ActionAid Cambodia

Cambodia | Climate, Early Warning System, Humanitarian

The company

ActionAid works to strengthen the capacity and agency of people living in poverty, their communities, organisations and movements.

The problem

Cambodia faces significant challenges from climate change, with frequent flooding and droughts given the country’s high vulnerability to disaster and low adaptive capacity, which are worsened by inadequate infrastructure and services.

GSMA project

In November 2023, ActionAid Cambodia received a GSMA grant to enhance its 1294 EWS solution by expanding its reach to more climate-affected provinces, focusing on drought and increasing user awareness and accessibility through voice messages for those who cannot read. This project strengthens the coordination and capacity of government ministries to provide better disaster preparedness and response, while also adding a feature to the 1294 service for reporting loss and damage that aids local teams in rapid disaster assessments.

Outcomes

More than 830,000 people across 11 provinces were reached through radio, social media and local engagement campaigns.

Traction

As of March 2025, there were just over 208,000 users
The existing EWS was enhanced by installing 12 new real-time groundwater-level sensors and upgrading 20 in 11 provinces.

A message from the Country Director

“Early warning systems help communities, organisations, and people reduce the potential effect of disasters by informing them ahead of time of potential hazards and enabling them to take appropriate action. Planning and implementing preparedness initiatives and programs can benefit from the usage of early warning systems – it provides alerts and information that enable relevant stakeholders to discuss, come up with alternatives, and mobilise resources to respond to disasters and prevent damage. In a systemic approach of ActionAid work, that involves changing people’s attitudes, behaviours, and practices as well as policies, laws, and regulations to be put in place at all levels.”

– Mark Chann Sitha, Country Director ActionAid Cambodia