Mission Support of Field Program Director to CEDAC Ratanakiri

CEDAC has been carrying out project activities in Ratanakiri (RTK) province since 2001, starting with a Non-Timber Forestry Project (NTFP) with 16 villages, 2 communes and 2 districts. To date, CEDAC has been implementing four projects in 67 villages, 17 communes, 8 districts and 1 municipality in Ratanakiri province in collaboration with ALDI, ICM, International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Learning Community Development project (LCDP)).  These projects involve a total of 22 CEDAC staff (4 women).


Due to the increase in projects and staff over the years, Mr. Yi Kim Than, CEDAC Field Program Director, called for a special staff meeting on 10 March, 2010, with 10 key staff members (2 women) at the CEDAC- RTK office. The main purpose of this meeting was to:

• Introduce CEDAC  projects in Ratanakiri and their progress;
• Reflect what CEDAC-RTK has accomplished; and
• Develop a strategy/approach for CEDAC-RTK to 2015.

The process for this meeting included brainstorming and critical thinking. It was an opportunity for staff to look back and review and to think about self-development in order to prepare for future development of the CEDAC-RTK program. Five priorities issues were identified: 1). Good government; 2). Service; 3). Gender mainstreaming; 4). Animal feed enterprise; and 5). Climate change.

Mr. Yi Kimthan, recommended the following:

1. The shop in Banlung should have more indigenous products such as pottery jars or handicrafts from each project in CEDAC-RTK. The shop should also find partners, such as a tourist agency, in order to improve sales of the products through tourism.
2. The Indigenous Community Marketing Network in Ratanakiri Province (ICM) shop in Banlung should prepare a regular monthly financial report.
3. CEDAC-RTK must produce an SRI annual report and should prepare plot experiments.
4. CEDAC-RTK should identify topics for staff capacity building and share these with the CEDAC Field Program Office to facilitate support.
5. CEDAC-RTK should/must conduct action research in order to develop learning materials for agricultural development in Ratanakiri.
6. CEDAC-RTK should select interested producers for purifying seed for preserving local seed.
7. CEDAC-RTK should try to support the existing saving groups and combine them into a cluster of saving groups and link to SOSOR.