endowments have more access to economic activities which are lucrative. On
the other hand, people who are initially poor will face entry barriers due to lack of capital. In Cambodia, income
diversification is mainly motivated by accumulation rather than by survival; this suggests that richer
households are better off (than poor households) seizing the advantages provided by a diversified income
portfolio (Tong and Phay, 2013).
Jiao, Pouliot, and Walelign (2017) studied income diversification in rural Cambodia. They asserted thatseveral factors, such as education, physical assets, and access to infrastructure, are the entry barriers for highly
remunerative activities.

3. Problem Statement
A variety of income generating activities can reduce the possibility of falling into poverty while achieving asustainable income. Furthermore, the income diversification coming from pull factors will give rural people
higher income. In order for this income diversification to contribute to poverty reduction in rural areas,
however, it should be changed from being push-factor driven to being pull-factor driven. In other words, eventhough jobs in the portfolio are low-reward, for risk prevention and to achieve poverty reduction, they need to
be changed to jobs of high-reward.
However, people will be stuck in poverty if some obstacle hinders the change to a high-reward means ofincome. The obstacle can be lack of education, infrastructure, or endowments; or crises coming from adverse
natural conditions. Also, some people in a commune will be left behind from development, and economic
disparity will be large if there is an unbalance of such factors in a community. In order to prevent such problems,
proper policy and aid from international organizations are needed.
7

Picture 1: Typical household of our interviewees

4. Research Objectives
The primary research objective is to outline the variety of income generating activities in rural Kampong
Chhnang, Baribour District, Khon Rang Commune. A variety of income generating activities reduces thepossibility of falling into poverty while generating an increase in income, because the variety will offset therisk and vulnerability. However, some factors are considered to hinder the process of income diversification.
Therefore, in this research, we aim to comprehensively observe the lives of rural people as relates to income
diversification. The following are three specific research objectives:
1. To understand whether or not income diversification happens, and if so, explain how it contributes tocreating better-off, more sustainable lives for the people in Khon Rang Commune.
2. To determine the barriers to achieving further income diversification.
3. To discover different characteristics or tendencies between low and high-income households.

5. Research Questions
Our research questions pertain to the income generating activities in Khon Rang Commune. Even if there areseveral income generating activities, people have to select what kind of activities are the most suitable. The
process is the same as when choosing one’s job. However, conditions such as the number of jobs, required
capital for doing the activity, and social background may affect expectations. Therefore, it is necessary tounderstand what types of income-generating activities already exist in the Commune. Furthermore, it isnecessary to outline the possible activities for villages, as different activities may be subject to limitations bygeological, financial, or social conditions. Finally, it is necessary to analyze the difference in income generating
activities between rich and poor families, and find characteristics of these activities as well as solutions—
namely, removing barriers to the addition of new income generating activities for poor households. Therefore,
the following four research questions are raised in this research:
1. What are the income-generating activities in Khon Rang Commune?
2. Do poor and better-off households have different income-generating activities?
3. What are the barriers to achieving further income diversification?
4. What are the different characteristics or tendencies between low and high-income households?
8

6. Research SignificanceThis research is significant in two main ways. First, this research will clarify the picture of and bottlenecks toincome diversification in a rural area in Cambodia. The results can be used as implications for policy making
by the government and structure making by international organizations. Eventually, we hope this willcontribute to poverty reduction in the area. Second, this research will contribute to the improvement of people’s
lives in the area. Income generating means are closely relevant to other factors in people’s lives such as
relationships with neighbors, educational achievement, health conditions, and so on. Therefore the target ofour research is the whole lives of the people, and the research will shed light on real problems. We hope thefindings of this research will serve as a resource for others engaged in rural development strategy.
This research may also give other communes located in Cambodia, which share similar situations with
Khon Rang Commune, some ideas about how to increase economic levels and reduce the vulnerability of
livelihoods.

7. Hypothesis
There are two types of income diversification in Khon Rang Commune: one related to push factors and one
related to pull factors. The poor employ these factors because of risk aversion; on the other hand, the relatively
rich employ these factors in order to expand their business.

8. Methodology
8.1 Basic information of the field workplace
Our research was conducted in Khon Rang Commune, Baribour District, in Kampong Chhnang Province. This
province is located north of the capital city, Phnom Penh, and faces Cambodia’s biggest lake, Tonle Sap Lake.
The province had a population of 512,667 in 2011, with a total agricultural land of 47,123 hectares, and mostworkers are involved in agricultural activities such as farming, fishery, and livestock raising. Annually, there
are two seasons: the wet season and dry season (National Institute of Statistics, 2013).
In the fieldwork, we conducted interviews with households from all ten villages of Khon Rang Commune.
Nine of them are land villages and one is a floating village, which is an aggregate of houses floating on the
Tonle Sap Lake.

8.2 Before the interviews -discussion with the commune’s and the villages’ chiefsOn September 18th, the first day of our research, we visited the provincial office and attended a lecture on
basic information about the district from the commune chief. After that, we had a small meeting with thecommune chief. On the next day, we had a meeting with the commune chief and all ten village chiefs before
starting the fieldwork. Here is the conclusion of the meetings.

9

・ The biggest problems for the development in this commune are the low income of the households and alack of health care support.
・ Khon Rang Commune has 8,427 people of whom 4,444 are female. There are 2,096 families, of which 541

families are classified as poor. There are official standards for poor in this commune, but they are not on
the basis of the economic level; instead, they are based on detail conditions of the household assets, likehow many livestock the household has, etc.
・ Average income per year per household is not clear, but if the income of the household less than 1,000 USD,

life is very difficult.
・ The main income sources are farming and remittance from migrants. Rice is the main agricultural product.
・ In the dry season (from November to April), many villagers deal with farming. In the rainy season (fromMay to October), some still do farming but fishery and other activities are also common.
・ The chiefs listed three major factors which can cause people to become poor: natural factors (droughts,

floods, and typhoons), insects damaging crops, and imperfect irrigation systems.
・ Regarding migrants, there is domestic migration and international migration. International migration

usually pays higher but contains more risks. Migrants may be forced to work illegally or be deceived by
employers.
・ An irrigation system has been developed by the support of Asian Development Bank (ADB). But it is not

perfect and doesn't cover all villages.
・ Microfinance exists in the commune, but about 40% of people have difficulty to get financed. In order touse microfinance, people need to use land, a house, or a car as mortgage or collateral. Some rich households
use the system to invest in their businesses or to expand existing businesses.
・ There is no health care center in the commune. The health care center is located 2-9 km away and is hardto access especially in the rainy season.
・ There is no market in the commune, and the nearest market is about 3 km far away from the commune.

8.3 Description of interviews
We visited the ten villages in Khon Rang Commune, and conducted interviews for six days, from
September 19th to 24th, 2018. Each day we interviewed from 4 to 12 households which amounted to 59
households in total. We made two groups and each group visited different households at the same time for time
efficiency. In selecting the interviewees, we tried to capture a variety of income levels. We also tried tointerview the head of each household if possible, to gather the most accurate information regarding theirlivelihoods. We employed semi-structured interviews, which proceeded according to the questionnaire we
prepared. Below is a detailed description of how we implemented the interviews and the questions.
We used three devices for recording our interview, an audio recorder, notes, and a camera. The audio
recorder was used for listening to an interview again in order to make a detailed analysis, and answers frominterviewees were noted in the structured and prepared papers. Pictures taken by camera also contributed toreviewing the households.
The factors to ask the interviewee were name, gender, age, family structure, academic achievement, income
generating activities, annual income, amount and variety of agricultural products, main expenditures, access10

to financial services, and challenges related to their lives. These factors were necessary to understand the family
structure and household finances in each household. In addition, we asked about the challenges they faced indaily lives, especially related to income generating activities, in order to analyze the problems which prevented
implementing additional income generating activities.
During the interview, we took pictures with which we could use to visually review the household
environments and income generating means. At the end of each fieldwork day, we had a meeting and sharedideas and impressions with the group members.

Picture 2: Every day's discussion after interviews

8.4 Analyzing the data and limitations of this research
After the interviews, we employed thematic analysis, finding out key factors of the interviewees whichwere relevant to income diversification. In regards to the limitations of this research, there were two main
factors: the brevity of the observations and possible inaccuracy of the information. First, only about 30 minutes
to one hour was spent on each household’s interview. Many households mentioned that they changed one of
their jobs recently, which implied that they kept changing jobs to find better ones. Therefore, further long-term
research is needed to verify this fact. Second, many of the results of the interviews, especially ones relating tonumerical figures, seemed to be inaccurate. Many of the villagers could not calculate their incomes andexpenditures probably because an inadequate education system which meant many of the interviewees had
dropped out of school. This fact made us feel some uncertainty when we judged the economic level of theinterviewees.

9. Findings
9.1 Economic level and income diversification
We interviewed 59 households in all. Regarding income, we mainly asked about income sources and annual
income. The average number of income activities was 2.98, and none of the households engaged in just a single
activity. We divided participants into two groups according to their economic level, using the Cambodian
national poverty line (4080.75 riel /day per capita). To simplify, we use 1 USD/day as the poverty line. The
11

group below the poverty line, we call the low-income group, while the group above the poverty line, we callthe high-income group. In Table 1, we compared the income sources by group.

Table 1: Comparison between Low Income Group and High Income GroupLow Income Group
Number of households
Average income source
numberHigh Income Group
21

38

3.14

2.89

*farmer (rice, vegetable), *bicycle *farmer (rice, vegetable), *bicycle
repairer, *retailer (daily goods, repairer, *retailer (daily goods, food),food),*livestock,

worker,*rice*middleman,*plantation *livestock, *plantation worker, *rice

miller,*event*seller, miller, *seller, *middleman, *event
planner, planner, *fisherman, *driver (motor*fisherman, *driver (motor taxi, Tuk taxi, Tuk Tuk), *factory worker,
Tuk),
Variety of jobs

*factory

worker, *construction worker, knit products,*construction worker, water supply, animal doctor, bamboo trading, fruits
noodle maker, palm tree climber, growing, organization worker, wine
tray maker, restaurant waitermaker,

teacher(community

preschool, kindergarten, primary),
candy maker, carpenter, bean sprout
grower, house constructor, tractor
driver, truck driver, Compofertilizer
sellerNote: * Denotes activities which were found in both groups; Compofertilizer refers to natural fertilizer
Source: Authors
In all, out of 59 households, 21 were classified in the low-income group and 38 were in the high-income
group. Although income diversification was seen in both groups, the average number of income sources forthe low-income group was 3.14, while it was 2.89 for the high-income group. This showed that the low-income
group had a larger number of income sources in comparison to the high-income group. In regards to the variety
of income sources, many types were found in both groups, but some different characteristics belonged to eachgroup. Water supply, noodle maker, palm tree climber, tray maker, and restaurant waiter were specific to the
low-income group. Such activities are related to traditional products making, or folk crafts, and have thecharacteristic of low value-added. On the other hand, activities which were specific to a high-income groupwere ones requiring high educational achievement, advanced technology, or high initial investment. The
examples include veterinarian, organization worker, and teacher. Some investment was required for activities
such as knitting products (sewing machines) and tractor/truck driver (automobiles).

129.1.1 Job choices between different groups
According to the interviews with each household, as a whole, there were several tendencies when theychoose jobs. One was that they tended to participate in jobs which were already familiar to them. The reason
was as they mentioned, "I have been doing this since I was young." The majority of their income-generating
activities were learned from their parents, and they had been doing them for many years. This tendency was
found mainly in the jobs which seemed to be traditional, such as farming or making folk-crafts. Anothertendency was that they had no other choice or no information on other possible jobs. This can be deduced from
responses in which the interviewees often mentioned, "this is the only thing I know how to do". The little
information of possible choices affected the profitability of some jobs. Many households replied that they
started small wholesale shops these days, and some households which ran a business for a long time stated thatthe profit got smaller and smaller because of severe competition. Actually, we saw many shops during thefieldwork in each village.
Also, there was little to no chance to acquire skills related to jobs in the villages, which made it hard forthem to find desirable jobs. Some interviewees got paid training, for example, learning how to fix automobiles
and bikes, from their neighbors. But it seemed that the majority could not afford the fee to acquire any skill or
had no access to learning skills. There seemed to be no formal system to learn new skills. Because they did notknow what kind of skills would contribute to earning a high income, many interviewees were uncertain ofskills they needed.
On the other hand, some income diversification driven by push factors was found. First, carpenter andconstructing jobs were popular among male workers. Some of the interviewees said "We can sing and workoutside, and no one will scold us when we make a mistake. There is even a chance to earn more by being
promoted to be a manager." One interviewee had an experience of being a garment factory worker, and there
he got scolded several times. This case shows that not only the income but also the environment affects job
choice. Second, many interviewees mentioned their entrepreneurship to open up a small business. But there
was severe competition because as mentioned above, the only small business they could open in the villages
were confined to having a small grocery shop near one’s house. Other interviewees expressed their ideas on
expanding their current business, but lack the capital to do so.

9.1.2 Cases in which income diversification contributes to a stable and better life
Even though income diversification was found in both of the two groups, we still could find somedifferences in the reason for implementing the diversification. In the high-income group, they were eager more
to know how to make money, and they kept thinking about what they can do to increase their income. Below
are several cases of income diversification with high entrepreneurship.
(a) Bamboo trading household
This household that did bamboo trading had started as a bamboo cutter for a trader, and then went on tostart his own bamboo trading business. After acquiring enough start-up funds, he decided to start buying
bamboo from the villagers and transporting the bamboo close to the river to sell, where it was in high demand.
13

(b) Farmer household
One farmer household expanded their business efficiently. They saved some of the income and invested it
to acquire additional farming land. They also mentioned that they coordinated the irrigation system bythemselves.
(c) Compofertilizer seller
One interviewee in the Chhum Doneng Village had a large entrepreneurship. He grew rice and raised
livestock, and owned a tractor, several trucks, and rice millers. He cultivated farmland of neighbors and did
the rice milling of neighbors as his business. He also dealt with logistic business by hiring several employees
and letting them drive his trucks. He had many bags of "compofertilizer" (natural fertilizer) in his storehouse.
According to him, this fertilizer was better for the health of farmers and was eco-friendly. He not only used
the fertilizer for himself but sold it to his neighbors as an employed seller of an agricultural company.
(d) Motor, Tuk-Tuk and taxi driver
One interviewee who was a Tuk-Tuk driver had great ideas on how to make money. He said that he started
his business as a motor-vehicle driver. He earned a certain amount of money, and then started to work as a
Tuk-Tuk driver. He also desired to become a Taxi-driver in the future. The driver business also required capitalfor vehicles; his step-up policy was aimed at achieving a stable and better life. By becoming a taxi driver, hewould get more money in a safe environment compared to being a Tuk-Tuk or motorbike driver, which
contributes a lot to having stable and better life.
(e) Fruits, vegetables, and daily essentials vendor
This interviewee previously migrated to Malaysia and worked as a domestic helper; after coming back to
Cambodia she was able to successfully get a loan from the bank and bought a car. She drove to a market in
Phnom Penh to buy various fruits and vegetables and sold them in the village market at a lower price incomparison to other vendors. Her husband also sold essential daily needs products which were imported from
Malaysia; this was possible due to her previous migration which gave her a connection for importing items.
When asked where she got the idea for such income generating activities as well as her financing knowledge,
she credited all success to her mother who has helped her throughout the years. It was also clear to see that her
knowledge, understanding, and connections can be accredited to her years as a migrant worker in Malaysia.
People having these mindsets seemed to have more chances in expanding or starting a new business. And
as a result, they were able to have higher incomes and better lives. By contrast, those in the low-income group,from our interview, could not save or invest some money as they continued to survive on a day-to-day basis.
The success could also be dependent on a households’ ability and drive to overcome limitations and improvetheir livelihood.

9.2 Challenges for both groups
Challenges being faced by both low- and high-income households had similarities in regards to theirincome-generating activities. The majority of both low- and high-income households participated in14

agricultural and animal-raising activities, hence challenges relating to the activities, such as natural disasters(rain, wind, drought, etc.), animal diseases, insects, constraints relating to fishing (broken or stolen fishing net,fishing ban, etc.), and irrigation, were often discussed.
Some households solved the problems of animal disease and insects with the proper use of immunizationand pesticides. On the other hand, many others were in trouble due to ignorance about the proper use of
immunization and pesticides. Many of our interviewees replied that although the local government provided
staff to instruct them how to use immunization and pesticides properly, the staff rarely came. Therefore theinterviewees did not know the proper usage even though they could buy these products. As an illustrative
example, a husband of one household suffered from a disease which resulted from using pesticides andchemical fertilizer without gloves and high boots. His disease could have been easily prevented by the proper
usage of such chemicals.
Other common challenges for both groups were lack of capital, intensive work, and unstable income.
Quite a few households said they lacked the capital to expand their business or to start a new business, whichhinders their ability to increase income and make life more stable. Regarding finance, many households
depended on relatives or neighbors when they needed money, and also they did not have bank accounts. The
system of microfinance did not seem to have prevailed; some interviewees could not differentiate publicfinancial systems and private microfinance systems. The households with factory or immigrant workers often
mentioned that the jobs were hard, which seemed to be one factor as to why they preferred jobs at their home.
Another reason as to why working from home was highly favorable was that people can watch over their aging
parents and children.
On the other hand, a challenge which was found mostly in low-income households was health problems,
even though the problem was common for both groups. Five households in the low-income group (26.3%) andthree households in the high-income group (6.4%) mentioned health problems as severe. The fact that almost
all households, from both low- and high-income groups, of the interviewees had members with some diseases
is evidence that the health problem is severe. These household spent much on medicines and doctors. One
reason for this health problem was low consciousness of hygiene. Although bathrooms were found in almost
all the households, there were many areas for improving sanitation. Some diseases the interviewees had werequite serious, requiring medical referral outside the country—which was a huge expense to the households.
Of note, being arrested for a misdemeanor was found only in low-income households. This was mainly
due to catching fish in a prohibited area in a prohibited season. Many of them could not help fishing eventhough it was prohibited; they needed the first in order to keep their livelihood. Meanwhile some individuals
did not know why they were arrested.
Challenges faced specifically by high-income households included lack of technical knowledge, timeconsuming income-generating activities, agricultural growing problems, being cheated by other villagers, fuelprice increases, shortage of animal feed, aging, lack of labor, and no customers. Some of these high-income
households wanted to expand their skills in order to grow and improve their business while others described
their income generating activities as time-consuming which left them little time to do other activities. In all,these challenges specific to high-income households seemed to be relevant to expanding business or improving
economic conditions, while the challenges specific to low-income households were relevant to basic life.
15

Among both groups, the top 5 challenges being faced were: insects, animal disease, natural disasters, lackof capital, and health problems (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Top 5 common challenges

Source: Authors

9.3 Expenditure traits for different groups
There are many common expenditure traits when comparing both low- and high-income groups, whichcome from the fact that the villagers faced common challenges such as health problems or problems relating
to their agricultural income generating means. These common challenges caused them to spend much moneyon healthcare, food, education, repairing or maintenance of capital assets, fuel, debt, animal feed, andagricultural or fishery inputs (pesticides, fertilizer, grass killer, nets, etc.).
It was natural that high-income households spent more than low-income households. But another
difference in their expenditures was the variety of spending. High-income households spent money on animal
medicine, business capital, ceremonies, electricity, milk for a babies, transportation, salary for temporary
helpers, and the building of new houses. By contrast, low-income households seemed to spend money only tofulfill their basic needs. For example, they could only afford an animal doctor but not the medicine for the
animals, while the high-income households are wealthy enough to afford both. This caused the low-income
households livestock to be vulnerable to diseases and therefore put their livelihood at risk. Another expensethat was exclusive to high-income households was paying salary for temporary helpers. High-income
households were able to hire people to help them in the time of harvest or for any labor-intensive work. Because
they already had some capital, high-income households had big fields and enough money to invest, and they
could yield and produce more; therefore, they could earn more.
Finally, another tendency associated with high-income households was that they tended to spend morewhen building a house as well as for ceremonies. This fact showed that the relatively rich in the villages had
more cash to make their lives better and more comfortable. This was also true for electricity expenses. Only
high-income households mentioned this expense as a major factor. In many of their houses, there were manyelectric devices such as TVs. Some low-income households seemed to have neither electric devices nor
electricity.
16

Figure 2: Top 5 factors cited as large expenditures by households

Source: Authors

9.4 Agricultural products
In regards to agricultural productions, 70-80% of both income groups consumed some or all of their own
agricultural products. This fact showed that people sustained their lives by the agricultural products even after
they started earning extra money. However, there were more high-income households selling their products
because of three reasons. First, efficiency was higher than in the lower-income households. This was supported
by proper and efficient use of agricultural products such as fertilizer, pesticides, and animal immunizations, aswell due to having more land. The second reason was that high-income households produced several
agricultural products. They produced commercial crops such as lemongrass to sell them at the market or
through a middleman. Third, high-income households had transportation to go directly to the market
themselves and sell their products. This enabled them to go to the market anytime without waiting for others.
On the other hand, the relatively poor households mainly produced only rice in order to feed themselves; only
if they have a small amount of surplus are they able to sell it.

Figure 3: Economic class and how to deal with agricultural products

Source: Authors17

10. Discussion
Although income diversification was common in both groups, the number of income activities was larger in a
low-income group than in the high-income group. This fact implies that the push factor affected the villagers
more strongly than the pull factor. It can be inferred that lives in the commune contain multiple barriers toeconomic activities and many risks. All of the households we interviewed still lived close to the naturalenvironment even after they started using money and modern electric devices. Villagers relied on agricultural
products for subsistence and to earn money. Also, social development in the commune, such as infrastructureor education system, had much room for improvement. Finally, being highly susceptible to natural conditions,
lives were unstable. In this situation, many people are trying to expand their portfolios of the income generatingmeans to mitigate risk, but many new income sources are low value added. The efficiency of these activities
is worsened by several factors:
・ The efficiency of agricultural activity was low due to the lack or misuse of fertilizer and animal
immunization
・ Financial issues
・ Poor understanding of the financial system, which constrains people from investing in new business・ Lack of information, which limits job possibilities
・ No or little access to a market
・ No or an insufficient system to provide the villagers with specific skills to get new jobs
The fact that the households, especially in the low-income groups, kept attempting new and different
income generating activities supports the conclusion that the efficiency of the attempts is low. In our interviews,
many of the households mentioned that they started new jobs recently but that they stopped the job because ofsome reason. It can be supposed that these villagers kept trying new and different jobs to find one that was
sustainable; if they found the right job, they would stick to it and finished the search, and it would make thelives sustainable and better off. But if the job was not suitable, they quit the job and tried another one. Further
research is expected to identify the process in which a household would find the most appropriate and suitablejob.
On the other hand, some cases showed that households diversified their portfolios to expand theirbusinesses, like a man who dealt with agriculture, sells compofertilizer and so on. Another example is a woman
who obtained various fruits and vegetables in the city and sold them at the local market at a cheaper price incomparison to other vendors. Both of these households succeeded to use the financial system efficiently toinvest in their businesses, so each of these income generating means were high value added and the lives of
the households seemed to be improved.
The households in the low-income group consumed more and sold less of their agricultural products
compared with those in high-income group. This suggests two possible problems: lack of the access to themarket and low productivity. In order to sell agricultural products, some households relied on other villagers
for transportation to go to the market, requiring a fee to be paid. Others use middlemen, while others simply
do business in their respective village. Especially for households depending on elder house heads, there is a18

lack of access to a market; therefore, they are forced to sell at low prices. Second, the agricultural productivity
was low due to several reasons: lack or misuse of inputs, and lack or unavailability of finance to invest.
The problem of misuse of inputs appears to result mainly from insufficient training. Most of ourinterviewees mentioned they had little information on the proper use of pesticides and fertilizer, and no or little
chance to get trained. This problem eventually hinders productivity and yield. Also, many households seemed
not to understand the definition and rules of a financial system. This was one of the reasons these households
avoided using microfinance, and instead were financed by their neighbors and relatives, which leads toinsufficient investment. In our interviews, some households did not know the difference between government
lending and private banking. Considering this lack of information, the households could not use the existing
systems to invest properly; furthermore, these uninformed households could easily fall into debt or serious
financial problems. Ignorance of financial systems appears to make people vulnerable.
Lack of proper training systems was not only an obstacle for high efficiency, but also posed a risk to thevillagers. Health problems were serious in the villages, for example, one interviewee was in bad health becauseof the misuse of pesticides. If a household head or other family members got sick, the healthcare expenditure
would easily become one of the biggest expenditures for the whole family. Also, the bad health would deprive
the household of labor force and income, which would make the household vulnerable. Almost all thehouseholds had sick members, spending lots of money on medication. Proper instructions/training could
prevent some of this suffering.

11. Conclusion
Despite being in a low or high-income household, both types of households share common challenges as the
majority of households participate in rice farming and livestock raising. In doing so, they are vulnerable tonatural disasters as well as agricultural and livestock related problems. These problems included but are notlimited to insects and animal diseases. Both low and high-income households also identified the lack of capital
as a major challenge, as many households had plans to start or expand their business but suffered from lack of
capital. However, the purpose of using capital was different for each type of household: poor households
needed capital to support their daily life, while rich households invest in capital to acquire better lives. Also,
the poor households had almost no access to the financial systems. On the other hand, some of the rich in thevillages used financial systems to properly invest in their businesses. In the commune, not only is enhancementof the financial system needed, instruction on its proper use is also needed.
Besides the financial system, there are two solutions the problem of lacking capital: reduce expenses andincrease income. First, for reducing expenses, we can consider some solutions from health care. In our research,when someone in a family got sick, health care fees would become one of the biggest expenditures. One of thereasons was that people didn't go for checkups when they were sick; they just asked for medicine from thedoctor but did not try to cure their diseases. In addition, local people in rural areas of Khon Rang Commune
didn't have awareness of the importance of hygiene as well as knowledge of disease prevention. For example,
they used the water from the well without boiling it, which made them vulnerable to roundworms. Anotherexample was that when the carpenter makes the materials for building houses, they usually didn't wear any
mask; this enabled wood-dust to enter the lungs. If more attention was observed to these preventive measures,
19

they would have a higher possibility of disease prevention. If household members get healthy, the laborproductivity in the family will increase, which leads to the second solution-increase in income. Considering
the situation mentioned above, the effect of avoiding diseases could prove to be quite an important factor insolving the lack of capital and financial problems.
It was observed that households which were high-income with a diversified income generating baseunderstood the financial system better. This understanding allowed them to acquire capital to expand theirbusiness or start a new business. An example of this would be one interviewee who migrated to Malaysia. Aftercoming back, she was able to get a loan and expand her income generating activities. With the understandingof the financial system, she was able to get a loan and buy a car; this allowed her to buy fruits and vegetablesin the city at a low price and sell them at the local village market at a markup which was still cheaper thanother vendors. Owning a car also enabled her to transport her products directly to the market at any time shepleased. She even made connections in Malaysia which allowed her to import various items such as essentials,
nutritious foods, etc. This gave her an advantage in the market as she was able to sell various items in addition
to fruits and vegetables.
Considering their various conditions, the contribution of income generating activities varied among eachhousehold even when engaging in the same activity. For example, almost all of the households did farming;some had huge plots of land while others had very small plots which could not support their family. The amountof rice harvested from farming was essentially proportional to the size of the land. Therefore even if villagers
put a lot of effort to produce more rice, the amount of increase would be limited. In a sense, it can be said thatthe size of land determined the amount of rice cultivated. Therefore, households which had larger sizes of land
could produce more surplus rice and earn income, while households which had only small land had tocompensate for the insufficient amount of rice by going to the market to supplement their food intake. This isevident from Figure 3; the poor income group consumed more rice, sold less.
To conclude, the following are our suggestions to each respective entity:
・ For local government, they can take a more active role in supporting the villagers by providing useful andneeded training programs that give the villagers a set of specific skills that will help improve their lives.
For instance, the government held a training program on feeding chickens instead of providing training on
what the villagers want and need, which was curing chickens. The local government needs to make surethat the training programs are indeed what the villagers want and need.
・ For financing entities, promoting income-generating projects through financial support is recommended.
Making it easier for villagers to borrow money should also be considered. Additionally, it is important toprovide information and make sure the villagers are fully informed and ready before becoming tied down
financially.
・ For villagers, having a more diversified income base and attending more skill training programs to learn
new skills or expand existing skills is advised.

20

Acknowledgments
We would like to express our sincere appreciation to those who supported our fieldwork. This
fieldwork would have never been realized without their dedication. Ms. Yuki Shimazu organized thisfieldwork and accompanied us with Mr. Chin Sam Ath, who helped our literature review by providing
us documents of the government. Prof. Takeshi Higashimura always gave us helpful advices as anadvisor. When we interviewed local villagers, Prof. Youhan Hor and Mr. Vichara Lay interpreted
between English and Khmer, and supplemented local information for us. We thank the local governorsof Kampong Chhnang Province and all the 10 villages. They appointed the time of the interviews andguided us in the villages as well as permitted us to implement our fieldwork. At last, all the villagers
warmly welcomed us and kindly spent time with us and give us lots of valuable information.

21

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Appendix: Questionnaire
Demographics
1. Name2. Gender
3. Age4. Education level
5. Occupation
6. Marital Status
7. Household members
8. Village name
9. Migration household member
How to earn the money/ Income
1. What do you do?
2. Aside from your job, what do you do to earn money?
3. Could you tell me how much is your income?
4. What is your major source(s) of income?
5. What family assets does the household have?
6. What are the main agricultural products?
6-a. How do you distribute your products (use/sell)?
6-b. Where do you sell the products?
7. What kinds of challenges are you facing in your income generating activities? (markets, capital, skills, etc.)
8. Why did you choose this job/ what determines your choice(s) of income generating activities (weather,location, etc.)?
Usage of Money/ Expenditure
1. How do you use the money/ what are your top expenditures per month/day (savings, daily life, ceremony,
medical, education, transportation, agricultural input, etc.)?
2. Who/where do you go for financial assistance in case of emergency?
3. Are you familiar with the banking system/ community financing group?
4. Do you know how to use money in a wise way such as banking and investing (Money Management)?
Other
1. What challenges/fears are you facing in your daily life (lack of skills, ageing, health problems)?
2. Do you want to get another job or enhance your skill? If so, what job or skills?

24

25

Working Group 2
Governance

Solid Waste Management in Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia:
The Collaborative Roles of the Local Government and the Private Sector

Group Members:
Yui Asaoka *Kexiao Cao
Akinori Imada
Yosuke Mukaide
RUPP Research Assistant:
Seyha Kry
Advisors:
Professor Yuzuru Shimada
Dr. Vin Spoann* Group Leader

26

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1 Approaches
2.2 SWM and Governance
2.3 The Requirements for the Proper SWM Services
3. Problem Statement
4. Research Objectives
5. Research Questions
6. Hypotheses
7. Methodology
7.1 Data Collection Method
7.2 Scope and Limitation
8. Significance of the Study
9. Findings
9.1 General SWM System
9.2 The Roles and Challenges of Stakeholders in SWM
9.2.1 Service receivers
9.2.2 Formal Service providers
9.2.3 Informal Service providers
9.2.4 Municipal Administrative Office
9.2.5 Provincial Department of Environment
10. Discussion
10.1 Explanation of Findings
10.2 References to Previous Literature
10.2.1 Approaches
10.2.2 Governance10.2.3 Public-Private Partnerships
10.3 Lessons
11. Conclusion
12. Recommendation
Acknowledgement
References
Appendices27

1. Introduction
Insufficient Solid Waste Management (SWM) causes air pollution, water pollution and soil contamination byleaking toxins. The increasing population and consumption make SWM difficult and this affects theenvironment and human health.
Some studies have mentioned that open dumping sites cannot be controlled and monitored by people
because anyone can throw away waste into a river or road, and people burn it by themselves. It is difficult tocollect and transport waste properly (Sharholy, Ahmad, Mahmood, & Trivedi, 2008). Moreover, waste
collecting agencies in developing countries usually dump non-biodegradable and inert waste without
separation into dump sites. This is one of the factors of soil pollution, environmental pollution, and a damaged
ecosystem.
Much as with other developing countries, Cambodia also faces SWM problems. Cambodia has been
receiving assistance for development from other countries after the Khmer Rouge government collapsed in
1996. Since this support began, Cambodia continues to grow its economy, education and industries. The GDP
of Cambodia has increased rapidly in recent years, from $3,648 billion in 2000 to $22,158 billion in 2017 (TheWorld Bank, 2018). Also, with a rising trend since 1980 (Ibid), the country's population has reachedapproximately 16 million in 2017. The rapid growth of the economy and people of Cambodia also leads tohigher consumption, and at the same time, a huge amount of waste is produced. However, the country does notadequately meet the demand for waste management. In 2015, most of Cambodia's dumpsites do not haveproper separation of decaying and non-decaying waste (Phnom Penh Post, 2015). According to the Revisionof World Population Prospects report (2015), Cambodia's population will grow by 22 percent to almost 19
million by 2030, and the waste generation rate will rise alone with the growing population number. The Phnom
Penh City Hall plans to build two new waste management sites in Chroy Changva and Chbar Ampov districts.
However, it did not mention when the projects would start (Phnom Penh Post, 2015).
The Cambodian government set up three sub-decrees: sub-decree on solid waste management (1999); subdecree on the management of garbage and solid waste in urban areas (2015); and sub-decree on electronic
waste management (2015). Based on these three sub-decrees SWM in Cambodia has been decentralized, andthese decrees stipulate that SWM in provinces and cities are the responsibility of the local authority. According
to The Asian Development Bank (n.d.), Kampong Chhnang has two service providers and one driver, and they
can operate only three trucks in total. Therefore, only 400 households receive the collection services. Thissituation encourages local people to throw their waste into open and illegal dumping sites.
With this background, we conducted research focusing on Kampong Chhnang Municipality, Kampong
Chhnang Province of Cambodia, to identify the current SWM situation and the collaborative role of the local
government, as well as the private sector in SWM.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Approaches
To understand how to achieve these goals, we begin with the review of approaches regarding SWM. Chatri
and Aziz (2012) distinguished three approaches to deal with SWM in developing countries. First, a28

decentralized approach focuses on enhancing community participation. In this approach, civil society actors
such as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and citizen groups cooperate with like-minded officials
within local governments. Also, small-scale private enterprises have the opportunities to work in SWM.
Second, a centralized approach is initiated by the government. This approach focuses on constructing a large
infrastructure. The government cooperates with the companies dealing with SWM, but informal waste
management agencies act as competitors with the formal sectors. Third, a hybrid approach is the mixture of
the decentralized and centralized approach. In this approach, collection, segregation and composting of waste
are initiated in a decentralized manner. The design and implementation of these schemes are to be undertakenby the government. The hybrid approach is said to be the theoretically best model to settle the disputes between
the formal and informal sectors. Also, public-private partnerships (PPPs) play an essential role in this approach,helping to overcome the disputes among the stakeholders (Chaturvedi, Arora, and Salujia, 2015, pp.8-9).
However, some studies have criticized that these approaches are not always successful in developing
countries. A case study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia indicated that the decentralized approach could not improve
SWM because the city administration ruined the existing collaboration with informal actors in waste collection
and disposal services (Teshager, 2017). Moreover, Okot-Okumu and Nyenje (2011) claimed that the strategy
focused on the decentralized approach was not successful in Uganda because of the lack of the revenue andinsufficient participation of the local stakeholders.

2.2 SWM and Governance
Governance plays an essential role in providing appropriate SWM services. Rodic-Wiersma and Wilson(2017) identify three critical aspects of governance (direct regulation, economic instruments, and social
instruments) and factors which must be considered to achieve goals (waste collection for all, and controlled
disposal) as the Table 1.
Table 1: Key governance aspects of extending waste collection to all controlled securing disposal
Class of Policy
Instruments

Goal 1: Waste
Collection to All

Direct regulation

The legal framework
for inclusion of bothpublic and private, andinformal, service
providers

Economic instruments

Social instruments

Sustainablefinancing—securing
funding for collection
services, including
some contribution
from direct charges
Awareness raising for
behavior change andclear instructions on
new services, to avoid
dumping and be
willing to pay

Goal 2: Controlled
Disposal
Strong regulations
requiring controls toprotect theenvironment, andcredible and consistentenforcement
Sustainablefinancing—securing
funding for facilities,
both capital costs andthe continuing costs ofoperation
Awareness raising for
behavior change, toprevent dumping

Source: Rodic-Wiersma and Wilson (2017), p.15.

29

Necessary
Condition

Enabling/Facilitating
FactorConstruction offacilities in parallel tothe regulations

Institutional capacities toboth enforce the law andto work with various
service providers

Affordability forservice users

Availability of national
and/or internationalfund, including
Extended Producer
Responsibility

Collaboration withcivil society including
media

Authorities engaging
with the public andleading by example

The researchers stated that the local government plays essential roles in changing the behaviour of thecitizens for the new SWM services, and concluded that the government should implement "a combination ofcomplementary and well-coordinated measures from each of these three categories" for sustainable waste
collection (Ibid. p.14).
A case study in Bangladesh indicated that absence of good governance has negative effects on theperformance of the strategies or entities which initiate the SWM. This problem contributed to inadequate andunsatisfactory service delivery and the claims from the citizens (Bhuiyan, 2010). Also, a case study in Malaysia
argued that a policy on SWM failed because of weak government even though various stakeholders wereinvolved in the administration (Wee, Abas, Mohamed, Chen, & Zainal, 2017). Therefore, weak governance orlack of governance makes the issues of providing appropriate SWM services difficult even when otherstakeholders are cooperative.
Many studies emphasized that collaboration between the local government and other stakeholders isnecessary for successful SWM in developing countries. A case study in Lucknow, a metropolitan city in India,
found revealed that community participation plays the critical role to overcome threats to and weakness of
SWM (Srivastava, Kulshreshtha, Mohanty, Pushpangadan, & Singh, 2005). Another case study criticized that
SWM systems are under the control of the government and affiliated actors, and most stakeholders are out ofthe decision-making processes. Also, informal actors, even if they have the potential to play a role in the SWM
system, are excluded in the decision-making by the local government (Teshager, 2017). A case study in Delhi
showed that private sectors' participation in SWM such as through dialogue and debating is critical and PPP
initiated by the local government could enable the provision of effective SWM in developing countries(Chaturvedi, Arora, & Salujia, 2015). Bhuiyan (2010) suggested that PPP contributes to solving the problems
related to weak governance and inadequate SWM, and ensures adequate SWM and good governance. As thesecase studies show, it can be said that collaboration, especially participating in the decision-making process,between local governments and other stakeholders is essential to provide proper SWM services in developing
countries.

3. Problem Statement
Poor SWM has negative effects on human health and the environment. However, many developing countries
are facing difficulties in dealing with SWM. This problem might become more serious without any intervention.
In developing counties, an increasingly larger amount of solid waste (SW) is generated because of increases
in the population and consumption. To improve this problem, many countries are applying the decentralized
approach. However, these countries often fail to overcome the situation because of poor collaboration between
the stakeholders.
In the case of Kampong Chhnang Province in Cambodia, where local government has responsibilities for
SWM, a large number of people do not pay the fees for SW collection services. Nevertheless, 27 tons of SW
is generated in a day. Also, according to a report published by the Asian Development Bank, there were only
three trucks for collecting SW, and the service is not provided every day (The Asian Development Bank, n.d.,
pp.2-3). Therefore, the factors that lead to the poor SWM and insufficient collaboration between stakeholders,
as well as solutions to improve SWM, should be considered.
30

Furthermore, the formal sector provides waste services irregularly and often ignores the rules contractedwith the government. Moreover, informal sectors are ignored and excluded from the whole management
system by the local government and the formal sector. Informal sectors are willing and able to collect aconsiderable amount of waste which may also make a contribution to SWM, however, according to the data
we found, there is no evidence showing collaboration between the local governments and private sectors in
Kampong Chhnang.
Figure 1: Amount of waste per 1,000 households per year in Kampong Chhnang Municipality

Amount of waste (ton)

800

849

700
600

691

651

620

716

739

2012

2013

774

500
400

423

445

2005

2006

498

492

2007

2008

300
200
100
0
2009

2010

2011

2014

2015

Source: Kampong Chhnang Municipal Administration (2018)

4. Research Objectives
This research aims to:1) Identify the SWM system in Kampong Chhnang Municipality;a) Identify the way that service providers deal with SW and collect fees from service receivers;b) Identify the way that the local government contracts with and supports service providers; and
2) Examine what impedes service providers and the local government from cooperating with each other toprovide sufficient waste collection services;a) Examine what kind of difficulties service receivers have regarding waste collection;b) Examine what impedes service providers from providing service receivers with high-quality waste
collection services;c) Examine what impedes the local government from solving the problems between service receivers andservice providers.

31

5. Research Questions
To achieve these research objectives, this research seeks to answer the following research questions.
1) How does the SWM system work in Kampong Chhnang Municipality?
a) How do service providers deal with SW and collect fees from service receivers?
b) How does the local government support service providers in collecting SW?
2) What impedes service providers and the local government from cooperating to provide sufficient waste
collection services?
a) What kind of difficulties do service receivers have regarding waste collection?
b) What impedes service providers from providing service receivers with high-quality waste collection
services?
c) What impedes the local government from solving the problems between service receivers and service
providers?

6. Hypotheses
Based on previous research, the following two hypotheses are developed.
First, poor collaboration among the different stakeholders contributes to the limited waste collectiondelivery. The lack of coordination by the government causes conflicts between the service providers andcustomers about the price of fees, quality of services, and rules.
Second, the local government has difficulties in promoting collaboration with the formal sectors due tolimited financial and human resources. Also, improper recognition and understanding of the importance ofcollaboration has led to this situation.

7. Methodology
To answer the research questions, the following methodologies were applied.

7.1 Data Collection Method
The primary data was collected by in-depth semi-structured interviews (see Appendix) in Kampong
Chhnang Municipality, from the 19th to 25th of September 2018. The interviews were designed to assess theamount and sort of SW collection services delivery, complaints or challenges regarding waste collection, andthe relationships with other stakeholders.
All interviews were conducted in a face-to-face setting using interpreters who belong to the Royal
University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). We firstly visited the local government: Provincial Department ofEnvironment (PDoE) and the Municipal Administrative Office (MAO). Then, we conducted the interviews
with formal actors, informal actors, and commercial actors (hotel owners, a restaurant owner, the head of a
local market and a boat shop owner). An officer of MAO made appointments for us and granted us permission
for the interviews with these commercial actors.
Respondents are categorized into four sectors: local governments, formal and informal service providers,32and service receivers.
Local governments: we held interviews with Vice director of PDoE in Kampong Chhnang Province, andthe Deputy Mayor in Kampong Chhnang Municipality in order to assess the current situation of SW collectionin Kampong Chhnang Municipality, roles of the local governments, and the collaboration between the local
governments and both formal and informal providers.
Formal and informal service providers: We interviewed two managers of private waste collection
companies (formal providers) contracted with MAO and three informal providers (two junkshop owners andone scavenger), the questions were mainly about SW collection service and collaborations with otherstakeholders which include the local government and different service providers in Kampong Chhnang
Municipality.
Service receivers: We visited four hotels, one restaurant, one boat shop, and two households. The purposeof the interviews were to understand the general situation of SWM practices, relationships with both formal
and informal service providers and MAO in waste collection. The Deputy City Governor in Kampong Chhnang
Municipality selected respondents.
Our secondary data is based on official publications from the Cambodian government, reports publishedby NGOs, and academic papers that we reviewed in the Introduction and Literature Review sections.

7.2 Scope and Limitation
This research focused only on kitchen waste generation and management because it accounts for ninety
percent of the total waste generated by ordinary households in Kampong Chhnang Province (The AsianDevelopment Bank, n.d., pp.10-11). Therefore, a further study on other kinds of SW, such as industrial waste,should be conducted.
Kampong Chhnang Province has approximately 8,000 households, however, this study has a limited
sample size because of time constraints. More samples should be studied to provide a more comprehensive
analysis.

8. Significance of the Study
Along with the development of global industrialization and urbanization, environmental issues and issues
related to human health have attracted the global attention. The rapid economic growth in developing countries
has enhanced the living standards and increased the consumption of goods, which has also increased thequantity of the generated waste. Similar to other developing countries, Cambodia is not prosperous enough toeffectively manage SW. This study explores how the collaboration of stakeholders is related to the quality of
SWM.

33

9. Findings
9.1 General SWM System
Figure 2 illustrates the general SWM system and waste flow in Kampong Chhnang Municipality. It shows thewaste flow of the general SWM system. Primary stakeholders include the Provincial Department ofEnvironment (PDoE), the Municipal Administrative Office (MAO), formal service providers, and informal
service providers.
In the ideal situation, non-recyclable waste such as kitchen waste, toxic waste, and plastic bags, weremainly generated from hotels, restaurants, households, and markets; then, formal service providers collected
this waste and transported it to an official dump site. But in fact, only 2,015 out of 8,280 households werereceiving the waste collection service, and most of them lived in the center of Kampong Chhnang Municipality.
According to the contract with MAO, formal service providers were supposed to collect waste from all
households. Nevertheless, the formal service providers could not get profit or even lost money if they obeyed
all the requirements of the contract. That is why they only collect waste from households who paid for theservice fee. Those households which did not or could not pay collection fee consequently disposed of garbage
by themselves in different ways, for example, by burning waste in their backyards, or illegal dumping in rivers
and on roads. As nobody was dealing with this illegal behavior, more and more waste has accumulated, which
has led to the current situation in Kampong Chhnang Municipality.
Nevertheless, hotels, restaurants, and households mainly generated recyclable waste which wascomposed of plastic bottles, cans, metals, and paper. This type of waste was collected by informal service
providers such as junk shops and scavengers who sell the recyclables to big junk shops in Phnom Penh. After
that, these recyclables were exported to neighboring countries like Vietnam and Thailand to be recycled.
Figure 2: Waste flow chart of general SWM system
Delivering Responsibility
Non-Recyclable Waste
Recyclable Waste

Provincial Departmentof Environment

Municipal
Administrative OfficeMarkets

Formal Service
Providers

A dump site in
Kampong ChhnangHouseholds, Hotels,
Restaurants

Informal Service
ProvidersPhnom Penh

Source: The authors34

9.2 The Roles and Challenges of the Stakeholders
9.2.1 Service Receivers
As explained in the methodology part, data was collected from four hotels, one restaurant, one boat shop,
and two households which did not receive the services from formal providers. Table 2 shows the amount ofwaste, the frequency of the service and satisfaction with the service. As can be seen in Table 2, most of theservice receivers mainly generated kitchen waste and recyclable waste such as plastic bottles and cans.
Table 2: Amount of waste generation and service provided by formal providers

The quantity of waste (per day)
Main Waste
Collection Frequency (per week)

Hotel

Restaurant

Boat Shop

Household

10 kg

30-40 kg

50 kg

0.5 kgKitchen,

Kitchen,

Kitchen,

Kitchen,Recyclable

Recyclable

Cans

Recyclable

1-3 time(s)4-5 times

No service

No service

Source: The authors
According to the interviews, interviewees had some troubles or made complaints to the formal provider.
The hotels received the services once to three times from formal providers per week on average. However,most of them criticized the frequency and irregularity of the services. Since interviewees left waste to becollected in front of their doorways, bad smells spread into their houses unless workers came to collect it. Also,
some of them complained that the workers of formal providers did not collect all the waste. Many hotel owners
thought the collection fee was reasonable and they were willing to pay more if the service could be provided
more frequently. As with the hotel owners, one restaurant owner preferred the service of the informal service
providers. He put an end to a contract with one of the formal providers and made a new contract with anotherformal provider because insufficient and irregular service was problematic for him. After contracting withanother informal provider, he received the service every day and was satisfied with it.
Furthermore, the owner of a boat shop also stopped the contract with the formal provider for the same
reason as the abovementioned restaurant owner. After giving up the deal, he needed to manage waste by himself,
so he brought his waste to the dump site by himself. He also complained that some workers of the formal
providers were not polite to him and that their trucks smell bad.
On the other hand, most of the service receivers, even small households, separated the recyclables from
non-recyclable waste to sell to informal providers. They did not seem to have any troubles with informal
providers.
Three-quarters of the households did not receive services from a formal provider. Two households which
did not face to the main road did not have a contract with a formal provider. They do not think waste collection
service is necessary because they generate little kitchen waste. They usually fed their animals, such as dogs
and chickens, with their kitchen waste. Also, they burned their non-recyclable waste in their gardens. However,35

some households threw the garbage directly into the river thinking that they did not need to pay for the service
fee, unaware that collecting waste protects their environment.

9.2.2 Formal Service Providers
In Kampong Chhnang Municipality, four formal service providers were working in SWM. In thisresearch, we interviewed two of them.
The Formal Provider 11 was responsible for collecting and disposing of SW generated by those who lived
in the center of Kampong Chhnang Municipality. This formal service provider owned eight workers and two
trucks which were not for waste collection (See Figure 3). It provided the service three times a week, but thefrequency was irregular because of the lack of workers, problems of trucks, and weather conditions. The headof that company managed fee collection, and he made contracts with almost 2,000 households. However, he
did not get contracts with other nearly 6,000 households as of our interview. The Formal Provider 1 followed
the contract with MAO. When it had some troubles with or complains from citizens, the manager of the Formal
Provider 1 and a municipal officer talked on the phone. This formal provider wanted MAO to support themmore, especially in the financial aspect like infrastructure.
Formal Provider 1 had some difficulties in collecting all waste in its territory. In the first place, two trucks
were not adequate to cover all service recipients and to provide them with frequent service. It was also very
challenging to reach those who lived far from the center of Kampong Chhnang Municipality because of poorroads. During holidays, for instance, Independence Day, National Day, or Spring Festival, almost all workers
went back to their hometown to celebrate, and they did not worry that the company might fire them because
the law protected their vacation. On the other hand, as there was nobody who did the job, people mightcomplain about the service of Formal Provider 1. The provider contacted the MAO for advice on what to doin an emergency such as flooded streets and scattered waste on the roads during national festivals. But all amunicipal official said was "we will take care of it." Nevertheless, the owner of Formal Provider 1 had tocollect and dispose of waste without help from the MAO at the time of emergencies, and he did hope thecitizens can understand his difficulties.
Another problem was about a dump site. Formal Provider 1 needs to pay $1,500 per year for the use of it.
The manager estimated that the dump site was to be used for three to four years based on the capacity. Formal
Provider 1 transported gathered waste directly there without any processing such as compressing, collecting
recyclable stuff or separating toxic materials (See Figure 4). Also, there is no protection so that toxemic or
chemicals are not came out.
Another formal provider, Formal Provider 2, was supposed to collect waste from the Phar Chhnang Market
every morning because it contracted with three restaurants there. It has three drivers: two for trucks and one
motorbike.
Whereas the service recipients of Formal Provider 2 were satisfied with its waste collecting service, it had
two main problems or complaints about its operation. First, Formal Provider 2 had more significant expenditurethan income, and it did not have a dump site. Therefore, it needed to pay 400,000 riel per month instead of
1 Actually, the formal waste providers who contract with MAO do not have names yet. We name them as Formal Provider 1 andFormal Provider 2 in this report for convenience.

36

getting permission to dump its waste from the owner of the private dump site. Plus, the monthly payroll of theprovider amounted to 5,280,000 riel. In total, it cost 5,680,000 riel every month. However, their collection fee
depended on the amount of SW. For example, a restaurant payed 20,000 riel at maximum.
Second, according to the interview with this company's managers, they said the municipality did notcollaborate with the formal provider companies. Only when some emergency happened with service receivers,
did the municipality come and meet the formal providers.

9.2.3 Informal Service Providers
Informal service providers were categorized into three main types: (1) waste pickers, (2) waste buyers, and(3) junk shops. The term “waste pickers” is used interchangeably with “scavengers”. The waste pickers mainly
picked up waste which was fit for sale from dump sites or public spaces like roads. Then they brought such
waste to junk shops to sell it. Similarly, waste buyers visited households and commercial actors, and bought
recyclable waste. After collecting, they brought the recyclables to the junk shop to sell. The role of junk shops
was to buy waste from waste pickers and waste buyers. Once a certain amount of recyclables was accumulated,
they took them to a large junk shop in Phnom Penh to sell. The recyclable waste was finally sent to othercountries such as Vietnam and Thailand for recycling. We had opportunities to interview a waste picker andtwo junk shop owners in Kampong Chhnang Municipality.
Some of the respondents claimed that their business did not pay a lot. According to one of the junk shop
owners, one kilogram of cans was equal to 5,000 riels. One waste picker explained that she was doing waste
picking because she had none of the skills which required to work at a company, and her husband could notwork because of a traffic accident. While all of the respondents did not have any troubles with service receivers,
junk shops, in particular, had some troubles with police officers about the way of storage of recyclable waste.
A regulation in Kampong Chhnang Municipality prohibited individuals from obstructing passersby. However,the pile of the recyclables often overflowed into a walkway. In that case, the junk shop had to pay a fine to thepolice. What is worse was that police officers sometimes asked the junk shop owners for bribes when they
tried to transport the collected waste to Phnom Penh. Therefore, the junk shop owners wanted the local
governments to better understand their businesses.

9.2.4 The Provincial Department of Environment
In accordance with the Sub-decree 113, the Ministry of Environment (MoE) delegated responsibility for
SWM to the PDoE in Kampong Chhnang Province. The PDoE set up a committee and monitors the situationof waste collection in Sangkat and Commune in Kampong Chhnang Province. Based on reports, the PDoE
determined the amount of subsidies and what kind of technical advice to give to each municipality. The local
government officials usually held meetings 4 to 5 times per month, depending on whether the problem is
emergent or serious. In the rainy season, for instance, they tended to hold more meetings because of heavy
rain, which always made road conditions terrible, which hampered the waste collection trucks from reachingsome households.
Another important task for the PDoE pertains to budget allocation. Since 2015, the MoE and the Ministry37

of Economic and Finance had given 266 million riels to the PDoE every three years, for the purpose of waste
management in the province. That means the subsidy was used not only for SWM but also for liquid waste
management. PDoE transferred the money to the MAO, but it had some difficulties, for instance, the lack ofawareness from households regarding environmental protection especially in Sangkat/Communes. One reason
was that the waste collection companies were unable to provide service regularly, and the bad odor from waste
was unacceptable to both waste producers and their neighbors. Another reason was because of bad roadconditions, which made it difficult for drivers from waste collection companies to get to some faraway payers.
Lastly, there was an issue about the final disposal place. The PDoE did not have its own land, and it had adifficulty in finding a good place to construct a landfill. Once they found that there is no enough space in thecurrent dumping site, they then made contracts with some private landowners. However, this was not a longterm contract, and would cause the dump site to be filled to full capacity again in just a few years. Also, becauseof lack of technical skills and good management, waste was disposed in the open air after simple processing,so that waste in these open dumping sites does harm to the environment and people living around the dumpsite.

9.2.5 The Municipal Administrative Office
The MAO controlled SW in Kampong Chhnang and it mainly had four responsibilities. First, theyrecognized the formal service providers’ status. As only one-fourth of households were receiving the service,
they set up meetings, discussing the local government's policies and appropriate price of charge from thecompany. The municipality had the responsibility for monitoring the formal company routinely, and they
checked the relationship between the company and households. When the company and households had
conflicts about SW collection, especially about payment of collection fees, the municipality tried to play a roleas coordinator in the conflict.
Second, the MAO contacts with informal sectors like scavengers (See Figure 5). It talked with them, gavethem food, and asked about their living condition and details about waste collection services. But comparedwith formal service providers, it did not consider them as having an important role in SWM.
Third, the MAO published and distributed SW guidelines to residents in order to raise awareness andencourage them to participate in SWM. For example, it held a commune campaign including high school
students, and it conducted a cleaning up campaign with residents. The municipality also propagated theimportance of environmental protection by mass media and radio broadcasts every week. While the municipal
office held campaigns, it additionally set up penalties for the people who did not obey the rules. When local
residents illegally threw away garbage, these residents had to pay fines in the amount of at least 20,000 riels.
Lastly, the municipality obeyed the executive order from the PDoE, because the provincial office was thesuperior authority and it was they who organized the issues of SWM at the provincial level.

10. Discussion
10.1 Explanation of Findings
Up to this point, we explored how SW was collected from households and what difficulties the stakeholders,
namely service receivers, service providers and the local governments, had. To sum up our findings, informal
38

providers buy recyclable waste from service receivers, such as hotels, restaurants, and households, and sell it
to large junk shops. Although the local governments supervised these activities, they still felt the governments
should accept them. On the contrary, the formal providers were supposed to visit service receivers’ places andcollect non-recyclable waste door-to-door. The formal providers, however, totally lacked not only technical,
financial and human resources but also infrastructure such as wide roads and dumping sites. Despite the local
governments’ efforts, some of the service receivers disposed of waste in public spaces or burned it in theirbackyards.
Why does such a problem-filled situation still exist? From the perspective of governance, ineffective SWM
in Kampong Chhnang can be attributed to weak coordination among service receivers, service providers andthe local government. Coordination here means to solve the problems among stakeholders by allocating proper
resources in proper ways. Even though the local governments are expected to lead SWM, all of the stakeholders
related to SWM must participate in it and fulfill their responsibilities; that the governments cannot afford to
do so is generally known. The local governments seek to cooperate with different level of stakeholders
conforming to the Sub-decree 113. Indeed, the main problem we observed is that each stakeholder has issues
which cannot be solved on their own, and they criticize each other (See Table 3). We identify the main disputes
among them as follows.
First, service receivers and service providers often make trouble. As previously mentioned, most of the hotelor restaurant owners are unsatisfied with the waste collection service in terms of frequency and regularity. One
hotel owner and factory owner additionally testified that some of the workers behave impolitely toward themand do not collect all the waste. In addition, although the government set up three receptacles in the central
park and on the main road, the staffs of the formal service providers ignored the classification of boxes; they
mixed the waste from the three garbage boxes even if residents separated the waste correctly. Service receivers
are also displeased at the effluvia wafting from service providers’ trucks. But the formal providers are not able
to deal with these problems because of scarce resources to purchase trucks and hire workers. The service
providers furthermore claim that some of the wide roads which provider’s trucks can pass along are still underconstruction so that they cannot go to all households in the area. This situation might give job seekers an image
that service providers do not pay enough.
Service providers, on the contrary, confute service receivers, pointing out the fact of nonpayment of waste
collection fee. And to make matters worse, service receivers scatter waste on roads during the time of national
festivals when most of the workers leave their work. This may be because the local governments fail to inform
residents of the formal providers' inability to collect waste after these events.
The second divarication is seen between formal providers and local governments. While Formal Providers
1 needs further assistance, the local governments are in severe trouble in terms of being able to provide thisassistance. Though they receive a budget for SWM from the MoE, the budget is insufficient. This year’s budget
was supposed to be used for wide road construction and purchase of trash bins in public areas. As a result, theycannot afford to allocate any subsidy to service providers. Another possible cause of divarication is temporalcommunication. It is essential for a sustainable service provision to focus on the prevention, which requires anin-depth analysis based on the latest and accurate data. However, there seems to be no such suitable place toshare information with one another. According to a manager of Formal Provider 1, he has no meeting with the39municipal office in practice. In case Formal Provider 1 has some trouble collecting waste, it often calls to the
MAO for pieces of advice. But this may not be enough because this is no more than symptomatic treatment.
Consequently, the root causes of the problems are untouched and left.
Table 3: Complaints and challenges each stakeholder encounters
To service receivers

To service providers

To local governments—

 Infrequency
 Irregularity
 Workers’ impoliteness Smell from trucks

 Representations about
service providers

From service providers

 Nonpayment
 Disposal of waste
during the festival—

 Inadequate support
 Seasonal problems
 Unscheduled meetings
 Absence ofpunishment
 Uncontrolled dump
sites

From local governments

 Low environmental
awareness
 Illegal dumping Small coverage area
 Low-quality services—

From service receivers

Source: The authors
It cannot be assumed that the municipal office can maintain strict control over the dump site and illegal
dumping. The dumpsite is approximately five kilometers away from the center of the municipality, where it iswholly sequestered. This is not surprising because untreated smelling waste cannot be stored around residential
streets. At the same time, however, this means the dumpsite is out of the range of for constant monitoring by
officials. Similarly, the MAO cannot keep an eye on waste burning in households' backyards because suchfamilies live so far away from wide roads such that a formal waste provider cannot visit them. Moreover, totake what an informal provider said into account, some of the police officers seem to be involved in bribery.
Though the MAO hopes to get help from the UNDP to get a piece of land 12 hectares in size. However, now,these factors are likely to impede the local governments from punishing illegal dumping.
The last parties to a dispute are service receivers and local governments. Service receivers, by and large,
apparently do not have complaints about work of the MAO. They ask officers to mediate disputes with service
providers mainly on waste collection fees. In contrast, the MAO is worried about illegal dumping and the low
environmental awareness of residents. Although the MAO holds environmental campaigns, they seem to havea certain, not high, level of environmental awareness. In this sense, there is room for improvement in the
campaigns. As the Deputy City Governor said, the large number of participants in the campaigns is outstanding.
But not all of the participants always notice the importance of environmental protection through such programs
because many participants may join the campaigns merely to receive the free food which is provided toparticipants. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the campaigns might improve the situation.

40

10.2 References to Previous Research
10.2.1 Approaches
According to relevant laws and regulations, an approach to SWM in Kampong Chhnang should be
categorized using the hybrid approach. On the one hand, Article 5 of the Sub-decree 113 says MoE holds
leadership and promotes the implementation of urban SWM. On the other, the Provincial Government has tosupport, facilitate, and enhance the implementation of urban SWM (Article 7). Furthermore, Municipal
authorities have duties to manage SWM in their administrative boundaries (Article 9).
In light of the present situation, the MAO in Kampong Chhnang cannot afford to take care of SWM byitself, that is to say, a complete decentralized approach is unreasonable. For this reason, the existing SWM
system is promising.

10.2.2 Governance
Here we apply the three aspects suggested by Rodic-Wiersma and Willson (2017): 1) direct regulation, 2)
economic instruments, and 3) social instruments, to the situation of Kampong Chhnang. As long as we canobserve, a legal framework for SWM will be relatively well prepared. In contrast, enforcement of theregulations seems to be insufficient. To borrow their words, “construction of facilities in parallel to theregulations is essential” (Rodic-Wiersma & Willson, 2017, p.15).
Concerning economic instruments, the sustainability of financing must be achieved. Judging from theinterview with the formal service providers, their income is almost the same as their expenditures or less. Also,
the PDoE can receive a subsidy from the MoE only once in three years. Meanwhile, most of the hotels andrestaurants owners are willing to pay more fee if the quality of the service is improved. This difference reflects
the attitudes of the majority of residents in developing countries. This difference might have something to dowith rapid economic development and tourism. Ultimately, direct charges will contribute to sustainable finance.
Regarding social instruments, the MAO makes positive efforts to raise awareness through environmental
campaigns, involving various actors: students, scavengers, NGOs and UN officials. The problem is that it will
be some time before the effect, particularly for households, becomes apparent. The role of advertisement via
media is also essential.

10.2.3 Public-Private Partnerships
Many scholars including Chaturvedi et al. (2015) and Bhuiyan (2010), emphasized the necessity of PublicPrivate Partnerships (PPPs) to provide effective SWM. PPPs are defined by PPP Knowledge Lab as "[a] longterm contract between a private party and a government entity, for providing a public asset or service, in which
the private party bars significant risk and management responsibility and remuneration are linked toperformance" (PPP Knowledge Lab, 2017, p.1). Cooperation between the local governments and formal
providers looks like PPPs. If we follow this definition, however, it is not right in the strict sense of the words
because the official document shows that the local governments do not give remuneration to the formal
providers, who are just decided by tender. A formal provider suggested the MAO should participate in waste41

collection.
Whereas the majority of researchers are claiming the need for private sectors' participation in the decisionmaking process on SWM, our research revealed that the suggestions from the formal providers are seldom
heard. In the interview with the manager of a formal provider, for instance, he said a part of the residents
disposes of waste during national festivals, claiming that the government should notice that formal providers
have difficulty in collecting waste during the festival. Moreover, advocating did not change anything.
10.3 Lessons
We can learn two lessons from this case study. First, just delegating responsibilities to the local authorities
cannot make SWM better. The lower authorities have responsibilities for SWM, the fewer resources they have.
Also, some of the service receivers, particularly hotels and restaurants, receive instruction from the Provincial
Department of Tourism, not that of the Environment. A comprehensive policy is essential for effective SWM.
Second, the residents are not always willing to pay more money. We assume that the higher the economy
in an area grows, the more residents, in particular hotels and restaurants, can afford to pay for the waste
collection fee. The amount of waste they generate outweighs than that ordinary households do. Besides, theymust keep their places clean to attract customers and tourists. Undoubtedly, it is important to achieve frequent
and regular SW services, but these findings may be unique because most of the service recipients usually refuse
the rise in price.

11. Conclusion
This research tried to identify the SWM system in Kampong Chhnang Municipality. Based on the literature
review, the study set up questions and hypotheses that suggest the lack of cooperation among stakeholders led
to the failure of SWM.
This research found that some service receivers did not pay for the collection fee because they saw it as
unnecessary. Also, they were generally dissatisfied with the quality of service. There were complaints about
the frequency and irregularity of the formal providers. Thus, there was no obvious improvement even if some
hotels and restaurants owners paid more. Formal providers had problems such as insufficient manpower, cheapcollection feed, and government’s inaction. In addition, the informal providers’ role is despised. As for the
local government, they did not do well in choosing responsible companies, and did not fulfil the duty as acoordinator.
In addition, we conclude that the municipality had four main problems. First, the quality of the formal
service providers’ collection service was low. The second issue was the lack of awareness of environment
protection. The third problem was the difficulty to find a long-term landfill. Lastly, the MAO set up a garbage
classification system.
As the study hypothesized, the case study of Kampong Chhnang has shown SWM was not successful dueto the lack of cooperation among stakeholders. We conclude that the clean environment of Cambodia requires
cooperation among all stakeholders, but the government should play the central role among them, from the
aspect of enacting laws and regulations, to technical, medical and financial support, as well as to long-term
42education. With the fact that the environment is getting worse and worse, the government must make more
effort to deal with the problem, because it cannot be solved in a short time, even if all stakeholders make efforts
and cooperate with each other from now on. However, we are still full of hope and confidence regarding thesituation in Kampong Chhnang, and in Cambodia, too. As there are already so many developing countries
doing well in solid waste management, with hard work and cooperation among all stakeholders, we do believethat Cambodia will be an environmentally clean country in the future.

12. Recommendation
Compared to the situation of SWM in Japan, for instance, it is obvious that SWM of Kampong Chhnang runs
short of almost everything necessary for advanced SWM, namely funds, infrastructure, technical assistance,
human resources, and social capital. But this does not mean SWM in Kampong Chhnang is hopeless. Given
the result of the interviews and discussions, we would like to suggest five recommendations as follows.
(1) Promote communication with other stakeholders(2) Review of the use of resources to prioritize how to use financial and human resources, to provide morefinancial and technical support for formal providers, and to invest in infrastructure including landfills, wide
roads, and incineration facilities.
(3) Enact frequent and regular collection service and raise the price of collection fees. As commercial actors
need frequent services, they can afford to pay more compared to ordinary households. This could be afundamental solution for sustainable services. Please note that these changes must be done in parallel.
(4) Law enforcement should make regulations, monitor the situation, and strictly punish illegal dumping.
(5) Develop PPPs to build relationships of equality between the local governments and the formal providers,
and to promote their participation in policymaking and implementation.

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by both the Graduate School of International Development of Nagoya University
and the Royal University of Phnom Penh. We thank our advisor, Professor Yuzuru Shimada from Nagoya
University and Dr. Vin Spoann from RUPP; they provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted theresearch.
We thank Mr. Kry Seyha for helping us in Cambodia and translating our interview guide for theinterviewees. We would also like to show our gratitude to the local officials, and formal and informal sectors'
interviewees for sharing their pearls of wisdom with us during the research. We are also immensely gratefulto the assistant.
Lastly, we thank Professor Yuki Shimazu for her efforts managing everything including flights, lodging,and transportation during the research in Cambodia. Any errors are our own and should not tarnish the
reputations of these esteemed persons.

43References
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International, (34), 125-133.
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Chaturvedi, A., Arora, R., & Saluja, M. S. (2015). “Private Sector and Waste Management in Delhi: A
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from https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dumpsites-get-makover
National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (2013). Economic Census ofCambodia 2011: Provincial Report 04 Kampong Chhnang Province.
Okot-Okumu, J., & Nyenje, R. (2011). “Municipal solid waste management under decentralisation in
Uganda”, Habitat International, 35(4), 537-543.
PPP Knowledge Lab (2017). Public-Private Partnerships Reference Guide Version 3.
Alam, P., & Ahmade, K. (2013). Impact of solid waste on health and the environment. International Journalof Sustainable Development and Green Economics (IJSDGE), 2(1), 165-168.
Rodić-Wiersma, L., & Wilson, D. C. (2017). “Resolving governance issues to achieve priority sustainable
development goals related to solid waste management in developing countries”, Sustainability, 9(3),404.
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Sethy, S., Sothun, C., and Wildblood, R. (2014) "Municipal Solid Waste Management in Cambodia,"
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45

Appendices
Appendix A

The following tables are the guides we used in the interview. Tables 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 present thedetails of the questionnaire to the Provincial Department of Environment in Kampong Chhnang, theMunicipal Administrative Office in Kampong Chhnang, the formal service providers, the informal
service providers, and service receivers, respectively.
Table 4: The interview guide for the Provincial Department of Environment
Categories
1) Generalsituations on
SWM inKampong
Chhnang
Province2) The roles andtheresponsibilities
of PDoE
3) Relationships
with the formal
providers

Questions
How many / what percentage of households in the province receive waste collection
services? (both % and actual amount)
When do you want to provide the service with all waste generators?
What should be done to do to achieve the goal?
In which municipality in the province does SWM make progress?
Which municipality has the highest coverage of waste collection services perperson/households?
How much / what percentage of the budget is used for SWM in the province?
What is the fiscal source of SWM in the province? (e.g., tax, a subsidy from the state) /How much percent does each source account for?
Does each district make a contract with a private company?
How many private companies in the province make contracts with each municipal
office?
What are the problems you are facing to on SW collection?
What are your duties to MAO, the formal providers, and informal providers in SWM?

Have there ever been any conflicts or difficulties with the formal providers?
How many times does PDoE have meetings with the formal providers in a year?
If you could not agree on a contract, how would you handle with it?
Table 5: The interview guide for the Municipal Administrative OfficeCategories
1) Generalsituations on
SWM inKampong
Chhnang
Municipality
2) The roles andtheresponsibilities
of MAO

Questions
How much waste is collected in a year in the municipality?
How many households receive SW collection services?
What are the problems you face on SW collection, budget, awareness, and capacity?
What is the fiscal source of the SW collection (e.g., tax, a subsidy from the provincial
office), and what is its proportion?
Do you supervise the formal and informal providers? And how?
Do you plan to make contracts with other companies to expand the scope of collecting
services?
Do you have a guideline for residents? If yes, please explain the detail.
How do you establish the guideline? Do you explain the guideline to the residents?
What are your responsibilities in the SW collection?
How do you work with the following sectors in formulating policies on SWM: waste
generators; formal providers; informal providers; and PDoE?
463) Relationships
with the formal
providersDo you supervise the formal and informal providers? And how?
Do you plan to make contracts with other companies to expand the scope of collecting
services?
Do you have a guideline for residents? If yes, please explain the detail.
How do you establish the guideline? Do you explain the guideline to the residents?
What are your responsibilities in the SW collection?
How do you work with the following sectors in formulating policies on SWM: waste
generators; formal providers; informal providers; and PDoE?
Table 6: The interview guide for the formal providers

Categories
1) Generalsituations of theformalproviders

2) Relationshipwith MAO

3) Relationships
with otherformalproviders andinformalproviders

Questions
What are your responsibilities in SWM in the municipality? (e.g., collection, dumping,processing, and recycling)
How many workers engage in SWM and SW collection?
What kind of facilities or equipment do you have?
How do you collect SW?
How much fee do you collect from waste generators?
Are there any problems in collecting waste from waste generators?
How do you make a contract with waste generators?
How does MAO support you in SWM?
Do you have a chance to advocate your opinions to MAO?
Do you have any problems to collaborate with MAO?
Do you have any suggestions or requests to MAO?
Do you collaborate with other formal or informal providers in SW collection?
What is your expectancy about cooperating with informal sectors in the future?

Table 7: The interview guide for the informal providers
Categories
1) Generalsituations of theinformalproviders
2) Relationships
with otherstakeholders
3) Futurecollaboration in
SWM

Questions
How do you collect SW from waste generators?
How many benefits can you gain?
What are the difficulties in collecting SW?
How do you handle those collected SW?
How do local governments support or involve into your business?
What are the difficulties in working with local governments or formal providers?
Are there any collaborations or competitions with formal providers or other informal
providers?
Do you think it possible to make future collaboration in SWM (e.g., formal contracts)with the local governments?
What do you think is necessary for informal providers to improve the situation? (e.g.,
have a chance to participate in the decision-making process of relevant SWM rules)

47

Table 8: The interview guide for the waste generators
Categories
1) Generalsituations of thewastegenerators

2) Relationshipwith MAO
3) Relationships
with formal andother informal
providers

Questions
How much waste do you generate in a day?
What kind of waste do the formal/informal sectors collect?
How do you manage your waste which is collected neither by formal providers nor by
informal ones?
When and how do they collect waste?
How much do you pay for the formal providers?
Do you need to pay some tax for the government?
Do you have a chance to advocate your opinion to MAO?
Are you satisfied with the municipality's policy? (Using Likert scale [1 to 5])
What are your suggestions to MAO?
How do you contract with formal providers?
Are you satisfied with the formal and informal providers' services? (Using Likert scale[1 to 5])What are your suggestions for the formal and informal providers?

Appendix B
The following pictures are related to findings we mentioned. Formal waste providers use thistruck (Figure 3). Formal Provider 1 and 2 and the boat shop owner go to this dump site (Figure 4).
MAO makes contacts with informal sector scavengers (Figure 5).
Figure 3: One formal waste provider’s truck48

Figure 4: The dump site in Kampong Chhnang Municipality

Figure 5: The Municipal Administrative Officers and scavengers

49Working Group 3
Education

The Evaluation of Program Organization and Parental Support of
Early Childhood Education:
A case study of Kampong Chhnang City

Group Members:
Ledan Yu *Misora Ohara
Simon Narayan
Ting HeRUPP Research Assistant:
Chanthol Soth
Advisors:
Assistant Professor Sho Masaki
Mr. Sam Ath Chin

* Group Leader

50

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 What is Early Childhood Education
1.2 International situation of ECE
1.3 Situation of ECE in Cambodia
2. Literature review
2.1 What is the importance of ECE
3. Problem statement
4. Research objective and questionnaire
5. Methodology
6. Findings
6.1 Expectation for ECE
6.2 Evaluation and satisfaction of SPS from parents' perspectives
6.3 Program organization
6.3.1 Facility
6.3.2 Curriculum
6.3.3 Teachers training
6.4 Parental support
6.4.1 Parent-teacher contact system
6.4.2 Help children with homework
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References511. Introduction
1.1 What is Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education (ECE) can be explained as any educational programs that are designed for children in
their preschooling years. ECE can consist of a number of activities and experiences designed to aid in the cognitiveand social development of preschoolers before their entry into primary school.
The delivery of ECE can vary in different areas and regions, or even within preschools in the same area. ECE
programs are primarily designed for 3, 4 and 5 year-olds. The school setting of ECE can be situated as childcare,
day-care or nursery school as well as the more conventional preschool and pre-kindergarten classrooms. Somesettings can include children younger than 3 years old such as day cares. These programs can be situated in a
specified children’s centre, home-based, or within a public or private primary school. The program for children canbe offered on a part-day basis or full day basis, even on a year-round schedule.
ECE programs also differ in terms of funding and sponsorship. They can be privately run, operated by a local
school system or community, or operated through a centralized public funded program (PreSchoolTeacher.org,
2018)

1.2 International situation of ECE
UNESCO defines the period of early childhood as the time from birth to eight years of age. This is recognized
as a time of remarkable growth with cognitive development being at its peak. As such, ECE is more than justpreparation for entry into primary schooling, it encompasses the holistic development of a child. This constitutes
the development of the child’s social, emotional, and cognitive abilities in order to build a foundation for lifelong
learning and wellbeing. The investment into the development and expansion of ECE programs is vital to a country’s
promotion of human resource development, gender equality and to reduce the costs for later remedial programmes.
This may also be a large contributing factor as to why target 4.2 of SDG 4 is: ‘By 2030, ensure that all girls andboys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready forprimary education’ (UNESCO, 2018).
All children have the right to education as called for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child. In low-income countries, where education for all is far from becoming areality, the provision of ECE is still very limited. Often, it is provided on a private basis and is therefore only
available to children from more affluent families resulting in inequality in access to basic education for children
from poorer families (Education International, 2017). Even in developing countries where ECE is available throughpublic funding, quality and access issues are still present and affect learner’s accessibility and progression quite
varyingly when comparing urban, rural and remote areas.

1.3 Situation of ECE in Cambodia
ECE is also interchangeably known as ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) or ECCD (Early Childhood
Care and Development) in official Cambodian government documents. Cambodia as a member of the UN and party
to the SDGs has agreed to and adopted strategies for achieving SDG 4.2. The Cambodian constitution ensures52

specified attention to child care and education of children.
According to the National Strategic Plan, there are mainly two purposes for ECE in Cambodia. One, thereduction of poverty especially in rural areas and two, to decrease the dropout rate and repetition rate of students.
To achieve these goals, Cambodia has four types of preschools to deliver ECE. The four schooling types generally
target 3-5 years old children, while some may receive younger and older children. The four types are State
Preschools (SPS), Community Preschools (CPS), Home-based Preschools (HBS) and Private Preschools (PPS).
SPS is funded by the government and may be attached to local primary schools. CPS is financed by local community
groups. HBS are home-based programs run by mothers' groups across the villages in local communities. The final
type, PPS are privately owned and run preschools. These preschools have a user pay system and generally charge
much higher fees than other types of preschooling, making it usually only accessible by more affluent families.
SPSs are standardly equipped (one may say even poorly equipped if compared to other countries) and are not aswell equipped/resourced as PPSs which have a larger pool of funding to provide services and a smaller customer
base. CPSs and HBSs depend on the community and other sponsors such as NGOs, and work with minimal budgets.
They are commonly not well resourced and neither have effective teachers to conduct effective teaching and learning.
These home-based and community-based preschools are run more like daycare centres. Therefore, there is a gap interms of teaching quality, affordability and facilities (Rao & Pearson, 2009).

2. Literature Review
2.1 What is the importance of ECE
Wylie et al. (2009) and Myers (1992) have stated that the period of early childhood development has a positive andstrong impact on a child’s further development and later age learning. Sending preschool-age children to ECE
programs has a positive impact, by giving such children a head start towards a brighter future. The capacity of achild’s brain to soak up new learning peaks when they are three years old. At this point, a child has the highest
potential to learn new things. Attending ECE programs provides preschooled aged children the opportunity to learn
and improve their language and psycho-motor skills. It also develops their learning and cognitive skills necessary
to move on to primary school.
ECE programs are also beneficial to the welfare of children’s health. Studies have shown children provided withquality care in ECE programs results in positively influenced child learning and development. Attending ECE
programs also makes children more emotionally developed and less likely to require behavioural or mental healthcare assistance once they enter into primary school.
Another key benefit of children receiving ECE is the opportunity for preschool aged children to be exposed toscreening programs, setting daily schedules and establishing work patterns that will allow these children to inhibit
a better learning routine both at school and home (OECD, 2010).

2.2 Program organization
Program organization under ECE can be defined as a system containing programs and services for young
children and families plus the policies and administrative infrastructure that support those programs. The primaryfunction of an ECE system is to create greater opportunities for families and children to have better access to high53

quality ECE programs. ECE systems typically have several elements: regulations articulating minimum
requirements for safety and health; professional development supports for ECE professionals; financing;accountability measures ensuring programs meet fiscal and quality benchmarks; outreach to and engagement withfamilies and communities; standards for early learning and development, programming and professional
preparation; and a coordinated approach to governance to manage each of the other six elements (Gomez, 2016).

2.3 Parental support
Parental support can defined as the participation and involvement of parents in activities related to theeducational development of children both at school and home. Parent involvement helps extend teaching outside
the classroom. This creates a more positive experience for children helping them perform better when in school. It
is vital for parents to support the learning that occurs in the preschool setting as well as at home. Parents in sync
with the happenings of the classroom form better connections between what is learned at school and what needs totake place at home to further their child’s learning experience (Hulpia, 2018).
This connection is a key component of a child’s development and greatly boosts further learning. Parental
involvement not only helps extend teaching outside the classroom but it also creates a more positive experience forchildren, helping them perform better when they are in school. Parental support extends the experiences of a childfrom the classroom to real-world activities which happen in the home. Parents who understand what their children
work on at preschool tend to have a better sense of their child’s competency and the areas requiring improvement,such as ability and confidence.
One of the most difficult challenges for early childhood educators is figuring out how to better engage parents
in their child’s learning. Establishing good lines of communication between preschools and parents as well as
involving parents as a partner can make a positive impact on children’s learning ability (Spreeuwenberg, 2015).
The literature reviewed resonates to the fact that organized programs in ECE and parental support are vital tothe optimal development of preschool aged children and for their future successes. It also highlights that while ECE
programs have strong benefits for children, it does not fully materialize without enough parental support andinvolvement. Parents are key stakeholders in the education of their children, especially for children between theages of 3-5 years old where cognitive development is at its peak. Parents of children at that age, are the primary
drivers of how children’s perceptions and attitudes towards learning forms. Also, ECE programs should graduallyalign its methods of learning towards primary education so children can seamlessly transition into the next stage ofeducation without difficulty and progress more easily.

3. Problem Statement
In Cambodia, the investment in ECE started in the 1990s. The Cambodian Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 20142018 stated that ECE in Cambodia was faced with challenges such as low quality, low demand, scarcity of resources,
limited capacity and geographical reasons. Therefore, the Cambodian government shifted its focus to vulnerable
people such as people in rural Cambodia. Also, the gap is not just in the enrolment rate, it’s in the quality of preschool
which will be influenced by the facility, curriculum, teacher-pupil ratio, and so on. However, in the case of Kampong
Chhnang, they achieved the goal of enrolment rate for 5 years old in 2016-17. The data (figure 1) shows that the54

average enrolment is over 60%. However, average data cannot show clearly if vulnerable children are getting accessto preschool, particularly the gap in access between urban and rural areas.
Figure 1: % of Five-year-old Children Accessing Education in Cambodian Provinces

Kampong Chhnang achieved the 2016-17 academic year’s educational access target, and the enrolment rate was
ranked 13th out of the 25 Capital/Provinces. However, there are only 188 classrooms for ECE in the province and6160 students (3069 girls). meaning on average there were around 33 children in one class. Should there be a greater
concentration of students in urban areas, then the student/classroom/teacher ratio would be much higher in urban
areas. Through the literature reviewed it can be understood that even though the enrolment rate is increasing, thequality of education such as curricula, infrastructure and teacher education is lagging. Thus, educational resourcing
is not progressing at an adequate pace as student enrolment increases.
Despite Kampong Chhnang achieving its enrollment target for children aged five in 2017, the improvement inaccess for vulnerable children to preschooling is not stated and the quality of preschooling is not determined. Thus,
an investigation into the organized program and the level of parental support is required to evaluate the effectivenessof the ECE program in Kampong Chhnang.

4. Research Objectives and Questions
There were two objectives for this research. One was to investigate how ECE is organized in an urban and suburban
preschool in Kampong Chhnang City. The other was to determine how parents support their children in ECE in an
urban and suburban preschool in Kampong Chhnang City. The research questions and sub-questions are:1: How is ECE organized in the two SPSs (urban and suburban) in Kampong Chhang?
- What are the differences in the organized program of the two SPSs?
2: How do parents support their children’s learning in ECE in the two SPSs (urban and suburban) in Kampong
Chhnang?
- What are the factors and reasons which differentiate parental support between the urban SPS and suburban SPS?

55

5. Methodology
To achieve our research objectives, we conducted fieldwork in Kampong Chhnang City, Kampong Chhnang
Province, Cambodia. We visited two State Preschools and the District Office of Education (DOE). One State
Preschool is in the centre of Kampong Chnnang City called Mittaheap State Preschool. The other one is in a
suburban area of Kampong Chhnang City called Kasaam State-Preschool.
Mitaapheap SPS, established in 1987 as a nursing school (18 months to 3-year-olds), is located in the urban areaof the city. From 1992, the school started to accept preschool age children (3-year-olds to 5-year-olds), and until
1995 it offered a whole day session with lunch provided by its kitchen. However, the situation changed from 1995.
Due to lack of budget, the preschool shut down the kitchen and only offered a half day of school. As can be seen in
Figure 2, because of budget, the wall crack is not well fixed. Mitaapheap SPS has experienced a long history, which
is long enough to have educated both the parents’ and children’s generations. There are 11 classes in the school
including three lower level, four middle level and four upper level. Eleven teachers are responsible for 11 classes,
and there is also one principal, one deputy principal and one office secretary. Teaching and administrative works arewell divided in this bureaucratic system. Four hundred fifty students are currently studying in the preschool with 30
students in the classroom for lower level, 40 for middle level and 45 for the higher level. The school building is
unchanged since its initial construction back in 1987; some parts have been closed out of safety concerns.
Figure 2: The wall crack in Mitaapheap SPS

Kasaam SPS is located in the suburban area, and it is inside a primary school which was founded in 1951. The
preschool section started in 2001. There is only one class for a higher level of preschool and only one teacher
currently responsible for it. There are 26 registered students (12 female) from 7 villages which are assigned to the“school map” and several underaged students who are either related to the students in the preschool or primaryschool. The preschool is directly under the management of the District Office of Education which made a teacher
the acting principal of the school. The school has been under construction since 2016. After tearing down the oldbuilding, they started to build a new block on that with the financial assistance of the Cambodian People’s Party.
However, due to a decline in funds to complete the work, the building is yet to be completed. The principal statedthat they expect the new building to be completed by 2019 (the construction is quite slow). Therefore, space forclassrooms is rather limited. The entrance of the building with roof and one side of the wall is used as classroom for56

preschool since the construction started (see Figure 3). Even though there will be enough classrooms after the newbuilding is done, the principal of the primary school said they would not consider adding one more class unlessthere are more than 50 students in one classroom.
Figure 3: The place used as classroom in K-SPS

At M-SPS, we conducted a semi-structured interview individually with one principal. As for the teachers, we
divided ten teachers into two groups and did a focus group interview. We conducted semi-structured interviews andquestionnaires with eight parents. At K-SPS, we conducted a semi-structured interview with one primary school
acting principal. We conducted semi-structured interviews and questionnaires with one teacher and ten parents.
Lastly, we conducted a semi-structured interview with one officer at the District Office of Education.
To find out the differences in evaluations on SPS and to know the perspectives of each different stakeholder, we
prepared four types of interview guides and questionnaires. Through the interviews with principals, we assessedbasic information about the schools, what kind of organized programs they had such as curriculum and school
activities, their perception on the importance of ECE and improvements for the school. For teachers, we asked aboutteacher training and school activities, how they feel about and what kind of parental support they have, and thestatus of the achievement of students. Through the interviews with parents, we tried to find out how they think about
the importance of ECE, how they feel about the changes in their children, and how much they contribute to andcooperate with the schools. For the officer of the DOE, we tried to make sure and to get more concrete, or deep,
knowledge about the SPS situation at system levels such as teacher training, monitoring and evaluation.

6. Findings
6.1 Expectation for ECE
We tried to figure out what all stakeholder thinks about ECE and what they expect for ECE. From the interviews
with principals, we found that the preparation for primary education is the most crucial role of ECE and principals
believe that ECE leads to better achievement in primary education. Additionally, at M-SPS, the principal answered57

that ECE is vital for a better attitude, basic knowledge/cognitive skills and keeping children safe at school. Thus,
based on this result, we found that there are three types of roles. The first is for academic knowledge, the second isfor the better attitude of children, and the third is to give more time for work to parents.
According to the results of questionnaires for teachers, teachers at both schools think that ECE is vital, not only
for cognitive skills but also for communication skills. Also, children can learn good manners such as how to bepolite and respect others. At M-SPS, teachers answered that children could learn initiative, as well as how to becreative for further study, how to prepare for primary education and improve their language ability. At K-SPS, theteacher told us that ECE let children have more knowledge about their lives and opportunities to stay in school.
Thus, in addition to what the principal answered, teachers mentioned various kinds of skills such as communication,
initiative and creativity; they also mentioned gaining further skills for the future in addition to basic skills such as
writing. Also, through ECE, children can gain practical knowledge about their life such as hygiene and eating. We
found that teachers expect ECE to provide not only knowledge for studying, but also skills for everyday life and thefuture.
It was found that there is a substantial difference in expectations for ECE between parents at M-SPS and K-SPS
compared to teachers and principals. Parents at both schools mentioned that ECE is preparation for primaryeducation and that ECE let children have a better attitude. However, their answers are more various than the answers
from principal and teachers. At M-SPS, the top answer for the expectation was that parents expect to keep children
safe at preschools because they have to work or have other jobs to do. They also mention better achievement atprimary schools and an expectation for children to gain knowledge for children's growth and development.
In the case of K-SPS, they expect more of education itself. This is because one of their top answers is that ECE
is for children to be more educated for achieving better lives. We have two important cases from our interview. One
parent said that she wants the kids to be smarter and to get a better education to find better job, unlike her, because
her job is hard but pay little. This parent sends one of her children to an English class offered by a neighbour who
can speak a little English. We can tell how much she expects of education, not only of ECE. Another example is bya father who thinks education can change the destiny of the child. He expects that at least his child can have a betterjob than him and his wife. They are working so hard but they are still poor. As we can see from these two examples,the parents in the suburban area expect education to provide for their children’s better future. They also mention
basic skills such as writing and numeracy and getting ready for further school education. Thus, some answers about
what they expect for ECE are similar at both preschools, but some are strongly affected by the parents’ situation.
In the case of M-SPS, they want to keep their children at preschool because they have work and they are busy.
This could be a geographical characteristic as they live in the center of the city. On the other hand, at K-SPS, parents
want to give more opportunities to their children not only for preparation for primary school but also for further
study and their lives. This means that the parents in the suburban area believe in the power and future payoffs ofeducation itself, and this is sometimes because of the parents’ experiences.
Thus, as for the expectation for ECE, the answers from principals and teachers are similar, but parents’ responses
are different and are affected by their experience. Principals and teachers expect ECE to assist with the preparation
for primary school and that children can gain basic knowledge and skills for their cognitive development. However,parents expect different things from ECE based on their experiences and life situation. In general, parents at M-SPS
want to keep children at preschool because of their busy jobs, while K-SPS parents expect education itself to58

improve their children’s future.

6.2 Evaluation and satisfaction of SPS from parents' perspectives
We have shown what each stakeholder expects from ECE, and parents seem to have especially different
expectations. In this part, we will see what exactly parents think about the achievement by schools and how they
feel about their children’s change before and after they started to go to preschool. Through the questionnaires, we
asked parents if they felt any change in children’s behaviour after their children started going to school and how
much they are satisfied with the school. Even though parents’ expectations are different, how the children’s change
due to ECE is similar at both schools. However, in the case of their satisfaction with ECE, we received various
answers from each parent. After we mention the evaluation and satisfaction from parents’ perspectives, we will look
into the reasons for this evaluation and satisfaction based on two categories: program organization and parental
support.
At both preschools, all parents answered that they felt a change in children’s behaviour because of ECE. The
specific cases of their children’s changes are also similar. There are mainly three top answers from parents at bothschools: the attitude of children, communication skills, and basic skills for learning such as writing and reading. As
for the attitude, parents feel that children became more polite and respectful to others, parents and teachers.
Additionally, both sets of parents mention life skills such as cleaning up or helping parents as examples of things
that children learn at ECE. In the case of M-SPS, some parents said that children improved in terms of responsibility
and curiosity.
However, according to the scale of our questionnaire, how much parents are satisfied with the schools is different
depending on the school. We asked parents to answer on a five-point scale such that if they are totally satisfied withthe school they answer 5 but if they are not satisfied at all they answer 1. Table 1 shows the answer from parents,
which is about how much they are satisfied with each school. At M-SPS, three parents answered 4 and six parents
answered 5. Overall, the parents are satisfied with the facility of the school and the teachers, that is, the parents are
confident in the teaching way and materials. M-SPS was established in 1987, so the school has been open for over
30 years. Depending on the family, both parents and children go to the same preschool, so the parents also know theteachers well. Thanks to good facilities and trustworthy teachers, parents feel that their children become smarterand get ready for primary education.
On the other hand, parents at M-SPS also gave negative responses. For example, one parent said that studying
environment and material could be better and that the playground facilities are too old and dangerous for children.
Also, some parents are worried that children just play more than study, and another parent thinks that the teachers
could focus more on teaching by themselves without the aid of older children.
In the case of K-SPS, there are more various answers on how much they are satisfied with the school based on
the scale. One parent answered 2.5, three parents answered 3, three parents answered 4, and the other three parents
answered 5. They thank the teacher because she takes good care of her students, prepares good materials, and teaches
well. However, the parents are not satisfied with the facilities. Also, interestingly, answer one parent could not assess
how well the teacher teaches at school because the parent has to help with the student’s homework. The parent
appears to mean here that if the teacher teaches enough at school, he shouldn’t need to help with his child’s
homework.
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Table 1: Parents’ answers about the satisfaction
1

5
2

3

4

(not satisfied at all)Total
(totally satisfied)

M-SPS

0

0

0

3

6

9

K-SPS

0

1 (answered 2.5)

3

3

3

10

6.3 Program organization
6.3.1 Facility
Classroom and playground. In the interview with M-SPS’s teachers, one of the most often mentioned issues isthe classroom. As introduced before, the M-SPS has 11 classrooms, but because the school building itself is not
originally built for preschool, the lower level classes can only have classroom space of around 9 square meters.
Within the 9 square meters, around 30 students study. Related to this, the principal mentioned that 25 students in
one classroom would be the best, but in fact, the average is 40 students for one classroom. According to the principal,
six more rooms are needed. M-SPS has a playground with some playing facilities, but those facilities are also oldand not well maintained. From the parent’s interview, some parents mentioned that this playground is not big enoughfor students to play there, since there are 450 students. Also, some parents mentioned the old play facilities; they
are not safe enough for students (see Figure 4). In fact, there one student injured a leg while using the play facilities.
Figure 4: The playground of M-SPS

When we visited K-SPS, we found that the situation of K-SPS is much worse than M-SPS because of the school
construction which started from 2016. Actually, there are no finished classrooms. The teacher of K-SPS told us
when it came to the cold season, because of the temperature, they had to study in a place with sunshine to keep
students warm. K-SPS shares the playground with the primary school (see Figure 5). Benefits from this, are thatstudents can have a wide open place to play, but on the other hand, since the playground is not designed for preschool
students, there are not many appropriate playground equipment. Some parents also mentioned this; they thought itwould be better to have more equipment for their children.

60Figure 5: The playground of K-SPS

Equipment inside the classroom. Based on Knopf & Welsh’s research about the necessary equipment for apreschool classroom (2010), we can sum up some general requirements, for example, clean water, lights, tables,
chairs and fans or AC to keep the classroom at a suitable temperature and of course, teaching materials. Allclassrooms in M-SPS do not have lights, meaning that once there is not enough natural light, the classroom will getdark, and students have to study in the dark. When we visited M-SPS, even it was sunny outside, inside theclassroom was not bright enough. Also, because of the hot weather in Cambodia, it is better to have fans to make it
more comfortable for students to study. However, in fact, for big classrooms, there are just two fans, for smallclassrooms, only one, and none of the classrooms have AC. When it comes to K-SPS, because they do not have afixed classroom, it is impossible to count the number of lights or fans. The illumination and temperature adjustment
K-SPS only use natural sources.
Inside the classroom for M-SPS, it is easy to find many teaching materials, nearly all of them handmade byteachers. During the interview with teachers, the teachers mentioned that they have to make these materials bythemselves because of a lack of budget. Of note, lower level classrooms did not have enough tables. Sometimes,
the children had to take turns to use toys or teaching materials. The Dean of M-SPS complained to us that if she
could get a higher budget, she would like to improve this situation. At the same time, in the K-SPS, they have only
five small tables, and one is broken. Additionally, not all chairs are working well. In the interview with parents, theirwords also suggested this. About teaching materials, one teacher of K-SPS contributed a lot, making many daily
teaching materials by herself. Also, an NGO named the KAP organisation helped a lot with teaching materials;
otherwise there would be insufficient teaching materials.
Overall, based on the interviews with the two principles of the two schools, the budget they can get from thegovernment for one student is 8000 Riel per year. That means the school with more students will obtain a relatively
larger budget. This could be one of the reasons that M-SPS can develop better than K-SPS. However, still, these
two schools are lacking a sufficient budget. Even in M-SPS, there are chairs donated by parents, while 3 million
Riel in support from the Swedish government and an NGO support K-SPS. These external sources of support
combined with the hard work of the teachers allow the two schools to operate correctly.

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6.3.2 Curriculum
Based on the guidelines from the Ministry of Education, these two schools only have a class for half a day inthe morning. Both schoosl have similar teaching contents, for example, Pre-writing, Math, Science, Art and so on.
However, these two schools have a different situation in practice. For example, in M-SPS, the teachers will makepictures of different animals and let students get familiar with them. Teachers will also take students to the pagoda
to learn more about traditional culture. Many parents give a high rating for this kind of teaching. Still, from theinterview with the teachers, we can feel that the number of students in each class does have some adverse effect onteachers. Teachers cannot take care of each student while making teaching plan.
In K-SPS, with a smaller number of higher level students than M-SPS, the teacher can manage the teaching alittle bit easier than M-SPS. The teacher in K-SPS gave us an example that when she teaches students about fruits
like bananas, she will bring banana in green colour and yellow colour and let them try the taste, so the students canknow which will be better. Same thing is hard to practice in M-SPS because of the student number of the class.
An interview to the district office of education was also conducted. In the interview, she told us that there is a
new curriculum under testing now. The M-SPS is the only pilot school. The new curriculum is being piloted forthree months until October 2018 after which it shall be finalised. There will then be a workshop to evaluate theimplementation of the piloting. The formalisation and launch of the new curriculum will be from November in the
new academic year. The old curriculum was quite standardised whereas the new one has flexibility. For example, in
M-SPS, teachers can take students to pagoda to help them learn local culture, instead of only learning from textbooks.
ECE teachers will have the flexibility to teach things more relevant and applicable to learners in each distinct setting.
As part of the new curriculum, students can practice and experience things by themselves. The goal of the new
curriculum is the holistic development of the child, focusing on both the cognitive and physical development of thechild at ECE levels. During the pilot phase, the new curriculum appears to be effective because the students haveshown better academic performance. The old curriculum will not be completely phased out, but rather it will be
used to compliment the new one.

6.3.3 Teachers training
In Cambodia, the situation of not enough teachers is dire, especially with the development of the country, wheremore and more children need to go to school. There are 11 teachers in M-SPS; all of them received teacher training
before starting, but they have different levels of training. For those who trained in the teacher training centre in
Phnom Penh, three of them trained for one year, and two of them for half a year. The other teachers were trained at
the Kampong Chunnag Teacher Training Center, which does not exist now. Moreover, the training period is fromone and a half month to two years. This year, all teachers get 15 days of in-service training in 2 provinces. There
was no in-service training for the last ten years, but for the new pilot curriculum, this type of training started again.
It seems the teachers we interviewed are not as highly trained as teachers from the new teacher training centre.
However, in fact, the feedback from the parents showed that most of the parents are quite satisfied with theseteachers. The parents thought they have much experience with child care work, which is also a reason why some ofthe parents choose to send their children to these schools. For the K-SPS, only one teacher completed a 2-3 daycourse training. In the last two years, she got some training about how to test children and how to mix with students
62with disabilities from NGO KAP. Because of the hard work of this teacher, all students in K-SPS were are wellcared for. The parents are quite satisfied with this teacher.
There is one more problem we have to mention, the age of teachers in M-SPS and K-SPS. For M-SPS, 10 of 11
teachers are in their 40s, whereas only one teacher in K-SPS is in their 40s. It is easy to imagine, in some years,
these teachers will retire, meaning there should be new, younger teachers coming soon. However, the fact is, thedistrict officer of education told us the number of new teachers graduated from the only teacher training centre in
Phnom Penh and deployed to Kampong Chunnag Province is less than 10. Who will pick up the job after thoseteachers retire is another big problem that should be discussed in the future.

6.4 Parental support
As already stated in the previous paragraph, parental support is one of the vital elements that influences thequality of Early Childhood Education.

6.4.1 Parent-teacher contact system
Activities or chances provided by the school help parents get involved in ECE to a larger extent. So this can beone of the indicators for evaluating the quality of ECE. The table 2 shows the means of parent-teacher contact
provided by the two preschools.
Table 2: Parent-Teacher contact system
Mittapheap School

Kasaam School- Opening day of school- Opening day of school- Follow-up book: Monthly- Teacher visit every student's house 1 to 2 times a year

- Parents association: 5 members- Special activities• Religious activities- Special activities:• Special day before Children’s day every year
• Celebrate Khmer New Year with all the mothers

Opening day of the school:
Both schools have this event. Parents are taught to pay more attention to their kids’ studies and life in school,
and to help them with their homework. Some basic knowledge about how to take care of children is also taught. KSPS also uses the chance to appeal to parents to donate resource to the class; some plastic chairs are always
appreciated.
Special activities:
M-SPS holds annual celebrations for Children’s Day and Khmer New Year. The celebrations are in the forms oftea parties, where parents and teachers use the occasion to get to know or deepen the bonds with each other.
K-SPS is inside a pagoda area; the teacher will sometimes invite parents to take part in some religious activities.
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The event might not be directly related to ECE, but it works as a tool to strengthen the trust of parents in teachers,
and thus helps parents become more cooperative with their children’s studies.
87.5% of the sampled parents of M-SPS and 40% of parents of K-SPS attended at least one kind of special activity.
Just two parents from K-SPS answered that they have never been to school before and didn’t even join the opening
day. One of the parents said they just let the kid go to school by himself. Moreover, the other one said the kid seldom
goes to school. Both parents rated the school at 3 points, stating that they do not know the situation in school.
However, since we surveyed M-SPS inside the campus and interviewed parents who came to pick up their kids, thismay have led us to select respondents who more tend to be actively involved in their children’s education.
Nevertheless, the sample might not be large enough to draw the conclusion that parents from M-SPS are more
actively attending school events than parents of K-SPS. M-SPS is located in the middle of the city, and the school
district covers a much wider area so that parents have to pick up and drop off the kid because of safety reasons. So,
if considering the fact that most of the parents come to pick up their children even though they might not care about
ECE, the number could still show that parents from M-SPS are more involved in school activities than parents fromK-SPS.
Follow-up book (M-SPS):
The follow-up book is a notebook that is passed by students to parents monthly to inform about the performanceof the kids during the previous month. A daily and weekly evaluation system also exists in the school. The
participation and performance of the kids during the class and break times is assessed. “The kid of the day” is rewardwith one small flower shaped sticker. A bigger flower shaped sticker is given to “The kid of the week”. The followup book documents weekly flowers along with teacher’s comments. Parents are asked to write some feedback or atleast sign the book to show that they are monitoring the kid's progress in school. All the sample parents claimed thatthey are using the follow-up book as a way to monitor their children’s performance.
Parents Association (M-SPS):
M-SPS has a Parents Association with five parent members. The main function of the association is to spread
information about events like the cancellation of the school or special activities. There are 450 students in the school,
so approximately 90 parents are consigned to one association member. Information is designed to be spread insnowball fashion whereby parents notify all the parents they know and those parents pass on the information in thesame way. According to the principal, some parents do not have smart phone or cannot read or write; though themethod of information delivery is not efficient, it is expedient under the current condition. On the other hand, wecannot say that the association mainly is fully functioning as an informative mechanism.
Small conclusion:
The teacher of the K-SPS sample does home visiting one or two times a year. She knows the composition of thehouseholds quite well and talks to them like friends. Some parents and kids also know the teacher, and some ofthem are even worried that due to the teacher’s mother’s illness there might be too much burden on her.
For the question “How often do you contact the teacher?” 62.5% of the sample parents answered once a monththrough the Follow-up book; 25% contact with the teacher once a week; and only 12.5% make contact every day
64through talking with teacher in person while picking up and dropping off the kid.
Regarding teacher contact at M-SPS, only 12.5% of the parents talk with teacher every day, 25% of them do soonce a week, while 62.5% of them contact school through follow-up book once a month. Because of the highpupil-teacher ratio of M-SPS, most of the parents are satisfied with only using the Follow-up book rather thantalking face to face with the teachers.
M-SPS has a more well-established system for parent-teacher contacting including a follow-up book and Parent
Association. At K-SPS, while the follow-up book works well, the Parent Association does not to work quite so well.
However, even though there seems to be an insufficient parent-teacher contacting channel, the teachers of K-SPS
have more flexibility to decide what to do and they have a close relationship with parents. All in all, parents’
involvement with the school and teachers could be better for both schools.

6.4.2 Help children with homework
According to the teachers, both schools give homework every day. For each school, one parent said that there is
no homework from school. More than half of the parents of M-SPS help their kids with homework more than threetimes a week, and half of them do so every day. 30% of the K-SPS’s parents help children with homework every
day, 30% of them help with homework a few times week, and 30% of them help only several times a month. Parentsof M-SPS are more willing to help their kids with homework and more frequently than parents of K-SPS. However,children are getting extra help from other people like elder cousins and siblings. This situation is more common in
the suburban area as there are more extended families. They help children with reading and writing in Khmer or bylistening to/watching their singing and dancing.
One parent of K-SPS complained about helping kids with homework, stating that school is not doing their job
well enough as the kid could not finish homework all by himself. Because of the reason, he rated the school 2.5.
It seems that the parents’ participation is somehow related to the ratings of the school. One of the two parents
that rated M-SPS as 4 points, is the only parent who had never taken part in any kind of school activities. As for KSPS, one parent rated 2.5, and three parents rated 3; all of them had never been to any kind of school events. Twoout of three parents that rated 4 had never attended any events.
The situation of parental support at M-SPS is better than that of K-SPS. Parents at M-SPS are generally more
involved in school activities and more willing to help the kids with homework than K-SPS. This might be one of
the reasons that caused the low ratings of K-SPS.

7. Conclusion
ECE is imperative for the cognitive and social development of children. Preschools are the primary basis to provide
ECE geared towards three-, four- and five-year children. ECE not only prepares children for primary education but
also should encompass the holistic development of the children. The global value and importance associated to ECE
is recognized through target 4.2 of SDG 4.
The two purposes of ECE are to reduce poverty especially in rural areas, and the other is to decrease the dropout
rate and repetition rate of students. To achieve these goals, Cambodia has four types of ECE. In our research, we
focus on SPS. SPS is standardly equipped but is not at the level of PPS.
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In order to achieve the aforementioned purposes of ECE, two factors primarily influencing ECE must be realized.
The two key factors are program organization and parental support. Program organization means the appropriateorganization of the environment to suit the study program. Parental support is the involvement and participation ofparents in activities related to the educational development of children both in the home and at school.
Figure 6: The relation between School, Parents and Students in ECE.

1) Teachers teach students, and get feedback from students during class time.
2) Parents support, for example, by helping with homework; Students give feedback to parents.
3) Parents support, for example, parents join the school events or through communication, parents can know more
about their children’s behavior in school; the school (teacher) can get feedback from parents.
The relationship between school, parents and children can be summarized as in Figure 6 above. The school,
parents and students are connected to each other by program organization and parental support. In the wholeteaching cycle, the school educates students through daily learning. Then, with the support from parents, children
are aided with their homework or other school-related things; this way, the parents know the situation about theirchildren in school more clearly. The feedback from students to their parents was not exhaustively discussed throughthe course of interviews, however it does play role in this cycle. Third, via parents’ communication, the school can
get feedback from the parents; the parents also can give their suggestions to the school in order to help the school
teach their children better. This cycle can help explain the relationship between all the indicators used to evaluate
the quality of the two schools.
In the previous section based on our field survey, we mentioned that proper program organization consisted of
facilities, curriculum and teacher training. Overall, we found that the teacher’s hardworking and support fromoutside leads to the good achievement of children and good evaluations from parents. We identified three types ofprogram organization. One is a facility. Both schools need to improve the learning environment and the number ofchairs and desks. In that case, they need to ask the parents for support. Regarding teaching materials, teachers at
both schools are doing very well. However, they have to make many materials by themselves, and it takes time alot. The government can support the teachers in terms of teaching materials. Second is curriculum. The teachers at
both schools have some flexibility regarding what to teach. The teachers can teach things that they think children
need to learn. The third is teacher training. The schools have problem with a lack of teachers. Each year, the number66

of the teachers who can graduate from the teacher training centre in Phnom Penn is fixed. Therefore, an insufficientnumber of teachers can come to Kampong Chhnang. Therefore, it is necessary to find a new method for distributionof teachers. Thus, the organized program consists of facility, curriculum and teacher training. The situation isdifferent at the two schools especially for the facilities, but the problems are similar. Even though parents are
satisfied with the teachers and their teaching way, teachers need more budget for faculty and teaching materials. For
now, support from the outside such as by parents or NGOs and the hardworking of teachers compensate for the
problems caused by the lack of budget. However, they say that the facilities and the distribution of teachers needs
to be improved, so the government needs to consider these problems.
As discussed in the previous sectors, parental support was evaluated through assessing their assistance withhomework, attendance of school events and their opinions of the school and ECE. M-SPS is basically superior to
K-SPS in all these areas. The parents of M-SPS are more willing to attend school events, frequently help kids withhomework and give higher ratings of the school. Both school side and parent side are connected to this situation.
From the school aspect, K-SPS is just a preschool classroom inside a primary school, while M-SPS is welldeveloped and organized with a long history. Aside from the government budget, M-SPS are receiving an extra
monetary donation from Switzerland. All these factors make it possible for M-SPS to have a better system for parentteacher contact and have a deeper relationship with some of the parents who also went to the same preschool when
they were young. M-SPS has an advantage in a more systematic way, while K-SPS is unique as its teachers canoperate the school in a more flexible way. From the parents’ aspect, although almost all the parents regardedpreschool as vital to their kids’ future development, not all of them understand the role of preschool. Some of themhold the view that after they send the kid to school, there is nothing left for them to support. In other words, they
believe the school should be fully responsible for the kid’s education. This opinion is more common among parents
from K-SPS. In general, parents from M-SPS seem to have a better understanding of ECE than parents from K-SPS.
Overall, we can see some good points from both of the two schools. Also, we can see the government’s effort toimprove ECE, but still, there are many points that can be improved. For this research, because of limited time, we
could not visit more preschools; collecting more data in the future should help us make a clearer conclusion. We
hope our research can be of some help for ECE development in Cambodia.

67

Acknowledgements
The members of Working Group 3 would like to thank:
Dr. Sho Masaki (Supervisor of WG3) - for his continued guidance and support through the duration of the OFW
project. Also, we would like to thank him for his patience and understanding during times of delayed responses andlate submissions.
Mr. Chin Sam Ath (Local Advisor in Cambodia) - for his support and local expertise on the Cambodian
educational system to optimize our fieldwork experience and research design. Also, we would like to thank him forbeing a translator and local tour guide for the group, making the whole Cambodian fieldwork experience quite
enjoyable and memorable.
Mr. Chanthol Soth (local assistant to advisor) - for his tremendous assistance in translating the questionnaires
into Khmer and the translation work as well as his input and initiative to improve our various interview guides andquestionnaires. His sense of humour and top-quality photography made the OFW Cambodian experience morememorable and lasting.
Dr. Yuki Shimazu (OFW Coordinator) – For her leadership and support in organizing the various things required
from start to finish of the fieldwork program. Her kindness and approachability made all students feel at ease toshare anything and ask for assistance whenever they needed to do so.
Lastly, we would like to thank all the other professors and students who were also part of the fieldwork for theirencouragement, support and comradery in making OFW 2018 in Cambodia a lasting and memorable experience
both academically and personally for all.

68

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69List of Individual and Company Donors to the Overseas Fieldwork Fund
(In order of receipt)

Year 1991

Taguchi Fukujukai Foundation

Otake Corporation

The Aichi Bank, Ltd.

Tsushima Kogyo Co., Ltd.

The Bank of Nagoya, Ltd.

Tomita Co., Ltd.

The Chukyo Bank, Ltd.

Showa Seiyaku Co., Ltd.

Aichi Steel Corporation

Hotta Setsubi Kogyo Co., Ltd.

The Daisan Bank, Ltd.

Sankichi Kondo, CPA

Toyoda Machinery Corporation

Nakamo Sun Route Co., Ltd.

Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

Hayashi Yaokichi Co., Ltd.

Okaya & Co., Ltd.

Kazuo Oguri

The Tokai Bank, Ltd.

Matsukazeya Co., Ltd.

Central Japan Railway Company

Toyota Motor Corporation

Nagoya Railroad Co., Ltd.

The Kitankai

Toyota Industries Corporation

Hoyu Co., Ltd.

Japan Transcity Corporation

Daito Sanshin Co., Ltd.

Takisada Co., Ltd.

Yamasei Sangyo Co., Ltd.

The Hyakugo Bank, Ltd.

Tachibana Shouten Co., Ltd.

Shikishima Baking Co., Ltd.

Asahi Kako Co., Ltd.

Chuo Seisakusho, Ltd.
Toyoshima & Co., Ltd. Nagoya headquarter

Year 1992

Toho Gas Co., Ltd.

Sintokogio, Ltd.

Matsuzakaya Co., Ltd.

Dai Nippon Construction

Maruei Department Store Co., Ltd.

TOENEC Corporation

Muto Shoukai Co., Ltd.

Aichi Toyota Motor Co., Ltd.

Yoshiyuki Hattori, CPA

The Tono Shinkin Bank

Nagoya Mitsukoshi, Inc.

The Juroku Bank, Ltd.

CPA Mitsuoka Akira Office

UNY Co., Ltd.

Howa Setsubi Kogyo Co., Ltd.

The Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank, Ltd.

Kowa Company, Ltd.

Pacific Industrial Co., Ltd.

Daido Steel Co., Ltd.

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Sankyo Kasei Sangyo Co., Ltd.

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd.

NGK Insulators, Ltd

Toyota Tsusho Corporation

70

海外実地研修基金に拠出いただいた個人・企業一覧（受け入れ順）

平成 3 年度

株式会社中京銀行

株式会社大竹製作所

愛知製鋼株式会社

津島興業株式会社

株式会社第三銀行

富田株式会社

豊田工機株式会社

昭和製薬株式会社

中部電力株式会社

ホッタ設備工業株式会社

岡谷鋼機株式会社

公認会計士

株式会社東海銀行

近藤三吉

株式会社ナカモ・サンルート

東海旅客鉄道株式会社

株式会社林八百吉商店

名古屋鉄道株式会社

小栗和夫

株式会社豊田自動織機製作所

株式会社松風屋日本トランスシティ株式会社

トヨタ自動車株式会社

瀧定株式会社

社団法人キタン会

株式会社百五銀行

ホーユー株式会社

敷島製パン株式会社

大東三進株式会社

株式会社中央製作所

山清産業株式会社

豊島株式会社名古屋本社

株式会社立花商店

東邦ガス株式会社

朝日化工株式会社

株式会社松坂屋
株式会社丸栄平成 4 年度

株式会社武藤商会

新東工業株式会社

公認会計士

大日本土木株式会社

株式会社名古屋三越

株式会社トーエネック

公認会計士

愛知トヨタ自動車株式会社

朋和設備工業株式会社

東濃信用金庫興和株式会社

株式会社十六銀行

大同特殊鋼株式会社

ユニー株式会社

三協化成産業株式会社

株式会社大垣共立銀行

日本特殊陶業株式会社

太平洋工業株式会社

日本ガイシ株式会社

豊田合成株式会社
日本電装株式会社
アイシン精機株式会社
豊田通商株式会社
財団法人田口福寿会
株式会社愛知銀行
株式会社名古屋銀行
71

服部義之
光岡朗事務所