We've worked in Cambodia since 1991, strengthening inclusive education systems and supporting people to develop secure and resilient livelihoods.
Since 2017, over 1 million children in rural schools have benefited from improved planning and management systems.
8,080 farmer households are now benefiting from increase yields and improved access to markets.
Since 2018, we've trained 750 farmers to improve their yields through adopting the Sustainable Rice Platform growing standards.
Previous projects worked on
Primary school teacher Souy Kran is committed to improving the quality of child-centred education.
Inclusive education
In partnership with the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, we work to increase the capacity of teachers, school managers and other stakeholders in the education system, supporting them to develop and deliver high-quality, result-based and inclusive education plans. Our volunteer advisers provide expert coaching and training on child-centred teaching methods, alongside practical on-the-job support and mentoring – in total benefiting over 1 million children in rural schools since 2017.
This capacity-building approach has proved to be so successful that research conducted by the Royal University of Phnom Penh found that our Basic English Language project – which increases the ability of practitioners to teach English - was as effective for students as private tuition.
PDUSS
2020-2024
VSO is currently working with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) and a local NGO, Kampuchea Action for Promoting Education (KAPE), to implement an education project called the Professional Development in Upper Secondary Schools (PDUSS).
The programme aims to enhance the inclusiveness, effectiveness, and relevance of upper secondary education in Cambodia's Kampong Cham, Takeo, Kandal, Battambang, and Siem Reap regions. The goal is to jointly develop, plan, and deliver an innovative professional development programme for teachers and school leaders that will benefit students and professionals alike.
The focus is to improve skills in four key areas: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths), Library Management, Career Guidance and Counselling, and School-Based Management.
Ly Theort is the lead farmer of an agricultural cooperative in Battambang, part of the Improving Market Access for the Poor project.
Resilient livelihoods
GREEN
2021-2025
Those living on the shores of the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia depend on its resources for their income, yet climate change and overfishing are increasingly threatening their livelihoods.
The GREEN project (2021-25) is helping to boost incomes and create sustainable agriculture for the most vulnerable communities through strengthening green value chains, creating awareness of environmental issues to create behavioural change and through establishing a green business incubator programme to support vulnerable youth and local businesses.
RECOVER
2021-2023
RECOVER intended to support vulnerable rural communities within provinces in Cambodia in their economic recovery after the pandemic, specifically to prevent them from experiencing extreme poverty, high levels of debt and food insecurity.
This was done through improving food security, income and employment opportunities for fishing and farming communities and returnee labour migrants. Our volunteers created a lasting impact by providing interventions to influence and inform systemic changes for producers in these communities, so they became less dependent on external emergency support.
Rural Employment for COVID-19 Economic Recovery (RECOVER)
Improving Market Access for the Poor (IMA4P)
This project has ended
Supported by the FCDO and corporate partner Accenture, our Improving Market Access for the Poor (IMA4P) project in Battambang worked to empower agricultural collectives and smallholder farmers – including women and young people – to develop a greater and more secure source of income. We trained farmers and supported them to adopt new, more productive growing techniques as part of the UNEP’s Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) – a global initiative which promotes more sustainable agricultural practices and a fairer economic model for rice growers.
We supported over 3,000 farmers to adopt these techniques which, combined with training and business skills development, lead to more secure and profitable contracts with major buyers.
Supporting poor farming households to make a sustainable living
Watch how the RECOVER project transformed the lives of two women
The ACTIVE Programme
2022-2025
Active Citizenship through Inclusive Volunteering and Empowerment (ACTIVE) was a three-year programme, funded by UK Government. The project worked in collaboration with the Department of Youth Center (DYC) under the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) and aimed to promote youth development, volunteering and engagement.
The three key activities were:
- Localising the Global Volunteering Standard for nationwide roll-out of the Cambodian Volunteering Standard
- Supporting the national youth volunteering programme, 'Volunteer for My Community’.
- Reactivating and mobilising engagement of youth and volunteering partner organisations through the VolCam (Volunteering for Cambodia) network.
More about the ACTIVE programme
Find out more about our work in:
Inclusive education
Making sure everyone gets the skills they need to live a fulfilled, dignified life.
We helped almost 3.6 million people to access the quality education they deserve using our current strategy.
Resilient livelihoods
Ensuring people have the skills needed to support themselves and their families.
Over 400,000 people benefited from our work supporting livelihoods using our current strategy.
Adolescent and youth health and wellbeing
Improving health services and empowering people to exercise their right to quality care.
We helped almost 200,000 people access better healthcare using our current strategy.