05 Mar 2010
Written by: Thin Lei Win
PHNOM PENH (AlertNet) - Advocacy and aid groups in Cambodia have expressed concerns about a proposed law regulating non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the Southeast Asian country.
The issue has raised a wider question about governance in the sector crowded with hundreds if not thousands of players.
Here are some questions and answers about a home-grown system aimed at self-regulation.
What is the Good Practice Project (GPP)?
Launched two years ago, the Good Practice Project (GPP) is an attempt by Cambodia's NGO community to clean its own house before the NGO and Associations Law comes into force. Under the GPP, NGOs undergo a voluntary certification system and agree to comply with a set of ethical principles (the Code of Ethical Principles and Minimum Standards for NGOs in Cambodia).
The NGOs must first be registered with relevant ministries and have been operating for three years at least.
Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC), a two-decade old umbrella group for over 100 local and international NGOs helped developed GPP.
Why is it needed?
Twelve years after the end of a brutal civil war, Cambodia now boasts thousands of NGOs and associations. Figures vary -- the government says there are over 3,000 while an NGO umbrella group says around 1,000 exist. There has been criticism over the conduct of some NGOs and the NGO community concedes there is a need for accountability.
What is the Code of Ethical Principles and Minimum Standards for NGOs in Cambodia?
This is a set of principles and minimum guidelines for NGOs on a host of issues ranging from mission and values and governance to accountability and transparency and human resources.
GPP team members say the idea is to guide NGOs to become more professional in their everyday practice as well as to inform public and interested parties about the principles they can expect NGOs to uphold.
The NGOs who wants to be certified by the GPP has to ensure they comply with the code. The first version of the code was drafted in 1995.
How does it work?
The NGOs who have decided to get the certification need to go through a series of steps including submitting a written application and documentation such as annual audit statements, annual reports and organizational statues.
Before they receive certification as Good Practice NGOs, GPP staff will review the documents and the NGOs' programmes through field visits. Once all the criteria have been fulfilled, they will receive a certification lasting three years.
What does it mean for organizations to be certified?
In theory, the certification will act as a stamp of approval of the NGO and an assurance to the general public as well as the government over the integrity of the individuals and organizations involved and the effectiveness of its programmes.
Increasingly, it will also become an asset with the donors. Already, the Australian government's aid agency Aus AID lists the certification as a requirement when calling for NGOs to send in proposals for aid projects.
How many have been certified under the GPP?
So far only 17 have been certified out of 51 applications. These include a wide range of NGOs such as the Non-Timber Forest Products Organisation, street children charity Mith Samlanh and Salvation Center Cambodia where Buddhist monks provide spiritual and practical support to HIV/AIDS patients.
Although the number may seem miniscule given the size of the NGO community in Cambodia, GPP said it had seen an increase in applications, possibly due to concerns over the impending NGO law.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Woman starved son, 5, to death because he looked like husband?
Friday, March 5, 2010
NARA (Kyodo) A 26-year-old Nara Prefecture woman who was arrested together with her husband Wednesday for allegedly starving their 5-year-old son to death has told investigators she could not feel any affection for him because of his resemblance to his father, police sources said Thursday.
Mami Yoshida, a part-time worker, also told investigators her relationship with her husband, Hiroshi, 35, a corporate employee, had soured. The investigators reckon the couple's worsening relations led to the abuse of their son, Tomoki.
Yoshida said she felt affection for the couple's other child, a daughter, 3, who shows no signs of having been abused.
Her husband was quoted as saying he was aware their son had been getting weak, but did nothing to protect him.
They are suspected of having failed to give sufficient food or provide necessary medical care for their son since early January.
On Wednesday, the boy was found unconscious by a municipal official who visited the family home after Yoshida called a child counseling center. The boy was lying on a futon wearing a diaper and looking emaciated, the city said.
The official called an ambulance to take the boy to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Although the average height of a 5-year-old is 110 cm, their son was only 85 cm tall and weighed just 6.2 kg, a third of the average weight.
On Thursday, the police conducted an autopsy and also raided the couple's home in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, in search of evidence.
According to the police, while the couple took their daughter to a day care center while they worked, they left their son alone at home and did not take him to a kindergarten or a day care center.
The Sakurai Municipal Government said the boy underwent a regular health check for 10-month-old babies in 2005. But the parents failed to ensure their son had regular checkups in 2006, when he became 18 months old, and in 2008, when he turned 3 1/2 years old.
In response to the municipal inquiries on those occasions, Mami told officials she needed rest as she was pregnant and could not take her son to the health checkups because she was busy caring for a relative.
Fatal abuse arrest
SAITAMA (Kyodo) Police arrested a couple Thursday in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, on suspicion of failing to provide sufficient food for their son, who became weak and died in February 2008.
The 4-year-old son of Masami Shindo, 47, and his wife, Sanae, 37, weighed only 10 kg and was 94 cm tall at the time of his death, the police said.
The couple are suspected of failing to bathe and feed the boy, making it difficult for him to walk. They did not take him to see a doctor despite his poor health, the investigation found.
An autopsy showed that the boy, who was hospitalized on Feb. 11, 2008, following an emergency call, suffered from malnutrition and died of acute encephalopathy.
The boy and his brother, 10, lived with their parents at the time. The older son now lives in a child nursing facility.
NARA (Kyodo) A 26-year-old Nara Prefecture woman who was arrested together with her husband Wednesday for allegedly starving their 5-year-old son to death has told investigators she could not feel any affection for him because of his resemblance to his father, police sources said Thursday.
Mami Yoshida, a part-time worker, also told investigators her relationship with her husband, Hiroshi, 35, a corporate employee, had soured. The investigators reckon the couple's worsening relations led to the abuse of their son, Tomoki.
Yoshida said she felt affection for the couple's other child, a daughter, 3, who shows no signs of having been abused.
Her husband was quoted as saying he was aware their son had been getting weak, but did nothing to protect him.
They are suspected of having failed to give sufficient food or provide necessary medical care for their son since early January.
On Wednesday, the boy was found unconscious by a municipal official who visited the family home after Yoshida called a child counseling center. The boy was lying on a futon wearing a diaper and looking emaciated, the city said.
The official called an ambulance to take the boy to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Although the average height of a 5-year-old is 110 cm, their son was only 85 cm tall and weighed just 6.2 kg, a third of the average weight.
On Thursday, the police conducted an autopsy and also raided the couple's home in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, in search of evidence.
According to the police, while the couple took their daughter to a day care center while they worked, they left their son alone at home and did not take him to a kindergarten or a day care center.
The Sakurai Municipal Government said the boy underwent a regular health check for 10-month-old babies in 2005. But the parents failed to ensure their son had regular checkups in 2006, when he became 18 months old, and in 2008, when he turned 3 1/2 years old.
In response to the municipal inquiries on those occasions, Mami told officials she needed rest as she was pregnant and could not take her son to the health checkups because she was busy caring for a relative.
Fatal abuse arrest
SAITAMA (Kyodo) Police arrested a couple Thursday in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, on suspicion of failing to provide sufficient food for their son, who became weak and died in February 2008.
The 4-year-old son of Masami Shindo, 47, and his wife, Sanae, 37, weighed only 10 kg and was 94 cm tall at the time of his death, the police said.
The couple are suspected of failing to bathe and feed the boy, making it difficult for him to walk. They did not take him to see a doctor despite his poor health, the investigation found.
An autopsy showed that the boy, who was hospitalized on Feb. 11, 2008, following an emergency call, suffered from malnutrition and died of acute encephalopathy.
The boy and his brother, 10, lived with their parents at the time. The older son now lives in a child nursing facility.
Friday, March 5, 2010
ANZ CEO predicts healthy recovery (for Cambodia)
The Phnom Penh Post
Ellie Dyer
Friday, 05 March 2010 15:03
ANZ Banking Group’s global chief painted a positive picture of Cambodia’s economic future during a key-note speech Thursday in Phnom Penh.
Speaking to the Australian Business Association at the capital’s Intercontinental Hotel, ANZ’s Chief Executive Officer Mike Smith predicted Cambodia would see 5 percent economic growth in 2010 after “a difficult” 2009.
The forecast is higher than the 4.25 percent GDP growth predicted for the Kingdom in December by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which warned that “risks are clearly tilted to the downside”.
The World Bank has estimated that Cambodia’s GDP was US$9.4 billion in 2008.
When quizzed about his estimate by a member of the 170-strong audience, who described it as “the most bullish we have heard”, Smith said: “I think we can be more optimistic.”
The financial heavyweight, who was once president and CEO of HSBC, said the Kingdom was experiencing infrastructure development and rising productivity in the agricultural sector.
He said he believes that an awareness of the need for nations within the Greater Mekong area – consisting of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – to work together, coupled with “more significant” inter-country trade, will provide a boost for the economy.
“What made 2009 so difficult was the export dependency Cambodia had with the US and Europe. There is an opportunity now to focus on trade within the region,” he said, before pointing to statistics released last week which indicated that Cambodia and Indonesian bilateral trade rose 24 percent in the first 10 months of 2009 from the same period in 2008, increasing to $165 million from $133 million.
Smith’s confidence comes as Cambodia has entered into free-trade agreements with its fellow ASEAN member nations and China.
Both pacts came into effect on January 1 this year and ensure that the Kingdom will gradually decrease trade levies on many goods to zero by 2015.
Ellie Dyer
Friday, 05 March 2010 15:03
ANZ Banking Group’s global chief painted a positive picture of Cambodia’s economic future during a key-note speech Thursday in Phnom Penh.
Speaking to the Australian Business Association at the capital’s Intercontinental Hotel, ANZ’s Chief Executive Officer Mike Smith predicted Cambodia would see 5 percent economic growth in 2010 after “a difficult” 2009.
The forecast is higher than the 4.25 percent GDP growth predicted for the Kingdom in December by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which warned that “risks are clearly tilted to the downside”.
The World Bank has estimated that Cambodia’s GDP was US$9.4 billion in 2008.
When quizzed about his estimate by a member of the 170-strong audience, who described it as “the most bullish we have heard”, Smith said: “I think we can be more optimistic.”
The financial heavyweight, who was once president and CEO of HSBC, said the Kingdom was experiencing infrastructure development and rising productivity in the agricultural sector.
He said he believes that an awareness of the need for nations within the Greater Mekong area – consisting of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – to work together, coupled with “more significant” inter-country trade, will provide a boost for the economy.
“What made 2009 so difficult was the export dependency Cambodia had with the US and Europe. There is an opportunity now to focus on trade within the region,” he said, before pointing to statistics released last week which indicated that Cambodia and Indonesian bilateral trade rose 24 percent in the first 10 months of 2009 from the same period in 2008, increasing to $165 million from $133 million.
Smith’s confidence comes as Cambodia has entered into free-trade agreements with its fellow ASEAN member nations and China.
Both pacts came into effect on January 1 this year and ensure that the Kingdom will gradually decrease trade levies on many goods to zero by 2015.
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