Nanda Pok
Expert Spotlight
Inclusive Governance
Nanda Pok returned to
Cambodia after living in the
United States for 18 years, where her family settled after fleeing the Khmer Rouge.
She and her husband had good jobs working with refugees and immigrants, and they lacked nothing.
But they heard so many stories of killing in
Cambodia that eventually, they decided their work would be more effective there.
When they returned, Pok joined a political party and became a candidate in the 1993 national election organized by the UN.
She did not win, but the experience opened her eyes to the political situation:
“For one thing, I noticed few women candidates.
Cambodian culture didn't encourage girls to seek higher education—marriage was supposed to be their goal—so few women had the necessary training and self-confidence to run.”
The idea of founding Women for Prosperity came out of this experience.
Pok wanted to teach more women how to be effective leaders, to build their confidence and empower them to be vocal and outspoken.
Women for Prosperity conducted trainings where men also participated. According to Pok, “by training together with women, the men gain an awareness of gender concerns, and they come away with a new recognition that women have to be involved in the country's development and decision making.”
In addition to working with men, Pok adds: “We work with women formerly associated with the Khmer Rouge to bring them back into local civil society initiatives. At first it was a challenge. How do you get people to sit face-to-face discussing reconstruction without feeling that it's a confrontation? I wanted to stress that we are one, not two different groups of people. But Cambodians have gone through so much war that many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder; and the Khmer Rouge regime destroyed everything—most importantly, trust among our people. We're still learning how to trust each other.”
When Khmer Rouge women first joined the training, they were reluctant to share their experiences. They worried that others saw them as killers—as people who murdered their families. “That was a barrier,” Pok explains. “But how could we reconcile if we didn't put that behind us and look toward a better future? We all want peace. So we need to come together as one strong voice. Some did not want to talk, but after some role-playing, the tension eased. As women in a democratic country, we have opportunities to learn and share our expertise and our abilities. We were able to do all these things with the Khmer Rouge women, and to create an environment in which to talk about what we can do for our communities.”
Women for Prosperity is aware of the importance of working across party lines—and across other groups mistrustful of one another. The Women's Participation in Public Affairs program was attended by NGO representatives as well as by members of political parties. That mix was part of the training's success, because despite different political affiliations, the women were able to work together. “We want to promote a culture of peace, not revenge,” says Pok.
In 2002, during the local election campaign, Nanda Pok organized a peace march—a demonstration against the killing of 16 political candidates; three were women Pok's organization had trained. Pok sent a letter to the mayor asking him to provide security for the demonstration, but she got no response. “I said that no response meant ‘yes' and decided to take my chances,” explains Pok. “I was committed to those women: I had trained them and encouraged them to take an active role. They had decided to run and had lost their lives. All I could do now was prove that I was behind them and that I wouldn't accept this violence.”
Pok was also concerned about her own safety; she called the media and told them she would be leading a demonstration. Having no response from the mayor, she wanted the media to be there in case she got shot or arrested. At the march, both the media and the public were present, witnesses to the 300 people who joined. “We ended the march in front of the Wat Phnom [the highest point in Phnom Penh], where we stood holding a sign: ‘We Want Peace.'”
Cambodian democracy is young. Pok understands that “we need to be responsible for our own actions—to promote trust among our own people and bring all sectors of society into governance processes. It will take time to build a strong democracy.”
