GROWING CAMBODIA’S CIVIC

TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM AND

ENABLING CIVIL SOCIETY INNOVATION
Final Report

Grants Tech Coaching Social ICT Services Girls & Women Young
ICT Community
5D Lab Training Fund & & Advisory Start-up for Civil in Tech & Innovator Events
Partnerships Services Incubator Society Entrepreneurship Programs
Photo credit: USAID’s Cambodia Development Innovations Project
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
DAI Global, LLC would like to express its deepest gratitude to the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and the American People for giving us an opportunity to positively impact the lives
of Cambodian civic leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, pioneers, trailblazers, and role models. We have
worked with thousands of many Cambodians who are committed to advancing the world around them,
motivated to make their vision a reality, and who have given themselves to learning, growing, taking risks,
sometimes failing, but mostly winning and making a lasting imprint. Our hope is that the people and
organizations we have served will continue to inspire others to explore, create, innovate, and transform.

The results showcased in this document were made possible through the direction and leadership of
USAID/Cambodia, especially DI’s long-time Agreement Officer’s Representative Phea Sat, and previous
Agreement Officer’s Representatives and Socheata Vong, Serey Chan, April O’Neill, and Jean-Marc Gorelick,
DI’s Chief of Party Kate Heuisler and dozens of other creative and innovative DI team members that were a
part of the project from 2013 to 2019.

DI would like to express its sincere thanks to the dozens of local and international partners and
thousands of individual citizens that enabled the project’s success over the last six years. We are grateful
to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, and Ministry of Posts &
Telecommunications for their support of the DI program and its partners, and appreciative of the private
sector partners that helped co-fund, co-design, and amplify DI’s activities.

Cooperative Agreement Number: AID-442-A-13-00003

Period of Performance: August 7, 2013 – November 30, 2019

Final report submitted by DAI: February 28, 2020

All content found in this report is paid for by the U.S. taxpayer through the U.S. Agency for International
Development, and therefore public domain and not subject to intellectual property laws such as copyright
or trademark. Any or all content may be replicated and/or shared without expressed permission from
USAID or its implementing partner, DAI Global, LLC.

3
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Table of Contents......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Acronyms and Abbreviations................................................................................................................................................... 5
Project Backgrounder................................................................................................................................................................. 7
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................................................10
Community Events....................................................................................................................................................................13
5D Lab............................................................................................................................................................................................15
ICT Trainings at The Lab@DI...................................................................................................................................................17
Grants and Partnerships..........................................................................................................................................................20
Tech Coaching and Advisory Services................................................................................................................................23
Social Start-up Incubators and Accelerators ...................................................................................................................25
ICT Services for Civil Society ..................................................................................................................................................28
Girls & Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship...................................................................................................30
Young Innovator Programs.....................................................................................................................................................34
Communications and Outreach............................................................................................................................................36
Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation...........................................................................................................................39
Legacy............................................................................................................................................................................................40
Recommendations ...................................................................................................................................................................42
The Evolution of DI’s Monitoring And Evaluation Plan.................................................................................................45
ANNEX A: Grants List.................................................................................................................................................................49
ANNEX B: Awardee List.............................................................................................................................................................56
ANNEX C: Indicator List............................................................................................................................................................58

4
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATION
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
CCC Cooperation Committee for Cambodia
CIF Children in Families
CMS Case Management System
CSO Civil Society Organization
DI Development Innovations
5D Define, Discover, Design, Develop and Deploy
EPIC Entrepreneurship Program ICT for Change
EWS Early Warning System
HCD Human-centered Design
ICT Information and Communication Technologies
ICT4D Information and Communication Technologies for Development
IHPP Impact Hub Phnom Penh
IoT Internet of Things
IRC 5D Lab’s Innovation Resource Center
KPI Key Performance Indicator
KYA Khmer Youth Association
MEF Ministry of Economy and Finance
MEL Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
MVP Minimum Viable Product
NGO Non-governmental Organization
PIN People in Need
PIP Product Innovation Program
STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
TIC Transparency International Cambodia
TOT Train the Trainer
TSP Technology Service Provider
USAID United States Agency for International Development
VBNK Vicheasthan Bandosbondal Neakropkrong Kangea
VC Venture Capital
WMC Women’s Media Center
YEA Young Eco-Ambassador
YIC Youth Innovate Cambodia programs
YIP Youth Innovator Program

5
 PROJECT BACKGROUNDER

Project Goal: USAID launched the Development Innovations (DI) project with the goal of fostering
an ecosystem of tech-enabled civil society organizations (CSOs) and Cambodian suppliers of
technology solutions to help civil society use information and communication technologies to
improve their programming, reach, and impact.

Development Innovations at a Glance:

• Prime Implementer: DAI Global, LLC

• Cooperative Agreement Total: $12,430,973.25
• USAID-funded: $12,330,915.00
• Cost Share: $100,058.25
• Period of Performance: August 7, 2013 – November 30, 2019 (Six years)
• Implementing Partners: N/A
• Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Technology Use and Growth sector was largely fragmented, with a handful of
CSOs implementing technology-enabled social
in Cambodia innovations. Since then, Cambodia’s CSOs have
increasingly turned to new technologies to address
Technology use in Cambodia has burgeoned in the
social issues and reach out to their constituencies,
last five years. Cambodia has the equivalent of a
as well as advocate nationally and internationally
134 percent mobile penetration rate, which ranks
for the priorities of Cambodian citizens.
among the highest in the world.[1] Further, there
are 16.1 million[2] internet subscribers, which is a 98
percent increase over 2016’s 8.1 million subscribers. Development Innovations
This level of internet penetration is likely driven by Project Background
smartphone usage.
Development Innovations (DI) is a six-year USAID-
Reflecting the rapid rise of mobile phone and funded project that helps CSOs, technology
internet penetration in Cambodia, social media companies, social enterprises and young innovators
use has also surged. In particular, Facebook use by to design and use information and communication
Cambodians has seen significant increases over the technology (ICT) solutions and employ innovative
past three years, from 3.4 million Cambodian users processes to tackle Cambodia’s development
in 2016 to 8.8 million users by 2019 — more than challenges. DI focused on sustainability, and was
50 percent of Cambodia’s population. Crucially, built to pivot based on trends in the Cambodian
Facebook usage was heavily concentrated among tech sector. This required thoughtful adaptation
the country’s youth, who perceived the internet and optimization based on shifting circumstances
and social media to be largely one and the same. and growing demand.
Accordingly, Facebook and YouTube were two of
the five most visited websites in Cambodia in 2018. When originally conceived in 2013 as a three-year
pilot program, DI’s objectives were to partner,
This dramatic uptake of technology is also reflected learn, and develop new technologies. Specifically,
among Cambodian civil society and civil society DI built a community of innovators across the civil
organizations (CSOs). In 2013, the tech innovation society and tech communities through grants,
networking, training, tech events, a co-working
space, and an innovation lab called the 5D Lab.
1. Startup Kingdom: Cambodia’s Tech Startup Ecosystem in 2018 As the project refined its approach in 2015 and
(2018), Mekong Strategic Partner and Raintree 2016 using adaptive management principles,
2. See www.trc.gov.kh/internet-subcribers/

6
and secured two extensions, DI transitioned services to local civil society partners. Critically,
out of some services and kick-started new ones the project also integrated a large learning
based on the demand from civil society and the component and commissioned a series of reports
larger community of social innovators (including to assess results and progress, lessons learned, and
individuals, students, and social enterprises). recommendations for future programming, which
can be found on page 42 of this final report.
In 2018, the project further refined its approach in
coordination with USAID’s priorities to focus on
the digital gender divide in both tech fields and
for Cambodian entrepreneurs; support locally
driven innovation programs; scale up proven
ICT solutions through targeted funding; and
support the transition of DI’s popular training

Innovation is defined as “trying something new to improve results” and can take three main forms:
1. creating completely new tools or solutions
2. applying existing tools or solutions to a new partner, and/or
3. applying an existing tool or solution to a new user or in a new way.

A civic technology ecosystem is defined as the space and networks among civil society, private sector, and
government who use technologies to improve civic life, especially in social and economic development,
participation in public decision-making, and government service delivery. The technologies may be
developed by CSOs, social enterprises, for-profit companies, or the government itself.

7
PROJECT TIMELINE Focus on technology
creation and utilization
Focus on scaling ICT
solutions and CSO
Focus shifts to advancing
opportunities in tech
Focus on forging
strong partnerships
with more emphasis on capacity building, and entrepreneurship, with local organizations
Focus on socio-technical Focus on increased CSO efficiency and particularly sustainability women and youth that build capacity
processes and a wide engagement between effectiveness partners
group of stakeholders CSOs and targeted
advisory services - Highest Technovation - Transitioned smart-
participation to date phone video, basic
- Reduced event manage- - Significantly expanded - Identified SHE Invest- video, and social media
- Produced events such as - Fostered greater engage- ment and closed co-work- client-focused services ments as new sustainabili- training to Cambodian
BarCamps to cultivate ment between CSOs and ing space based on - Increased private sector ty partner sustainability partners
ICT4D partnerships TSPs (bolstered by a demand survey results involvement (5-fold more - Built upon Young - Provided technical
between CSOs and private 10-fold ramp-up of grant - Shifted focus to services partnerships) Professionals program to support to incubators,
sector companies funding) that stakeholders said - Ramped up support for institute successful Young accelerators, and
- Operated a free co-work- - Targeted training activi- added most value (adviso- sustainability partners Innovator program maker-spaces
ing space to bring together ties to better meet ry services, training) CCC and IHPP - Launched sustainable - Directly funded
local tech enthusiasts beneficiary needs - Hired a dedicated innovations and innova- innovative young
- Provided grants to local - Changed leadership and consultant to manage tive scale-up grant funds entrepreneurs
organizations to fund restructured program Technovation activities to - Promoted digital
innovative tech solutions - Introduced “learning improve DI’s women-fo- literacy and innovative
phase” with a rapid cused programming learning techniques
demand survey of project - Received first significant through youth-focused
stakeholders and a private sector support tech courses
mid-term evaluation for Technovation

2013–2014 2014–2015 2015–2016 2016–2017 2017–2018 2018–2019

Project Close-down
Start-Up of co-working
New space and launch of Ventures support- DI wins USAID Cambodian team
leadership Development ed by DI through Collaboration, places second in
Innovations Lab the EPIC program Learning, & the world at
focused on advisory generate $190,000 Adaptation case Technovation
& training in contracts award World Pitch 2019

First rapid demand

survey of DI
stakeholders New partnership CAMBODIA

with IHPP and DI facilitated

First Cambodian $160,000+ in
CCC to take Technovation team DI is awarded one-year
ownership and extension for private sector
to reach global leverage in final
scale aspects of DI’s semi-finals in Cali- 2018/2019
Midterm year
evaluation programming fornia
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
What is Development Innovations?
Since 2013, USAID’s Development Innovations project (DI) has helped Cambodians design and use more than
91 tech solutions which have reached 1.6 million people, addressing Cambodia’s most urgent development
challenges ranging from literacy to health to water resource management. Further, DI has provided
training and coaching support on critical technologies and innovation techniques, provided practical ICT
training courses for 1900+ people, and addressed the gender gap in the technology field to ensure both
men and women across Cambodia have the skills and mindsets to design Cambodia’s solutions well into
the future. Over time, DI adapted its services and programs based on the needs of the civil society and tech
innovation communities, as well as changing priorities across Cambodia. This final report is laid out across
nine program elements:

Community
Events
Young
Innovator 5D Lab
Programs

Girls & Women

in Tech & ICT
Entrepreneurship Training

ICT Services
for Civil Grants Fund &
Society Partnerships

Social Tech Coaching &

Start-up Incubator Advisory Services

Community Events DI hosted, sponsored, and 1,900 people across Cambodia, enabling them
convened more than 240 events, attracting 14,000 to better tell their stories and communicate
people to collaborate, share ideas, and learn strategically.
together.
Grants and Partnerships Through the grants fund,
5D Lab The co-working and hands-on innovation DI enabled dozens of ICT solutions, addressing
space served more than 600 members over three critical issues related to natural resource
years, and enabled collaboration between the civil management, education, access to services, etc.
society and tech sectors. In addition, DI mobilized more than $334,000
in funds from the private and public sectors to
ICT Training DI provided direct training on the leverage USAID’s investment in innovation.
most in-demand new technologies to more than

9
 Tech Coaching and Advisory Services Over the 1. Adaptive management improved focus
Lab’s life, DI’s coaches provided 450+ advisory and activity quality over the project’s life.
sessions to more than 300 clients in some of the From the beginning, DI learned more from
most in-demand areas of need for civil society, its failures than from its successes. This
including technology coaching (using human applied learning has led to more targeted
centered design principles), social media and objectives and offerings. As the project
content development, and video production. became more targeted, it developed higher-
quality interventions and obtained improved
Social Start-Up Incubators and Accelerators DI outcomes. Adaptive management inspired
funded the piloting and growth of a series of DI staff, partners, and service providers to
startup and business incubators and accelerators maximize each investment.
to serve Cambodia’s growing entrepreneurial
space. These support programs helped boost the 2. DI catalyzed behavior change and
businesses of the entrepreneurs they served, and demonstrated different ways of doing
the local implementing partners continue to run business with its partners, beneficiaries, and
services for entrepreneurs. other stakeholders. As a result, each year
brought new stories of uptake, replication,
ICT Services for Civil Society Through a two-
and, most importantly, adaptation across
year partnership with Cambodia’s largest NGO
the civic technology ecosystem. Partners
consortium, the Cooperation Committee for
modelled and institutionalized DI processes
Cambodia (CCC), DI and CCC tested and designed
and practices, extending DI’s influence well
a series of ICT solutions and ICT-related services
beyond the project’s life. In addition, DI
for the civil society community. In 2019, CCC
facilitated organizational mindset shifts,
regularly runs the basic video production course
enabling civic technology stakeholders to
for NGO partners, and generates income that can
develop in unexpected ways.
help them sustain the service.
3. DI assistance, networks, and convening
Girls and Women in Tech and Entrepreneurship
power conferred and increased credibility of
To address the gender divide in both technology
partners’ reputations and profiles, attracting
and entrepreneurship, DI designed a series of
the attention, support, and respect of
initiatives to address key challenges in both
government ministries, international donors
sectors, focusing on lack of trusted training
and the private sector. DI played a central
opportunities for girls to learn tech skills, and lack
role in fostering Cambodia’s budding civic
of female role models and mentors.
technology ecosystem by positioning itself as
Young Innovator Programs Cambodia’s youth the country’s primary civic technology nexus,
population is growing rapidly, with an estimated linking civil society to the local tech sector.
65.3 percent[1] of the population under 30 as of In attracting major private sector players, the
2019. Young Cambodians need more short-term public sector, and other donors, DI brought
training opportunities to take advantage of the together disparate actors, both widening
digital economy and have 21st century skills for and tightening Cambodia’s civic technology
the future. DI designed internships and youth ecosystem. Its central civic technology role
challenge funds to give young people skills gave its partners credibility with prominent
needed to catalyze innovation in the future. national and international stakeholders.
Moreover, it served as an important cross-
sectoral bridge for USAID, reinforcing
Principles and Approaches programmatic integration and coordination.
DI actively modeled four values throughout the
life of the project—teamwork, trust, respect, and
quality—and modeled an entrepreneurial, user-
focused culture. In its final year, DI commissioned
a study to look back at the project’s results and
lessons learned, and the assessors found three key
findings:

1 See www.kh.undp.org/content/cambodia/en/home/countryinfo.
html

10
 In contributions from the private
Delivered to address critical sector, reinforcing ties among civil
challenges society, social entrepreneurs, and
some of Cambodia’s leading
technology companies

1.6
To improve reading and literacy skills,

91 $334K+ 175
keep children in safe family care, Directly with DI to learn about and
advance flood resilience, improve create new ICT solutions and
health care services and natural resource enable innovations that address
management, and enable civil society Million Technology Leveraged CSOs Engaged Cambodia’s development challenges
organizations to be more self-reliant Cambodians Solutions
Reached

With customized technical and

communications training to
accelerate their design, 1.9k+ 6
Local Partner-
Developed by DI through
capacity building and
ownership transition
marketing, and outreach efforts Cambodians
Trained Community Run Training
Events
Programs
Young
Innovator 5D Lab
Programs

Their incomes, job creation, and

confidence through a pipeline of
business incubators and accelerators
150+
Entrepreneurs
Girls & Women
in Tech &
Entrepreneurship
ICT
Training 45
Awards and
By DI staff and
partners
Boosted Scholarships
Won
ICT Services
for Civil Grants Fund &
Society Partnerships

To build in-demand,
locally-driven solutions to
address development
challenges
57+ Social
Start-up Incubator
Tech Coaching &
Advisory Services
49
Grants
To support local partners’ and
individuals’ innovative ideas,
extend the reach of the DI
project, and create sustainable
Inventors Awarded
Nurtured innovation programs

49
130+ 4 14K+
800+
With tech, business, and From Cambodia, ASEAN,, and beyond
social skills to narrow Locally-Driven to collaborate, co-create, and define
the digital divide Incubators development solutions
Girls Equipped Mentors Enabled People
and Networked and Accelerators
Championed Convened

In business and tech to guide To grow Cambodian businesses

and coach the next generation
of tech creators and
entrepreneurs
 COMMUNITY EVENTS
An important function of the DI project has been of Education, Youth, and Sport; the Ministry of
to provide a platform and space for innovators and Posts and Telecommunications; the Institute
entrepreneurs to connect, brainstorm, and share of Technology of Cambodia; and the National
ideas, especially in the early stages of the project, Institute of Posts, Telecoms, and ICT. The event is
when there were very few convening spaces in also supported by major private sector companies
Phnom Penh. Through consistent support to help in the tech ecosystem such as Smart Axiata and
kick-start or grow innovation bootcamps such as EZECOM.
BarCamp, Startup Weekend, ICT Camp, and other
community events, DI provided a networking Startup Weekend Cambodia
platform for civil society organizations (CSOs),
Technology Services Providers (TSPs), and social DI co-hosted Startup Weekend Phnom Penh in 2014,
startups to engage with each other, both at the and sponsored the event in 2016. Startup Weekend,
office, as well as across Phnom Penh and the often known by the tagline “No Talk, All Action”,
participating provinces. These community events is a global network of passionate leaders and
allowed the exchange of new tools, which in turn entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate and
attracted new users and other stakeholders for empower individuals, teams and communities, as
future collaboration. BarCamp, in particular, has well as provide a space where anyone can come to
been successful at increasing participation in the share ideas, form teams to pitch business concepts,
ICT for Development (ICT4D) community nationally, and launch start-up businesses. In 2014, Kong
and is seen as a key entry point for potential ICT Soliya (known as Jay) teamed up with his cousins
users under 30, as well as users in the harder-to- to pitch their business idea at Startup Weekend.
reach provinces. Over the life of the project, DI The idea won the second place award, beating
managed, co-hosted, or sponsored more than 237 out more than 10 others. The concept blossomed
events, convening more than 14,000 people. Some into what is now known as ‘Joonaak’, meaning
examples of DI’s facilitated community events are ‘Deliver to You’ in Khmer. It is a package delivery
highlighted below, with stories of change from and warehousing service, of which Jay is now the
attendees and participants. CEO and co-founder, now employing more than 90
people—up from 21 in 2015—and growing faster
BarCamp Cambodia than anyone’s expectations. Today, in 2019, Jay’s
startup has expanded exponentially, attracted
The first BarCamp was founded in the United investment from Smart Axiata’s Digital Innovation
States in 2005, as an international network of user- Fund and a non-equity grant from GSMA, and is set
generated conferences that focused on technology to expand to serve Myanmar in 2020.
and the web. By 2008, tech enthusiasts in Cambodia
organized their own BarCamp; since then, the event
has happened every year in the capital and in cities
around the country. DI funded this event and helped “Without Startup Weekend (in 2014),
BarCamp reach more Cambodians in provinces we could not have reached this point.
and large municipalities between 2015 and 2016, The idea could have
including Barcamp Takeo and BarCamp Ratanakiri. either moved forward
slowly because there
The BarCamp community in Cambodia now hosts would be no family
the BarCamp ASEAN event annually. In 2018, it or finance support, or
was the largest BarCamp in the world attracting the idea could have
8,000 attendees, 60 exhibitors, 95 speakers, and been scrapped away.”
more than 1,000 companies and organizations.
The community made sustainability possible by Kong Soliya (Jay)
partnering with many public institutions and private Co-Founder, Joonaak
sector companies to receive support and funding.
Further, the community has secured funding from
the Government of Cambodia through the Ministry

12
Development Innovations Expo aimed at tackling development problems using
ICT4D solutions. Two teams were selected to
A capstone final learning event, Development implement their projects with $1,000 as seed
Innovations Expo celebrated the results achieved funding. The Cambo Planner project consisted of
by DI’s partners over the past six years, sharing a team of four people working remotely to gather
lessons learned and recommendations for future information for a tourist website, and the Women
technology-enabled programs in Cambodia. It in ICT project aimed at increasing the number of
also served as a networking and collaboration female students studying ICT through two radio
platform for DI’s partners to connect on funding talk shows and a Facebook page.
opportunities, new partnerships, and innovative
ideas. Community Outreach
Held at the Factory Phnom Penh in September 2019, While DI hosted many networking events and
the Expo proved a great success. Attracting more innovation bootcamps, it also showcased project
than 480 participants, it showcased four Geek Talks, offerings at a number of technology events
32 interactive booths and demos, six interactive ICT organized by the community every year from
workshops, and two panel discussions. 2013-2019. These events included the Cambodian
Science and Engineering Festival, Digital Cambodia
Cambodia ICT Camp 2018, and BarCamp Phnom Penh, Battambang, etc.,
where the DI team set up exhibitions and various
In 2018, DI funded the first Cambodia ICT Camp activities to showcase tech-enabled projects
through a local partner, Open Development and innovations. By supporting local events, and
Cambodia. The five-day camp attracted 66 helping bring non-traditional partners to exhibit
participants including students, government and showcase their products and engage with
officials, lecturers, researchers, and tech enthusiasts. new users, DI helped promote these partners,
Four important themes were covered during the amplify their messages, and connect them to new
program: open source for good, social innovation, networks that will continue to grow after DI ends.
open data for sustainable development, and
cybersecurity. At the end of the event, participants
formed teams and pitched their project ideas

“To me, the Cambodia ICT camp is very unique. Regarding the sessions, the
overseas speakers shared very good experience of how their technology ad-
vancement has grown. The sessions that I loved the most were Cybersecurity,
Blockchain, and Kobo Toolbox.”
– Seun Tepsovanrithy, IT student from Royal University of Phnom Penh

13
 5D LAB
Before Development Innovations came onto therapy services, ran its small agile team from the
the scene in late 2013, Phnom Penh had only two Lab. WEDU Cambodia, another local branch of an
commercial co-working spaces, SmallWorld and NGO focused on empowering women through
HackerSpace Phnom Penh, both of which were mentorship, also emerged from the Lab.
running at close to full capacity and neither actively
served CSOs. Seeing the clear opportunity, DI Second, the 5D Lab offered online training to small
founded the 5D Lab. While originally serving as a and self-formed groups that wanted to study
free co-working space targeted directly at members similar tech topics, such as Java and Photoshop, and
of Cambodian civil society and their technologist allowed people to move through the materials and
counterparts, the Lab gradually evolved to serve assignments at their own pace. A video production
as a venue for members and service providers to start-up, Oneshot Media, was created after the
cowork, allowing for collaboration across sectors. founders attended DI’s Low Fuss Media Training
(now known as the Basic Video Production course).
The 5D Lab served as a community café, content
and media center, and co-working space, housing A key challenge that emerged from CSO feedback
the Innovation Resource Center (IRC), training was an inability to create effective content. In
rooms, and a volunteer program, offering learning response, the 5D Lab evolved into a one-stop shop
and networking events, interest and working where CSOs could access top-of-the-line video
groups, and a mentor network. The heart of the production and editing equipment and shared
DI project, the 5D Lab space was built to serve software licenses to help CSOs develop audio-visual
early users and bring people in to build a path to content to tell their stories at low to no cost. The
a more innovative and tech-enabled civic space. hands-on space at the Lab provided DI’s partners
Within two years, the Lab became the largest with access to tools and technology to explore, test,
physical co-working space in Phnom Penh, serving and refine their ideas. Within the media section of
683 members, including students, CSO members, the 5D Lab, DI also provided access to equipment
service providers, and consultants. Of all members, to complement video and social media training.
315 were active and 20 percent used the lab as their Building capacity to craft key messages and tell
primary co-working space. Collectively, members stories with video helped clients create content
made 13,743 visits to the Lab and used its services that could drive behavior change and improve
for a total of 9,693 hours. Through design thinking, advocacy skills. DI offered 137 clients access to the
Lab user inputs, and an iterative approach to better video editing station, filming equipment, and other
understand CSO needs, new Lab services and physical spaces such as the hands-on demo and
options continually increased its use through 2015. user testing areas, and meeting space.

Filling a Need for CSOs “The Lab has also helped us form
connections with media and video
The 5D Lab produced many great success stories professionals, who have helped us to
and transformed the local technology market. translate speech therapy—a very difficult
First, it proved transformative by providing a free topic to communicate—into something
workspace for entrepreneurs and social innovators meaningful that people can understand
to conceptualize new business ideas or projects. and connect with.”
One such example is the Khmer Smart Keyboard,
a mobile application built to make it easier for
– Weh Yeoh, 5D Lab member and former
Cambodians to type in their native language,
Director of NGO OIC Cambodia.
Khmer. This application was envisioned, developed,
and launched in the 5D Lab. In less than two years it Lastly (and the basis of its namesake), the 5D Lab’s
boasted more than 1 million downloads, and is still IRC provided consultations to the CSOs and TSPs
in use by hundreds of thousands of Cambodians seeking ICT project design assistance and walked
six years later, although no longer available for them through the self-created design thinking
new downloads as of the end of 2019. A start-up process called “five Ds”—define, discover, design,
NGO called OIC Cambodia, which provides speech develop, and deploy— to ensure their ICT-enabled

14
initiatives had their intended impact. World The study also discovered the market need for a co-
Education, one of the first CSOs to work with the working space targeted directly at CSO members
IRC and to later receive a grant from DI to expand was not in high demand; as many of them already
and scale its project, produced tablet-based literacy had office space. Most Cambodian CSO groups
test applications called Student TEST Reading and preferred to work in their own offices rather than a
Teacher TEST Reading, which have helped teachers co-working space. As the Phnom Penh co-working
provide more consistent and accurate test results, and tech innovation ecosystem grew in 2015 and 2016,
and produce feedback that helps teachers address a centralized 5D Lab competed against other service
the students’ individual areas of weakness, while providers, cannibalizing the market Development
significantly reducing the time teachers spend Innovations sought to grow.
giving and correcting the tests.
For these reasons, DI officially celebrated the 5D
Reinvention of the 5D Lab Lab’s success and then closed out the co-working
space in June 2016, and helped members transition
When asked about the most important thing the 5D to other co-working spaces, in some cases through
Lab can offer in the 5D Lab Sustainability Assessment arranged special reduced rates. Several start-ups
and Recommendations Study, 64 percent of the that originated at the 5D Lab moved to other private
lab users responded that training was the highest co-working spaces as they have grown. For example,
priority. These users and other actors surveyed Fairyland Studio, a video consulting and production
across the civic technology community wanted start-up that utilized the free facilities at the 5D
access to expertise and training on in-demand ICT Lab, relocated to SmallWorld for a paid private
tools. Specifically, the actors surveyed were most workspace as the company grew. Although there
interested in training on social media, video, design was competition between the existing labs and co-
and content creation, mobile data collection, and working spaces for resources, they also collaborated
technology-focused proposal development, and in and shared information freely and referred visitors to
accessing expertise related to technology-focused one another for services.
project design and web design. While schools and
universities in Phnom Penh offered formal classes The 5D Lab was renovated, renamed the Lab@
on some of these subjects, the 5D Lab could provide DI, and relaunched to focus on ICT4D training,
a unique short-term offering to help people grow advisory (similar to the services provided through
their skills quickly through hands-on training and the Innovation Resource Center), coaching, and user
access higher-level and soft skill capacity. Nineteen testing services, targeting CSO clients but remaining
percent of surveyed 5D Lab users emphasized open to the public. DI’s advisory services expanded
connections (meeting people and organizations) as by adding video and social media advisory services
the most important – most CSOs wanted a way to based on increasing client demand. The Lab@DI
quickly connect with the right providers when they also offered a small section of hot-desks for CSOs,
had a specific need, but did not want to spend time advisory service clientele, and grantees who needed
and resources expanding their general network. The a free space to work, and gave training clients space
other 17 percent named the physical use of space to use the video editing room as needed. The CSOs
and equipment as the most important thing that 5D benefited from an engaging environment within
Lab could offer. the Lab and learned skills, accessed resources, and
expanded their networks of professional contacts.

15
 ICT TRAINING AT THE LAB@DI
Based on the 2015 5D Lab Sustainability Assessment and youth on video, audio, and other shareable content
Recommendations Study, member feedback indicated creation. This directly supported efforts by CSOs to
that training and advisory services were a top priority. use ICT solutions in a number of ways: by identifying
DI heard that feedback and adapted. Re-envisioned and appropriate technology solutions and creating
launched in September 2016, the Lab@DI was designed to content that drives behavior change; by telling their
provide basic technology training and coaching services story, as well as other stories, better; by providing
to the civil society community in Phnom Penh, with a messaging that resonates with targeted beneficiaries
focus on practical, Khmer-language courses. The Lab to increase popularity and scale; and by improving
worked to help demystify some of the most in-demand their advocacy efforts.
technologies, while also providing practical support
and training to CSOs and private or public sector clients The 5D Lab Assessment Study showed that both
looking to use technology in their work. DI designed CSOs and public institutions were willing to pay for
training and services based on demand, and used a exclusive training courses for their organizational
simple, user-focused service design model to ensure the teams. In response, DI provided 37 fee-based basic
services met the needs of the clients. video training sessions to 312 people (89 women),
Figure: DI’s Service Delivery Model including individuals and staff members from CSOs,

GROW HANDOVER
FEEDBACK TO
+
LOCAL
REFINE PARTNERS

LANDSCAPE PILOT ASSESS

CAPTURE
REFINE DROP +
SHARE
LESSONS

Over the past six years, DI offered 89 ICT training programs government ministries, private companies, and start-
that focused on basic video, smartphone video, social ups, and generated a revenue of $21,455. The training
media, design thinking, digital security, multimedia, enhanced participants’ abilities to amplify their
and other topics, and hosted 34 other ICT training messages in a compelling way to mass audiences,
sessions delivered by its partners, reaching a total of 1,932 addressing some of Cambodia’s most challenging
participants (778 women). For the fee-based courses, DI development problems and the priorities of each
generated $27,769 in revenue for these services, which was participating organization and network.
reintegrated into the overall project budget to support
implementation.
“I’ve learned many things and received a lot of new
knowledge and experience on how to produce a
Basic Video Training quality video from this training course, especially
the video that I should produce for Facebook
While DI believes that ICT solutions are only as post. What’s even more advantageous to me is
helpful as the information sent through them — that I can still access the Lab@DI to work on video
and how effective they are at addressing users’ editing and to get more coaching support after
problems — creating interesting, effective content this training. I planned to produce two video
still proved a challenge for many organizations, documentaries that will benefit community
especially those with shrinking operational people, at the last two months of this year.”
budgets. As part of the Lab’s services, DI provided
access to equipment and training for CSOs and – Lennilen Chou, a basic video trainee

16
“Our staff, along with the support from DI, eventually they took over the course. CCC is committed to
created a 9-minute video documentary featuring continuing this training after DI ends and intends to
the work of volunteers based in the target provinces serve more of its CSO members and non-members
at incredibly low cost. Secondly, the video had alike.
become an effective tool in expanding the public
awareness of Youth Star’s program. The video was Smartphone Video Training
posted on Youth Star’s website, Facebook and
YouTube. The instant benefit from the video was While the basic video training attracted tremendous
that it helped the fundraising campaign organized interest from participants across sectors, many CSO staff
in Melbourne from which $3,500 was raised.” members requested an additional course focusing on
smartphone videography. In late 2017, DI conducted a
– Kimlay Leav, former Communications Officer at landscaping assessment in Phnom Penh and an online
Youth Star Cambodia survey with different organizations that have an ICT
focus to track various ICT-related training services
offered in the market. This study found that only three
Specifically, trainees learned practical applications of the seven organizations provided ICT-related training
of key camera functions, different types of video services. Most focused on basic-level ICT skills related
shooting techniques, interviewing techniques to computer literacy and none provided video training
and software editing. As a result, they collectively using smartphones. One hundred percent of the
produced 154 videos which were then disseminated respondents from the online survey indicated that they
on various social media channels, especially would attend a smartphone training course if DI opened
Facebook. Instructors conducted pre- and post- up the offering. In response to this clear demand, DI
tests with all trainees to capture increases in initiated a basic video training using smartphones, and
knowledge and the results revealed that trainees, conducted 11 sessions for 170 participants, including
on average, scored 91 percent at post-test, three 92 women, who were TSPs, employees of CSOs and
times higher compared to their scores at pre-test. individuals.

In December 2017, DI conducted an online follow- Based on the popularity of this service and demand from
up survey with past DI video trainees to assess the CSO community, DI partnered with six local partners
whether they had produced any additional videos to take over DI’s popular course in 2019: Khmer Youth
post training. With a total of 127 respondents, Association (KYA), Women’s Media Center (WMC), Young
the survey found that 89 percent of trainees had Eco-Ambassador (YEA), Transparency International
produced at least one video on their own after they Cambodia (TIC), media outlet Thmey Thmey, and
completed the training, and 73 percent of these community-based Save Vulnerable Cambodians. To
trainees produced videos for their organizations. support the successful handover, DI provided train-the-
In total, 78 percent of past video trainees rated the trainer sessions, helped prepare action plans, and spot-
video training as highly beneficial for them. checked several courses to assess their performance and
offer advice on course delivery improvements.
DI focused intensely on the sustainability of this
service, and built the capacity of the CCC’s staff
to be able to independently run the video course
Social Media Training
following the close-down of DI at the end of 2019. After completing a pilot series, DI began its first
During the CCC-DI partnership from 2016 to 2017, fee-based social media training in May 2017.
select CCC staff co-led the courses and received Structured as a three-day social media course, the
training from DI’s staff on customer service training focused on hands-on exercises to develop
and effective client management for revenue engaging social media content using Facebook
generation. CCC independently conducted its first Insights data, improve photo quality through
training in October 2017. By the end of November smartphone photo sessions, introduce creative
2019, CCC had generated $14,430 in revenue by digital design concepts, and work with trainees
providing nine fee-based basic video training to develop one-page social media plans for their
programs for storytelling purposes to 86 CSO staff organizations.
members, including 36 women. As of September
2019, CCC had trained a total of 184 people (66 By September 2019, DI had provided 89 demand
women). Client satisfaction metrics help CCC driven social media training sessions, including
manage the quality of the courses, and CCC reports seven fee-based training sessions, to 293
an average 4 out of 5 score from trainees since participants (158 women), generating $6,314 in

17
“I had no idea about video editing before the their performance and offer advice on course
course. I think the course is very precise for people delivery improvements.
who never have experience of editing before, you
can understand the basics and you can do a good To support VBNK’s successful takeover of the social
job. Even though you study for just three days, I like media training, DI also partnered with USAID’s
the way they do theory and practice at the same Cambodia Civil Society Strengthening (CCSS)
time – it is really helpful and easy to understand. project in 2018 and 2019. CCSS provided funds to
Because of DI, I know I want to be a film director and support implementation of free training sessions
I know I want to make films to advocate for women. for civil society actors across the country in 2019.
I thought I knew how to do it [Social Media] but the They ran 24 training courses in eight provinces for
course opened my mind to content planning, data 218 people (including 82 women). Trainees gave
analysis and how to use that knowledge. I’d never VBNK’s courses an average score of 4 out of 5. As
really thought about analyzing the behavior and a part of this partnership, DI provided technical
how the audience is using our page but it really assistance on the customization and delivery of
works, we increased our followers by 30%.” the courses while VBNK staff were co-located at
the DI office, advancing VBNK’s ability to run and
– Gechleang Seng, former Communications Offi- customize the training course in the future.
cer at SHE Investments
In line with DI’s values of building tools and
products to be shared, DI published all training
manuals on its website, and has tracked an
revenue. Through its partners, DI also hosted impressive total of 7,284 downloads. All materials
34 additional social media training sessions are released under the Creative Commons
serving 398 participants (212 women). Evaluations Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0),
showed that trainees increased their social media which allows other organizations to distribute,
knowledge significantly, scoring 38 percent on remix, tweak, and build upon DI’s established
average at pre-test and increasing to 86 percent work, even commercially, as long as they credit
on average post-test. More importantly, the DI for the original creation. These materials are
training directly contributed to the improvement continuously in high demand, and partners
and management of organizational Facebook regularly report on their usefulness, especially
pages. A three-month follow-up survey with for serving civil society users and micro and
48 trainees revealed that over 50 percent had small entrepreneurs. Due to this demand, DAI
created social media action plans and had the is paying hosting costs for the website through
ability to use free design tools to create a wider January 2022 to ensure that Cambodian users can
variety of shareable visual content. It also showed download and customize the materials based on
a significant change in terms of Facebook page technological changes and local needs.
management practices and a noticeable increase
in the number of trainees using Facebook insights
data to improve engagement. Trainees also
reported that they increased their audience reach
and expanded engagement by at least 20 percent
after the training.

To ensure sustainability, DI conducted training

of trainer (TOT) sessions and transitioned the “This social media training course has helped me to
social media training to three local organizations: better manage my organizational Facebook page.
Vicheasthan Bandosbondal Neakropkrong Kangea Though I am a Facebook page manager, there are
(VBNK), a Cambodian NGO that serves NGOs in many new things I could learn more from this par-
Phnom Penh; Women’s Media Center (WMC), ticular course which I did not expect. I have been
a media institution and training organization applying what I learned from this course on my
that serves partners across the provinces; and Facebook page and I found an increasing number of
Young Eco Ambassador (YEA), an environmental engagements on my posts as a result.”
conservation network. For all three partners, DI
provided TOT sessions, helped prepare action – Lyna Yann, Vayo FM radio station manager
plans, and spot-checked several courses to assess

18
GRANTS AND PARTNERSHIPS

Over the past six years, DI awarded 49 grants to with Mekong Women in Business Initiative to expand
37 CSOs and private companies, amounting to the information to the entire Mekong region—
more than $2.37 million. The purpose of these Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. This partnership
grants was to help organizations scale their tech has created a regional entrepreneurship ecosystem
tools, enhance efficiency, improve services, and for femal entrepreneurs across the region.
expand reach, or to fund educational programs
that enable innovation (use of new technologies, “The support that the DI team provided for SHE was
innovative techniques, business accelerators, huge. They went above and beyond what we ever ex-
etc.). The grants, plus a few of the projects funded pected of a partner, and we definitely wouldn’t have
through procurements, funded the testing, been able to achieve some of our biggest accom-
design, and implementation of 91 technology plishments without their support.”
solutions that have reached more than 1.6 million
Cambodians, and 24 innovation programs that – Celia Boyd, SHE Investments’ Managing Director
have benefited 4,350 people, including 2,518
women. The majority of DI’s ICT-based solutions
were funded through grants and built based on In December 2018, DI funded the expansion of Ngeay
likelihood of sustainability and demand from civil Ngeay to provide women in urban and rural areas with
society. These solutions aimed to address some access to the business platform as well as improved
of Cambodia’s key development challenges in tools, features, and information. The site is extremely
education, governance, health, environment and effective because it is not a stand-alone tool, but can
resilience, and human rights. Below are a selection provide added value for SHE Investments’ incubator
of the innovations and programs funded through and accelerator participants, or women across the
DI’s grants fund. A complete list of awards can be country who cannot travel to training sites. The new
found in Annex C. Ngeay Ngeay now offers its community improved
e-learning and blended learning modules, making SHE
DI Grants in a Snapshot Investments the only one-stop platform for female
entrepreneurs across Cambodia. As of October 2019, the
Ngeay Ngeay Business Information Platform by SHE site has attracted and served more than 42,000 unique
Investments users, including many returning users, and continues to
grow in popularity since the re-launch in August 2019.
December 2016 to August 2019
Tesdopi Learning Application by Edemy
Ngeay Ngeay, the Khmer words for “Easy Easy” in
English, was initiated to address the lack of support March to August 2019
for Cambodian entrepreneurs, especially small and
micro- entrepreneurs, in formalizing their businesses. The Tesdopi Learning mobile app was initiated to help
With support from DI and private sector funding from high school students gauge how well they know their
EZECOM, the SHE team built Ngeay Ngeay, an online science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
business information platform, in 2016. The site is user- (STEM) subjects, especially as they prepare for the grade
friendly and relevant, and provides entrepreneurs with 12 final exam, an extremely important milestone in the
information on how to start, scale, and register their lives of most young Cambodians. The app assesses a
businesses with the Ministry of Commerce, as well as student’s level of knowledge in subjects like science and
pay taxes to the General Department of Taxation. math and provides practical advice on how to improve,
e.g., tutorial videos, practice tests, or getting help
The portal was successfully launched with from their teachers. DI supported Edemy to expand
participation from government representatives, the contents of Tesdopi by working with 68 student
development donors, private sector partners, and ambassadors to host 11 STEM Learning Workshops,
female entrepreneurs. This site attracted 4,263 unique attended by more than a thousand students across
users during the first few months, and helped increase nine provinces. Tesdopi fans challenged themselves by
exposure for all of SHE Investments’ programs. After competing in the weekly Tesdopi STEM Championship,
the launch, SHE Investments established a partnership which attracted students from as far as Ratanakiri.

19
 These activities helped Tesdopi reach more than 1.3 Consulting, to develop a digital solution to address
million people and 80,000 minutes of video views on this challenge. This project digitized CIF’s child care
Facebook. case management system (CMS), helping to improve
care for children in adversity and keep Cambodian
Tesdopi app users spiked by 500 percent to more than children in safe family care. This shift from paper
16,000 between March and August 2019, exceeding to digital has saved thousands of working hours
the grant target by 60 percent. Edemy also observed by allowing social workers to manage their cases
a significant improvement in students staying on more effectively and access data quickly, ultimately
the app, from 15 to 35 percent in the first week. In improving child-care services. A second wave of
the future, Edemy plans to launch Tesdopi 2.0, which DI funding, augmented with additional financial
includes a premium paid version, more integrated support from USAID/Cambodia’s Family Care First
learning pathways, and a goal-setting function. project, scaled the CMS to 11 NGOs. As of 2018, 162
NGO staff members were using the CMS and they
Tepmachcha Flood Warning Program by People In have collectively managed more than 1,900 cases. In
Need September 2019, CIF reported that the platform now
contains case records for more than 10,000 clients and
July 2017 to February 2018 that it plans to scale the platform—in response to
local demand—to Thailand, Myanmar, Uganda, and
Tepmachcha, “Mermaid” in English, is a flood warning
Lesotho.
tool developed by People in Need (PIN), DI and the DAI
Maker Lab, DAI’s technical assistance service for the Hardware Product Innovation Programs
development of hardware solutions. It was initiated
to address a lack of early warning systems for many 2015 to 2019
Cambodians living near local rivers and flood-prone
areas. In 2015, the DAI Maker Lab ran a three-day DI awarded grants to Cambodian enterprises ARC Hub
hands-on learning session for NGOs to learn how they PNH, ArrowDot, and Chea Jofeh to run three different
could use hardware to address key community issues. product innovation programs between 2015-2019. The
PIN approached the Maker Lab to help prototype programs successfully trained 57 young Cambodian
the first flood warning device, and DI co-funded the innovators (16 women) on hardware product
prototyping and testing. Following this successful design and development. The product design and
project, DI supported PIN to scale its Tepmachcha development courses helped address gaps in the
devices into flood-prone areas across 84 communes and current market in Phnom Penh, especially related to
five provinces in Cambodia from July 2017 to February hands-on training centers or spaces where young
2018. This funding allowed PIN to increase the number people can learn 2D and 3D design theories and apply
of households and beneficiaries (17,097 subscribers, of them through hands-on prototyping. The trainees
which 7,523 are women by February 2018) and provide learned how to analyze customer needs, develop
a wealth of new water level data to PIN staff and the a product concept and evaluate its effectiveness,
National Center for Disaster Management for these and develop their product prototypes to launch.
regions. The collaboration also opened doors to new Graduates of the programs produced 28 electronic
donors and funding so PIN could expand and install 20 and sensor product prototypes, seven of which have
more Tepmachcha devices in four other flood-prone been validated and marketed.
provinces. In 2019, PIN reported more than 70,000
subscribers for the service across the country, has also Top three products to market:
conducted training sessions to increase the capacity
of government agencies to take over responsibility for • DoyDoy is a toy built out of 3D printed joints that
the devices and the platform in the future. The flood helps children learn basic engineering skills. The
warning service is poised to go nationwide in 2020. prototype was built during the ARC Hub course
in 2015, and more than 4,167 toys have been sold
Childcare Case Management System (CMS) by as of 2019.
Children in Families • Smart Farm Assistance is an internet-of-things
device that helps users wirelessly control
November 2015 - April 2016 water switches using a mobile application. The
prototype was built during ArrowDot’s course,
Many Cambodian CSOs struggle with paper- and the team recently installed Smart Valves and
based systems to manage their social work or child Smart Pumps for two customers.
protection services. In 2015, DI funded NGO Children
in Families (CIF), and technology partner Rotati

20
• FireDot is a hardware product designed to detect “DC-Cam received support from DI in 2015 in order
levels of smoke and alert the building owners to help improve our server that could store our data,
about fires. The first prototype was built during including digitized Khmer Rouge documents, pho-
ArrowDot’s course, and FireDot is currently on tos, films, interviews and mapping reports, among
sale in Cambodia. other things, and protect those data from theft, fire,
flood, earthquake, and other disasters. Securing and
After participating in these programs, a new cohort renovating the Khmer Rouge history through such
of Cambodians now have practical skills in product tool is important and enables us to make the history
innovation, business ideation, and the development attractive to younger generations to learn about the
of hardware and software tools that solve problems period and engage in discussions. DC-Cam contin-
for citizens and consumers. As of the end of 2019, ues to improve its server and scale up this project.
ArrowDot continues to run fee-based and scholarship With continuous support from other donors, we are
programs for young Cambodians. setting a data center that enhances, preserves, and
secures our archive.“
Social Enterprise Cambodia
– Farina So, Deputy Director, Documentation
January to April 2016 Center of Cambodia
As traditional funding for CSOs and programs shrank
in 2014 and 2015, many CSOs searched for alternative ran 11 programs, and it plans to open a new partner
organizational models and ways to generate hub in Battambang in 2020.
income to support their programming. However,
the legal situation in Cambodia can be challenging Public and Private Sector Partnerships
to navigate, and many CSOs do not have access to
tools to help them understand the pros and cons of DI worked closely with private and public sector
different models. To address this information gap, partners to achieve its program goals. In some
DI funded Impact Hub Phnom Penh to create the cases, DI brokered private sector sponsorships or
Social Enterprise Cambodia online platform. The site partnerships to help leverage USAID’s assistance
provides practical resources, general information and help partners achieve their goals. In total, DI-
about social entrepreneurship, and a directory brokered sponsorships are valued at $334,334 (64
of social enterprises for potential investors and percent in cash and 36 percent in kind), and represent
donors. The Khmer language platform supports new contributions from a wide range of partners: SMART
Cambodian social enterprises, especially those with Axiata, EZECOM, Cellcard, the Ministry of Posts and
lower levels of English, to connect with potential Telecommunications, the DAI Maker Lab, myTEB,
investors locally and globally. As of 2019, 90 social Digital Mobile Innovation, Technovation Global,
enterprises were registered on the platform, and it gGear, CKCC, Sabay, HEDC International, and Coca-
attracts an average of 200 views monthly. Like SHE Cola. These private sector funds and support enabled
Investments’ platform, this website adds value in numerous grant-funded ICT solution projects,
Cambodia as a supplementary service to augment and innovation programs and services, including
Impact Hub’s in-person entrepreneurship and Technovation Cambodia, the Lab@DI, BarCamp, and
business acceleration programs. In 2019, Impact Hub SmartScale.

21
 TECH COACHING AND ADVISORY SERVICES

DI’s coaching and advisory services have been in that Cambodian civil society groups develop and
high demand since the offering was introduced in adopt digital tools, engage with supporters and
2015. The Lab@DI offered three types of coaching beneficiaries, run advocacy campaigns, attract
and advisory services: technology/tech landscaping, funding, and tell compelling stories in the digital
social media, and video coaching. Over three years, age. The impact of this will last well beyond the life
DI offered 453 coaching and advisory sessions to of the DI project.
a wide range of clients including CSOs, start-ups,
private companies, and individuals. DI’s “coaches” Tech Landscaping Services
provided support based on client demand, usually
in the form of one- to three-hour consultations. The DI provided 207 tech landscaping-focused
most in-demand types of support requested were advisory sessions during the Lab’s life, representing
designing and using tech tools (especially websites 46 percent of the total advisory and coaching
and mobile applications), digital storytelling meetings. Advisory clients were keenly interested
tools and techniques (especially video), mobile in neutral information about best practices in
data collection tools, social media strategies and technology development, the basic principles of
campaigns, and innovation or sector landscaping. innovation and human-centered design, and the
In 2017, coaches tracked the increasing demand innovation landscape in Cambodia. A significant
for social media and video support, and DI piloted portion of clients for these services came from
a pair service-model by referring clients from outside Cambodia, seeking specific information
video coaching and advisory to training, and vice about Cambodia’s tech ecosystem and about DI’s
versa. Advisory clients who also attended DI’s previous ICT initiatives.
training courses often returned for repeat advisory
sessions after the training. This follow-up support
after training courses is one of DI’s unique value
propositions in Cambodia.

SPOTLIGHT
In 2015, Kongngy Hay founded My Dream Home,
a Cambodian social enterprise producing an en-
vironmentally friendly brick product. He received
advisory and coaching support from DI in 2017 to
produce a two-minute video about his company.
Within one week of posting the video to Facebook,
it attracted 30,000 views and led to a windfall of re-
quests about how to buy his product. According to
Mr. Hay, four out of five people subsequently decid-
ed to buy My Dream Home bricks.

Particularly in combination with DI’s formal training, Comprised of Cambodian and American design,
the value-add of DI’s coaching and advisory media and technology experts, The Lab@DI
sessions was unprecedented within Cambodia. DI conducted coaching and advisory sessions
was the first entity to act as a neutral provider of open to any CSOs, TSPs, implementing partners,
technology and strategic communications-related donors, or individuals looking to optimize the use
advice in Cambodia, to any member of civil society of technology in their work.
at no cost. With practical tips and tricks customized
for a Cambodian audience, these coaching and These sessions typically focused on:
advisory sessions have helped transform the way

22
 • Human-centered design and user research. landscaping advisory team, DI’s social media
In accordance with DI’s 5D approach, the DI advisors consisted of Cambodian and international
team helped clients put users at the center of communications experts who conducted coaching
any innovation process. DI worked with these sessions for people or organizations wanting to
organizations to define the problems they use social media in their work. Specific advisory
were trying to solve, develop customer journey topics included understanding the target audience,
mapping tools, conduct user interviews, and designing or optimizing a social media strategy,
build rapid prototypes to test with their target managing social media pages and campaigns,
users. DI emphasized putting users at the evaluating current social media presence, and
center of any innovation process. A key aspect producing and managing engaging multimedia
of these advisory sessions was sensitizing products. DI essentially helped unlock a new
clients to existing tech products or resources communication method for Cambodian civil society,
and linking them to local providers who could allowing it to reach thousands of people more
build new technologies or iterate on existing quickly and less expensively than ever before.
technology products.
• Cambodia’s innovation and tech ecosystem, Video Coaching
including relevant local context and lessons
learned in ICT4D programming in Cambodia. Over the Lab’s life, DI provided 89 video coaching
• Specific technology tools, such as mobile sessions (including basic video with standard video
technology, mobile data collection tools, and equipment, as well as smartphone video) to clients
open-source software. from different sectors. Many of these were former
DI clients—particularly those that had participated
By promoting the use of human-centered in formal video trainings and sought feedback on
design principles and best practices in ICT tool the resulting videos—as well as others who had
development, and by sharing its knowledge seen DI’s Facebook page. DI’s video advisory team
of Cambodia’s digital ecosystem, DI helped provided tailored information about the video
facilitate the development and implementation production process, including planning, defining
of appropriate, context-specific, and sustainable audience and message, storyboarding, scripting,
tech tools for its clients. More than 80 percent shooting, editing, and promoting their videos.
of the coaches at the Lab were Cambodian, In addition, DI helped clients understand the
an essential element contributing to the local resources required to produce a video, provided
relevance of the advisory sessions. tips on making videos short but compelling,
and gave more granular advice on niche topics
Social Media Coaching like audio licensing and giving credit in a video.
Especially in combination with DI’s social media
Social media’s reach and importance has grown advisory services (since most videos were posted
significantly among Cambodians; the number of on social media), DI’s video coaching and advisory
Facebook users has risen from 3.4 million in 2016 services helped its clients tell their stories and gave
to more than 8.8 million in 2019. Over the Lab’s life, them the tools to advocate for themselves and
DI offered 78 coaching sessions to individuals and their missions by creating strong visual multimedia
employees of CSOs and TSPs. Like DI’s technology content.

SPOTLIGHT
Sereyrath co-founded the conservation community Young Eco Ambassador in 2017
to spark awareness of the environmental issues in Cambodia. To reach and recruit
youth ambassadors, she needed to leverage social media to amplify her orga-
nization’s voice to as many people as possible. From 2018 to 2019, DI worked
closely with Sereyrath to help her organization realize this ambition through
the social media and smartphone video training courses, training of trainers, and
DI’s one-to-one advisory services. Inspired by the impact of the social media train-
ing on the community’s strategic communications planning, Sereyath worked
with DI to adapt the three-day training into a two-day workshop for her YEA
recruits. “DI trained us to feel more confident. When we go on stage, how we
can prepare ourselves, not only our appearance but skills and knowledge on
how to prepare before we speak in public. It built my confidence and helped
me find my voice.” YEA currently has 100 active ambassadors campaigning for
a range of environmental issues nationwide. 23
 SOCIAL START-UP INCUBATORS AND ACCEL-
ERATORS
Business or innovation incubators and accelerators In July 2016, IHPP selected 11 promising start-ups to
were relatively unknown concepts in Cambodia in take part in the pre-incubation phase. This first phase
2014 and 2015. As the co-working community and lasted three months and involved the development
entrepreneurial ecosystem grew, more public and of roadmaps and budget plans, and introduced lean
private actors worked to serve the growing market of start-up principles and methodologies. From these
young people, social enterprises, and entrepreneurs 11, five startups were chosen to move into the full
seeking skills training, business support, and incubation process, which was a further nine months.
mentoring. DI funded the first formal social start- During this time the start-ups received ongoing
up incubator in Cambodia in 2016, through Impact tailored business support and coaching. The start-
Hub Phnom Penh (IHPP), and subsequently funded ups were exposed to key industry strategies and
a series of other incubators and accelerators in 2018 concepts and connected to industry experts. The
and 2019. curriculum included financial planning, pricing, sales,
contract management, supplier selection, business
Entrepreneurship Program ICT for Change (EPIC) model enhancement, process definition, product
development and how to work as a team. The
July 2016 to July 2017 start-ups were also matched with relevant mentors
when specific support was needed, for instance
DI and IHPP launched the Entrepreneurship Program meeting with experts in accounting, investment,
ICT for Change (EPIC) in July 2016. EPIC was designed branding, and sales. On top of this, they benefited
to be a sustainable, replicable, and scalable social from technical and soft skills training and access to
enterprise business incubator program. The one- EPIC’s in-person learning platform, Coaching Circles.
year incubator attracted, identified, and assisted At the end of the one-year program, the start-ups
start-ups that focused on solutions to social were given a chance to showcase their businesses to
problems. The start-ups addressed a wide variety more than 100 people at the final Demo Day event.
of sectors in Cambodia, ranging from education
to environment, housing to agriculture and food To date, Impact Hub reports that the start-ups
safety. who took part in EPIC have generated in excess
of $190,000 in contracts after being a part of this
pioneering program. One of the most successful

SPOTLIGHT

Sovan is 30 years old, and CEO and co-founder of Edemy, an educational technology social en-
terprise. DI first supported Edemy in 2017 when it won seed funding as part of Impact Hub’s EPIC
Incubator program. This funding helped the team to develop the Edemy education prototype,
the curriculum and the technology. In 2018, Edemy received its second wave of DI support to
expand its latest tech innovation, Tesdopi. This mobile app helps high school students gauge
how well they know their STEM subjects and provides practical advice on how to improve
through tutorial videos and practice tests. From video and social media training, mento-
ring, helping improve public speaking abilities, and eventually emceeing at various DI
events, DI has supported Sovan and her team throughout their journey. In particular,
Sovan mentions the rigor from the DI team when it came to measurement and key per-
formance indicators. “The team always ask us questions about the numbers and what
impact are we making. They showed us how to measure and helped us gain a better
understanding about why it is important. We borrowed this process from them and ap-
plied it to our organization so we can measure our own impact,” says Sovan. Under
Sovan’s leadership, Edemy has achieved much over the last three years, including
helping 22,000 school children get access to educational tools and technology
previously unavailable to them. “The grants we received from DI gave us the
flexibility, support, and time to develop solutions that solve the real issues in
24 education. We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for DI,” says Sovan.
start-ups to graduate from the incubator is My increases in the number of clients and revenue
Dream Home, which has grown into a full-fledged generated after the accelerator.
“The program exposed us to the most talented
business producing strong, low cost, easy-to-use
and experienced mentors as well as speakers
eco-bricks. Since EPIC ended, My Dream Home
from renowned global companies such as 500
reports generating over $150,000 in revenue, and is
Startups, Go-Jek, and Openspace Ventures. What
expanding to sell both the eco-brick and houses built
I like the most is the 1:1 mentorship sessions and
out of the bricks. Edemy, the education technology
the useful tools they share with us and helps us
social enterprise, is another EPIC success story.
scale up our business. After SmartScale, our sales
Since being a part of EPIC, Edemy has grown from
growth rate increased 300 percent.”
a few part-time team members to 14 employees,
and has created new products like the DI-funded Plang Phalla, Co-founder and General Manager,
Tesdopi application to address the growing Buyloy, a SmartStart accelerator team
demand for education technology solutions across
Cambodia. See details about Impact Hub’s current
programming for entrepreneurs on Page 22.

SmartScale, Powered by Seedstars

March to July 2019

SmartScale, a three-month intensive accelerator In terms of hard numbers, two start-ups

program, was designed to help Cambodian start- demonstrated immediate investment readiness
ups grow their businesses and increase investment (according to MSP’s investment scorecards for each
readiness. Designed to address key gaps in participating start-up) and are in talks with venture
the digital market in 2018, ranging from lack of capital firms for funding. Another three start-
investment-worthy start-ups, to lack of tailored ups are expected to reach investment readiness
mentorship support from industry experts, this within three to six months (by the end of 2020).
investor-led program worked to build a pipeline of Several businesses reported making connections
investible and sustainable businesses. with investors at the final demo day, while others
reported validating—or wholesale changing—
SmartScale was run by investment firm Mekong their business models as a result of the accelerator.
Strategic Partners (MSP) and start-up coaching Most notable is SmartScale participant First
program Seedstars, and DI co-funded the activity Womentech Asia’s Peth Yoeung, who reported an
with leading telecommunications company Smart increase in the number of clients from 88 to 107 and
Axiata. Initially, MSP and Seedstars selected 11 start- revenue from $137,000 to $225,000 between 2018
ups to take part in the accelerator. The start-ups and 2019.
completed a series of bootcamps and workshops
presented by the organizers and industry experts, DI learned that investor-led approaches to growing
and accessed intensive 1:1 coaching. They received the digital economy deliver results in Cambodia,
training on lean start-up principles, start-up and must be staffed with the right combination
teaming, market validation, traction channels, of team members to provide support, as well as
key performance indicators, customer activation to push start-ups to move quickly to grow, scale,
and retention, acquisition funnels, and unit or pivot. With the right amount of local context,
economics. All accelerator lessons were designed tailored mentorship, and thoughtful market-led
to help startups reach the growth stage faster, approaches, this kind of private sector engagement
expand operations, and ultimately get to the next multiplies the impact of USAID funding alone. As of
investment milestone more quickly. 2019, MSP is exploring options for new accelerators
based on this model for 2020.
For start-ups, one of the most transformational
elements of the program were the 35 local and Clean Energy Pre-Incubation Program
international mentors. After the program, all the
start-ups reported positive early-stage growth for March to June 2019
their enterprises, crediting the mentoring sessions.
The climate crisis is one of the world’s most pressing
This is one of DI’s most successful short-term issues, and countries across Asia and beyond are
programs—all start-ups reported substantial exploring clean energy solutions to help mitigate

25
 the deleterious effects of mainstream energy sources. to grow mushrooms with high production yield and
According to UNDP in 2019[1], the majority of Cambodia’s quality, and won a place in Impact Hub’s DakDam
electricity is generated from hydropower dams (51%) Incubator Program. It received $5,000 seed funding as
and coal-powered plants (20%). Solar and alternative well as consulting and coaching support to help build
energy solutions represent only 3% of the country’s its agriculture business.
energy production. In 2019, DI supported EnergyLab’s
Clean Energy Pre-Incubation Program, one of the first Based on the success of this pilot program, UNDP
programs of its kind in Cambodia. The purpose of funded EnergyLab to replicate the program in August
the program was to help clean energy entrepreneurs 2019. The comprehensive toolkit developed during the
validate their business ideas and get the entrepreneurs pilot includes all the essential materials to run a pre-
ready to move into a formal incubator program or start incubator, e.g., guidelines for mentors and coaches,
their own business. The program’s relevance came project slides, templates, and other materials. This
into focus during the nationwide power shortages in program builds upon the pilot and helps another
March and April 2019, which brought many business wave of entrepreneurs validate their clean energy
operations to a standstill for 8-12 hours of each day for startup ideas. UNDP also funded EnergyLab to design
more than two months. and implement a one-year clean energy incubation
program, which launched in October 2019. This much-
Of the initial 18 applications, seven teams were chosen needed incubator provides resources and support
to join the program. The pre-incubator guided the to EnergyLab participants to build their clean energy
start-ups to validate their clean energy concept businesses. Today, EnergyLab is seen as a trusted
through workshops, mentoring sessions, and a two- service provider and is poised to help Cambodians
day retreat. By the end of the three month period all develop and grow the clean energy solutions of the
of the teams validated their business concept and two future.
teams received external validation. Saart Mushroom, a
graduate of the incubator, took its clean energy idea

1 Harnessing the Solar Energy Potential in Cambodia, UNDP (2019).

26
 ICT SERVICES FOR CIVIL SOCIETY
In 2015, DI established a formal partnership with partnership. DI explored ways to grow CCC’s ICT
CCC, Cambodia’s largest NGO consortium, to training capacity, test key DI services and tools
explore the needs of its constituents and the with CCC’s members, and assess the digital needs
digital needs of the larger civil society community. of CCC’s 170+ member NGOs across the country.
CSOs struggled to use appropriate technologies, From October 2016 to July 2018, DI partnered with
and needed support from consortiums and neutral CCC to implement a grant to further customize a
service providers that understood their challenges, practical, user-friendly digital data collection tool
constraints, and culture. Previously, CCC had run ICT designed during the first grant, fund a space for
Forums for interested members, and was actively CCC to convene members within the DI offices,
searching for ways to convene people around and build CCC’s capacity to deliver in-demand ICT
important digital topics, ranging from digital services to CSOs.
security to awareness raising and advocacy, from
social media to data collection tools. The initial As a result of this partnership between DI and CCC,
partnership was funded through DI’s Grants and CCC gained the capacity to better understand
Partnerships Fund, and focused on testing digital digital habits of member NGOs through DAI’s rapid
data collection tools with a set of four members. research methodology, Member Insights. CCC
CCC used human-centered design principles to used these insights to provide in-demand basic
gather inputs from members, then co-design and video training services for CSOs, and to deliver
customize the tool for the NGOs’ data collection sustainable, fee-based services that address CSOs’
needs. The experiment taught DI and CCC that needs. As a part of the partnership, CCC and DI
it was difficult to build a one-size-fits-all tool for co-designed the popular Social Media Handbook,
NGOs and their members, as their data collection a simple tool built to help civil society users
practices, in-house human resource capacity, and communicate strategically through social media,
data needs vary wildly. with an emphasis on Facebook. The Handbook is
currently available on both CCC’s and DI’s websites.
Following this experiment, DI engaged CCC in Critically, CCC also identified that it did not have the
discussions about a longer-term sustainability in-house capacity to update and maintain the data

SPOTLIGHT
Growing up in a poor community in Kandal Province, Veasna Prom was the first
in his family to graduate from university and get two international master’s qual-
ifications. Veasna was sent from the CCC to DI to become a technical video trainer
as part of a partnership between the organizations to improve ICT-related ser-
vices for civil society organizations in Cambodia. After excelling as a student
in DI’s Basic Video Training in 2016, Veasna went on to train more than 100
students from across civil society. Veasna was also tasked to update DI’s So-
cial Media Handbook, which later gave him even deeper insights into ef-
fective social media management techniques. He continued to share what
he learned at DI with CCC’s members, then more than 160 international and
national NGOs from across the country, through CCC’s fee-based cours-
es. “I set up pricing for the video training, the production, materials,
and costs, as well as how to promote and market our video training
and social media services to CCC members,” comments Veasna. He
added that DI has helped to introduce new technology concepts to
civil society. “They are like the bridge to bring new technology and
raise awareness of the importance of technology in Cambodia.
They have helped many Cambodian people, me included.”

27
 collection tool, and this service would be better To date, CCC has trained 86 CSO staff members to
housed within a technology firm that understood better tell their stories using videos. This training
how to work with and serve Cambodia’s civil service has proven to be a successful revenue
society communities. CCC continues to look at new line for CCC; it has generated over $7,000. CCC will
opportunities to serve its members by connecting continue to run this training after DI ends. Further
them with information about new technologies, details about the video training partnership are on
especially through CCC’s frequent member forums. page 18.

“After working with DI’s team for several months, our team seems to be more dynamic
now as they can work more independently and strategically on their tasks. We are very
happy to be getting support from DI to improve capacity and the way of our team work.
This will help us be a better resource for our members and serve them well with in-de-
mand ICT services in the future.”
– Soeung Typo, Social Business Development Manager of Cooperation Committee for
Cambodia

28
GIRLS & WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Development Innovations is committed to lack of female mentors 3) lack of trusted safe spaces
reducing the gender digital divide by improving to learn new skills (especially that are trusted by
access to technology for women. Over time, parents). Without girls’ and women’s engagement
particularly in the last two years of the project, DI’s and participation in these fields, Cambodia stands
core work began to focus on increasing women to suffer from an ever-increasing gender divide as
and girls’ access to opportunities in technology, the country’s digital economy grows.
innovation, and entrepreneurship. In business,
women have traditionally been excluded from Specific DI activities to empower girls and women
the formal economy, both within the digital world in technology and entrepreneurship are below.
and in traditional businesses. As of 2018, women
owned about 65%[1] of all businesses, however less Technovation Cambodia
than 2% were formal businesses, and they suffered
from lack of access to finance, training, mentorship From 2014 to 2019, DI was instrumental in launching,
and information that could help them grow their managing, and scaling the Cambodian national
businesses. The technology sector is equally male program for Technovation, a 12-week global girls’
dominated, especially in IT fields such as software coding and business plan competition. In 2014,
engineering. A 2016 UNESCAP[2] study showed only DI decided to bring Technovation to Cambodia
8.5% of students enrolled in IT-related university because it fit neatly within DI’s mandate – helping
degrees in Cambodia were female. In 2018, DI Cambodia’s tech ecosystem design and use tech
conducted rapid design research to inform the solutions to address Cambodian’s development
design of the last two years, especially related to challenges. It also allowed DI to achieve its cross-
barriers for girls and young women. Key barriers cutting objectives, reaching young women to
identified included: 1) lack of female role models 2) combat the digital gender divide. In the six years
since DI launched Technovation Cambodia, it has
grown rapidly in size, popularity, and complexity
1 See www.voacambodia.com/a/for-cambodias-women-
entrepreneurs-barriers-to-expansion-may-be-starting-to-
and has become Cambodia’s most well-known
crumble/4148910.html girls’ tech entrepreneurship challenge.
2 Planning processes, policies and initiatives at institutions of
higher learning in Asia and the Pacific: Cambodia Country Paper, From 2014–2018, DI managed the entire
UNESCAP (2017). Technovation Cambodia program annually,

29
 recruiting a Technovation Cambodia coordinator, • DI, the Technovation Community and ITC
staff, and mentors (who work closely with the received over $40,000 from public and private
Technovation participants every week); planning sector sponsors in four years.
key Technovation events; identifying public and • The local success of Technovation helped
private sector sponsors; and providing other prompt the inclusion of digital education in
support as needed. During this period, the the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports’s
number of participating girls roughly doubled Education Strategic Plan 2019-2023.
year-on-year, as did sponsorships from the private
and public sectors. By 2018, over 44 teams from
public and private schools from three provinces #IAmRachana Campaign
submitted their apps and associated business
To generate additional interest in Technovation
plans to Technovation Global. For the 2019
Cambodia in 2018 and 2019, DI’s Communications
season, Technovation Cambodia piloted a new
Team designed and launched a social media
decentralized management model comprised of
campaign called #IAmRachana. In addition to
the Institute of Technology of Cambodia and the
serving as a virtual ambassador for Technovation
Technovation Community. They split management
Cambodia, Rachana encourages more girls to join
responsibilities for the national program, with
tech-related initiatives and pursue technology-
DI providing high-level technical advice and
related career options. Since its creation, the
managing Technovation’s mentor training and
#IAmRachana campaign has shared information
social media presence. This type of decentralized
about STEM-related stories for kids, information
structure will help ensure the sustainability of
about free programs about learning to code, tips
Technovation after DI ends.
and tricks to help Technovation participants,
Key Technovation Cambodia accomplishments and a final digital comic book produced by the
include: popular Cambodian media startup Wapatoa. To
• Over 800 girls in Cambodia aged 10-18 have date, the #IAmRachana campaign has attracted
participated in Technovation in six years. more than 1,800 Facebook followers to the page,
and will be maintained by the Technovation
• The program expanded to public schools
Community from 2020 onwards.
in 2017 and Siem Reap and Battambang
provinces in 2018.
• Two teams (one in 2017 and another in
Cambodian Female Coding Club -
2019) advanced to the final round of the Sisters of Code
Technovation Global competition, beating
out more than 1,100 other teams from around To promote an early interest in technology and
the world. Each finalist team pitched in front further girls’ tech education opportunities, DI
of a live audience in Silicon Valley. In 2019, supported IT Academy STEP to provide coding
Cambodia’s Team LiterTree came in second in courses for 60 girls aged 10-18 from December
the world in their age division. 2018 to June 2019. Sisters of Code received strong
support from MoEYS, who provided classroom
• One public school, E2STEM, has incorporated
space for all students participating in the pilot.
Technovation into their standard curriculum.
Trainees learned basic coding skills via code.org,
Scratch, and basic HTML, then studied how to
apply control structures with clear consequences
such as looping, using logical conditional coding,
“Technovation was the program that got me out of arithmetic calculations, and variables. To ensure
my comfort zone…I learnt to be independent and the development of practical skills, each trainee
interdependent when I worked with new people, developed at least one game and website
mentors. During the program, I’ve learnt a lot not prototype. After 17 weeks, 59/60 girls successfully
only hard skill such as business and Technology, completed the training. The final project
but also soft skill such as such as team work, evaluation revealed a high level of satisfaction
communication, [and] new ways of learning.” among trainees. 96% of surveyed trainees said
that the Sisters of Code program was useful,
– Technovation alumna from the 2019 Technovation interesting to learn and they enjoyed it, with 2/3
Program saying that the program helped develop their
confidence in technology. 91% indicated they
wanted to continue to learn digital skills after

30
the program ended. After its collaboration with participants networked with and learned from
DI concluded, IT Academy STEP secured onward high profile experts in the tech sector. Topics
funding from the British Embassy in Cambodia to included strategic communication and public
run Sisters of Code 2.0., and plans to continue to speaking, entrepreneurship stories, design
expand these coding clubs to new schools in the thinking techniques for problem-solving, idea
future. pitching, networking, and how to be ready for
a global market and achieve work-life balance.
Leadership Training and Mentoring for Following its DI grant, WEDU has successfully
opened a Cambodia office to provide future
Young Women in Tech in Cambodia mentoring support and is finalizing contracts for
future mentoring programs with both donors
From December 2018 to July 2019, DI supported and public sector funders.
WEDU Global to implement a four-month
mentorship program for 20 young Cambodian SHE Investments’s Incubator and
women in tech. 80% of WEDU’s leadership fellows
(mentees) completed the program, on which they Accelerator Programs
worked closely with their individual mentors to
From July 2018 to July 2019, DI supported SHE
set short and long-term goals and create action
Investments to implement two incubator
plans. Mentees reported receiving not only
programs and two accelerator programs for
technical advice to cope with their academic
women MSME owners in Cambodia. After receiving
and professional challenges, but also emotional
336 applications, 10 times the normal number of
and psychological support. Both mentees and
applicants for SHE’s programs before working
mentors reported that they developed strong
with DI, SHE chose 58 female entrepreneurs
relationships through the program, and the
to participate. Participants learned critical
majority of the mentors expressed a willingness
business management skills, such as business
to continue supporting their mentees. In addition
plan development, content creation and digital
to one-on-one mentorship support, WEDU also
marketing, and product promotion, and received
organized the Women’s Leadership Academy
advice from 50 Cambodian and foreign mentors
(WLA), a three-day learning workshop where

31
 from SHE’s network as well as the Cambodian By enabling them to deliver high-quality networking
Women Entrepreneurs Association (CWEA). DI’s and mentorship services, manage events, and
coaches led the training on content creation and invest in marketing to attract higher numbers of
digital marketing as a part of the partnership. applications, SHE Investments has become more
Creating compelling stories and visual content well-known to Cambodian women entrepreneurs.
using smartphones helped SHE’s entrepreneurs It continues to report increasing demand for their
grow their businesses, reputations, and incomes. services, with women entrepreneurs contacting
Afterwards, the 49 graduates that completed the them on a near-daily basis asking how to enroll in
six month programs reported an increase in total an incubator and accelerator or access business
monthly revenue of $338,301 and the creation consultation services. In addition, SHE co-founder
of 46 new jobs, indirectly benefiting 178 of their Lida Loem was shortlisted for the Women of the
family members. Individual participants from the Future Southeast Asia 2020 award in the mentor
incubators and accelerators were also selected for category, giving her a new regional platform to
regional awards, showcasing emerging Cambodian reach more women and grow the enterprise.
women entrepreneurs. For example, Kunthear
MOV, Co-founder and Managing Director of Dorsu NearyIdols - Awesome Entrepreneurs
(Cambodia), became the first-ever Cambodian to
win the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award at and Women in Tech Video Series
the Women of the Future Awards Southeast Asia
To highlight emerging female leaders and
2019.
Cambodian role models in business and
Just as importantly, DI also built the capacity of SHE technology in 2018 and 2019, DI produced a series
to manage larger partnerships. This has set them of videos to showcase eight of the most successful
up to become an effective USAID implementing entrepreneurs from SHE’s incubators and
partner in the future. For example, SHE reports that accelerators, and four leading Cambodian women
DI’s support in creating communications materials in tech from DI’s networks. With USAID/Cambodia
such as video case studies has significantly and the U.S. embassy in Cambodia frequently
increased SHE Investments’ reach within Cambodia cross-posting each video, the number of views
and internationally. Due to the positive results ranged from 2,000–86,000 on Facebook alone.
and lessons learned from the SHE-DI partnership, The most popular video to date is about a woman
SHE intends to expand its service offerings. This who attended the DI-funded SHE Investments
includes new programming in Phnom Penh and accelerator to grow her Battambang-based banana
expanding its geographic footprint to Siem Reap chip business.
in 2020, with support from USAID/ Cambodia’s We
ACT project.

SPOTLIGHT

“DI created a lot of opportunities for me to become who I am

right now. They supported me and other Cambodians who
struggle and have been through a lot of problems. DI has
helped us a lot.” She has big plans for the future, saying “I
am very ambitious. I want to run E-Lab and I want to make it
very successful and I want to expand to all the provinces in
Cambodia.” She goes on to say, “I have my clear plan. I know I
can use technology to create impact to society and solve social
problems that my people are facing.”

- Sokuntevy (Tevy) Chhy, Co-Founder of E-Lab and

Technovation Student Ambassador

32
 YOUNG INNOVATOR PROGRAMS
DI has worked to provide support and enable YPs received scholarships for ICT graduate school
youth-centered programming since its inception. programs in Europe and one YP started his own
Over time, DI supported a number of youth-focused tech startup company after winning a national
programs through the Grants and Partnerships business competition. Overall, the program was
Fund and Sustainable Innovation Programs, DI’s successful and the YPs were highly satisfied with
training services, coaching, community events and the YP experience, but DI staff found it difficult to
the 5D Lab. In addition, DI committed to ensuring provide any quality control over the experiences of
that young voices and opinions were integrated the young professionals. In follow-up interviews,
into the design and implementation of the project DI received feedback that some YPs felt their
every day through the involvement of DI’s young organizations didn’t always assign tasks related
staff members, as well as in-house interns. to their newly acquired skills, or they lacked
supervision and oversight. Upon reflecting on this
Young Professional Program feedback, DI knew they needed to re-envision the
next phase of the program.
In 2014, Development Innovations piloted their
first internship program with 14 young profession- Young Innovator Program
als (YPs). The program was launched in response
to CSOs’ desire to design and implement technol- In 2017, DI relaunched their youth-focused internship
ogy-enabled projects, but lack of access to the program to provide similar on-the-job experiences
capital and human resources needed to mount for young Cambodians, but adapted the model to
successful ICT-enabled activities. host in-house internship placements as a part of the
DI project team. The Young Innovator Program (YIP)
DI selected young professionals with information was Development Innovations’ own in-house, six-
technology (IT) and communications skills to join month internship program for young professionals,
the program. After a one-month intensive training providing opportunities for young Cambodian
in ICT, strategic social media, and design thinking, innovators to build real-world skills that help define,
each intern was placed with a CSO partner for design and create solutions to solve local problems.
eight months. During their placements, the YPs Young innovators work alongside technical
were exposed to website development and mentors to support defined projects focused on
coding, social media promotion and assisting in addressing development challenges through ICT.
implementing ICT-enabled projects, depending Young innovators receive training, mentorship and
on their placements. Six months after the end access to a network of like-minded individuals who
of the program in 2015, 10 YPs had been hired by
CSOs as permanent staff and consultants, two

SPOTLIGHT A recent Computer Science graduate, Rottana Ly joined DI’s Young Professional
Program (YIP) in 2015. YIP to Rottana was quite different from other internships,
“At DI they brought together technology and soft skills training. They also want
to help solve social problems for our country and build networks, which was a
first for me,” said Rottana. During the program, he was placed at Codingate, an
award-winning tech innovation startup based in Phnom Penh, for 9 months.
Reflecting on the YIP, Rottana pinpoints an important shift in his thinking, “The
Human Centered Design training from DI opened my mind to think of solu-
tions not just from me but from the end user. For the first time we had to design
carefully for the person who will use the technology.” Rottana continued to
further promote information and communications technology by volun-
teering and speaking at various events across Cambodia. After gaining
his Master’s Degree in Software Development from France, Rottana re-
turned to the Institute for Technology for Cambodia as a lecturer, and
later a technical mentor with Technovation, working to help address
the digital gender divide in tech fields.
33
 SPOTLIGHT

Daravatey Seng was a part of DI’s first YIP cohort in 2017. She had just graduated from university with a de-
gree in Professional Communications, and joined DI to learn more about practical communications skills,
and M&E in the development sector. After YIP, she secured a job as a communications officer with a local
tech company, and then moved into a prominent role as a communications officer at UNICEF Cambodia,
where she monitors and evaluates media content for effectiveness, as well as manages UNICEF’s brand
and reputation in-country.

are passionate about the potential of using new Youth Innovate Cambodia
technologies in Cambodia.
Innovations and great ideas can come from anyone,
Between 2017-2019, three cohorts of YIs were especially young people, who see the problems in
selected to join three consecutive 6-month their communities first hand but often don’t have the
programs. Through the hands-on training program, resources to transform their ideas into action. The YIC
the young innovators are equipped with practical challenge, launched in October 2018, was designed
skills and experience in the tech for development by DI to address this youth funding gap, and to give
space while partnered alongside the DI team, young people opportunities and resources to develop
which includes Communications, IT, Digital Design, new ICT projects which address social issues for
MEL and Video specialists. They learned about Cambodians. Of the 18 applications, 5 were awarded
innovation processes and soft skills needed to seed funds of up to $3,500 to test their innovative ICT-
excel in ICT4D, including problem solving, effective enabled ideas. During the three-month challenge,
communication, and leadership. Additionally, they DI provided smartphone video training, guidance
received human-centered design (HCD), ICT4D in project management, content planning, and
project design, adaptive management, smart phone/ guidance about how to work under USG funds.
basic video production, social media strategy and
communications trainings. While being exposed to The YIC campaigns ranged from a web-based law
DI’s innovative work culture, the YIs also conducted directory to help law students study at university, to a
exposure visits with USAID and DI’s partners Digital Noodle (a tech trends video series), and a ‘Why
including CSOs, start-ups and tech companies where Get Married too Young’ social media campaign raising
they could learn about other projects, organizational awareness with Khmer youth on the pitfalls of getting
culture, and challenges faced by other organizations married too young, a major challenge in certain
and how they overcame them. provinces. Collectively the social media campaigns
reached over 250,000 people. Two other YIC projects
All nine YIP participants from all three cohorts fully completed development of their ICT tools during
completed the training program and learned the program, including E-Lab, the mobile application
practical work skills needed across the ICT4D sector. highlighted on Page 33. In just three months, these
As of the end of 2019, 9/9 YI are currently fully young innovators showed us what is possible with the
employed at an NGO, in the private sector or have right support and funding, and were better able to
started a related advanced degree program. promote themselves, the issues they were advocating
for, and youth-led innovation. As of November 2019,
all projects are currently looking for private or public
funding to grow their projects and make an even
bigger social impact.

34
COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH
Communications Evolution video producer and communications assistant.
This change allowed DI to accelerate the way they
The trajectory of DI’s communications journey told stories by creating richer and more engaging
reflects the wider digital evolution taking place in narratives through video. The timing dovetailed
Cambodia. It’s rapid, it’s innovative and it leaves perfectly as the project also expanded its objectives
you wanting more. In just three years the DI to include a deeper focus on tech entrepreneurship
communications team grew their Facebook page and addressing the gender divide.
likes by 62%, more than doubled (58%) their Twitter
followers and attracted over 31,000 newsletter Through DI’s multi-channel approach the team
views. was able to amplify information about services
to a wider audience of people, share success
In the beginning, DI focused on one main channel stories (focusing on program wins and impact on
with the highest relevance to the target audience beneficiaries), build brand trust and ultimately
(civil society organisations, technical service connect meaningfully with the target audience.
providers, startups, young people) - Facebook. In just six years DI grew from one Facebook page
The agile team of DI content creators produced to managing eight social media accounts across
a range of social media assets which initially five digital platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube,
showcased DI’s tools and programs and then later, email newsletter, and website. As of November
the subsequent success stories. 2019, DI has an established digital audience of over
56,000 followers/ subscribers and has impacted
In April 2016, DI launched its internal blog with the countless more people through events, programs
aim to create a community space where we could and partnerships.
share key learnings and celebrate innovations and
programs. Since the launch, nearly 12,000 readers The Channels
have engaged with the blog posts. Readers were
particularly attracted to the human centered Communications in Actions
stories and popular “tips and tricks” blog post
formats. DI’s most successful blog post on offline %
Total Annual
and online coding programs reached 1,490 readers. 2017 2018 2019 growth
Statistics
The blog page exceeded DI’s expectations by rate
becoming a genuine space for team members Facebook
to share big wins, lessons learned from projects, 111,156 69,739 15,1165 34%
Engagement
updates on program progress in a more informal
Facebook
format, and enabled shorter form content that was 1,708,818 843,544 2,533,057 48%
Reach
shareable and accessible.
Twitter
1,269 1,093 1,260 -0.71%
Buoyed by the combined success of the blog and Engagement
social media activities, the team wanted to expand Twitter
their reach to local and international audiences 117,109 102,039 166,457 42%
Impression
who might not be on Facebook or Twitter. DI also Newsletter
wanted to create a piece of content which could 8,930 11,711 10,889 22%
Viewers
be delivered to the inboxes of people interested in
the project’s ongoing story. With that in mind, DI Website
47,294 46,793 32,831 -30,58%
launched the Tech Highlights from Development Viewers
Innovations newsletter in 2016. This newsletter Noted: DI saw the highest website engagement during years when
was a one stop shop to find out the latest news the project posted funding calls. This decline is likely because no
on DI initiatives, partner wins, ICT4D events and funding opportunities were posted in 2019.
important articles and thought pieces on tech for
development.

A pivotal point for the DI content creator team

came in 2016 when they welcomed on-board a

35
 images), delivered in Khmer received the highest
engagement.
Data as of November 1st 2019.
DI Employed Quality Tools & Templates
Engagement
Channel Insights (Average Working with a small number of content creators,
monthly) the team had to be smart about how they gathered
content and stories. They developed a series of
253,305
Facebook page 46,304 likes simple tools and templates to help anyone in the
engagements
organization capture story content, especially in
2162 16,645 the field. To extend content reach, they trained
Twitter Account
followers impressions the whole office on how to get great stories — by
4974 teaching the five standard interview questions,
Newsletter 1,088 opens
Subscribers providing guidance on how to take a good
238,031 total photo, emphasizing the value of monitoring and
Website 3,283 views evaluation, and more. By empowering and training
views
the DI staff to be storytellers, they were able to
consistently deliver high-quality content.

Digital Success Factors DI Built a Specialized Team

During a six year program there are, of course, many It is rare to find one person who can do public
learnings. The DI team tried many new things, and relations, video, social media and graphic design.
adapted and reworked content to ensure the The DI team wanted to deliver the highest
stories were meaningful to DI’s audiences. The quality training, support and communications
DI team reflected on the key success factors that for the project, which meant finding specialists in
supported their evolution and ultimate successes. Cambodia to be part of the team, and ensuring
the team had the full suite of skills to deliver the
DI Crafted a Human Centred Content Strategy best content, and drive the most effective strategy.
At the end of the project the DI team comprised
DI’s challenge was how to create enough of experts in video and film production, graphic
interesting and diverse content to keep its main design, social media, event management and
audience engaged. DI needed to do something project management.
different to stand out on Facebook, which is already
cluttered. Resisting the urge to talk only about Digital Campaign Highlights
itself, the project decided to spotlight its partners
and beneficiaries and tell human-centered stories. NearyIdols Awesome Entrepreneur Video Series,
Rather than focus on the list of services, the team 2019
decided to share content which focused on the
impact of DI’s services on people’s lives. The video series features eight
women entrepreneurs from the
DI Stayed Data-Driven SHE Investments’ Incubation and
Acceleration Program, funded by
The DI communications team quickly realized DI. These female role models from
the importance of practicing what it preached, business and technology highlight the emerging
especially when it came to social media and digital voices and stories of new leaders in their fields. To
communications. In trainings, DI educated on the date, the series has been viewed nearly 300,000
importance of making informed communications times, making it some of the highest performing
decisions based on digital data and analytics. DI content.
Whether it is Facebook or a blog post, it needs
to be monitored, measured, and evaluated for Technovation Facebook Page, 2016 - 2019
impact. Over time, creators can draw on a deep
understanding of what content resonates with their The Technovation Challenge, which
audience. When creators know what the audience addresses the global gender gap
loves, they can start to deliver content with a greater in technology, has helped over 600
impact. For DI, first person content (videos/ quotes/ Cambodian women (age 10 to 18)

36
learn essential tech entrepreneurship skills. the team. #IAmRachana was created to encourage
To promote the challenge DI launched @ more girls to enter the technology space. Making
TechnovationCambodia, a dedicated Facebook her debut at the the Technovation 2018 national
Page to raise awareness of the annual 12-week pitch, she also has her own Facebook page and
program and share ongoing content on coding and Twitter account, like many young women across
STEM to help keep young women engaged in tech. the country. The #IAmRachana social media
The Facebook community has grown to almost accounts have helped to promote multiple
19,000 since it started in 2016 and it has been handed campaigns such as #Learn2codewithRachana,
over to the TechnovationCambodia community so #RachanaReadingList, #RachanaQuiz, and the
they can continue to use it to coordinate activities “IAmRachana - Cambodia’s Tech Champion” comic
and motivate young women to consider tech book, created by Wapatoa. #IAmRachana is still
programs and studies. building her social media following and currently
has 1,800 Facebook followers and 125 and counting
IAmRachana, 2017 - 2019 on Twitter. As a young, female tech influencer,
albeit virtual, she is committed to promoting
One of the DI communication team’s tech-related activities and encouraging women to
proudest moments was welcoming think about future studies and careers that involve
Rachana, a virtual reality ambassador to technology.

37
 COLLABORATION, LEARNING AND
ADAPTATION
A critical aspect of DI’s success is its demonstrated commitment to collaborating, learning, and adapting
(CLA), also known as adaptive management. By pushing DI to learn equally from its successes and failures
and to increase its impact over time, adaptive management has improved the focus and activity quality
over DI’s life. DI has been allowed to test, learn and pivot and has become more effective because of it. In
modelling CLA by acting upon real-time feedback, DI has also reinforced an iterative learning culture with
its partners throughout the civic technology ecosystem. By allowing partners to take educated risks and
make frequent course corrections based on learning and research, DI has demonstrated how consistent
adaptation can improve program objectives and activity outcomes. Over time, several DI partners also
institutionalized CLA practices, making them more entrepreneurial while amplifying DI’s impact throughout
Cambodian civil society.

DI modelled CLA at both program and activity levels, enabling course corrections before issues adversely
affected performance. As the program evolved, DI staff began to conduct regular reflection and lessons
learned sessions of their activities to think through how they - or similar activities - could be improved in
the future. Semi-annual strategy review sessions enabled the DI team to take a critical look at the program’s
direction and its project portfolio’s efficacy. Through these forums, and similar reflection meetings with key
sustainability partners, DI leadership created a safe space in which DI staff and partners could introspect,
brainstorm, and propose different or new ways of advancing Cambodia’s civic technology ecosystem. In
addition to internal DI reflection and strategy sessions, DI also obtained regular partner feedback through
regular community surveys (5D Lab survey and then DI community survey) and quarterly reflection forums,
supplemented by focus group discussions. DI also regularly commissioned targeted research products
that allowed them to make strategic decisions and course corrections based on the latest available
information, all of which are published and have been captured in the ICT Research section of DI’s ICT4D
Toolkit, available on DI’s website. As a result of its strong CLA focus, DI made key technical and operational
adjustments to its programming over its lifetime. On the technical side, DI fine-tuned its integrated service
offerings (i.e. technical services that complement grant funding, namely training, advisory services,
coaching, and mentorship) over time, in response to partner demand and feedback. DI also leaned into its
social media presence and strategic communications coaching, filling a key gap in the ecosystem. Perhaps
most importantly, DI prioritized Cambodian contextualization and mainstreamed Khmer language into
its activities where possible, when it became clear that this tended to achieve better, more sustainable
outcomes than English language programming. On the operational side, DI began to co-design grants
and individual activities with its partners when DI’s early activities and grants yielded late-stage course
corrections. It also encouraged greater partner investment in its proposed activities because evidence
showed this yielded greater organizational commitment to the activity or innovation.

DI wins USAID’s CLA

Case Competition in 2017

In 2017, DI received broad recognition for its commitment to CLA when it was chosen
as one of ten winners of USAID’s CLA Case Competition, from exactly 100 submissions.
USAID recognized the “Learning and Adapting Enables Civil Society Innovations in Cam-
bodia” case study for its multi-pronged approach to evidence collection and for DI’s
successful ability to pivot towards scaling its service offerings and transitioning them to
local partners in response to USAID and beneficiary feedback.

38
LEGACY

Since 2013, DI has played a critical role in fostering Cambodia’s civic technology ecosystem by positioning
itself as the country’s primary civic tech nexus, linking civil society to the local tech sector. In large part
because DI learned, evolved, refined and replicated its most successful programming, it leaves behind a
strong legacy clustered in three areas: civil society services, entrepreneur services, communities and people.
Though less tangible, a fundamental cross-cutting effect of DI’s operating model and its strong focus on
demand-driven services and human centered design was helping change the way that Cambodian CSOs
think, especially around digital tools. Its sustainability partners embody the DI ethos and will help ensure
that key services provided by DI continue to live on in the ecosystem. Because they are now more capable
of delivering highly in-demand services to civil society, they are more responsive to their primary clients
and constituencies - Cambodian citizens and civil society.

Civil Society Services

A fundamental strength of DI was its ability to bring together key local tech community players and create
new connections between civil society and tech firms. Aligned with DI’s original mandate to build a thriving
civic technology ecosystem, DI strengthened the capacity of Cambodian civil society to design, deploy,
and use technology to further their mission.

DI sustainability partner CCC is Cambodia’s primary membership organization for NGOs and CSOs
operating in Cambodia. DI worked extensively with CCC over the life of the partnership, providing hands-
on capacity building and training services and even co-locating for one year. CCC eventually took over DI’s
basic video training in 2017, which continues to run to this day. More importantly, after working with DI,
CCC has become more responsive to the needs of its members, as demonstrated by its ability to provide
in-demand services and trainings at an affordable (or no-cost) price point to its members.

DI leaves behind robust civil society sector equipped with the knowledge of how to design effective digital
tools, use existing digital platforms - especially social media - for self-promotion and advocacy, and be
more responsive to the needs of its constituent groups.

39
 Entrepreneur Services
Since its inception, DI supported an entrepreneurial mindset in its design, its programming efforts and its
engagement with partners. The services that it has extended to Cambodian entrepreneurs range from
support of small social enterprises to leveraging private sector partners to assist with accelerator programs
for Cambodia’s most promising technology startups to funding product development and innovation courses.
For example, in 2016, DI and IHPP launched a scalable social enterprise incubator program, which curated skills
for 11 promising businesses focused on products and services that addressed social problems. Two years later,
in late 2018, DI finalized a plan with Mekong Strategic Partners to launch another incubator, this time focused
on moving early-stage startups to the investor-readiness stage. DI also partnered with organizations like SHE
Investments to fund incubator and accelerator programs specifically for women entrepreneurs, and this support
has helped to scale up dozens of small businesses. In addition to incubator programs, and beginning in 2015,
DI provided grants to product innovation programs such as ARC Hub PHN, ArrowDot and Chea Jofeh. These
equipped young entrepreneurs with hardware design skills, 2D and 3D prototyping techniques and business
analysis skills in the hardware design sector.

DI’s approach to delivering entrepreneur services was demand driven and user focused, with an emphasis on
programs that could be sustained after DI’s investement. It identified gaps in the existing ecosystem, such as
support in scaling businesses for women entrepreneurs and a lack of product innovation training programs for
youth interested in improving hardware development skills, and then relied on the most capable, networked
and trusted local partners to implement solutions. As of 2019, all named service providers continue to grow their
innovative support programs, some for a fee, and some subsidized by donors and the private sector. These local
CSOs and enterprises will continue to enable new innovators and entrepreneurs in the years to come.

Communities and People

Since it opened its lab in 2014, DI continually embraced an ethos of community-building and network
strengthening by working at the nexus of civil society and the innovation sector in Phnom Penh and
throughout Cambodia. Its own team members have served as mentors and local experts within Cambodia’s
tech sector, working to grow and support local networks of innovative thinkers and bold technologists.
An early example of DI’s success fostering community was its support of BarCamp, the longest running
technology exposition event in Cambodia, which it helped expand in 2015 and 2016 by establishing BarCamp
Takeo and BarCamp Ratanakiri. DI’s support expanded access to the provinces so burgeoning technology
enthusiasts in Ratanakiri, Takeo and numerous other districts could connect to the broader Cambodian
BarCamp community. BarCamp highlights another tenet of DI’s community building strategy, to identify
existing communities and build on their work or supplement gaps. DI contributed resources to existing
networks, and strove to ensure it did not create inorganic communities for the purpose of managing or
“branding” them. This demand driven approach to understanding the needs of communities in the local
tech and CSO sector is a key factor in DI’s success in sustainably supporting communities and people.

Technovation Cambodia represents another lasting legacy of DI and is a cornerstone of the community
DI has built over six years. DI launched Technovation Cambodia in 2014 to help teach girls to code and
learn business planning skills, with the macro-level goal of bridging the gender digital divide in Cambodia.
Technovation teams now expand to both public and private schools, more than 800 girls have participated
in the Technovation challenge, and two teams in the previous five years were selected to attend the World
Pitch event in Silicon Valley. More important, however, is the strength of the Technovation community, which
has established partnerships with MoEYS and ITC. It also enjoys the support of private sector partners such
as Smart Axiata, and in 2019, after receiving technical assistance from DI to function under a decentralized
model, the community has developed a strategic plan to ensure the program continues in 2020.

Finally, DI’s staff and networks are one of the strongest legacies of the program. By building a culture of
innovation internally within the project, and breaking down traditional barriers of hierarchies present in
much of Cambodia’s civil society and business communities, the project modeled a new way of doing
business. DI modeled what it wanted to see in the future: a set of local organizations and networks that
served their constituencies and end users, and delivered results for Cambodian citizens. See Annex B for
details on awards, recognitions, and scholarships received by DI staff and partners.

40
RECOMMENDATIONS
In 2019, DI commissioned a Results and Learning and support for larger, better-equipped living labs
Assessment to track key results, and assemble and testing facilities is a constraint to learning and
the challenges and lessons learned from running hardware development in Cambodia. Additionally,
this experimental project. The report also details many lack highly skilled staff capable of providing
recommendations for future investments in civic mentoring support. When considering new
technology ecosystem building and civil society innovation facilities, DI recommends mapping the
innovation initiatives. While the recommendations existing ecosystem first, and building on recent
are infused with lessons from the Cambodian investments from donors or private sector before
context, many are widely applicable across other striking out alone to develop a new lab space.
civil society and technology landscapes. They can
serve as guideposts for other development projects PARTNER FOR SUSTAINABILITY
that seek to employ a user-focused, demand driven
methodology for more effective service delivery. Provide More Tailored, Integrated Assistance to
Partners
DESIGN A SMART, FLEXIBLE PROJECT
A one size fits all approach to partners does not
Improve Activity Design and the Co-design Phase deliver optimal results. DI saw the best results when
working with partners to provide tailored, relevant
Customization is the name of the game in and often, hands-on support. A tailored approach
innovation, and a rapid co-design process can help to assisting partners improves activity outcomes
improve the way future technology solutions and and accelerates partner capacity. It also presents
innovation programs are designed. It is important challenges to scaling. DI segmented partners by
to apply human-centered design principles and capacity and skill level and created “development
consider the end beneficiary - from every angle, packages” that were tailored to partners,
from the very beginning, and throughout the integrating both entrepreneurship and digital
design process. While there may be pressure to skills training. DI followed a similar approach when
“do more” with fewer resources, it is important to matching mentors with partners. The results speak
strike a balance between quality versus quantity for themselves - organizations were highly satisfied
with any type of activity, particularly trainings and with services tailored to their organization’s needs,
capacity building programs. It is also important to and those that received integrated assistance
map out a sustainability plan during the activity packages alongside grant funding produced
design phase, and be open-minded about what higher quality and more sustainable results than
sustainability actually means in different contexts. those who received funding alone.
Ideally, innovation-focused initiatives should seek
partners who are willing to invest in, and truly Streamline Funding Processes and Mechanisms for
co-design, the proposed activities so they stay Partners
engaged after funding ends.
Speed is of the essence in ICT because technology
Invest in Innovation Facilities changes and evolves so quickly. For such a fast
paced sector, the grant-making mechanisms
Living labs are essential for innovation. The are often difficult to understand, unwieldy and
basic principle of a living lab is to open space for place bureaucratic constraints on donor-funded
collaboration among different actors and help programs and activities. To mitigate this, DI
them develop products through interactive, conducted an internal review of the grant fund
human-centered design. The labs provide process at various stages in the project’s life. The
an environment for testing users prototypes key recommendations at each phase were to
developed by entrepreneurs, companies, reduce paperwork, accelerate decision-making
universities, or the public in general. As of 2019, and streamline the grant funding management
various public and private actors run innovation process. Future programs should also look to adopt
spaces of all sizes across Phnom Penh and in key more agile and responsive practices with regards
provinces. However, the lack of long-term funding to grants management. Finally, it is important to
explore alternative funding mechanisms for smaller

41
 activities like DI’s YIC micro purchase orders, as have been helpful in creating role models and
well as consider options for providing dedicated boosting interest, the fact remains that the majority
technical assistance directly to partners instead of, of start-ups fail. And failures are not adequately
or to supplement, grants funding. discussed. Cambodia social norms, especially the
face-saving culture, make it taboo to openly admit
INNOVATORS FIND AND BUILD THE and discuss failures unless the person has already
become successful and the failure was in the
INNOVATIONS distant past. Therefore, romanticized ideas about
what it means to be an entrepreneur are the norm,
Invest in Equal Opportunities
but startup founders need tenacity in the face of
Across Cambodia, the effects of a lack of equal business challenges. Not everyone can or should
opportunities are evident across almost all be an entrepreneur, but everyone can be a creative
sectors, sometimes segmented by gender, sexual problem solver. It is just as important to develop
orientation, disability status, or other identity entrepreneurial mindset, which will spur tenacity:
markers. DI attempted to maintain a balance creativity, problem-solving skills, and the ability to
between staying demand driven and also channel feedback into innovations in a workplace.
addressing key barriers to access to opportunities for
entrepreneurs, startups and emerging innovators. CREATE THE ECOSYSTEM FOR SUCCESS
DI used regular rapid research projects ranging
from Member Insights, an assessment of local NGO Break Down the Silos
technology use, to gender divide research to look
at specific constraints for girls and women in tech There is a general lack of communication
studies and fields. The insights from these research between many institutions in Phnom Penh. In
reports helped the program team mitigate gaps the government and donor space, this results
for underserved identity groups. Feedback from in duplication of activities and resources.
participants of DI programs also helped to refine Some actors have jumped on the “innovation
programmatic approach. One essential element bandwagon” by creating new innovation spaces
to this puzzle was ensuring access to Khmer and programs with very general objectives. While
language services so that Cambodian partners had these initiatives positively signal the level of buy-
useful, Khmer-based content to help them design in at the institutional level, it is crucial to examine
solutions to local challenges. how these new spaces and programs integrate
with and complement the existing communities
Mind the Mentoring Gaps and initiatives. There have been efforts among
the co-working spaces and support programs to
Mentoring, a relatively new concept in Cambodia meet regularly to share priorities and updates.
that is often misunderstood as training or lecturing, Future funding should consider incentives for
is not a replacement for teaching. Mentoring collaboration and co-investments across donors
support must be accessible and designed and sectors.
based on the needs of the mentee. Mentors
with specific expertise but limited availability Understand Regional Opportunities
for coaching should not be held responsible for
training the mentees, but directed to a specific Numerous Phnom Penh-based entrepreneurship
set of responsibilities to support the growth of the initiatives offer support for early-stage and
mentee. Innovators should have access to multiple growth-stage ventures, all of which are focused on
types of mentors, especially during the early stage specific themes or beneficiary groups. Successful
of idea development. local early-stage tech innovations start-ups,
namely BookMeBus, Morakot, and CamboTicket
Build Tenacity have all benefited from regional accelerators.
Entrepreneurs value seeing role models, especially
In Cambodia, there is often a lack of understanding those with similar business models operating with
of what it takes to be an entrepreneur, from a similar regional challenges and opportunities. In
social, economic, and psychological perspective. the Cambodian context, other Southeast Asian
The media, both local and internal, are integral in entrepreneurial role models helped startups access
sharing success stories of entrepreneurs, especially information about applicable opportunities, even
the Silicon Valley type-successes or mythologies outside of their current markets. Future programs
around startup ‘unicorns’. While such narratives will benefit from providing localized support to

42
entrepreneurs and give them options to connect evaluation function. For DI, the communications
outside to their networks. strategy was integral to the success of the program.
DI recruited a diverse team of content creators
Cultivate, Expand and Solidify the Civic from a video producer, social media expert, to
Technology Network graphic designer and events team. Having a strong
communications team allows for the development
DI played a central role in cultivating Cambodia’s of a program-wide strategic communications plan,
budding civic technology ecosystem by building and provides the project with strategic support
itself into the ecosystem, and looking to promote to engage with and dispense advice to partners.
existing players. Spending time to understand DI’s strategic communications enabled partners
the local tech system is critical to building trust to grow their respective brand visibility, engage
and to influence real change. By understanding more fluidly with constituents, and attract more
who the local players are, how they interact and funding. Development projects should consider an
how they measure success, DI was able to identify in-house strategic communications team.
areas for mutually beneficial collaboration. Linking
partners and initiatives to each other made a Champion a Collaborative, Adaptive Learning
huge difference in the growth of the sector, but Culture
creating sustainable linkages is not as simple as
holding a hackathon or one-off event. Sustained DI can attribute a large part of the program’s
linkages require long-term engagement strategies, success to its adaptive and flexible approach to
techniques for integrating partners in a way that innovation. The partners who really accelerated
increases productivity or innovation and ensuring were those that embodied the CLA culture at the
that personalities in an organization’s leadership program design and implementation stages. These
structure are prepared to responsibly maintain and partners held regular program level reflections,
manage their growing networks. lessons learned and strategic review sessions and
were willing to reflect on what yielded results,
INTEGRATE CROSS-CUTTING and what did not. This spirit of constant evolution
facilitated a space where DI staff and partners could
FUNCTIONS INTO THE DESIGN thrive and exceed expectations at every level.
PROCESS
Optimize Communications with Programs and
Activities

At the start of many development projects, the

communications function is an afterthought, usually
understaffed, or combined with a monitoring and

43
 THE EVOLUTION OF DI’S MONITORING AND
EVALUATION PLAN
The Development Innovations monitoring and evaluation plan (MEP) was originally designed in 2013, and revised in two
iterations during the 6.5 year program to ensure that the program indicators were set against updated work plans and
programmatic objectives and goals. Each revision was approved by USAID in annual work plans. The changes reflect the
revised program objectives during the two extension periods. In years 1-3, the original MEP indicators captured results
from the project’s focus on fostering an ecosystem of tech-enabled civil society organizations (CSOs) and Cambodian
suppliers of technology solutions to help civil society use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve
their programming, reach, and impact. Initial MEP indicators for Years 1-3 were as follows:

1. Number of CSO beneficiaries using ICT based solutions as a result of CSO engagement with USG assistance.
2. Percent of CSOs, TSPs, and individual participants that show improved skills after participating in Training
Events.
3. Percent of CSOs that have engaged with USG-supported ICT project that have implemented ICT-based
solutions.
4. Number of CSOs receiving USG assistance engaged in advocacy interventions;
5. Number of CSOs working in Cambodia (whether a local CSO or an international CSO working through its local
affiliate) that have engaged with a USG-supported ICT project to address an identified development problem
through an ICT-based solution;
6. Number of Technology Service Providers (TSPs) that have actively participated in USG-assisted activities;
7. Number of ICT-based solutions designed and implemented as a result of CSO and TSP engagement, a USG-
supported ICT project;
8. Percent of youth that participate in USG youth-oriented activities acquiring new or improved knowledge from
participating in program activities.

In Year 4, Development Innovations revised its MEP based on the refined approach for two additional years of project
funding. For the period of 2016-2018, DI focused on two objectives:

• PARTNER FOR SOLUTIONS—Innovation facilitated through collaboration between CSOs, “techies,” and the
private sector, and
• LEARN—CSOs have an expanded understanding of what is possible with ICT and have the capacity, tools, and
incentives to implement.

The original tech objective cuts across other DI objectives, so it no longer required a separate objective. From Year 4, the
project continued to engage and support the tech sector in Cambodia based on its demand for practical, project-based
partnerships under Objectives 1 and 2. Therefore, to remain consistent with this refined approach, DI reduced its MEP
indicators from eight to three in 2016. This proposed revision was approved by USAID on May 6, 2016. However, USAID
requested that one dropped indicator be included in reporting so DI re-introduced it in the 4th quarterly report of FY2017.
Therefore, Development Innovations reported against four indicators over its Y4 and Y5 project period:

1. Number of beneficiaries using ICT-based solutions as a result of the engagement with U.S. Government
assistance.
2. Number of ICT-based solutions designed and implemented as a result of CSO and technology service provider
engagement, through a U.S. Government supported ICT project.
3. Number of CSOs working in Cambodia (whether a local CSO or an international CSO working through its
local affiliate) that have engaged with a U.S. Government-supported ICT project to address an identified
development problem through an ICT-based solution.
4. Percentage of CSOs that have engaged with USG supported ICT projects that have implemented ICT-based
solutions.

44
In Year 6, with the second iteration, DI further refined its MEP indicators with a focus on achieving and capturing
development results and impact. These revised and simplified indicators are intended to capture all of DI’s partners
and beneficiaries—not only CSOs—and to reduce the complexity of data collection and reporting. This has helped to
establish consistent and achievable indicators that can be used by future implementers of ICT initiatives. Approved by
USAID on September 21, 2018 along with Year 6 work plan, these indicators were:

1. Number of innovations supported through USG assistance

a. Sub indicator: Number of ICT-based solutions designed and implemented as a result of civil society
organization and technology service provider engagement, through a U.S. Government-supported ICT
project (Year 1-3 indicator #1)
2. Number of beneficiaries directly and positively affected by innovations supported through U.S. Government
assistance.
a. Sub indicator: Number of beneficiaries using information and communications technology ICT-based
solutions as a result of the engagement with U.S. Government assistance (Year 1-3 indicator #7)
3. Number of individuals who completed/graduated from trainings and other capacity building programs
supported by USG assistance tailored for women and girls.
4. Percentage of participants of a business incubator, accelerator, or an entrepreneurship program supported by
USG assistance that report increased revenue.
5. Percentage of trained individuals who demonstrated increase of knowledge on information and
communications technology for development (ICT4D), digital skills, design and or innovation processes as a
result of USG’s training support programs.
6. Number of concepts, products, or businesses validated with support from USG assistance.
7. Number of CSOs working in Cambodia (whether a local CSO or an international CSO working through its
local affiliate) that have engaged with a U.S. Government supported ICT project to address an identified
development problem through an ICT-based solution.
8. Percentage of CSOs that have engaged with USG supported ICT project that have implemented ICT-based
solutions.

LESSONS LEARNED
DI identified several key lessons that could benefit program design and future implementation strategies
for similar activities designed to support the design and use of technology solutions and enable innovation
in civil society and other civic spaces.

1. When setting project MEP targets, implementers should balance the tension between quality and
quantity in setting, and reporting against, program results. ICT solutions, especially during design, piloting
and early iteration phases, can yield low user rates as products and solutions are tested and refined. The
quality of a “technology solution” might ultimately rest in the number of users trained, or number of
trainers trained, rather than the number of products designed or apps created. A vibrant tech ecosystem
is not the result of CSOs flooding the marketplace with new digital tools and apps, but the ability of CSO
actors to design and leverage user-friendly tech tools for optimal impact. Often, these are pre-existing
within an ecosystem, and need to be adapted slightly for specific project needs, rather than built from
scratch.
2. Targets for demand-driven ICT products are difficult to establish and can result in vastly under-targeted
actual outcomes. While qualitative gains can be achieved at the expense of quantitative ones, initial targets
can often be unexpectedly lower than final outcomes. For instance, DI significantly underestimated
the “number of beneficiaries directly and positively affected by innovations supported through U.S.
Government assistance,” because more than one million users downloaded the Khmer Smart Keyboard
application.
3. Targets for growth or expansion of tech tools and innovative solutions in civil society can be difficult,
or even unnecessary, to quantify. The traditional CSO model renders technological uptake difficult to
measure; or conversely, measurement of technology uptake in CSOs is not always useful to address the
actual issue that constituents or communities face. For instance, the development of specific tech tools
or products will not necessarily translate into improved service delivery or an increase in citizen voices.
Rather, qualitative changes or improvements within CSOs will enable local actors to better leverage
existing tech tools and engage broader audiences.

45
 4. DI uses innovative data capture methodologies and design feedback loops through regular, internal
“pause and reflect” sessions. These sessions, especially when driven by data collected during the previous
reporting period, improves DI programming. When data was captured through feedback from partners,
beneficiaries and end users, it enabled DI to optimize future programming. Pause and reflect sessions
were also used to gather data to update program objectives and inform design of annual work plans.
DI also captured partner feedback in real time through digital tools (e.g. Google Form, Survey Monkey,
and other simple satisfaction survey tools). This is time-saving, cost-effective and allows rapid analysis. DI
surveys were also designed to be user friendly, removing barriers commonly associated with lengthy and
time-consuming surveys that result in lower response rates.

REVISED MEP STRUCTURE Y6

Goal: Advancing Opportunities in Tech and Entrepreneurship for

Cambodian Innovators, Youth, and Women.
1. Number of innovations supported through USG assistance.
• Target: Baseline (Y1-5): 86, Y6: 15
• Counting: Cumulatively
2. Number of beneficiaries directly and positively affected by
innovations supported through U.S. Government assistance.
• Target: Baseline (Y1-5): 1,381,941, Y6: 20,000
• Counting: Uniquely

Objective 1: Girls and women have increased Objective 2: Tools, resources and
access to opportunities in technology, mechanisms to propel Cambodian
innovation and entrepreneurship. innovation are advanced.

1. Number of individuals who 1. Percentage of trained individuals who

completed/graduated from trainings demonstrated increase of knowledge
and other capacity building programs on information and communications
supported by USG assistance tailored technology for development (ICT4D),
for women and girls. digital skills, design and or innovation
• Target: Baseline (End of Y5): 405, processes as a result of USG’s training
Y6: 200 support programs.
• Counting: Uniquely • Target: Baseline: n/a, Y6: 80%
2. Percentage of participants of a • Counting: Cumulatively
business incubator, accelerator, or an 2. Number of concepts, products, or
entrepreneurship program supported businesses validated with support
by USG assistance that report from USG assistance.
increased revenue. • Target: Baseline (End of Y5): 7,
• Target: Baseline: n/a, Y6: 30% Y6: 10
• Counting: Cumulatively • Counting: Cumulatively

46
SUMMARY OF LIFE OF PROJECT MEP RESULTS
Indicator Results

DI exceeded targets for almost all of its indicators for the life of the project, beginning with Indicator #1. See
Annex C for details.

[Indicator #1]. As indicated in the table below, DI achieved 104% of the life of project target, building and
expanding 91 ICT-based solutions that addressed issues across multiple sectors, including education,
health, business, environment, agriculture, labor/employment and digital/ICT. In addition to these
successes, DI supported 14 innovation programs that improved Cambodian capacity in ICT, coding,
product innovation, business and human-centered design processes. Many of these ICT-based tools were
developed by partners receiving DI assistance, but for which DI did not initially anticipate a product or ICT
design. Examples include: the Khmer Smart Keyboard app, Tesdopi app, Trey Visay app, as well as client
management systems and business information portals.

[Indicator #2]. Both the ICT-based solutions supported by DI [Indicator #1] and the DI support of sustainable
innovation programs led to an increase in access to learning materials, advisory services, digital literacy
training, and business opportunities. However, the vastly underestimated uptake of the Khmer Smart
Keyboard resulted in overachieving against the target. This is an example of why the initial target of 111,793
beneficiaries was exceeded, and DI reports 1,664,667 beneficiaries under Indicator #2. Data was collected
from Google and Apple app stores, partner reports, training event logs, and data analytics (e.g. Facebook).

[Indicator #3]. DI exceeded its target for training and graduating beneficiaries from capacity building
programs, largely by supporting gender sensitive programming. DI verified 707 beneficiaries at the end
of the project, exceeding its target by 17%. DI helped incubate and accelerate businesses for 49 women
entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by providing critical skills such as business management and concept
development. The incubator programs helped women entrepreneurs in the innovation sector effectively
promote their businesses. DI also sought to stimulate interest in the tech sector among Cambodian youth
and girls through programs such as Technovation Cambodia and Sisters of Code, which trained a total of
658 young girls in coding and app development skills.

[Indicator #4]. As a result of the business incubator and accelerator programs, 35% of women entrepreneurs
who participated in the program demonstrated at least a 25% increase in their business revenue following
the completion of the program. They all obtained skills related to business management, product/service
promotion and networking through their engagement with the DI supported programs.

[Indicator #5]. A total of 900 Cambodians, including those who were trained under gender specific support
programs, were trained on tech creation and business skills, and 100% of respondents demonstrated
increased knowledge following completion of the program, exceeding the initial target by 25%. This was
evidenced by the number of coding products, mobile apps and other innovation product prototypes that
were developed by trainees during the courses, and are now being sold successfully on the local market.

[Indicator #6] A total of 15 concepts, products and businesses were validated as a result of DI support. DI
did not achieve its target of 17 concepts, products and business that were validated. Based on the selection
criteria for DI’s two grant funds in Y6, the Sustainable Innovation Fund and the Scale Up Fund, DI selected
partners that demonstrated the capacity to deliver products and businesses capable of validation. Of those
funded, 15 delivered successful concepts, products and businesses for validation. These solutions were
validated as having market potential, making a positive impact on beneficiaries, and the likelihood for
sustainability following the end of DI support. These include: two energy lab business concepts which
were validated by a panel of judges as potential projects to enter a follow-on energy incubation program
funded by UNDP; three products that have reached the market and are serving clients after completion of
the prototyping stage during training courses supported by DI; and 11 tech innovation programs that have

47
 demonstrated demand and are engaged with other partners to replicate and continue programming in
2020 after benefitting from DI support.

[Indicator #7] Over 6.5 years, DI reached more than 570 CSOs through its program activities. Of this number,
DI reports that 175 CSOs chose to directly engage with DI through sustained programming utilizing ICT to
address Cambodian development challenges. Examples of engagement range widely from participating
in a training program, advisory services, applying for DI grant funding and volunteering as a trainer,
coach or mentor for DI programming. This exceeded the original target of 160 CSOs engaging through
ICT programming, and DI credits the success of exceeding this outcome to its focus on users’ needs and
demand-driven programming, and the growing demand for their services in the civil society community.

[Indicator #8] DI reports that of the 175 partners which engaged with DI, 93 CSO partners directly
implemented an ICT solution. These ICT-based solutions include social media campaigns, Facebook page
development, website construction, mobile phone applications, creation of a client management system,
IVR, video and many others. DI exceeded its target for this indicator by 39% due to its strategic program
delivery that focused on practical and hands-on training support, coupled with funding and additional
technical coaching that enabled trainees and CSO partners to develop ICT solutions and deploy the
technology to address user needs.

48
ANNEX A – GRANTS LIST

49
50
51
52
53
54
 ANNEX B – AWARDEE LIST
DI Staff and Partner Awards, Scholarships and International Recognition, 2015-2019
Awards for Individuals
Year Name Position Organizational Affiliation Award / Scholarship Category Status
Sopheakmonkol ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup
2017 Sok Co-founder and CEO Codingate Co, Ltd. Awards 2017 Founder of the Year Winner
Technovation's Regional
Ambassador of the Year
2018 Heang Oumouy Projects Manager Cam Solution Award in San Francisco Regional Ambassador of the Year Award Winner
Cambodian Women in Cambodian Woman ICT for Community
2018 Penhleak Chan Commercial and Community Manager Raintree Tech Award 2018 Award Winner
Transport Planning and Optimization Cambodian Women in
2018 Fat Si Em Manager Cellcard Tech Award 2018 Cambodian Woman​ ICT Engineer Award Winner
Cambodian Women in Cambodian Woman ICT Entrepreneur
2018 Long Leakhena Co-founder Joonaak Delivery Tech Award 2018 Award Winner
Preserving the memory of the Khmer
Documentation Center of 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Rouge mass killings and lifelong mission
2018 Youk Chhang Executive Director Cambodia (DC-Cam) Award of restorative justice Winner
Franco-German Prize for
Cambodian Center for Human Rights and the
2018 Sopheap Chak Executive Director Human Rights (Cambodia) Rule of Law Human Rights and the Rule of Law Winner
Cambodian Women in
2019 Sokuntevy Chhy Co-founder and CEO E-Lab Tech Award 2019 Girl Innovator Award Winner Winner
Top Female Entrepreneur
2019 Sovan Srun Co-founder and CEO Sovan Srun Award by Total 2019 Start-up Award Winner
Women of the Future
Cambodian Center for Awards Southeast Asia
2019 Sopheap Chak Executive Director Human Rights (Cambodia) 2019 Community Spirits and Public Service Shortlisted
Cambodian Women in
2019 Heang Oumouy Projects Manager Cam Solution Tech Award 2019 Community Award Winner
Cambodian Women in Cambodian Woman ICT Entrepreneur
2019 Pong Limsan Founder and CEO First Womentech Asia Tech Award 2019 Award Winner
Cambodian Women in
2019 Seng Sokheng Co-founder and CEO Wapatoa.com Tech Award 2019 Creative Digital Content Award Winner
Women of the Future
Awards Southeast Asia
2019 Sotheavy AT Senior Innovation Program Manager Development Innovations Shortlist 2019 Media and Communications Shortlisted
Women of the Future
Natalja IT Academy STEP Awards Southeast Asia
2020 Rodionova Managing Director Cambodia Shortlist 2020 Mentor Shortlisted

56
57
 ANNEX C – INDICATOR LIST

58
59
60
 Community
Events
Young
Innovator 5D Lab
Programs

Girls & Women

in Tech & ICT
Entrepreneurship Training

ICT Services
for Civil Grants Fund &
Society Partnerships

Social Tech Coaching &

Start-up Incubator Advisory Services