Cambodia is an agricultural country which is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change, and the human system of its country have been affected by extreme climate events such as flood and drought Climate change is the real challenge for the country, and the economy and livelihood are interfered by its effects in which frequently occurs in the country. Due to its low adaptive capacity in adapting to climate change effects and high dependency on climate-sensitive sectors of rural people, Cambodia becomes vulnerable to climate change
Group
of CBOs/NGOs working on Environment and Climate Change co-organized with Royal
University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) and NGOs partners to host Dissemination
Workshop on Climate Change Adaptation (CCA)/Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
Mainstreaming into Commune Investment Program (CIP)/Commune Development Plan
(CDP) with Reflecting to Joint Principle for Adaptation (JPA) at Himawari
Hotel, Phnom Penh on January 28, 2019. There were over 80 participants from the
representative of the EU delegation, Embassy of Sweden; representatives from
relevant ministries, local authorities, NGOs communities, academia, university
students and media discussed
on climate change adaptation and funding at a sub-national level
Dr.
Tek Vannara, Executive Director at the NGO Forum on Cambodia said in a speech
that as Cambodia is an agricultural country, it is highly vulnerable to the
impact of climate change.
“While
there were many major positive improvement of the government’s efforts, this
paper also found some shortage of funding at the commune level, which does not
completely correspond to the Commune Investment and Development programme.
Cambodians still have a very low understanding of the risks associated with
climate change, as well as how they will adapt to inevitable climate changes
that impact their lives. As weather is becoming increasingly erratic due to
climate changes, actions plans at the commune level are still lacking in how to
respond to the changes. We will be better at adapting to climate change with
more of the national budget directed towards the sub-national level,” he said.
He
added that currently the system of adapting capacity to the impact of climate
change of the people is low…to reduce the risk that Cambodia is facing, especially
with children and vulnerable groups, the government should offer a higher
budget to communes and Sangkats, so they can invest that money in an area to
help them manage and adapt to climate change.”
In
plenary discussion, Ms. Chhoeun Sody, Chief of Sangkran Roy forest community
locates in Siem Reap province’s Varin district, said like other communities,
it’s hard for them to adapt to irregular rain, strong winds, floods and drought…in
the past the commune authority could not help them with these challenges as
they did not have adequate resources.
“I
want to see the flow of the commune and district budget to the locals in remote
areas. People never receive information on natural disasters and relevant
authorities should visit and educate them about the climate change issue,” she
said.
Mr.
Va Vuthy, representative of National Council for Sustainable Development said this
issue and its impacts of climate change is interlinked with development works,
which is very happening currently. The government’s income is very limited and
every sector is in need of money…however the government has increased the
commune budget frequently for such issues.
As quite similar perception; Dr. Seak Sophat
from RUPP and Mr. Vorn Savuth, National Planning Advisor, SRL Project from NCDDs said the climate change has seriously affected
human health, water resource, agriculture, costal ecology and biodiversity…etc.
It also affects the development and the poverty reduction effort and achieving
the sustainable development goal. The climate change mainstreaming especially
to sub national level is needed into policies/strategies, development programs
and budgeting.
Dr. Sophat said there are some progress at
ground yet we need to do more to improve such as strengthen the existing policies
and strategies, capacity building in order mainstreaming CCA/DRR through
implementing CDP and CIP from National Government and Non-Governmental
Organization as well as improved application of Joint Principles for Adaptation
(JPA) at community.
To deal these challenges, Mr. Vorn Savuth
said NCDD through The Local Governments and Climate Change (LGCC) were designed
to support the capacity of the Local Government to implement Climate Change
Adaptation (CCA) to increase the resilience at the local level. Phase I and
Phase II of the project, with support from the EU, Cambodia Climate Change
Alliance Trust Fund (CCCA-TF) and SIDA, resulted in the LGCC’s demonstration
that the Performance-Based Grant Mechanism (PBCRG) has increased the government
capacity to produce the local infrastructure, which contributed to the increase
of the resilience of their community to the climate change effects in their
area. He said “for years of experience in implementing the programme, LGCC has
enhanced the mechanism and improved the capacity of the local government, at
the same time it also influenced the policy in mainstreaming CCA into the local
government planning and also the role of local government in implementing the
CCA. The new guideline of the local government planning was approved in the
beginning of the year, where the climate change intervention will be a part of
the normal development planning—for example SRL project”
Key Note Address by Ms. Johanna Palmberg, Counselor, Governance and Climate Change, Embassy of Sweden and Mr. Clemens Beckers, a representative of the EU’s Cambodian office, said they are working to reduce the impact of climate change in Cambodia. Sweden and the EU are partners in the support of the CCCA. Sweden also supports climate change at local level through its support to the ForumSyd.
