APRIL
4 2003 CAMBODIA
Prime Minister of Cambodia Hen Sun will
attend the 5th Anniversary celebrations of the Urban Poor Development
Fund, along
with 5,000 federation members and representatives from 10 other cities in
Cambodia, as well as international participants from 6 Asian countries.
The international groups will share their experiences of community
based slum upgrading which is the theme of the 3 day event.
Recommendations will be put to the Prime Minister on the final day. More
soon
JANUARY 2002
Comprehensive
Community Improvement initiative
SUPF
are nearing completion of their city surveys of urban poor communities in
Phnom Penh. A group of Young
Professionals will computerize the information in a data base and also
display the information on a map of Phnom Penh.
They will integrate this information with the CDS study on
“Development Plans for Phnom Penh” to analyse likely future changes to
the city.
In
each of the Khans (Districts) of Phnom Penh the Federation (SUPF)
will have workshops this month to discuss which communities have
potential to be upgraded; which may have to move and which have the
potential for land sharing developments.
Last
month (December 2002) the Federation network selected 3 sites for
potential pilot projects of comprehensive community improvements as part
of the City Development Strategy (CDS) for Phnom Penh.
This month one of the sites was chosen to initiate the
comprehensive upgrading programme. A ground-breaking launch will be held
on Feb 11 with the participation of the seven Khans of Phnom Penh. Meanwhile
young architects will be working and planning with the community.
More communities will become involved next month.
Before
the workshop meeting will be held with the Vice Governor of the City to
update him on the CDS programme, as well as meetings with the Minister
of Woman’s Affairs to discuss cooperation on how to work together on
urban poor issues in Poipet (mid level city in Cambodia).
Another meeting will be held with the Minister of Education to
discuss an upgrading programme for a community situated on land owned by the Ministry of Education.
DECEMBER 20
CDS Comprehensive Improvement Plans
SUPF members in 3 districts are preparing
comprehensive upgrading plans for heir communities. Under the City
Development Strategy being carried out by ACHR, a pilot project in
improving at least one community will be carried out in early 2003.
The pilot project will hopefully set a trend in Phnom Penh away from
relocation of the urban poor to on site improvements.
Block Tanpa Rooftop Community -
FIRE UPDATES
JUNE 26
The first families have moved to the relocation site: Pictures HERE
MAY 15
Update on the Bloc Tanpa Fire
The relocation site for the community is now being
prepared for building of houses - hopefully before the wet season proceeds
much further. The site plan is modeled on an OPP cluster concept,
where 20 -25 families group together to develop the sites: solid waste,
sewerage, house building , health maintenance, electricity and water pump.
There are around 15 such clusters. Each will be represented on the
Community Development Committee. We thank Arif Hasan for generating
many valuable ideas when he visited last month for discussions with
communities and SUPF, URC, UNCHS and the Governor of the City Chea Sopphara.
Arif's report on the visit is available from ACHR upon request.
MARCH 21
BT Community has found suitable land to relocate to. They are now
negotiating affordable conditions with the Municipality of Phnom
Penh
More HERE The Fire Aftermath , the Search for Land.
MAY -OCTOBER 2002
City
Development Strategy for Phnom Penh
ACHR is conducting a CDS for Phnom
Penh for the City Alliance. During May to October, 7 district level
consultations with the urban poor community groups took place.
Local groups had done extensive studies on the Land situation in Phnom
Penh as well studies on Development Plans for the city and the Relocations
sites for the urban poor. These studies were presented and discussed
by the urban poor communities. The communities recommendations were
added to the studies and in the next round of consultations communities
. The studies and recommendations were later presented to Municipal
and government officials.
MARCH 12 2002
Block Tanpa experienced a fire yesterday morning.
People currently camped nearby are being fed temporarily while the
NGOs and other donors including the DFID UNCHS project are putting
together other relief packages. It seems that the Governor of the City has
agreed to let the people go back if the building has not been structurally
damaged. They are supposed to take tests today.
About 1000 people slept on the pavements last night. URC and SUPF
are all in actions to help.
247 homes were lost affecting about 1200 people.
MORE on the fires
HERE
Thanks to URC, Somsack, Shiva and
Peter for reports.
FEB-MARCH
2002
The Bassac Fires :
Two Fires 4000 Families Homeless
The Fires
The Relocated
and The Renters
JANUARY 2002
SUPF REVIEW MEETING
SUPF hold a 3 day meeting with 150
participants to review 7 years of community organising in Phnom Penh
OCTOBER 2001
RELOCATION AND LAND STUDIES
With support from the CITY ALLIANCE, ACHR
will organize a City Development Strategy for Phnom Penh with wide city
level consultations with urban actors in the city. The CDS
will start with research studies on the Resettlement sites in the city,
the availability of LAND for new relocation sites and recent City
development plans.
June
26, 2001
The Prime Minister Hun Sen visit to
New Relocation site
The Prime Minister Hun Sen will visit a new relocation site at Toul
Chungrouk.
SUPF (the Savings Federation) and the UPDF will attempt to discuss with
the PM a wider perspective for urban poor development. Apart from
relocations of the urban poor the Federation and friends are attempting to
persuade government into a partnership of community upgrading
processes.
June
2001
Environment
Activities in 7 Khans [Districts] of Phnom Penh
This
month (June 2001) grants were made available to each of the Savings
Federations in the 7 Khans for small scale community environmental improvements.
Projects include building bridges, walkways, drainage, water supply,
toilets community centers etc. The maximum grant for each project is
$US500. About 10,000US$ will be available for the first experiments, so in
the first instance about 20 projects will be approved.
SUPF
have already approved support to 14 communities:
3
communities in khan Chamkamon total amount $2,037
3
communities in Khan Meanchey total amount
$2,053
6
communities in khan Russei keo total amount $3,211
2
communities in khan Toulkok
total amount $826
Total
14 communities, 4
khans, total
amount $8,127
The
environmental improvement projects are completely planned, implemented and
maintained by the communities themselves. The Federation makes decisions
together on which projects are approved. In this first allocation
the federation will come together to discuss their learning from 20 small
scale projects. For 10,000 US$ we have a TRAINING programme on how
to plan and implement concrete improvement projects plus 20 environmental
improvement projects competed.
This
experiential process will put the Federation and communities in a position
to apply for larger scale community improvement projects expected soon
under the next phase of the UNCHS / UNDP / DFID urban poor project
in Phnom Penh.
ACHR
Activity Cambodia