What are you doing in Cambodia?

As much as I like the vision of a roaming jet-setter without purpose or time constraints on the road, it would definitely get old.  Well, only the without purpose bit.

This summer, I’ll be completing the field work requirement for my master’s degree. I’m currently a student of the Master’s in Development Practice (MDP) program at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York.    The core of our degree curriculum is that an integrated approach to development challenges is required to make any substantial changes for the lives of the poor around the world. In other words, we can’t solve poverty by looking only at income or that AIDS is simply a problem in health.  Both poverty and AIDS (as well as hundreds of other issues confronting the developing world) will required multisector policies and action to change lives at the individual and community level. Thus, our program promotes an integrated analysis of agriculture, health, education, management and sustainable development for policymaking and field work.

It does, however, seem to  focus mostly on agriculture and health. Gender issues (and all social issues for that matter), urban challenges and cultural studies are all conspicuous by their absence–as is my beloved Latin America.  I’m afraid that’s a subject for another day, though. In spite of a few qualms here and there, I firmly believe that an integrated approach will yield the greatest impact on the lives of the poor and struggling worldwide, and I’m very honored to be part of such an amazing group of students working all over the world this summer.

Students in my program (all 27 of us) are spread out across much of Africa and three sites in Asia: Senegal, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, TANZANIA, Bangladesh, East Timor and Cambodia. All of the sites in Africa and the one in East Timor are Millennium Village sites. The other two Asian sites are managed under different organizations, but still promote the principles of the Millenium Village (MV) concept: given a certain dollar input per person  (between $60-120 a year) a poor, rural village can achieve the Millennium Development Goals in 10 years based on a series of integrated policies.

This summer, I’ll be working for an MV-type project in the Battambang Province in Cambodia. The project is small, locally run (mostly) and only in this area (for now). It does have some pretty stringent confidentiality requirements for its staff and interns, so I won’t be able to publicly describe a lot of detail on my projects or work here (it’s kind of silly, I know–but I think much of the confidentiality restrictions comes with good reason and I like working here, so that is that). The headquarters are based in an urban setting, but a lot of the work happens in a rural area very nearby (which I will be visiting later today and staying overnight until tomorrow).

My job this summer will be to help the women’s empowerment coordinator and assist in developing the capacity of women in the rural area, as well as, help the organization realize its mandate in improving the lives of women.  I’m very excited about this opportunity. I’ve worked some with women’s groups before (in the Arkansas Delta while in undergrad and later in Rwanda while I was a Watson Fellow) and I’ve always enjoyed the experience. In a post to soon follow, I will describe the conditions facing women in Cambodia and give context to the need for greater empowerment, autonomy and agency among women in this country. I will also discuss why Battambang has so many NGOs working in the region and how being the final stronghold of the Khmer Rouge has affected the people who live and work here.

But for now, it’s time to get back to work! If there are any questions you have about MDP, the integrated approach, Cambodia, women’s empowerment, or anything else I will do my best to answer them!

Until next time…