Mapping Volunteer Involving Organisations in Cambodia

Empowering youth to lead the inclusive development

How we do it The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme conducts a research on volunteerism and youth employment in Cambodia. The purpose of this research is to inform the policy making, strategies and actions of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, UNV, and other stakeholders.

Mapping Volunteer Involving Organisations in Cambodia

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online survey with 300 responses

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325 students trained in community development and social research

HIGHLIGHTS

With this study, we aim to: •• provide relevant information on volunteerism and youth employment •• develop evidence-based recommendations for overcoming the constraints, and building capacities for youth employment •• strengthen the Cambodia Volunteering Network (VolCam) and enhance research skills of Cambodian students for collecting, processing, and analysing data.

94 face to face in-depth interviews with volunteers, local officials, and company managers in 15 provinces by 36 trainee interviewers  10 focus groups with local, international, and indigenous volunteers  180 volunteer involving organisations interviewed

In 2016 we have collected qualitative and quantitative data through: •• an online survey (over 300 responses) •• face-to-face in-depth interviews with volunteers, officials, and organisation managers •• focus group discussions with local, international, and indigenous volunteers •• telephone and email interviews, online surveys, and case studies with volunteer involving organisations (VIO). www.ccc-cambodia.org We then compare the collected evidence with findings of our previous study conducted in 2008 together with Youth Star Cambodia. While that work is in progress, we have completed the quantitative part – mapping of VIOs. For that, we have interviewed 180 organisations in partnership with the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC).

More information is available at www.unvcambodia.org.

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#53 Pasteur Street, PO Box 877, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Tel.: +855 (0) 23 216 167 E-mail: unv.kh@undp.org Website: www.unvcambodia.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/unvcambodia UN Volunteers is administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

© 2017, United Nations Volunteers Cambodia

UNV research team: H. Kazhoyan (Project Coordinator/Researcher) S. Saray (Project Assistant) V. Som (National Intern) K. Phen (National Intern) P. Pech (intern) CCC team: S. Chen (Research & Member Development Manager) S. Kem (Intern), C. Touch (Intern) Graphic design: H. Kazhoyan, M. Grabowski

February 2017

Youth Star volunteer teaching in Kampong Thom, 05.04.2016

Group discussion at Bayon temple, 06.04.2016

We define volunteerism as non-compulsory unpaid work; that is, time individuals give without pay to work for others outside their own household. We have adopted a three-dimensional approach in this study. These dimensions of opportunities, motivation, and capacity evolve interdependently, and their interplay gives additional viewpoints to our study. Thus, enhancing young people’s professional capacities increses also their motivation and opens new prospects for social and economic engagement. Therefore, we strive to identify steps toward supporting the driving factors, building capacities, and widening the scope of opportunities for inclusive youth employment.

Developing students’ research skills

VIO operations Graph 5 compares the percentage of VIOs in the areas of their work with the findings of the 2008 research. By the respondents’ request, we have included a youth-related and three other new areas in our questionnaire.

The decreasing overall percentage shows a trend toward a narrower specialisation of the VIOs. They have remained active in education and training (62%) and community development (55.6%). Their focus on development in rural areas has prevailed, whereas there is a significant decrease in VIOs dealing with HIV/AIDS (from 42% to 4.8%), credit and savings, gender, and disability issues.

Interviewing youth club members and volunteer teachers in Prey Veng, 07.01.2017

Training in Siem Reap, 15.06.2016

Presentation of findings at the Institute of Technology, 02.12.2016

What we know

VIOs in provinces

Gender breakdown

In this part of our research, we survey into unpaid voluntary work with or through volunteer involving NGOs. In total, 332 NGOs responded to our mapping survey, and only 180 (54%) of them were VIOs; 72 percent of the respondent VIOs were local organisations and 28 percent were international.

Graph 3 shows the percentage of VIOs in provinces where our respondents said their volunteers worked. It does not give us the actual numbers of volunteers in each province.

In total, our respondents identified 3,703 civil society volunteers: 1,927 of whom (52%) were female and 1,777 were male. The 2008 study found that the male volunteers were more active and concluded that women’s involvement was harder due to their household commitments.

There were limitations in this part of our study, such as an apparent lack of responses from VIOs, to be acknowledged.

Another constraint was that we have reconstructed the basic questionnaires of the 2008 study with some modifications to include additional elements. Significant structural improvements, however, were left out to streamline the comparison with the previous results*.

Therefore, some areas that would have benefited from more thorough examination have not been pursued. We address these limitations in the more in-depth, qualitative part of our work.

International

28%

Other NGOs

ViOs

152

180

The 317 respondents of the 2008 survey said that they worked with 23,997 volunteers (75 per VIO in average). Back then, the highest percentage of VIOs were Phnom Penh based with many interns and volunteer project assistants.

This time we have found VIOs with less volunteers in total – many NGOs without volunteers claimed to have them in the past. Yet, the share of VIOs across all provinces has increased. Also, now we have VIOs with hundreds and even thousands of volunteers, like the Union of Youth Federations with 71,509 volunteers (excluded in the analysis).

90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

2016

2008

This time, however, we found a higher number of volunteering women in overall and, specifically, in Prey Veng (60.5%), Pursat (62.7%), Otdar Meanchey (69.6%), and Kampot (69%) provinces, which indicates that women value volunteering and civic participation in addition to their household commitments.

500 400

Female

300 200

Male

70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

2016 2008

Graph 5. VIO operations

Volunteer profile While VIOs tend toward narrower specialisation, volunteers seem to progressively become more versatile. Still involved in running projects and administrative support, they have expanded their role as social workers. Now they are clearly engaged in networking, civic participation, and human rights issues. This also tallies with the findings of our field work, showing substantial volunteer involvement in local decision making and developing civic participation.

VIOs train and support volunteers Assisting VIOs in administration or with projects

100

Training/mobilising groups, CBOs, social workers

0

Mobilising people for campaigns

Promoting human rights

Local

72%

Facilitating feedback to commune councils Networking with CBOs or associations Community social/health workers

Graph 1. VIOs vs. other NGOs

Graph 2. Local vs. international VIOs

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* Youth Star Cambodia and UNV, Volunteering: Harnessing the Potential to Develop Cambodia, Phnom Penh, 2008.

2016 2008

Participating in self-help groups 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Graph 3. Percentage of VIOs in provinces ___________________

** Number of VIOs among respondent NGOs. This information is not available in the 2008 report.

Graph 4. Gender of the respondents’ volunteers

Graph 6. Volunteer activities