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Strengthening the resilience of coastal fishing communities to climate change and reducing the social and economic divide
The fishing sector in Cambodia is crucial to the economy, providing around 80 % of animal protein to the population. The coastal communities of Kampot, Kep, Koh Kong and Preah Sihanouk rely heavily on fishing as a source of income. However, over the past decade, these coastal areas, and particularly the mangroves, have seen their fishing stocks decline due to increased trawling, illegal fishing activities, climate change and population growth. These difficulties are compounded by environmental pollution from waste dumping, poor health infrastructure and few alternative livelihoods. In terms of education, access and retention of young people is a challenge. In coastal regions, the dropout rate is 38 % and nearly 1⁄4 of children are at risk of dropping out of school.
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Project objectives
- communities are strengthened through inclusive and environmentally-friendly economic growth
- communities benefit from better learning conditions for children and access to water and sanitation
Our actions
- Developing the skills of local development players in relation to local economic opportunities
- Provide SMEs with training and support in the form of mentoring and coaching to help them acquire business development skills
- Facilitate coordination, communication and planning platforms between different stakeholders
- Sponsoring networking, exchange of study visits, documentation and sharing of best practice at local, district, provincial and national level
- Organising activities to raise awareness of the environment and sustainable development in schools
- Provide technical and financial support for community nursery schools
- Increase enrolment rates and improve the quality of learning for children in primary and secondary schools
- Implement WASH improvements (latrines, hand-washing stations, improvements to school hygiene programmes, access to drinking water, etc.) in schools
- Launching inclusive income-generating activities
- Providing sustainable employment opportunities in the agro-industry for fishermen and farmers
- Supporting social entrepreneurs' sustainable development projects with technical and financial assistance
- Launching eco-tourism and hotel initiatives with green growth components
Key figures
children at school
fishermen
private sector representatives
education players
local authority representatives
members of civil society organisations
Our partners
Renzo and Silvana Rezzonico Foundation
Find out about all the other projects run by Action Education in Asia in our latest issue. Activity Report
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Togo: Support project for secondary school reform, phase 2 (PAREC 2)
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