AIESEC Cambodia and Its International Cooperation

The international platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential” is currently the official descriptor of one international organization that is run and driven by students and recent graduates and is now present in over 107 countries and territories. This organization is widely known as AIESEC, and AIESEC Cambodia is one of the newest members in its networks.

Introduction:

What is AIESEC?

Founded in 1948 after the Second World War, with the founding members from 7 countries in Europe, AIESEC has, since then, grown tremendously to now stand as the world’s biggest student-run organization with its global networks of over 35,000 members and over 800,000 alumni; nowadays AIESEC can be found in over 1,700 universities in more than 107 countries and territories. AIESEC and its networks all over the world organize activities and various programs, through which youths are given “the opportunity to be global citizens, to change the world, and to get experience and skills that matter today” (www.aiesec.org).

Below are some detailed about AIESEC (www.aiesec.org):

Our Name:

AIESEC is formerly a French acronym for "Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales". Today, we no longer use this acronym as our membership has grown to encompass a much wider range of disciplines than only economics and commerce, and our role in society and the core work we do are reflected more accurately below.

Our Nature:
AIESEC is a global, non-political, independent, not-for-profit organisation run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher education. Its members are interested in world issues, leadership and management. AIESEC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, creed, religion, national, ethnic or social origin.

Our Vision:
AIESEC visions to achieve peace and fulfilment of humankind's potential.

Our Role:
Our international platform enables young people to discover and develop their potential to provide leadership for a positive impact on society.

AIESEC Activities

Two activities that figure as the core focus of AIESEC all over the world are International Exchange and Leadership Development. International Exchange covers programs and activities whereby students and recent graduates go to work abroad, for a certain period of time, in one of the 107 countries in the AIESEC networks. They can work in four main areas, namely: technical, management, education and development.

On the other hand, Leadership Development can be done by giving responsibilities to AIESEC members in different levels of the organization, namely: AIESEC International (coordinating AIESEC all over the world), AIESEC at the national level (managing and representing AIESEC in a country), and AIESEC at the local level (running and representing AIESEC in each local committee, usually in each member university). Through these various levels, thousands of positions are available for and given to the members, which all play important roles in making AIESEC activities possible; that is, AIESEC members are basically the ones that operates AIESEC activities, one of which involves making it possible for other students to go and do their internship overseas. As these responsibilities are taken, along with ongoing trainings by experienced people, leadership skills are nurtured and flourish among everyone involved.

AIESEC in Cambodia

The extension of AIESEC in Cambodia was founded in November 2008 by a group of AIESECers from the UK. 19 months later, AIESEC is now, as Jan Bartscht and Jessica Macias-Bochatay, Co-founders of AIESEC in Cambodia, were quoted saying in the AIESEC in Cambodia 2008-2010 Annual Report Celebrating Explosive Growth, “a rapidly growing, debt-free and financially secure community of 100+ AIESECers who actively develop their own and each other’s leadership potential.” Today AIESEC is presented in 5 of the best universities in Cambodia, with the number of members growing at the rate of 10 per cent per month.

Decentralisation in Organizational Structure of AIESEC Cambodia

AIESEC Cambodia is organized and managed in a very decentralized way, and there seems to be a constant trend towards more decentralization as each level of the organization grow stronger and stronger. So here is how AIESEC Cambodia is structured.

At the top is the national team, which is called the Member Committee (MC). The current MC is comprised of one president and three vice-presidents. At the local levels, on the other hand, there are 5 Local Committees (LC), representing the 5 member universities. In each Local Committee, there is an Executive Board of one Local Committee President (LCP) and 4 Vice-presidents (VP) of Talent Management, Incoming Exchange, Outgoing Exchange and Communication. Each Vice-president in charge currently has an average of 4 or 5 members under his or her management.

The MC works closely especially with the LCP of each LC, and both are responsible of holding each other accountable to the set goals of the organizations, so that sustainability of the organization can be ensured. Besides, LCPs are responsible for their respective Local Committee; they work with their VPs, while each VP works with the members under their management in order to maintain enthusiasm and effectiveness and to deliver results.

At the earlier stage of the organization, when members are taking less of the responsibilities but more of trainings and orientation about the organization, operations and important decisions in the organization were mainly in the hands of the Member Committee. However, when the knowledge and information have been sufficiently transferred and members are capable enough of running their own LC, management and decision-making process are more decentralized; that is, each LC is given more authority and independence to manage their own committee, with less interference from the MC. This growing decentralization, or the principles of subsidiarity, is also apparent in the activities in each LC. Although each LCP hold the top position and biggest decision-making power, it is up to each VP to manage his/her respective team. Each team has its specific area of work to be accomplished and its members are the best persons to decide on matters that are exclusive to their team.

AIESEC Cambodia’s Partnerships and International Cooperation

The main contributors to this strong existence of AIESEC in Cambodia today may be the co-founders from the UK and all the AIESEC members in Cambodia. However, all the endeavours of these people would not produce such favourable results without the global networking and the support from the network. Everyone’s support has come in many forms, in the forms of financial contributions, consultation, suggestions and advice, words of encouragement, credentials, etc, which are what are needed from the point when extending AIESEC to Cambodia was just an idea to this very day.

This helps prove the significance of networking, partnerships and cooperation, which still remain as among some of the main focuses of the organization. And this is one of the reasons why AIESEC in Cambodia is doing its best to make sure that old partnerships and cooperation are well-maintained and further trying to seek and grow new ones. Today, the organization in Cambodia has AIESEC partnerships with Australia, Malaysia, Norway, New Zealand, Vietnam and Yale Local Committee in the USA.

Context of the Partnerships and Projects Implemented

Most partnerships/cooperation are developed and oriented in a way that fosters international exchange and leadership development, which are the core activities of the organization. Now we will look separately at how international partnerships and cooperation benefits exchange and leadership development.

First, it is helpful to understand how international exchange is usually done through AIESEC. As mentioned earlier in this paper, international exchange program allows students and recent graduates to go and work abroad. And in order to make that possible, it involves a whole process of uploading the students’ applications into the organization’s database, matching them with the right positions, short-listing and interviews by the recruiting companies or NGOs, just to name a few common steps. In the global network of AIESEC of more than 107 countries, there is a huge online database, in which thousands of applications of students who wish to work abroad and thousands of job descriptions are stored. As long as an application is matched with any job description and the applicant is successfully accepted for the job, it marks the start of what is called exchange.

So what does international cooperation have to do with this? It sure does. Exchange can be done with a lot more ease and a lot faster, if facilitated by the partnerships. If two local committees have any partnership, exchange and mutual benefits can be negotiated among the two. For example, with AIESEC Yale as an AIESEC Cambodia’s partner, one exchange in Cambodia by a student from Yale is about to be realized. First, AIESEC Yale found an applicant who is interested in coming to work in Cambodia. As soon as her application was completed and sent to AIESEC in Cambodia, it was immediately matched with a job available in the database of AIESEC Cambodia. Even though there was no suitable job in the database, it was not a problem, because AIESEC could always get in touch with local companies or NGOs in Cambodia and try to find whatever vacancy that matches with her application. The match was found, and she is arriving to take the job in Cambodia this summer. Without such partnerships, this process could take longer; plus, Cambodia might not have been the one to take this advantage as it would have been a lot more competitive considering the fact that there are many more jobs available in the database of other stronger, longer-standing AIESEC countries.

On the other note, how such partnerships help building leadership among members? Indeed, one of the most special, dynamic aspects of being part of AIESEC is the opportunity to be immersed in a pool of great learning environment; the whole process is an ongoing learning experience, by which ones can grow to be among the best. And partnerships and international cooperation, in one way, bring about various elements that can enrich this learning experience. To make this point clearer and well-supported, let us examine AIESEC Cambodia’s cooperation with AIESEC Vietnam.

It started from simply a contact and acquaintance made by our co-founders with AIESEC in Vietnam. With the intention of diversifying the AIESEC experience of the members and deepen their knowledge and understanding about the organization, the co-founders contacted the organizers of a national conference of AIESEC Vietnam and requested the participation of Cambodian AIESEC members. The requests were accepted and 4 of our early members went to join that conference in Vietnam. Besides fundamental information about AIESEC in general, our AIESECers were also able to absorb and learn about various skills (from leadership to communication skills) talked by experienced speakers during the conference. Their participation was also a wonderful chance for them to observe how AIESEC Vietnam manages itself, which was what exactly what they, as important elements of AIESEC Cambodia, needed to learn from for the betterment of this newly-born organization in Cambodia. Something probably more significant than the acquisition of these knowledge and understanding was the fact that each of the 5 participants came back very strong and very enthusiastic; their passion and commitment to stay with and develop AIESEC were remarkably ignited.

Since then, the partnership between the two AIESEC countries was established. For subsequent conferences, invitations, along with special privileged facilitation, are also reserved for those of AIESEC Cambodia’s members, who are interested. It is the same privileges that AIESEC Vietnam gets when AIESEC Cambodia organizes events, conferences, or trainings.

As yet, our members have enjoyed a lot of great opportunities; there have been many international events, in which our members took part. Other than Vietnam, a number of AIESEC international events have been held in Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia and the US, where our members’ participation is warmly welcome.

Analysis of the Vision and Methods of Cooperation

AIESEC is all about developing leaders, and to reach that end, everyone involved is put through various enriching environments, where they can be trained, are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them, can contribute, and keep growing. And cooperation and partnership have been proven to play an indispensable role in making that happen; in the activities of AIESEC Cambodia alone, cooperation comes in many forms. Official partnerships were/have been started and built with each university where AIESEC is based and with various enterprises and NGOs, from RMA Group to Coca-cola, just to name a few local important partners. However, this part of this paper will analyze specifically the cooperation, made across borders, and the vision the organization have regarding such international cooperation.

In accordance with AIESEC’s vision of “Peace and fulfillment of humankind’s potential,” which is shared among all AIESEC organizations around the world, by valuing and practicing international cooperation, AIESEC Cambodia envisions:

- more opportunities for members, including:

   +opportunities to work abroad to discover themselves, to have a life changing experience, to get themselves ready for future occupation, etc.

   + opportunities to join international trainings, conferences, summits etc.

   + opportunities to boost their own global understanding, their tolerance towards other differences, their general knowledge etc.

   + exposure to international working and learning environments etc.

   + opportunities to achieve high-level leadership and working competences.

- sustainability of the organization, made possible by:

   + the organization’s recognition at the international level

   + profitability and financial security (from such activities as exchange and sponsorship)

- AIESEC reaching out to more and more Cambodian youths (as the operation of the organization is sustainable and long lasting).

After all, these are what a developing country like Cambodia really needs so as to go forwards. As a country and a society that was a few decades ago so destroyed both physically and emotionally by years of political mayhem and instability, changes towards development and prosperity seem to be happening at a rather slow pace. And with almost 70 percent of the population as youth, for positive changes to speed up, youth should be among the most important targets. As long as this big part of the Cambodian societies is motivated, with their mind open up to the world, and know exactly how to use their potential to the fullest, peace and prosperity are no longer perishable dreams for Cambodia, but achievable visions.

I would like to end this paper with a quote from the co-founders of AIESEC in Cambodia, Jan Bartscht and Jessica Macias-Bochatay, as written their testimonial in the AIESEC in Cambodia 2008-2010 Annual Report Celebrating Explosive Growth, which was put so well, explaining the motivations behind AIESEC in Cambodia:

Of all our achievements, perhaps the most important thing that AIESEC has provided to the youth of Cambodia is to show them that it is possible to realize bold dreams. We think AIESEC inspires in the youth of Cambodia the courage to create a bold vision for a better future and gives them the skills and network to mobilize themselves and others to realise that dream. We believe that when faced with challenges that threaten to overwhelm them, Cambodian AIESECers have the boldness to grit their teeth, dig for deeper courage and say ‘Let’s do this!’ It is this attitude that we wish to leave for the future generations.

Why does this matter? At its heart, we think that the story of the founding of AIESEC Cambodia is much more than just the story of the founding of an organization. It is a story of youth working together to dream boldly, challenge themselves greatly, and succeed spectacularly. In a world that already faces tremendous challenges and a future that promises many more, nothing is more important than ensuring that our leaders of tomorrow have what it takes to succeed. We will need leaders who can confront those incredible challenges by saying ‘Let’s do this!’ and we are proud to say that AIESEC in Cambodia is now one of the communities that is activating, developing and connecting those leaders into society. Long may it be so.

References:

AIESEC International. Retrieved June 19, 2010, from www.aiesec.org

Bartscht, J. & Macias-Bochatay, J. (2009, June). AIESEC in Cambodia 2008-2010 Annual Report Celebrating Explosive Growth. Retrieved June 16, 2010, from https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1ze8oiBgefcMTliYTE4MGUtNjRmNC00MTVlLTk2YjUtYWFkZjgwNDEyNDM1&hl=en