Battambang-Banteay Meanchey Partnership, Cambodia
Cambodian women pounding grain. Photo: Nic Dunlop/CWS |
CWS-Cambodia
Some 5,900 families are benefiting from the CWS-supported Battambang-Banteay Meanchey (BTB/BTM) Partnership project in northwest Cambodia, which is helping 10 local organizations to secure funding, manage grants, build organizational and development capacity, assist with writing proposals and reports, provide training in leadership and staff development, strengthen skills in planning, monitoring and evaluation. A number of partners also require building technical capacity in areas such as primary health promotion and agricultural extension training, peacebuilding, and disaster preparedness and mitigation.
Technical support for the Battambang-Banteay Partnership project is focusing on building the capacities of partners to organize and develop programs, understand local government structures, report, monitor and evaluate activities, recognize good governance, and network with other organizations. This is being achieved through formal training, learning exchanges and exposure visits, mentoring, and coaching.
The project addresses the common needs of rural Cambodians in the two provinces for access to clean drinking water, preventive health care, nutrition training, credit for income generating activities, improved agricultural techniques, and peacebuilding.
CWS-Cambodia was among the first non-governmental organizations (NGOs) allowed to enter Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. Over the last 25 years, the program has shifted in emphasis from relief and rehabilitation work in the early 80s, to hands-on implementation of development activities in the early 90s. These shifts in emphasis reflect Cambodia's emergence from the devastation of the Khmer Rouge regime to a point at which people are ready to take ownership of, and responsibility for, their own development.
Increasingly, CWS staff members are working as the facilitators, not the implementers, of development within Cambodian communities. CWS has been working in Battambang province since 1991. Initially working with the Department of Animal Health and Production (DAHP) to promote the vaccination of livestock, by 1994 the project was training farmers in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey to become Village Livestock Agents (VLAs) and providing training and technical advice to other NGOs. In 1996, the first VLA Association was formed, providing a forum for VLAs to exchange knowledge and experience and to purchase medicines collectively. In 1998, the VLA training program was handed over to the government. In 1999, the project's focus shifted from animal health and production to the support of Cambodian NGOs in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces. This is in line with CWS's countrywide commitment to building partners' capacity as well as local institution development.
Support for Church World Service helps make this program possible.
Updated 1/25/2006
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