Water & Data Sharing/CICP Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) has partnership with Oxfam in Cambodia to implement the project "Building Voice,  Improving Best Practice" for the research publication since December 2000. Presently, Oxfam in Cambodia has supported to implement project called "Water Data Sharing and Early Warning System in Mekong region", it is under the Strengthening Climate Resilience in the Mekong Sub-region project (SCR) implemented by Oxfam and partners as part of the Mekong Regional Water Governance Program. Theproject is implemented in   riverine communities living along the Mekong River and tributaries in Thailand, Laos PDR, Cambodia, andVietnam.  The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of riverine communities and local government authorities to reduce vulnerability to the impact of disaster and climate and disaster risks. This is achieved through more inclusive and participatory planning, technical support for climate change adaptation and through improved access to information including hydro-meteorological data.

Accessing to hydro-meteorological data/information:  Across the region countries have invested in data gathering and dissemination systems for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) using a range of hydro-meteorological data sources including rain and river gauges, remote sensing, and weather forecasting technology such as radar and satellite imagery. Delivery systems include SMS messaging, web-based platforms and various data sharing platforms targeting local DRM structures and communities directly. These are mainly national systems,but some also utilize regional (cross-border) data through remote sensing and there are increasing discussions on data sharing between Mekong countries and regional bodies. Much of the available data is highly technical in nature designed for higher level decision making supported by trained technicians. The key gap appears to be interpretation of data and information in ways that can be utilized by community level users as well as delivery systems that integrate with community level DRM structures and processes as they exist in each country. Understanding what data is available, collected by whom and the social-political factors determining availability, accessibility, useability, and timeliness ofdata (including gender, ethnicity, location etc.) is of key importance as is incorporation of local and traditional knowledge and experience to inform how the data is used.

Oxfam in partnership with Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP)is to jointly convene a regional learning workshop with participation of relevant stakeholders who are working on strengthening Mekong riverine communities and support improving hydro-meteorological data. The learning workshop will provide space for relevant stakeholders to discuss on the existing water data sharing platforms/channels in order to identify gaps for further improvement that maximizes the benefit at the Mekong riverine communities.

The project aims to address:

1. To review stakeholderknowledge of and engagement with existing platform to determine level of usage.
2. Map out challenges in access and usability of data in community specially, women, IP and community group who are the most vulnerable.
3. Identify how the challenges could be addressed and agreed action toward inclusive data sharing mechanism/actions.