1. Day 2/ Session 5 Perspectives of Civil Society Engagement With Sub-National Councils

2. 1.Objectives By the end of this session, participants will be able to Explain why it is important for civil society to engage with the National Program for Sub-National Democratic Development Describe at least two different opportunities for civil society to engage in.

3. 2. Why civil society has to engage? √ Decision-making by provincial and district councils will have a big impact on voters /communities; √ Exchanges between authorities and citizens are essential to the effectiveness of any democratic system √ Responsive and effective councils –should give opportunities for citizen and civil society to be involve in decision making (including but not limited to planning & budgeting, monitoring, and performance assessment processes).

4. 3. What can civil society do?  Civil society can work to advocate for their interests & needs of the general community or for groups with special needs  Civil society can contribute to policy improvement;  Civil society can work with the government to help implement programs  Civil society can monitor the activities of the government or contractors to ensure they are doing a good job “Democratic decentralisation will not succeed without engagement between local government and civil society”

5. 4. How can civil society engage?  Organic Law – Art 68, 75 and 76 stated that any meetings/ events of the councils must publicly announced on date and location.  Civil society can help develop and strengthen accountability and responsiveness mechanisms.  Serve as valuable intermediaries between citizens and officials (e.g. disseminating information to and collect the information from the voters/ citizens)

6. √ Build capacity and confident of voluntary associations and Community Based Organization (CBOs) to serve as a bridge builder between individual citizens and elected officials √ Partner wit the sub-national councils to deliver quality services to citizens (both infrastructure and non-infrastructure services) √ Partner with the Provincial Association of Commune and Sangkats to build capacity and confidence of commune and Sangkat councillors (Support Commune /Sangkat (C/S) council networks to voice their interests and concerns at district/provincial council meetings or at the Provincial Association Working Group ( PAWG) meetings). 4. How can civil society engage?

7. 5. Support to Civil Society The civil society/ NGOs need to be strengthened to deepen knowledge on decentralization and governance reform “learning from doing”; The civil society/NGOs’ engagement process needs to start as soon as possible so that capacity and knowledge can be built; Promote provincial dialogues/networks among civil society to strengthening their capacity and confident; Promote linkages between provincial and national civil society networks on policy and cross-learning experiences and best practices.

8. 6. Conclusions Democratic decentralization will not succeed without engagement between local government and civil society Engagement is not easy for the civil society in all the stages of the organic law statements, it will depend on behavior of the implementers and commitment; Openness to listening, showing respect between Sub- national councils and civil society is essential to achieve common goals.