Building an urban poor people's movement in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

This photo-essay shows how the urban poor and their organizations
are working with government agencies, NGOs and international donors in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, to develop homes and neighbourhoods and income
generation and, where needed, to manage relocation schemes. It also describes how
the city’s urban poor developed their own Solidarity and Urban Poor Federation,
drawing on the advice of similar federations from other countries. The process was
much helped by the interchanges between urban poor groups within the city and by
the visits by urban poor representatives and city officials to projects managed by
urban poor federations in other countries. The Federation’s work centres on linking
and supporting community savings groups that develop their own schemes. The
Federation also supports community-mapping and surveys to document conditions
in the city’s many low-income settlements. The essay emphasizes the strengths and
resources that the urban poor can bring to developing housing and jobs if external
agencies allow them to do so and support their organizations.