Sovachana Pou - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sovachana Pou

Blog, 2024

For decades, the government—first under Hun Sen and now under his son, Hun Manet—has overseen rel... more For decades, the government—first under Hun Sen and now under his son, Hun Manet—has overseen relative peace, political stability, and economic growth. However, serious criticisms remain regarding its failure to prioritize the well-being and freedom of its people. Initiatives such as “ទិវាជ័យជម្នះប្រាំពីរមករា,” “នយោបាយឈ្នះឈ្នះ,”“អរគុណសន្តិភាព” ('Victory Day on 7 January', the 'Win-Win Policy,' and the “Thank You Peace” slogan) orchestrated by the ruling party have been praised by some, but many argue that the government's actions have often neglected the basic rights and needs of ordinary Cambodians. Critics contend that despite political stability, increased foreign investment, infrastructure development, and economic achievements, the government has consistently overlooked the well-being and freedoms of its citizens, allowing corruption, inequality, and authoritarian practices to persist.

Human Security and Cross-Border Cooperation in East Asia, 2019

In Cambodia today, an estimated 850,000 people (Richard Rogers, ICC will investigate environmenta... more In Cambodia today, an estimated 850,000 people (Richard Rogers, ICC will investigate environmental destruction as well as war crimes, 16 October 2016) have been unfairly or unjustly pushed off of their lands in an intensifying land-grabbing scourge. This study examines land grabbing in Cambodia, using human security as a holistic tool in understanding the problems that vulnerable people and marginalized groups - such as indigenous/minority communities - face regarding economic infrastructure development. It first spotlights the issue by examining specific cases in rural and urban settings. Second, it examines what the state, civil society groups, and international stakeholders have done to limit land grabbing. A major emphasis of the research will be demonstrating how effective policies to return property to those dispossessed of it have been, and how to ensure that legal land rights are enforced for Cambodia’s poor. Third, it offers recommendations for addressing the crisis of land grabbing in a way, that is pro-active and comprehensive, promotes bottoms-up empowerment (as well as top-down protection), and does not infringe upon national sovereignty. This approach devolves from the belief that though Cambodia has long received substantial donor aid, assistance programs have often been intermittent.

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, Jan 16, 2015

for additional information. This is an Open Access journal. This means that it uses a funding mod... more for additional information. This is an Open Access journal. This means that it uses a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. Readers may freely read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles. This journal is covered under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

Use and dissemination of this working paper is encouraged; however, the JICA Research Institute r... more Use and dissemination of this working paper is encouraged; however, the JICA Research Institute requests due acknowledgement and a copy of any publication for which this working paper has provided input. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official positions of either the JICA Research Institute or JICA.

ISEAS Publishing, 2012

The education sector in Cambodia has come a long way and achieved a number of impressive accompli... more The education sector in Cambodia has come a long way and achieved a number of impressive accomplishments following year zero, almost three decades of civil conflicts, internal strife, political instability, and backwardness. It is noteworthy that the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) through the establishment of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) in 1992, together with the international partners and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) has done a remarkable job in rehabilitating a dysfunctional education system and rebuilding a shattered economy. However, there is an immediate need to better educate and train more people in order to promote more efficient and superior cadres to build up a stronger nation with an economic self-sustainability. An education that supports the development of morality and critical thinking skills will be increasingly important for all Cambodian students to restore the identity of the Khmer people from one of victimhood to one of capacity, pride and honor, and also to compete regionally and globally. This paper begins by identifying the near eradication of education in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge epoch and will highlight the progress up to the present day. The paper will then examine the challenges of the educational reforms in which both the beneficial and the adverse effects will be presented. As this paper will show, the national strategy to promote new long term and sustainable sources of economic growth as well as improving living standards is based on developing human resources and building human capacity, thus improving the overall quality of education. Additional transformations in the educational sector are necessary for Cambodia to tackle the challenges of the 21st century, including those of globalization and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Only when we can advance education can we advance the nation.

POU Sovachana and Bradley J. MURG, 2018

This paper analyses the opportunities and challenges presented by the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation ... more This paper analyses the opportunities and challenges presented by the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism (LMC), highlighting the implications of the significant power asymmetries among the component states, and Cambodia in particular, in their relations with China in the context of small state capacity and governance. In the 2016 Sanya Declaration, China and the five Mekong countries pledged to "strengthen mutual trust and understanding and to join forces in addressing the economic, social and environmental challenges faced by the sub-region to realize its enormous potential for development.” Utilizing these self proclaimed "Sanya Goals" as a framework, the paper examines aspects of each of these topics: aid and investment; social development and human rights; and environment in order to provide a clearer picture as to how the LMC has developed since its inception and its prospects in the short to medium term. The paper concludes by highlighting the deep challenges that the LMC creates for existing regional institutions, i.e. the Greater Mekong Subregion and the Mekong River Commission.

The main motive for this field trip is for the “Friends of R2P – Cambodia” to be exposed to and t... more The main motive for this field trip is for the “Friends of R2P – Cambodia” to be exposed to and to build awareness of the past atrocities that thrust upon Cambodia during the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge. We often learn the history of the Khmer Rouge through the victims’ perspective but a study tour to the Anlong Veng Peace Center - the last stronghold of the Khmer Rouge - would ideally enable the participants to get a first hand opportunity to interact directly with former Khmer Rouge cadres of their personal experience during the regime and its aftermath. Participants will visit selective historical sites, learn about the process of reconciliation of the brutal past and better understand the reintegration back into society. It is through dialogue and education that together we can come to terms with the dark past and reconcile with each other. It also aims to elevate capacity-building mechanism among members of the network about memory, justice, reconciliation, and peace as well as to seek to promote the R2P norm to a wider audience at different levels of the society.

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, 2015

The concept of human security is based on the fundamental principles of ‘freedom from fear’ and ‘... more The concept of human security is based on the fundamental principles of ‘freedom from fear’ and ‘freedom from want’ through the 1994 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It argues for a shift from a state-centric view of security to one that focuses on the security of every individual. Human Security is about protection and empowerment of the individual. It tackles general threats to human existence and finds ways to overcome these threats, recognizing that the state itself can at times be a threat to its own people.
This report aims to understand how the internationally minted notions of human security and insecurity are perceived and interpreted by Cambodian people, and what suggestions people may offer for mitigating threats to human security. We conducted interviews and focus groups with people in diverse sectors including government, academics, civil society, rural and urban communities, media, students, and Buddhist monks. Our research suggests that when we replace the discourse of security in Cambodia with the concept of human security, it opens new conversations toward understanding and responsiveness to human rights and human development. We argue that the connected, multi-dimensional insecurities in Cambodia can be revealed through taking a broad approach to human security that recognizes ‘freedom from fear’, ‘freedom from want’, and ‘freedom to live in dignity’ as inter-related in ways that may be contradictory. Currently much of the debate about the referent of security is too focused on either protection or empowerment; the voices of our research participants lead us to suggest that security comes from communication and dialogue between government and communities, and the importance of ‘cooperative leadership’.

With continuing human rights concerns over land grabbing, and in the wake of the Cambodian govern... more With continuing human rights concerns over land grabbing, and in the wake of the Cambodian government‘s recent land policy issuing thousands of land titles to people in land conflict areas, study is needed to understand how people construct and experience security and insecurity over land. Further, action is needed to bridge the gap between people‘s experience, and policy and investment practice in land. This ‗Human Security
and Land Rights‘ project used a human security framework as a holistic tool to address two overarching questions. 1: What kind of insecurities do people in areas with land disputes have, and who is most insecure? 2: What provides people with security, and how does land policy relate to other sources of security
over land?

Our study involved more than 400 participants in Kampong Chhnang, Ratanakiri, and Phnom Penh, with surveys, interviews, community trainings and multi-sector dialogues.
We focused on communes with Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) and urban resettlement zones, including those that had lost land and those with more positive experiences. Our public dialogues brought together government officials, NGOs and
people affected by land disputes to discuss possible solutions, and to understand more clearly the limitations that people in other roles face. We also focused on training more than twenty Cambodian researchers.

Books by Sovachana Pou

Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, 2016

Cambodia remains a developing country with a poor research environment, due in part to Khmer Roug... more Cambodia remains a developing country with a poor research environment, due in part to Khmer Rouge destruction of scholars and academic infrastructure in the 1970s and the many subsequent years of rebuilding riddled with political and social instability. Further, contemporary political exigencies create an environment of fear and mistrust that discourages the public from open participation and hampers productive research. The research seeks a comprehensive mapping of the research environment in Cambodia from detailing the policy framework to registering the needs of individual researchers. Our key questions: What and how research is being done, by whom, for what purpose, and with what resources?

With the support from the Global Development Network and the ‘Doing Research’ peer review workshop, a research team from the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) undertook a one year action research study to capture – and to help transform – the current state of Cambodian research. In early 2015, a roundtable of experts created a list of 25 institutions to interview, including both rural and urban universities (president, senior academic staff, faculty members, researchers, and students), NGOs, think tanks, donor representatives, and government ministries. Our bottom-up approach focused on giving voice to participants and achieving practical problem-solving outputs. It aimed to reduce dependence on donors in the long term by strengthening the endogenous capacity of the research community and improving collaborations between researchers.

Our findings show that the primary impediment to research is insufficient funds for research, training, and dissemination. The government cannot adequately fund projects necessary to guide policy decisions, as even the national census is donor financed. Furthermore, instructors and students are generally responsible for funding their own projects. Since universities are tuition-driven, instructors are given little time or money to conduct research. This implicitly communicates that research is a non-critical afterthought.
Respondents admitted that many staff lack the ability to conduct research, while dissemination activities are limited. Researchers commonly present findings at academic workshops. Therefore findings, embedded in reports, often overly technical and written in English, remain largely inaccessible to wider audiences.
English proficiency proved another obstacle, preventing many Cambodian researchers from conducting literature reviews and increasing their workload when translating results for publication. With few academic publications, no accessible research database, and insufficient provincial libraries, research outreach is severely limited. And, since reports are written using technical English, it is unclear whom the research is targeting.

Due to funding and human resource limitations, most research is dictated by donors, led by outside consultants, and financed on a short-term basis. Consequently, local capacity is stunted and short-term studies do not capture complex societal issues adequately. Donor institutions are often reticent to tackle controversial issues or report results without government consent.

Cambodian research production is at a transitional stage. While we found general ambivalence toward research among older interviewees, younger Cambodians demonstrated a growing enthusiasm and receptivity. Few women participated in our study due to gender imbalance in senior positions. Equal opportunity policies and equal access to education are needed to reverse this trend. However, Cambodia is improving; as evidenced by the increasing number of female students in tertiary education.

Pou Sovachana, 2015

The national Election Day on July 28, 2013 was a momentous time to be Cambodian. According to the... more The national Election Day on July 28, 2013 was a momentous time to be Cambodian. According to the official result announced by the National Election Committee, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) obtained 68 seats with 3.2 million votes, while the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), led by Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha, got 55 seats with 2.9 million votes. The huge gain in the number of seats by the opposition party CNRP is a new phenomenon. Cambodia stands at a crossroads politically. Almost half of the voters are dissatisfied with the ruling party and the existing order in which the top government officials condemn any critic and restrict freedom of expression. This piece presents an oral interview research project, carried out in October 2013, which collected the voices of approximately eighty Cambodians from different provinces who participated in the People’s Congress organized by the opposition party at Freedom Park. Building on these testimonies, the piece will present the kind of change these protesters wish to see in Cambodia. It finds that these voters believe that society is corrupted and that they call for freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom to live in dignity, and for fundamental change in the political system. They also stand up for basic rights and values.