The Village Hive is a community-led model of social protection, pioneered in Battambang, Cambodia. It unites local government, community networks, and public services into a coordinated hub that empowers vulnerable families, prevents family separation, and addresses child protection risks before they become crises.
At its core, the Village Hive applies a three-tiered, upstream approach to tackling the interwoven dimensions of poverty. By prioritising Universal Prevention and Early Intervention services, it creates a strong social safety net that raises living standards and lifts entire communities out of poverty.
Rather than duplicating efforts through parallel NGO programs, the Village Hive strengthens and integrates services into Cambodia’s public system, ensuring local ownership, government leadership, and long-term sustainability. Its formal adoption as the national framework for social protection confirms its role as a durable, scalable model for systemic change.
These are services available to all members of the community. They optimise well-being, raise the standard of living, and create safe and healthy environments for the whole village.
Village Hive universal services are focused on public education and public health care, which includes strengthening village health clinics, public schools, teacher training colleges and establishing quality child care.
Early identification helps de-escalate risks and prevent crises before they occur.
The Village Hive’s early intervention work is the cornerstone of the Village Hive. This tried and tested six-step journey takes families from abject poverty to self-reliance, freeing them from dependence on charity.
The journey begins with immediate emergency support to meet basic needs and reduce stress, allowing families to shift focus from day-to-day survival toward long-term stability. Once that foundation is in place, families receive coaching in financial literacy, vocational training, and income generation to achieve genuine self-reliance and resilience against future risks.
Crisis services provide specialised, intensive support for children, youth, and families who are in crisis or have experienced harm. When prevention and early intervention are prioritised, fewer people reach the point of crisis. This means crisis services are not overburdened and can be delivered to a smaller population at a higher standard of care. Their purpose is to minimise the long-term impacts of crises and the trauma that can follow.
The Village Hive crisis services include child protection with a focus on safety planning and cultivation of strong family support networks, an emergency hotline, counselling, crisis accommodation, kinship care, care leaver support groups, family reintegration, addiction support groups, and disaster relief.
