Understanding differences in life satisfaction between local authority areas:...
SURVEY REPORT FINISHED (1)
1. 1
Community Survey Final Report
Banan Project - Cycle One
February – May 2016
Cambodia
Research conducted by: Charlie Hinton, Thol Heng, Sum Sichoeurn, Julia Herritty, Polin Dy,
Bex Idriss, Kate Goodrum, Soramony Soung, Chantel Davies, Karis Lambert, Khaem Peak,
Franzi Koefer, Keavon Meas, Lwiza Mulenga, Veasna Veurn, Joshua Shelley, Bunthorn Chhorn
and Dani Waddell
Written by Franzi Koefer and Joshua Shelley
2. 2
Contents Page:
Introduction 3
Limitationsof the Methodology 4
Community Survey Demographic Breakdown 5
Data Collection Method and Survey Breakdown 6
By Village – Findings Overview – Figure 1 8
By Village – Findings Breakdown 9
The Issue of Migrating Adults – Findings Overview – Figure 2 11
The Issue of Migrating Adults – Findings Breakdown 12
Local Economic Environment - Overview 15
Debt and Borrowing – Findings Breakdown – Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 15
Migration and Employment Skills – Findings Breakdown – Figures 8, 9, 10 19
Potential Avenues for Future Research 20
Criticisms of the Process and Points for Improvement 21
Conclusion 22
3. 3
Introduction:
Our primaryaimwhen conductingourcommunitysurveying exercise wastogaina betterunderstanding
of the problemsandspecific day-to-day living context of the residents of Phnom Sompov, focusing on
three villages; Sompov Kert, Sam Nanh and K’Downg. Using the questionnaire provided we collected
bothqualitative andquantitative databyinterviewing the heads of households we selected randomly,
and have subsequently analysed the data to attempt to establish correlations and suggest potential
causalityforthese correlations. The firstperspective we adopted was analyzing the data by village, and
the secondperspective byfamilies who had adults working away from the community for more than 9
months per year; this will be expanded upon subsequently. Ultimately, we hope that this report will
contribute to informing the future of the project when deciding the direction in which VSO ICS
volunteers can work with the community to improve their day-to-day lives.
4. 4
Limitations of the Methodology:
Duringthe collectionandanalysis of the data collected we met with several difficulties that should be
kept in mind when interpreting our data and drawing conclusions from the report. Where possible
however, these are taken into account when identifying correlations and making assumptions.
Questionsmayhave beenmisunderstoodby the participants, therefore skewing their answers
and meaningthe datacollecteddidnotrepresenttheirtrue opinion. This may have been down
to confusion either on the part of the participant or a lack of capacity for clear explanation on
the part of those conducting the surveys. For example, the volume of data collected in the
‘Resilience and Exposure to Shocks’ is significantly lower than in the other sections. This is
because of the complicatednature of the question,involvingperceivedfrequencyof events and
manydifferentoptionstochoose from.Therefore, conclusions drawn from this section are not
as representative or therefore valuable, however we feel that the data we did have was as a
result of clear understanding.
Although difficult to assess, there is the possibility that households may have not answered
some of the more sensitive questions truthfully. This could be for a variety of reasons, such as
embarrassment or in an attempt to draw particular focus from the project to their household,
among others.
Althougharelativelyminordisparity,differentnumbersof householdswere interviewedineach
village (Sompov Kert – 50 households, Sam Nanh – 45 households, K’Downg – 41 Households).
Again, this should be taken into consideration when assessing the representativeness of the
data from each village.
The structuringof the data groupingisalsopotentiallyflawed.Forexample,someof the houses
inSompovKertare closerto some housesinK’Downg than they are to houses at the other side
of Sompov Kert. This is important because when considering a category such as water
availability,householdsmayhave more incommonwithhousesinvillages other than their own
in terms of the issues they face, but this is missed by the village boundaries put in place,
potentially devaluing the separation of the data by village.
5. 5
Community Survey Demographic Breakdown:
Villagessurveyed:SompovKert,SamNanhandK’Downg
Numberof Households surveyed: 136
Average respondent'sage (years): 53
Average headof Households age (years): 55
Gender statistics
Total: 134
Male respondents: 38
Female respondents: 96
Total: 130
Male headedHousehold: 99
Female headedHousehold: 31
Female &Male jointheadedHousehold: 0
Head of household'smarital status
Total: 120
Married: 92 (83 males,7 females)
Single: 4 (3 males,1 female)
Divorced: 13 (3 males,10 females)
Widowed: 12 (1 male,11 females)
Comments:
The prevalence of female heads of households who identified as either single, divorced or widowed
suggests two things; firstly, that females are unlikely to be the head of their household if they are
married, and secondly that males are possibly more likely to remarry than females if they become
divorced or widowed, explaining the disproportionate male/female split in these two categories.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that while newly single men may occasionally remarry much younger
women, it is extremely rare to remarry with someone who already has children from a previous
relationship. Therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that a strongly patriarchal culture seems to exist
within the community.
6. 6
Data Collection Method and Survey Breakdown:
Each poverty component category was broken down into multiple subsections, with the calculations
that producedscoresbetween0-100(0 reflectingapoorqualityof life inthe category and100 reflecting
a healthy quality of life) informed by specific parts of the questionnaire:
Food& Nutrition
Security
Consumption Q33.1
Q33.2
AccessStability Q33.3
Q33.4
NutritionQuality Q34.1
Q34.2
Q34.3
Q34.4
Q34.5
Q34.6
Q34.7
DomesticWater
Supply
Quality Q14.3
Q19
Q16
Availability Q17.1
Q17.2
Access Q15
Q18
Sanitation&Hygiene ToiletFacility Q11.1
Q11.2
Householdwaste
management
Q12.1
Q12.2
Q12.3
Hygiene Practices Q13.1
Q13.2
Q13.3
Farm Assets Land Tenure Q20
Q21
Q27
Land Quality Q22.1
Q22.2
Crop Inputs Q23.1
Q23.2
Q23.3a
Q23.3b
Q26
8. 8
By Village - Findings Overview:
The first perspective that we adopted to analyse the data was by village, in order to try to get a better
ideaof the differentdemographicsandissuesfacedinSompovKert,SamNanh and K’Downg. Following
the presentationof ourfindingswhenusingthe separate villagesasourvariable,we hope that a deeper
understanding of the geographical context of the region can be developed, meaning that future
community initiatives can be more specifically targeted.
Figure 1 Radar Graph showing score /100 by village and poverty component
Comments:
There is a need to not only take into account the differentiation of scores between villages, but to view
the scores from a broader perspective in relation to other poverty components. For example, when
viewing the scores by village in regards to the Food and Nutrition Security component, the disparity of
score is one of the highest of all the components. However, the category as a whole has a high score
relative to other poverty components such as Non-Farm Assets, and this should be kept in mind when
targeting which area to focus on.
9. 9
By Village – Findings Breakdown:
We will now provide a detailed breakdown of each poverty component by village with notable
differencesinscore,includingthe score bysubsection. We adopted a colour coding scheme as follows:
Blue – The village with the highest score
Green – The village with the middling score
Red – The village with the lowest score
Food and Nutrition Security Component:
- The patternin the Foodand NutritionSecurity component is clear. Sompov Kert scores highest
in each of the three categories, and scores at least 11.5 or higher than K’Downg in each
Category. Sam Nanh scores generally fall half way between the scores of the two villages.
- In comparisontothe othercategories nutritionqualityisfairlypoor,especiallyin Sam Nanh and
K’Downg.
Domestic Water Supply Component:
- Water quality and availability is worse in Sompov Kert than in K’Downg and Sam Nanh. Water
access, however, is better in Sompov Kert than in other villages.
- Relatively, scores for domestic water supply are very low.
Sub-Section Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg
Water Quality 48.4 51.9 50.5
Water Availability 46.8 57.8 58.1
Water Access 59.1 49.5 54.3
Comments:
During the information sharing event it was asked whether there was a reason why despite having the
best score for Water Access, Sompov Kert received the lowest score for the other two sub-sections. The
answerputforward wasthat households in Sompov Kert get their water from the lake, as opposed to a
well or overflow pump, meaning that while it is more readily available, it is of a poorer quality.
Farm Assets Component:
- Despite having the best score for land quality, livestock/aquaculture inputs and crop inputs,
Sompov Kert has the lowest land tenure score, suggesting that although space may be more
limited, it is utilized more effectively.
Sub-Section Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg
Consumption 88.5 79.3 73.6
Access Stability 95.7 88.8 84.2
Nutrition Quality 69.8 57.9 57
10. 10
- The biggest difference in score in this category is in livestock and aquaculture outputs in Sam
Nanh compared with the other two villages – this may be down to a different focus in their
approach to farming but could also down to an unsuitable environment.
Sub-Section Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg
Land Tenure 71.6 72 83
Land Quality 83 78.5 68.9
Crop Inputs 56.8 37.5 50.2
Livestock/Aquaculture Inputs 49.8 19.6 40.8
Exposure and Resilience to Shocks Component:
- There isa large disparityinperceivedrecovery abilityinK’Downg,havingrankedasbeing overall
the poorest village, perhaps this to do with its relatively outlying location.
- This,whentakenintoaccountalongwiththe perceivedhigherlevel of exposure,issomethingto
look into further.
- Overall, these scores are relatively low when compared with other components.
Sub-Section Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg
Degree of Exposure 26.5 27.7 35.4
Coping Ability 61.8 61.4 67
Recovery Ability 58.2 48.5 36.3
Comments:
During the information sharing event, theK’Downg villagechief wasasked why he thinksthat people are
not as afraid of disastrous events as the other villages. His reply was that as none have happened in
recent memory, the villagers believe they will not happen in the future. He also mentioned that people
felt they would be well placed to deal with water and hygiene issues if a storm was to occur.
Non-Farm Assets Component:
- All three villages have medium to low scores in regards to employment skills and financial
services,withthe maindisparityfromthis data set occurring in the Employment and Skills sub-
section in Sompov Kert.
Sub-Section Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg
Employment and Skills 32.4 38.6 43.2
Financial Services 55.2 46.2 42
FixedAssetsandRemittances 64.9 60.8 63.5
11. 11
The Issue of Migrating Adults – Findings Overview:
The secondperspective thatwe adoptedtoanalyse the datawas by separating families that had one or
more adults workingoutside of the household for more than 9 months in a year. We decided to do this
as 43% of families have this migration background and it was a commonly cited issue during our early
research, moreover the police chief mentioned that he believed around 1,000 people from the
communityhadmigratedin2015. This yieldedsome of ourmostinterestingfindings, as it would be fair
to assume that as these migrating adults do so to seek a higher wage to send back to their families, so
these families would experience a higher quality of life when compared to those with no migrating
adults.However,withone notableexception,thisprovednottobe the case. We will now outline some
of the more significant findings in this respect, along with our ideas and possible explanations.
Figure 2 Pie Chart Showing Number of Adults Working Outside Their Household for More Than Nine Months per Year
57%
24%
19%
Number of Migrating Adults
0 1 2 or more
12. 12
The Issue of Migrating Adults – Findings Breakdown:
Fixed Assets and Remittances (Sub-Section of the Non-Farm Assets Component):
- Families that did have adults living and working away, frequently in manufacturing or
constructioninThailand, have asignificantlyhigherfixedassets andremittances thanthose that
didn’t.
- *scores based on questionsabout materialpossessionsin thehousehold,such asroof qualityand
televisions
Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg Average
Adults Away 76.8 74.3 76.6 75.9
Adults at Home 51.5 55.7 51.1 52.8
Score Differentiation +25.3 +18.6 +25.5 +23.1
Comments:
This makes sense, as a family that has an adult working elsewhere and making more money to
send back should have more assets. However, this was the strongest difference in the category
and suggests that perhaps the benefits of working away do not filter through and affect other
areas of life as you might presume, rather luxury items (in the case of televisions) and home
improvement (in the case of roofing material) are prioritized.
Land Quality (Sub-Section of the Farm Assets Component):
- Land quality is better for families with no adults working away.
- *scores based on questions about gradient and type of soil of owned land
Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg Average
Adults Away 82.9 74 61.3 72.7
Adults at Home 83.9 84.1 72.5 80.1
Score Differentiation +1 +10.1 +11.2 +7.4
Comments:
This suggeststhatperhapsadults thatmoveaway arein part motivated by poor quality farming
opportunities presented to them by their land, rather than just there are better wages on offer.
Perhaps if land quality could be improved, people would be less tempted to move away.
13. 13
Food and Nutrition Security Component:
- Families who had adults working away scored consistently lower over each of the three sub-
sections of this component.
- *scores based on questionsabout household eating lessdueto unavailability and family going to
sleep hungry (consumption),experiencing a 2-weekperiod in the last year with not enough food
and experiencing a full day with no food in the last year (access stability) and a break-down of
dietary habits (nutrition quality).
Sub-Section Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg Average
Consumption 86 90.6 80.4 81 73.4 73.8 80 81.8
Score Differentiation +4.6 +0.6 +0.4 +1.8
Access Stability 98 93.9 82.1 92.7 78 90.1 86 92.2
Score Differentiation +4.1 +10.6 +12.1 +6.2
Nutrition Quality 67.3 71.8 52.8 60.7 55.3 58.7 58.5 63.7
Score Differentiation +4.5 +7.9 +3.4 +5.2
Comments:
This reinforces the point that despite being financially better off, the increase in financial
resourcesdoesnotnecessarily mean thatquality of life increases,even in asvital an area as food
and nutrition.
Coping Ability (Exposure and Resilience to Shocks Sub-Section):
- Familieswithnoadultsworkingawayscoredhigherintermsof their perceived Coping Ability if
a disastrous event were to occur, such as a fire or drought.
- *scores based on questions about how long a household believes it would take to recover if one
or two disastrouseventsoccurred within a year, how long it would take to rebuild their home to
a satisfactory standard and who would assist them if a disastrous event occurred.
Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg Average
Adults Away 60.2 56.4 61.9 59.5
Adults at Home 63.2 63 72.3 66.1
Score Differentiation +3 +6.6 +10.4 +6.6
Comments:
This is anotherexampleof a disadvantageof adultsworking away,with theproblemcaused by a
reduction in the membersof the family presentto attempt to remedy the situation not balanced
out by increased financial resources – this is another example of other areas of life in which it is
detrimental to have adults working away.
14. 14
Water Availability (Sub-Section of Domestic Water Supply Component):
- Familieswithnoadultsworking away scored consistently and significantly higher in regards to
the availability of water for their household.
- *scores based on questionsabout how many months in a year a household deemed their water
supply sufficient for their washing, drinking, cooking and cleaning needs, and how often they
worried about this.
Sompov Kert Sam Nanh K’Downg Average
Adults Away 40.6 53.1 54.8 49.5
Adults at Home 51.9 59.9 61.3 57.7
Score Differentiation +11.3 +6.8 +6.5 +8.2
Comments:
This is yet anotherexampleof increased financialresourcesnotpermeating their way through to
have any impact on a vital aspect of day-to-day life in Water Availability. That there is in fact
such a significant score the other way suggests that not only are resources not utilized in this
way, but that the absence of adults has a detrimental impact in itself.
15. 15
Local Economic Environment Overview:
Giventhe financial pressuresmanyhouseholdsare under,we attemptedtogainadeeper understanding
of the root causes of these pressures. We did this by analyzing some of the raw data from the survey
questions relating to debt and borrowing and employment skills. Once again we adopted the
perspective of comparing households with adults working away with those that do not, partly for
consistentlyandpartlytoshedlighton common economic coping strategies employed by households.
Debt and Borrowing Findings Breakdown:
Families with a migration background were shown to have an ability to borrow money more
easily if needed than those that didn’t.
Almostthree quartersof the 57% of the families with no adults away reported that it would be
unlikely that they would be able to borrow money from financial institutions.
Slightlyoverhalf of the familiessurveyed reported that they owed a little amount of money to
banks or money lenders, while 11% had no debts at all.
Nearly one third of the surveyed families owe their debts to relatives, 12% to private money
lenders, 7% to microfinance institutions and 4% to village funds.
Figure 3 Debt and Borrowing Trends in Households with No Migration
16. 16
These trends change in families who have one adult migrating each year.
In one in four families, one family member migrates and in 19% of the cases, 2 or more adults
live away from home.
A significantly higher number of families with a migration background reported to have easy
access to money if they needed to borrow some (31%).
Despite this, 60% of all families assume they would not be able to borrow any money.
Surprisingly, 17% owe a moderate amount and 12 % a lot to banks in families with one family
member abroad, which is considerably more than families with no background in migration.
The trend barely changes in families with two or more families abroad, even though it seems
that slightly fewer families have no debt.
Households with migration background owe their money to village funds (16%), microfinance
institutions (16%) and private money lenders.
Borrowingmoneyfromrelativesandfriendsseemstobe a lessattractive optionfor households
with a migration background than for households without this background, but instead
households with migration background owe more money to banks and microfinance
institutions.
Figure 4 Household Debt with One Migrant Member
Figure 5 Household Debt with Two or More Migrant
Members
Figure 6 Households with One Migrant Member
Figure 7 Households with Two or More Migrant Members
17. 17
Comments and Discussion:
Duringour informationsharingeventthe village andpolice chiefs raisedcommentsinregardsto
the statistics shown above. According to the police chief, poor families with the aiming to
migrate face very high costs, including passport fees and transport costs. In order to migrate,
Khmer nationals have to go through a very costly application process managed by recruitment
agencies.Mostof these agenciesare alsolocatedinPhnomPenhratherthanrural areas. Hence,
in order to be able to afford these costs, prospective migrants get loans from banks and
microfinance institutions.
Accordingto the International LabourOrganisation, aprospectivemigrantworker is required to
pay US$ 100 to an agency as an advance payment for processing documents, while the
employerorrecruitmentagencyinternally lends US$ 600 (or about 20,000 baht) to the workers,
which will later be deducted from their salary at a rate of around 2,000 baht per month during
for 10 months.Asthe recruitment cost also includes profit and fee taken by agency, the actual
amountof the loan should hypothetically be less than $600. With the loan repayment burden,
migrant workers have to work longer hours in order to accumulate enough earnings for daily
living and sending remittances home.
It seemsreasonablethentoassume thatinthe surveyedvillagesthe debtburdenforthose with
more of a migrationbackgroundislargerthanfor familieswithout.Due tothe fact that villagers
are more likely to come into contact with microfinance institutions and banks through the
process of migration, debts are also increasingly owed to microfinance and banks, rather than
village funds and relatives. Due to the high costs however, migrants struggle to pay back the
loansand interestfees.Asthe police chief suggested, many migrants come back from Thailand
feelingthat they did not benefit from their work abroad as employers were either paying less
than they had thought or the recruitment agencies requested unexpected additional fees.
As presentedinthe above surveyresults,familieswithout amigrationbackgroundare lesslikely
to borrow money from microfinance institutions or banks in order to pay for future migration
costs or day-daylivingcosts.However, some poor families in the village of Sam Nanh reported
that theyusuallyaskrelativeswhoare financially better-off to borrow money from the bank as
they are more likely to receive loans. This corresponds with the results of the survey, which
showsthat familieswithouta migration background mostly owe money to relatives. However,
58% of these households said they only owe a little bit. The majority of the debt burden could
be owedby otherhouseholdsrelatedtoone family. Moreover,forsome prospectivemigrantsof
poor familiesitisnecessarytomigrate in order to provide food for the family and education to
their children. Another motivator for migration seems to be the ability to cope with disasters
better,suchas rebuildinghomesafterstorms(despitethisnotbeingshowntobe the case in the
collected data).
The village commune chief also complained that every second migrant in the village migrates
illegally. If the workers choose to work in Thailand through a smuggling network, they have to
pay the carrier only around US$ 100 per person. Above all, this means that they do not have to
waitfor the administrativeprocesstobe completed before travellingtothe destinationcountry.
Given the wide gap between the costs of legal and illegal recruitment, it is not surprising that
many workers choose to migrate illegally. However, this may place them at risk of arrest and
deportation. According to the police chief, the Cambodian government tries to communicate
18. 18
with the government of Thailand to send back any illegal Khmer labour workers. This is also
because Khmer labourers migrating abroad illegally have zero social protection in terms of
security of wage, labour rights, sexual harassment etc.
Consideringthe results of the survey it seems very important to prepare prospective migrants
better before their departure. Currently there is not systematic pre-departure training for
migrant workers in Cambodia. Only a few NGO’s and recruitment agencies provide pre-
departure training on health, human rights etc.
As remittances seem to be invested in fixed assets, (such as televisions) rather than
consumptionandimprovednutrition,prospective migrants should receive training in financial
literacy and ways they might invest their money better. The police chief of Phnom Sompov
complainedaboutthe factthat some people come backwith no money as they did not manage
to buildanysavings.Ratherthanspendingmoneythoughtfully, with a longer-lasting impact for
the family,itisspentonleisure goodsandalcohol.Thus, recipients use the capital to maximize
leisure rather than work to maximize utility. Therefore, we propose that helping prospective
migrants to choose from the options available, e.g. providing information on available bank
accounts, savings accounts, costs and loans, cheap bank accounts to transfer money from
Thailandbackto theirfamilies etc. itmightencourage families to make livelihood and financial
decisions more wisely.
19. 19
Migration and EmploymentSkills:
The analysisof the questionnairesreveals that families with a migration background are more likely to
run or manage theirownagricultural businessorprovide skilled services than families with no migrant
member.
During the last 12 months, has anyone in your household managed or run their own non-
agricultural business?
Only 30% of families with no migration background have engaged in any business related
activity in the last 12 months, whether that be for 1 month or up to 7 months or more.
In families with one family member working away, almost 50% of households have run or
manageda business,while twothirdsof households with 2 or more adults working away run or
manage a business.
Additionally,familieswith amigration background seem to run their business for longer than 7
months; for instance, 35% of households with family members living abroad run or manage a
business.
Comments and Discussion:
Eventhoughthe police chief complainedabout the fact that migrants return to their families in
the villages with no saved money and accrued debt, there are many cases in which the family
was able to save and then build or run a business besides their agricultural businesses.
This is a positive sign, suggesting that a decent amount of households with a migration
background have received pre-departure training and are aware of the possible benefits that
migration can have if the remittance money is spent and invested sensibly and efficiently.
Providingskilledservices inBananProvince does not seem to be an attractive option however.
Thisis despite familieswith a migration background seeming to at least offer skilled services a
few times, or every day.
Additionally,there could be no relationship found between migration and any skilled services
that households offer beside their agricultural businesses.
Roughly80% of households inBananProvince have notofferedanyskilledservicesin the last 12
months, with or without migrant family members.
23%
19%
8%4%
35%
11%
Two Adults Migrating
No
Yes, 1-2 months
Yes, 3-4 months
Yes, 5-6 months
Yes, 7+months
don’t know
60%
3%
5%
1%
21%
10%
No Adults Migrating
No
Yes, 1-2 months
Yes, 3-4 months
Yes, 5-6 months
Yes, 7+months
don’t know
44%
6%13%
6%
22%
9%
One Adult Migrating
No
Yes, 1-2 months
Yes, 3-4 months
Yes, 5-6 months
Yes, 7+months
don’t know
Figure 9 - One Adult Migrating Figure 10 - Two or More Adults MigratingFigure 8 - No Adults Migrating
20. 20
Potential Avenues for Further Research:
It was difficult to try to incorporate the Sanitation and Hygiene Component, due to a lack of
immediatelyobvious impacts either on or from other Components. Potentially however a link
could perhaps be made with the Domestic Water Supply Component, subject to further
research.
Althoughstarted,amore in-depthanalysiscouldbe made of any existing relationship between
each village and the number of adults working away or at home. This may give another
perspective on the reasons for adults seeking employment elsewhere.
One idea we had that was not followed through due to time constraints was to establish a
relative povertyline,e.g.those withascore under30 inthe DomesticWaterSupplyComponent.
Thiswouldrequire careful analysisof each score from each household relative to one another,
but wouldprove extremelyuseful inidentifyingnotonlythe mostvulnerable households in the
community, but also which aspects of day-to-day life should be focused on in the future.
In future surveying exercises or focus groups it would be interesting to try to gauge which
Componenteachhouseholdfeel needs most urgently addressing; although an estimate can be
made from the scores from each Component comparatively, this is not certain and would be
invaluable in establishing which areas should be targeted in future cycles.
An extension of the adult migration analysis would be to conduct a further breakdown of how
manyadultseach familyhasworkingawayrelative to the size of the family. This would give an
idea of whether there is an optimum number of adults working elsewhere that benefits the
family, dependent on the make-up and size of the family.
Further research into the structure and type of existing family agricultural businesses would
potentiallyprovideaninsightintowhichof these ismost effective and beneficial to the family.
A more detailed picture of the kinds of debt owed by households in terms of payment
schedules, interest rates, why the debt has been accrued and general etiquette if informally
owed would be useful in understanding the economic ecosystem of the community and
consequently which types of livelihoods initiatives they would be most receptive to.
If a more detailed understanding of coping and recovery techniques specific to each different
kindof disastrouseventcould be developed, this would enable more effective mitigation and
adaptation initiatives, as well as the most useful strategy to adopt in terms of pre-emptive
resilience building.
Try to establishwhetherthere are literacy or financial training opportunities or saving account
schemes offered by NGO’s or local organisations for prospective migrants in Banan.
The issue of fish-farmingandthe difficulties associated was brought up during the information
sharing event – this was the first we had heard of it being practiced and could provide an
alternative focus for future projects alongside traditional agriculture.
Finally,a physical map of households so far interviewed would have been incredibly useful in
order to get an idea of common issues that could be explained by geographical location, and
shouldbe consideredwhennextconductingsurveys. Moreover, this could be developed into a
skill exchange initiative if professions and personal capacities were also mapped, facilitating
community linkages and allowing households to work more closely together to address their
own issues.
21. 21
Criticisms of the Process and Points for Improvement:
Due to a password protection we were unable to see the exact formulas used to produce the
scoresout of 100. Beingable toaccess thiswouldhave deepenedourunderstandingof the data
we collected, one examplebeinghow the NutritionQuality Sub-Section was calculated (certain
foods that may have generated a high score might not be prevalent in the context of a rural
Cambodiancommunity).Thiswouldhave given more credibility to our analysis and findings as
well as ideas for future research techniques.
Whetherbydesignof the questions(e.g.questions30 and 31) or a lack of understanding on the
part of the interviewers, we received a large proportion of zero data values, undermining the
representativenessof our data. Either way, if the same survey is used again, extra time should
be dedicatedtodevelopingaclearunderstanding of the questions and what they are designed
to find out.
22. 22
Conclusion:
We hope that this report has provided an insight into the needs of the community of Banan and can
therefore act as a foundation to ensure that future cycles of volunteers arrive informed and ready to
effectively contribute to resident’s day-to-day lives. It quickly became apparent that not only was an
agricultural youth co-operative not in keeping with the ambitions of local youth, but that it had been
presumptuous andlimitingtoassume thatitwas.In addition,the model of the existingadultagricultural
co-operative is not transferable due to it’s financial structuring, and future initiatives to engage the
youth should be developed independently, taking into account their circumstances and basing the
project focus closely on their ideas; we believe that interactive consultation events would be an
effectivetool toachieve this inthe future. In addition, it needs to be accepted that migration in search
of better pay is an established facet of community life and rather than attempting to change this,
education and preparedness on this issue should be prioritised. With this acceptance, the impact that
migration has on the affected families can be better understood and therefore addressed. Lastly, we
believethatthere isa willingnessamongbothkeycommunity stakeholders and local residents to work
in partnership with VSO ICS volunteers in the future, but the direction must come from perceptive,
careful researchandeffectiveworkingpartnershipsthateffectively utilize existing capacities and allow
residents to become agents of their own change.
