Women-Led Output-Based Aid Cambodia

The evaluation report focuses on all aspects of the project programming, including sanitation, piped water connection, climate resilient water safety plan pilot, FSM pilot, menstrual health hygiene training, and other WASH related trainings.

This report summarises the results of the field work conducted by Mr Len Ang (independent consultant) to document the WOBA project’s OBA payment process in the four provinces (Pursat, Kratie, Kampong Cham, and Prey Veng).

This review of prior studies on financial risks in supply market of WASH products and services was conducted to better understand financial risks issues generally in developing countries and specifically in Cambodia. The report synthesises issues identified in the review and document the risks that WASH businesses encounter along the supply chains, and factors associated with these financial risks in the WASH markets particularly in Cambodia. The results are used to develop a questionnaire to survey private sector WAS suppliers in the WOBA  project.

Cambodia is a signatory of all fundamental international human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. Based on these commitments, Cambodia has made significant progress in gender equality over the past 25 years (UN in Cambodia 2022). Cambodia actively adopted the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) and the National Five Year Strategic Plan for Strengthening Gender Mainstreaming and Women’s empowerment called “Neary Ratanak” regularly. Based on a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), gender gaps in Cambodia had been reduced with a new ranking of 89th in 2019 (out of 153 countries) compared to the previous ranking of 108th in 2014 (out of 142 countries) (MoWA 2020). This report synthesises the key elements of policies and strategies and points to the opportunities and gaps for progress towards the vision set in the national regulatory framework.

This report summarises the findings of the mid-term evaluation of WOBA Cambodia. The evaluation assesses WOBA’s progress towards its planned outcomes and support learning by exploring the effectiveness of the strategies and activities implemented from June 2018 to June 2021. The summary report explores some initial indications of impacts and sustainability. It provides important recommendation in the ongoing implementation of the program and progress towards the project’s end-of-program outcomes.

WOBA can be said to contribute to women’s leadership and empowerment in WASH through recruitment of the Committee for Women and Children (CCWC) women to the Committee of Commune Council, and the CCWC members’ self-perception that they are change agents. At the same time, there remains a gendered view about women in WASH as domestic activities. This leaning note discusses some of the gaps in reaching outcomes of women’s empowerment in WOBA. It offers some recommendations to promote gender transformative mindset among partners and improve gender empowerment for CCWC women. More research is needed to understand gender and empowerment for all women involved in WOBA including water operators, Commune Council members, volunteers, households, and the CCWC.

This learning note is based on the findings from the MTR, focusing on the impacts (intended and unintended) of WOBA for marginalised households in rural Cambodia. The intended impact is the villagers’ awareness about the importance of improved sanitation for their health and the health of the community. Subsidies for latrines and water connections can be a nudge to get the family to decide, but understanding the value of building latrine for their own and others’ health is the decision trigger.

Although there are differences between provinces in terms of the partnership structure and line of authority in charge of WOBA’s implementation activities, there is a common link between the national and subnational levels. The overall WOBA partnership structure provides partners with the role and position within a hierarchical governance structure that they are familiar with. In addition, because WOBA offers the same types of latrines across all provinces, leveraging the existing government structure works well in terms of legitimacy and sharing information down the chains of authority.

This study investigated how rural households in two villages in Kampong Trabek district, Prey Veng province, Cambodia, have experienced, perceive and demand different aspects of FSM, particularly ADPs. The results of this study are intended to inform future FSM product and service development, and ultimately improve rural FSM safety and public health.