Long-term sustainability is at the heart of the Village Hive mission. We are working towards a day when Cambodian communities are not dependent on charities to deliver essential social services. We believe that the process to achieve that aim is just as important as the outcome.
The Village Hives are built on a philosophy of upstream development through collaborative co-creation with each community.
Upstream development recognises the ancestral and cultural wisdom that local leaders hold, which allows them to draw on intuitive ‘knowing’ to find innovative solutions to problems in their community. These leaders share the same lived experience as their communities, providing contextual knowledge that can only be acquired by living through it. They also have deep, trusting connections within their communities and are a powerful source for change if empowered with the appropriate resources.
All the services that we used to operate privately, along with the institutional knowledge we have developed since 2007, are being integrated into the public sector to form the Village Hive. Our staff are being transferred to join and strengthen the public sector workforce and are being managed by local leadership.
To support local leaders to step into their rightful roles as leaders of the Village Hive Project we have drawn on the practice of conscientisation, which comes from the work of Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire. It involves raising critical consciousness about issues of power, privilege and oppression to change social norms and societal mindsets around the role of charities in community development.
Local leaders utilise a process of co-creation to work in solidarity with the wider community to inform every stage of the Village Hive Project design, execution and evolution. Co-creating the Village Hive has led to community-wide investment and ownership that ensures the sustainability of the project and promotes high-quality service delivery.
The Village Hive has been designed not only to create meaningful change for children and families today, but also to contribute to a growing body of knowledge that strengthens social protection systems for generations to come. We believe that lasting change is achieved when practice is guided by evidence.
Too often, social programmes are replicated without a clear understanding of whether they are effective, sustainable or capable of being scaled. The Village Hive takes a different approach. From its inception, the project has been designed with learning, reflection and continuous improvement at its core. We are committed to asking difficult questions, measuring outcomes honestly, and using what we learn to strengthen the model over time.
Research has been embedded throughout the lifespan of the Village Hive, creating a growing evidence base. We believe evidence transforms successful local initiatives into models that can be confidently adapted, replicated and scaled. It also ensures that the voices and experiences of children, families, local leaders and frontline workers are not only heard, but used to shape future policy and practice.
By creating a body of evidence, the Village Hive seeks to strengthen not only the communities in which it operates, but the future of community-led social protection globally.
The Village Hive Project offers a unique opportunity to address the issue of systemic corruption. It is not an issue that is unique to Cambodia or countries in the Global South, but it is nevertheless an obstacle to overcome.
We believe that the issue of corruption is not an issue that is inherent to the culture or the nature of Cambodian people, but simply an issue that stems from weak systems. We will never resolve issues of systemic corruption if charities continue to circumvent it by maintaining control of a privatised social protection system.
The Village Hive addresses corruption by developing transparent systems to build trust. The project has been built on a foundation of anti-corruption frameworks. Before launching the very first Village Hive, we worked with local leadership to co-create zero-tolerance anti-corruption policies and protocols. The checks and balances in place to account for every dollar spent include the implementation of financial controls such as segregation of duties, dual signatories, audit trails, separation of bank accounts and a ledger system. Budget workshops, audits, monthly reconciliations, spot checks and ongoing coaching and training in fiscal management are also part of the anti-corruption framework.
CCT’s M&E and communications teams accompany the public workforce of social workers, nurses, and teachers every week to capture the data and stories essential to building a robust evidence base. This activity also provides an additional level of transparency and visibility into Village Hive operations.
The Village Hive has also catalysed the launch of Annual Anti-Corruption Conferences, a ground-breaking forum for local leaders and Village Hive project staff to discuss anti-corruption measures openly. The conference brings together a diverse group of
participants, including Commune Leaders, Village Chiefs, Clerks, Finance Assistants, School Principals, Health Centre Directors and Municipal Social Workers. A central feature of the conference is a roundtable discussion where participants openly discuss matters pertaining to policy and practice amendments to uphold a strong stance against corruption and fraud. A committee was formed to ensure compliance with Cambodia’s anti-corruption laws, with the goal of achieving consistent reporting at every level, from local to national.
The lively and candid exchanges at the conferences are a significant step forward in discussing an issue that is often considered a social taboo – a great example of how addressing, rather than circumventing, corruption leads to growth and progressive development.
The local leaders have built these anti-corruption measures into the Village Hive because they understand that the success of the project resides in cultivating global networks of radical trust and openness to welcome the idea that local people are invested in developing their own communities and are more than capable of rising to the challenge of managing their own development.
