On 19 December 2013, WGPD members across the country came together to reflect and focus on community scorecards. As decentralization and de-concentration (D&D) reforms progress in Cambodia, scorecards become more and more important in assessing local government and empowering citizens. The World Bank has expressed its commitment to supporting Cambodia to move forward on assessing government and service providers using citizen scoring methodologies. WGPD members are also committed to exploring the potential of scorecards to advocate change and empower their own communities.
In the provinces of Battambang and Pursat, WGPD members have seen visible success using scorecards for social accountability at the local level. Active training on scorecard methodology has been directed toward both district/municipal and commune/sangkat councils as well as community-based organizations (CBOs). Support has also been provided to carry out scorecard activities and leverage CBOs to raise awareness and train citizens on scorecards in practice.
WGPD member organizations Pact Cambodia, Anakot Kumar (AK) and AMARA (funded by Sweden/Sida through the PROCEED project) have observed local citizens having more opportunity to voice their concerns to municipal councils and a far greater level of active grassroots participation in community dialogue. They begin by training at the municipal level and also CBOs, who in turn orient citizens on the roles & responsibilities of councilors. Through a consensus-building process, citizen priorities are selected and taken all the way up to municipal councils for discussion. The process works from the ground up and extracts the major priorities at each stage. All those involved work together not only to highlight issues, but also to tackle problems and develop a practical action plan.