IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2019) 10-2

Research article
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Humanitarian Assistance to Decreasing Vulnerabity inFlood-Prone Village: A Case Study in Boeung Leas Village,
Steung Sen District, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia
JUN FUJIHIRA*
University of Extremadura, Caceres, Spain
Email: junjohnjun@gmail.com

BUNTHEA LY
Youth Resource Development Program, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Email: bunthealypeace@gmail.com

THOME XAISONGKHAM
Oxfam International, Vientiane, Lao PDR
Email: thome.xaisongkham@oxfam.org

VEASNA PROM
Heifer International Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Email: Veasna.Prom@heifer.org

ERIKA INOUE
Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, Philippines
Email: joliepoupee19@gmail.com
Received 8 January 2019

Accepted 7 April 2019(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract Flood is the most severe disaster in Cambodia because the country locates in theflood plain region. To tackle this national challenge, the Cambodian government has beendeveloping policies and programs on disaster risk reduction. For supporting disasteraffected populations, various organizations provide humanitarian assistance before andafter the disaster. However, due to country’s vulnerabilities, a number of Cambodians still
suffer from floods, such as food insecurity and health problems. To decrease its
vulnerabilities, community should build community resilience through build back betterbased on their past experiences, while receiving humanitarian assistance to enhance theircapitals. As women are among the most vulnerable victims in post-flood situation, thestudy tried to understand existing major community capitals as well as gaps between
humanitarian assistance and needs of vulnerable women. Totally 53 people consist from 33
female villagers and 20 key informants mixture of male and female were selected as
respondents for Focal Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informants Interviews (KIIs)
through purposive and snowball sampling approaches based on their status and experiences.
The study concluded that humanitarian actors better to focus more on activities to enhanceinsufficient physical, natural, and financial capitals of the village for decreasing existing
vulnerabilities including poverty, weak governance, and insufficient local structure fordisaster risk reduction by applying Build Back Better approach, which build resilience ofvulnerable areas based on past experiences and impacts.
Keywords community resilience, vulnerability, humanitarian assistance, build back better

INTRODUCTION
Cambodia has a tropical monsoon climate and is known as one of the most disaster-prone countries
in the world. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2012) reported that 53% of 2,050
disaster-related deaths between 1996 and 2011 were caused by flood in Cambodia. Women areⒸ ISERD

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2019) 10-2

among the most vulnerable groups without their participation opportunities to share theirexperiences and needs in decision-making process of authorities. Even though the Cambodian
government has policies and programs on disaster risk reduction, villages still have vulnerabilities
to hamper community resilience. Vulnerability normally generated due to insufficient capacity for
preparation, response, adaptation, resistance, and recovery from hazard impact (Winsner et al.,2004). As Human Policy Group (2006) specified that disasters are caused by human vulnerabilities
rather than hazard per se, decreasing vulnerability is a key to reduce disaster impacts. According to
Sendai Framework (2015), identification of vulnerability is essential for proper humanitarianassistance. It is because that vulnerability will be decreased when the community improve theircapacity to cope with disasters because these two factors are interrelated (Cannon et al., n.d.).
Humanitarian assistance aims at lifesaving and damage alleviation during and after disasters,
as well as strengthening preparedness for future hazard (Development Initiatives, n.d.). Ideal
humanitarian assistances decrease vulnerability while promoting community resilience andcapacity to mitigate impacts of future hazard. From this point, Build Back Better is one ofappropriate approach for humanitarian assistance because it is an process to improve resilience andcapacity of the disaster-affected communities, while reducing their vulnerability based on theirexperiences (Mannakkara and Wilkinson, 2015). Schilderman (2010) also specified that theexperience with owner-driven reconstruction has been more positive than with donor-driven
reconstruction.
Therefore, this paper attempts to analyze existing community’s five-capital as well as gaps
between emergency response and needs of vulnerable women to decrease vulnerability in Boeung
Leas village.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study Site
Study site is the Boeung Leas village, which is the one of four villages in Ou Kantor commune in
Steung Sen district in Kampong Thom province, Cambodia (Fig 1). The village has 130.89 hectaresof land with 88 households with population of 354 including 182 females. Main income resourcesof the residents are fishery, rice production and harvesting naturally grown morning glory(Ipomoea aquatica) because the village has big lake in the southern part of village, which stream
from the Tonle Sap Lake. Due to its location in low terrain near Steung Sen River and Tonle Sap
Lake, the village is the most vulnerable village to regular flood among four neighboring villages.
Especially southern part of the village suffers from severe flood impact annually. Chronic impactof severe floods and droughts in whole year make the villagers poor. In 2015, 33% of households
in the village recognized as poor and received the recognition paper for the poor by provincial
government.

Steung Sen district

Lake

Fig. 1 Map of flood affected households and Boeung Leas village in Kampong Thom provinceⒸ ISERD

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Data Collection and Analysis
By aiming at understanding existing major community capitals as well as gaps between emergency
response and needs of vulnerable women to decrease vulnerabilities in village, the study applied
focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews (KIIs). The study collected datafrom total 53 samples consist from 33 female villagers, nine members of the Disaster Management
Committee in the commune, and 11 key informants who involved in the humanitarian assistance.
All samples were purposively selected applying snowball sampling approaches based on theirstatus and experiences. Align with recommendation of Dworkin (2012) for 25-30 participants forin-depth interviews, 33 women which covers 18.13% of female villagers were selected for three
FGDs. Men were intentionally excluded to avoid interruption and dominant on answers. Besides, afemale and eight male members of the Disaster Management Committee were also invited foranother FGDs in order to understand vulnerability and common emergency response in the postflood situation in the village. Addition to that, KIIs were conducted to purposively selected experts
who involved in the emergency response, such as local NGO, the Cambodian Red Cross, andDistrict Health Center.
Collected data summarized and analyzed based on the five-capital asset pentagon of the
Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF) (DFID, 1999). By setting the five-capital pentagon human, social, physical, natural, and financial capital- in the key, the framework clarifying
mechanisms of vulnerability, shocks, and transforming process. The SLF distinctly emphasizes
improving capital assets to reduce vulnerability and enhance disaster resilience (Burton, 2012).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
General Information and Conditions
Although the villagers suffer from flood annually, after 2000, severe flood damaged the villagers in
2000, 2001, 2011, and 2013. Especially the Southern part of the village is vulnerable to flood due
to its location along or in paddy field (Fig 2 left). Interviewees shared their experience that waterlevel drastically increase to reach the house floor and occasionally cause water runoff to the housewith the raised-floor style. It causes villagers in flood-prone areas to evacuate to higher road andstay in temporary tent for a while (Fig 2 right).
Villagers have similar flood-induced impacts in the post-flood situation, such as foodinsecurity, health problem, financial shortage, lack of accessibility, and loss of human lives andlivestock. Due to lack of portable water, people reluctantly drink flood water, even though it may
cause diarrhea and other health issues. Children generally suffer from diarrhea and accidentaldrown due to unsafe and high-level water. Many villagers also critically suffer from income
shortage without accessibility to the big lake southern part of the village as well as Steung Sen
River, where people gain profit from morning glory and fish sales.

Fig. 2 Shelter in flood-prone areas along paddy field (left) and higher road to evacuate (right)Ⓒ ISERD

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Humanitarian Actors and their Roles
The study identified four main key humanitarian actors that provide assistances to the Boeung Leasvillage. These are local government including the Commune Disaster Management Committee,
district health care institution, local NGO, the Cambodian Red Cross.
In cooperation with local NGO, local government of Ou Kantor commune established Disaster
Management Committee that consist from representatives of four villages based on the national
disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy in 2011. The committee consists from five female and 12 malemembers who were nominated based on their status, such as commune chief, village chiefs, senior
villagers, and school director and teachers. The main task of the committee is to identify needs ofthe poor for humanitarian assistance and coordinate with humanitarian agencies and provincial
government. Networking effort successfully receive a project to improve community roads by
Ministry of Rural Development and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Local authority also collaborates with district health care institution to enhance accessibility ofthe poor to medical services by disseminating “the recognition paper for the poor”, which initiatedby Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Interior. This certificate aims to improve accessibility ofthe poor for social services including exemption of medical services.
On the other hand, local NGO named Help Old Ages and Miserable People Organization(HOM) also closely work with poor communities since 2000. With financial support from
ActionAid and Oxfam, HOM works for food security and livelihood, school education, gender,
natural resource management, DRR, Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), water, sanitation andhygiene (WASH) and sexual harassment. HOM also supported local government to establish thedisaster management committee through workshop on hazard map and action plan development.
Reflecting their limited budget for providing humanitarian assistances, they supported villagers toform a village saving groups for pooling money for emergency use. In addition, HOM also
contributed to the establishment of an early warning information system in cooperation with theInternational Cocoa Organization (ICCO).
The other actor is the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), which works for community resilience,clean water and shelters, microfinance, security, and community-based health development
program since its establishment on 1994. The organization provided humanitarian assistances formore than 20,000 flood-affected families in Kampong Thom province by 2011. CRC normallyprovides assistances based on the request of local authority and selected CRC volunteers in thevillage. Both relief recipients and assistances are decided by local authority and volunteers basedon specific selection criteria including poverty level and family structure.
Capitals and Vulnerabilities of the Boeung Leas Village
Based on the five-capital or asset pentagon of the SLF, this section summarizes existing capitals
and vulnerabilities of the Boeung Leas village. First, the research revealed that the villagers haveskills and basic knowledge on various topics, such as WASH and disaster risk reduction throughworkshops of humanitarian actors. However, physical capability of villagers, mostly women who
take care both the elderlies and children, are incapable of having different livelihood measures
except production and selling of morning glory, rice, and fishing. Second, the village has
appropriate social capital because there are existing disaster management groups in village andcommune level (Fig 3 left). Not only local authorities and disaster management groups, but also
community residents have network with humanitarian agencies directly and indirectly through local
authorities and CRC volunteers. Third, the village has physical capital including water gaugesystem (Fig 3 right), irrigation canals, radio emergency information system, and some boats as
community’s common property. However, the research also exposed that families does not havetransportation means such as bicycle and boats that people can use in the flooded condition toaccess markets, health facilities and school. These physical capitals are what women eager toreceive as humanitarian assistance because they can continuously use in the flooded condition foraccess health services, income generation, and food purchase. Pao Pisey temple is also one ofphysical capital because displaced people are allowed to stay at their 5 buildings and use 4 toiletⒸ ISERD

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2019) 10-2

facilities until flood water drain. The temple also provides stock of foods such as rice and canned
fish to displaced people. Fourth, natural capital of the Boeung Leas village is limited because thevillage regularly suffer from flood and have challenges on acquiring safe drinking water and foodresources. Besides, most of interviewees of the study stated that they have limited sources forlivelihood (rice production and naturally grown morning glory harvesting as well as fishery) due totheir educational background. Although the village has paddy fields, these are owned by the richand not allocated for the vulnerable families to harvest agricultural crops. Fifth, financial capital ofthe village and household level is limited because local authority does not have enough finance toprovide facilities that requested by dwellers, such as community toilet and boats. That is why
residents collects savings and request provincial government to provide toilets. When we consider
about individual level, the most vulnerable families who live along or in the paddy field mentionedthat financial shortage is the key factor why they continuously stay in the flood-prone areas. They
do not have money to move, do not know where to move, and do not know what to do forlivelihood in other areas.

Fig. 3 FGDs with Disaster Management Committee (left) and water gauge system (right)
According to Kafle (2017), South Asian countries have following seven major vulnerability
factors; (1) high population density, (2) weak governance, (3) climate change, (4) high rate ofurbanization, (5) ineffective DRR structure, (6) poverty due to high unemployment of women andyouth, and (7) population increase and natural resource degradation. The research also identified
some of these causes in the Boeung Leas village. For example, majority of households in thevillage face poverty and most of male adults migrate to other cities/ countries for earning moreincome. Due to limited amount and frequency of remittance, adult female responsible to earn
income and take care family members simultaneously. Although people recognize vulnerability of
the living area, they helplessly stay in the same area due to their financial shortage. People also
specified that they cannot prepare anything without financial surplus, even though they receive
lectures on disaster preparedness. For the community level, local authorities and village leader also
suffer from financial shortage and does not have adequate amount of budget to invest for disasterrisk reduction. Therefore, commune strongly depend on financial support of National DisasterCommittee. Another example is weak governance and ineffective local DRR structure.
Inappropriate decision-making of commune council chief and paddy field owners deteriorate theflood situation because they delay water release from paddy field. Although residents suffer fromhigh-level water and water runoff in their houses, the commune council chief does not releasewater until receiving request from landowners because flood water make paddy field fertile. It wasalso revealed that early warning information dissemination of the disaster management group isinadequate, and people obtain information more from television and radio, and direct information
sharing in the local authority. Besides, most of decision-making on recipient selection andassistance components were decided by local authorities and specific volunteers without needs
assessment and any participation of the vulnerable households. It accumulated frustration anddoubt about corruption of local authorities to injustice selection of receivers.
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Gaps between Humanitarian Assistance and Needs
The study identified four main gaps between humanitarian assistance and needs of vulnerable
women to decrease vulnerability in Boeung Leas village.
First gap was inconsistent humanitarian assistance with prior needs of people. Women eager
to receive long-term aids, such as boat, bicycle, fishing net and other materials that people canutilize for income generation and enhance their accessibility to facilities including school, hospital,
market. However, focus of humanitarian actors in post-flood situation is prevention of hunger for
few days, and that is why they normally distribute short-term aids, such as 25 kilogram of rice,canned fish, noodle, fish sauce. Sometimes they also distribute blue tarpaulin to reinforce damaged
roof. This inconsistency of aids happens due to lack of needs assessment before decision-making
on humanitarian assistance consist of financial and human resource shortage of humanitarian actors,
even though De la Torre et al. (2012) stated that accurate needs assessment is crucial for achieving
maximizing the benefit of distributing relief goods.
Second gap was distribution approach. Villagers expects equal distribution of humanitarianassistance among flood-affected households immediately after the occurrence of flood. But it isdifficult for humanitarian actors because of financial and human resource shortage. Unequal
distribution generally caused jealousness and doubt for local authority among villagers who could
not receive humanitarian assistance.
Third gap was different priority among commune council chief, paddy field owners, andflood-affected people. It is clear from the findings that prolonged water release of paddy field that
affect houses was decided by commune council chief in order to fertile paddy soil. In other words,
the local authority set their priority to benefits the rich rather than the safety of the flood-affectedfamilies. In addition, villagers hesitate to claim commune council chief directly because they afraid
criticism of local authority and the rich.
The last gap was ineffective recognition of the poor with “the recognition paper for the poor”.
The purpose of this paper is to improve accessibility of the poor for medical and other social
services. However, some medical facilities reject the poor to exempt their payment, or sometimes
request recommendation letter from community leaders. Ineffective recognition of the poor andlimited financial resources for transportation keep people away from medical services.
CONCLUSION
According to the results and discussion done in this study, it is identified that Boeung Leas village
is vulnerable to flood and annually suffer from flood-induced issues, such as food insecurity andhealth problem. The village has adequate human and social capitals specifically knowledge on
DRR, network, the disaster management group in the village or the commune. By contrast, both thevillage and individual households have space for improvement on physical, natural, and financial
capitals because these shortages induce food insecurity, limited accessibility and income generationin post-flood situation. Besides, the village has common vulnerability causes similar to other South
Asian countries, specifically on poverty, weak governance, and insufficient local structure on
disaster risk reduction.
The study also identified main gaps between humanitarian assistance and needs of vulnerable
women to decrease vulnerability in Boeung Leas village. First, there are inconsistent humanitarian
aids with prior needs of people due to lack of needs assessment and dependency on limited local
authority and villagers. Second, financial and human resource shortages of humanitarian actors
limit equal distribution of assistances to flood-affected people, even though villagers expect equal
distribution among them. Unequal distribution and limited humanitarian assistance distribution
created jealousness and doubt of villagers on local authority. Third, there are gap between priority
of commune management chief, paddy field owners, and vulnerable women. Although they could
help flood-affected households by release water from paddy field, authorities prioritize benefit for
paddy owners to fertile paddy soil. The study also identified the cases that ineffective recognitionⒸ ISERD

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2019) 10-2of the poor and limited financial resources for transportation keep people away from medical
services.
For improving resilience of the Boeung Leas village for future flood, attention should be paid
for Build Back Better, which is the process to improve community’s resilience and capacity, while
reducing their vulnerability simultaneously. Specifically, the study recommends humanitarian
actors to focus not only on short-term assistances for few days, but also enhancement of local
governance and local systems on disaster risk reduction including participatory decision-making
system for pre- and post-flood affected condition. It is because that reflection of past experienceand challenges contributes to create evidence-based disaster risk reduction and management
structures in the village. Poverty reduction through creating alternative livelihood options is also
vital components to improve community resilience.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Authors would like to express appreciation to stakeholders in Steung Sen district, as well as
professors and colleagues in University for Peace (UPEACE) and Ateneo de Manila University,
especially Prof. Diana J. Mendoza who supervised the study. Our gratitude also goes to Nippon
Foundation that tirelessly supported our study under the Asian Peacebuilders Scholarship (APS)
program. This study was developed based on the graduation research project under APS program.
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