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Wellbeing & Livelihood in Community Economy Workshops

8 village workshops were held with up to 20 women and men in each of the project location sites throughout December 2023 and January 2024 as part of Activity 4.

Bunnarath Som in conversation with a village member and workshop participant
Photo: Panhaleak Chay, Lita Mom, Pherom Song

The workshops were divided into 4 parts:

  • Making a ‘Growing Cassava’ – mapping the local economy to find out what work women and men do in their community and whether work is for cash, for food, or for other benefit
  • Relational Livelihood flow charts – deep diving into the network of relations that apply to key activity types to understand the relationality and dynamics of economic activities in the village
  • Defining Soupheak Mongkul/Wellbeing – discussing what wellbeing means for local people
  • Web of Ideas – generating and prioritising participants’ ideas for change, building on local expertise and insights from the workshop
Relational Livelihood flow charts discussion
Photo: Panhaleak Chay

These workshops generated gender disaggregated data about how women and men create livelihoods from diverse paid and unpaid work and what they feel could change in order to meet their needs and aspirations. For example, in the ‘Growing cassava activity’ (see image below) almost all women reflected that their daily activities, especially those considered as part of the non-cash economy, are undervalued and underestimated.

Image ©Next-Gen Project

For both men and women, most of their activities were part of the informal, non-cash and social/cultural economy – allowing both women and men to see that their livelihoods are made up of more than just work that they do to gain a cash income.

This is a critical step to realise that all other economic activities are important and need to be considered in future planning for changes in village lives.