ActionAid Cambodia

Cambodia | Climate, Early Warning System, Humanitarian

The problem

Cambodia is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world and is highly impacted by climate change-induced flooding and droughts. Weak adaptive capacity, poor infrastructure and limited services exacerbate the country’s vulnerability to climate variability. Droughts, coupled with poor management of water sources, have severely impacted communities and their food security. Early warning systems (EWS) have been developed in Cambodia but are not achieving their desired impact. There is need for the existing EWS to be upgraded to ensure that messaging is as widespread as possible and accessible to all, even those who cannot read.

The organisation

ActionAid is a global federation present in 45 countries around the world, working to achieve social justice, gender equality and poverty eradication. ActionAid works to strengthen the capacity and active agency of people living in poverty, their communities, organisations and movements, and to challenge the exclusion of women, minorities and vulnerable persons from asserting and claiming their rights.

Project description

The GSMA is supporting ActionAid Cambodia to:

Adapt and improve the 1294 EWS software and SMS service by expanding its coverage to more provinces affected by climate change and also focusing on drought risk.
Increase the number of users of the 1294 software, by raising public awareness of the SMS service, including its function that uses voice messages instead of text for people who cannot read, to ensure messaging is as widespread as possible and accessible to all.
Increase capacity and coordination amongst relevant government ministries to enhance effectiveness of intervention related to disaster response and preparedness, especially promoting EWSs such as 1294.
Equip the 1294 service with a function to report loss and damage, as this can support sub-national disaster management teams in their rapid assessment of disasters and therefore in their response efforts.

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