Organizational Self-Assessment on Climate Change

Today, I am working on the organizational self assessment on climate change. I followed the instruction that i have learned during the training workshop at Sihanouk province from 22-26 February 2010. The organizational self assessment on climate change enabled me to know very well about what to be, to do (programs and projects), what to be integrated into our existing programs/projects. Furthermore, i also could now about strengths, capacities needed and gap to fulfill the gap, etc.
I expected that this task would be completed by 29 March 2010 as we expect to present this result at the workshop 2 at the end of this month. To me, I think that the organizational self assessment on climate change is very important because it is a way to discover new ideas in order to integrate the climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) into our existing programs and projects. The climate change concepts is now very necessary important for the community farmers, the local authorities and other local stakeholders because this is a hot issue happening on this world.
CEDAC will conduct a research on impact on climate change and rice next week with a few team members. The study will be conducted in 5 villages across 3 communes in Prey Veng province where is the most vulnerable province in terms of natural disaster vulnerability. Mr. Yim Sok Sophors, Mr. Vang Sean and Mr. Nhep Mengcheang will jointly conduct this research next week. It is expected that the results come up from the research will enable us to know well about the impact of climate change and rice in that studied areas. That will be used as case study and examples for the other areas.

CEDAC Organized Project Launching Workshop in Prey Veng

On March 3, 2010, CEDAC organized a project launching workshop on “Improving Food Security of the most Vulnerable Families in Prey Veng”. The workshop was held at the office of the Provincial Department of Agriculture (PDA) in Prey Veng province. There were 109 participants attended the workshop, including chief of PDA, representatives from Provincial Department of Women’s Affairs, representatives from the Provincial Department of Rural Development, district authorities, commune council members, village chief, village based farmer organization representatives, and other relevant NGO staff from the target communities, etc. This is the second project that CEDAC has received direct grant support from European Union to implement a project abovementioned in 200 villages across 27 communes, in 3 districts of Prey Veng province. The target villages will be located in Baphnom, Kopong Trabek and Prah Sdach districts.
At the beginning of the workshop, president of CEDAC, Dr. Yang Saing Koma gave his summary remark on CEDAC’s activities and achievements in Prey Veng province in the recent years especially he expressed briefly about new project to be implemented by CEDAC in the province such as objectives, expected results, and how to monitor and evaluate the change of farmers and communities before and after the project intervention. Deputy Governor of Prey Veng province, H.E. Phann Chanthol presided at the workshop and gave his speech for opening the workshop. He is interested in and provided support to CEDAC to implement this project in the province.

To get detail about the project, CEDAC Field Program director, Mr. Yi Kim Than conducted a plenary presentation on the project to the participants. The project’s concept, expected results and outputs, strategies and activities as well as the main target groups of the project were raised and discussed during the presentation.



At the end of the workshop, Dr. Yang Saing Koma summed up the result of the workshop and Chief of the Provincial Department of Agriculture of Prey Veng Province, Mr. Yuos Mony provided closing remark of the workshop. He encouraged farmers, local authorities and other local stakeholders to cooperate closely with the project. In addition, he also suggested having a coordination mechanism at the provincial level for ensuring the effectiveness of the project implementation. All relevant development agencies especially those who are working involved in agriculture sector should meet together for sharing their concrete ideas and experiences relating to agriculture and community development activities in the province. Generally, the participants understand very well about the project and they are happy to cooperate with the project in order to prosper their communities.

Climate change workshop

On February 22-26, 2010 Mr. Yi Kim Than and Mr. Yim Sok Sophors attended a training workshop on climate change at Sihanouk province. There were many participants who come from different 10 partner NGOs of DCA/CA, ForumSyd, and Cord. During the workshop, the participants have learned very well about the concepts of climate change. The technical terms relating to CC were raised and discussed actively during the workshop.

Weekly staff meeting of CEDAC Field Program

Weekly staff meeting of CEDAC Field Progam was organized among staffs who are based in Phnom Penh. Mr. Yi Kimthan normally chairs the meeting every weekend. Yim Sok Sophors, Vang Sean, Pheng Chandy and Nuon Piseith participated in the meeting to share each other about the activities and results of what we have done during this week. Furthermore, the participants also shared about activity plan for next week as well.

Based on the sharing from Mr. Vang Sean and Mr. Yim Sok Sophors who did end project evaluation of ALP (Agriculture Livelihood Project in the Sok San Community), it was able to know that the indigenous people have now improved their knowledge and skills relating to agricultural practices. For example, the indigenous people previously didn’t grow vegetables and lack of food for family consumption. But now they can grow vegetables for family consumption and some of them are able to produce for selling to generate more family’s incomes. Now, some indigenous farmers who have arable land near to natural water bodies, they can grow vegetables in the dry season. I noted that the vegetables produced are very good because the natural condition is fit for vegetable growing and other kinds of crops.  Some farmers said that they don’t really want to make compost because the soil fertility is good enough to  produce a good yield. I think that CEDAC’s staff there should train them more about soil nutrient management in order to help the indigenous people to be able to use the land sustainably for a long term benefit. 

Miss. Pheng Chandy shared about the progress of data entry of rice value chain study in Takeo and Kompot province. Up to now, all collected questionnaires were installed into computer database system for data analysis. Mr. Chhong Sophal will be responsible to write up the synthesis report of the study. It is expected the draft report will be firstly produced during the fourth week of this month, February 2010.

Workshop on CMDG

Up to January 18, 2010, 9 workshops on CMDG (Cambodia Millennium Development Goal), with 255 participants including 72 women, have been organized by the project, titled “Happy Mountain Bird/Ensuring Access to Primary Education for Children of the Poorest Families”. This is the third phase of the project being implementing by CEDAC to support 34,000 poorest children in 300 villages across 40 communes in Kompong Chhnang province.



The participants were representatives of District Office of Education, commune council members, village chief, school principals, Community Based Facilitators (CBF), Community based Education Promoters (CEP), NGO’s staff and other local stakeholders. Summary background of CEDAC, critical information of HMB3, and the CMDG were raised for presentation and plenary discussion during the workshop. The workshops have been organized to build up the understanding and capacity of local authorities and other local stakeholders abovementioned on CMDG. All 9 goals of CMDG were presented and discussed especially the first goal “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger” and the second goal “Achieve primary education” were discussed in-depth thanks to they are strongly relevant to the implementation of HMB3.

About 90% of total participants have learned and understood well about the CMDG that will improve their commitment to ensure a good primary education within their respective communities.  Furthermore, it has provided a good opportunity to the school teachers/school principals, local authorities, and other local stakeholders to discuss actively about the education issue in their respective communities especially their effort to achieve the CMDG. Moreover, the action plan was developed by the participants in order to contribute to accomplishing of primary children’s education.

Progress of paddy value chain study by CBO representatives in Kompot and Kompong Speu Provinces

The data entry of the paddy value study at Kompot and Kompong Speu provinces were completed. Pheng Chandy, Kong Sina and Nuon Piseth, cedac’s staff, conducted the data entry. Chhong Sophal will write the research report by analyzing those data. It is to note that the paddy value chain study was conducted by CBO representatives in Kompot and Kompong Speu province. It was very good change for the community people to conduct the study by themselves. By doing so, they were able to learn how to conduct paddy value chain as well as they could gain more knowledge and information about paddy production and paddy market in their respective areas. The first draft report will be distributed to the CBO representatives to check and comment on the report. They would be able to add more additional information that they could learn from their effort in the fields that was recently conducted.

Sun Vatannak, staff of CRS, expected to continue in providing strengthening the capacity and knowledge to this team so that this team will become a good team that is able to provide good development services in their communities. Those CBOs can raise proposal to CRS in order to ask for grant to cover on the training sessions.

The workshop on Harmonization and Equivalence for Greater Mekong Countries

From February 4-5, 2010 CEDAC staff member Mr. Khorn Sdok attended the Harmonization and Equivalence for Greater Mekong Countries Workshop in Nonthaburi province, Thailand. The workshop was conducted and supported by the Global Organic Market Access Project (GOMA) of FAO, IFOAM and UNCTAD. GOMA staff and 26 representatives from 8 countries attended: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Australia, China and attended the workshop. The objectives of the workshop were to:

- Share among the Greater Mekong Countries the challenges of standards and certifications for trade; and
- Discuss ways for countries in the region to address harmonization and equivalence in organic agriculture.

During the workshop, several important topics were presented and discussed. Topics included a summary of the Global Organic Market Access Project, understanding the situation in the Greater Mekong Countries and Australia (each country presented their situation and challenges regarding organic standards and certification bodies), Regional Harmonization and Equivalence in Asia, ways forward and recommendations. The participants discussed in-depth how were the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) or Asian or Asian plus 1, 2 and 3 countries harmonized and equivalent in organic agriculture standard. At the end of the workshop, the majority of participants agreed to establish a regional minimum standard for organic products, which will based on the IFOAM or Codex standards and accreditation of certifying bodies, which will be based on ISO 65 for the long-term vision of the GOMA project.

Workshop on Improving Quality of Life

On February 03, 2010, CEDAC’s president, Dr. Yang Saing Koma, and director of Farmer and Nature Net (FNN), Mr. Pan Sopheap, facilitated a full-day workshop on the topic of “Improving Quality of Life” at Asia Hotel, in Kompong Chhnang province. 51 participants from five districts in  the province attended the workshops, included Community Based Facilitators (CBFs) and Community based Education Promoters (CEP) who are community leaders from CEDAC’s project, titled “Happy Mountain Bird/HMB”. It is to emphasize that HMB is implemented by CEDAC to ensure access to primary education for children of the poorest families.

Government officials who are representatives of Provincial Department of Education, Youth and Sport, HMB’s project coordinator, Mr. Kep Ratana, M&E officer, Mr. Sin Phoan, and Japanese interpreter, Mr. Heng Sokheng, also participated in the workshop.


The main purpose of the workshop was to discuss and build up knowledge of the community leaders and local stakeholders on how to improve their quality of life. Some relevant concepts, like Health, Knowledge, Friendship, and Money were raised for in-depth discussion. Additionally, the best practices or successful experiences of eradicating poverty was also actively discussed and shared among the participants. Moreover, the participants discussed about how to make a happy life at older age. Dr. Yang Saing Koma raised idea of collective saving for discussion with several examples. Each participant would be able to make income of 1,430 million riels by saving only 1,000 riels per month for thirty years with monthly interest rate of three percent.

The participants learned very well about the concepts of improving quality of life from the facilitators and mutual learning from the other participants. Ultimately, they committed to conduct collective saving in order to have a good happiness while they are older.

Kick off meeting on food security organized by EU

On February 03, 2010, Sim Samoeun, Yi Kimthan, Oum Savin, Y Kadum and Yim Sok Sophors (CEDAC’s staff members) participated in the kick off meeting on Food Security organized by European Union (EU) at Sunway Hotel in Phnom Penh.

EU procedure, included financial management, EU visibility. Furthermore, Food Security and Food Facility were also presented by the EU’s staff as well.  During the meeting, the participants raised many questions to ask the presenters and the answers were fully responded. Through the participation in the meeting, I was able to know that EU will grant more 2 million euro for food security project in Cambodia for the year of 2010.

CEDAC organized training series on Management and Leadership

On 22 January 2010, CEDAC organized the fifth training session on Management and Leadership. The purpose of the training series is to strengthen the knowledge and capacity of CEDAC’s middle managers to be more effective managers and leaders. The training was organized at CEDAC’s office in Phnom Penh, and attended by eight middle managers who come from different target provinces of CEDAC.  Mr. Tath Sok, project coordinator, was the facilitator of the training and Dr. Yang Saing Koma, president of CEDAC, was the main resource person for the training.

The training focused on the “8 ritual of visionary leaders,”  as developed by Robin Sharma and which include: compelling future focus; human relations; team unity; adaptability and change management; personal effectiveness; self-leadership; creativity and innovation; and contribution and significance. Dr. Yang Saing Koma explained each concept in detail by using concrete real-life examples. The participants discussed and actively shared their knowledge and experiences in relation to these topics. Drawing on his own work experience, Mr. Tath Sok illustrated the concept of “Maturity of Work” and facilitated participants to reflect on aspects of their jobs they had conducted well, or which they should have done better, and how they could be successful in making improvements.
As a result of learning and thinking about these concepts, and understanding how they are relevant to their current work and daily lives, participants will be able to improve the quality of both their professional and personal endeavors. The training was concluded successfully and the next training will be conducted 19 February 2010 at CEDAC offices in Phnom Penh.

Training on Paddy Value Chain Study in Tramkak district, Takeo province

A 3-day training session on the study of paddy value chain was organized by CEDAC at the branch office in Tramkak district, Takeo province. The purpose of the training was to boost the understanding of CBOs representatives on how to conduct the study of paddy value chain. Definition of value chain, market chain actors, theory of supply, demand and price, questionnaire design, data collection methods, were raised for discussion during the training.



Mr. Yim Sok Sophors and Mr. Chhong Sophal, CEDAC’s staff, acted as the co-facilitators of the training. 25 participants who are the representatives of CBOs (paddy farmer producer groups, community-based rice mills) from Kompot and Kompong Speu Provinces and representatives of partner NGOs such as WOSO, FLD, PNKS participated in the training. Mr. Yi Kimthan, director of CEDAC Field Program and Sun Vanthanak, provincial facilitator of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) for Civil Society and Pro-Poor Market (CSPPM) project also participated in and acted the observers of the training. During the training, Mr. Yi Kimthan and Mr. Sun Vanthanak shared their knowledge and practical experiences relating paddy value chain study to the participants. Some training tools such as brainstorming, plenary discussion, small group discussion, group presentation, field practice were used to ensure that the participants could learn effectively in a participatory way. It was able to note that the participants actively shared and learned the knowledge and experiences to one another.

In conclusion, the training is very useful for the participants, they have learned and understood well about the concept of paddy value chain, methodology of conducting the paddy value chain study, understood and knew how to conduct individual interview and focus group discussion and finally the action plan was prepared among the CBOs representatives.

Reflection Meeting between CEDAC and PACT

On 18-19 January 2010, CEDAC and PACT Cambodia conducted a 2-day reflection meeting about the implementation of the project “Local Administration and Reform/LAAR” at CEDAC’s office in Tramkak district, Takeo province. It is to note CEDAC has cooperated with PACT to implement this project since 2006, the project is funded by USAID. Up to now, 3 phases of the project has been implemented.
The purpose of the meeting was to reflect the progress of the project, to find out recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of project implementation. Furthermore, the meeting aimed to strengthen and build up capacity of the project’s staffs in relation to the financial management as well. Totally, 7 people participated in the meeting, included 5 CEDAC’s staffs and 2 staffs from PACT.

Mr. Yi Kim Than, director of CEDAC Field Program, Mrs. Hell Simon, program officer and Ms. Oung Chan Mony, senior grant management officer of PACT were the main facilitators of the meeting. It is to emphasize that the participants discussed and conducted reflection in detail about progress of the project implementation, the progress of staff capacity, effectiveness of implementing social development projects, reporting and monitoring system, financial management, etc.

Finally, the meeting has achieved fruitful results especially the participants could learn that the project has accomplished more results if compare to the last quarter. In addition, the project’s staff are clear about the progress of the project implementation, they could learn well from their prior experiences and could improve more skills to implement and manage the project successfully.

FNP Coordination Team Meeting at CILD

CEDAC Field Program (FNP) organized a meeting on January 08, 2010,  with the participation of its coordination team members, the members of FNP coordination team are the one who is the permanent staff of CEDAC/FNP. About 25 staffs participated in the meeting. The meeting was conducted in order to prepare the staff salary for 2010. Mr. Yi Kimthan who is the director of FNP facilitated the meeting smoothly for a full day at CILD (Cedac Institute for Local Development) office in Phnom Penh. During the meeting, staff salary was raised to talk over based on the policy of CEDAC. In the meeting, the participants prepared the proposed budget plan of FNP for 2010. Both staff salary and proposed budget of Cedac Field Program will be submitted to CSC (Cedac Steering Committee) in order to ask for the official approval.

Subsequently, all participants, Mr. Sim Samoeun (Executive director), Mr. Tath Sok (representative from Credit Cooperative) and Mr. Ouch Ngak (human resource manager) participated in the evening party as well. We have discussed and shared notions and experiences from one another.
Dawn to dusk, the meeting was conducted successfully with a happy environment and we got more energy to work more smarter in 2010. It is expected that we will have more projects for CEDAC Field Program in 2010 so that we can expand our scope of work to support rural  poor, marginalized people, poorest families, indigenous minority people, rural women, children to improve the quality of life and social development in the respective communities. We will be able to serve the benefit of 300,000 families in 6000 villages to overcome the poverty and improve the quality of life through the promotion of family’s ecological agriculture, community-led businesses, collective saving, establishment of farmer organizations and networks, etc.

CEDAC Generaly Assembly

On 5-6 January 2010, CEDAC organized its annual assembly at CJCC (Cambodia-Japan International Cooperation Center) for 2 days in order to reflect the results have been accomplished in 2009. About 300 participants, included CEDAC’s staffs and other local stakeholders such as representatives of village based farmer associations, farmer producer groups, collective saving group, rural women, youths, people living with HIV/AIDS, school principals, participated in the assembly.

Generally, representatives of each main component of CEDAC presented the main results achieved in 2009 as well as we have learned about the strategy of CEDAC 2010-2014. Mr. Yi Kimthan who is the director of CEDAC Field Program (FNP) presented the activities and results of FNP in 2009 and we generally could learn that FNP had finished some development project successfully and received more development grants to implement more projects within its target provinces. There are good progresses in terms of improving the livelihood of small farmers, help poorest children to go to school regularly, improving local governance, improved the women power in social status, promoting indigenous people to be active in agricultural and rural development, etc. Many other main components of CEDAC were working well in 2009, such as CILD (CEDAC Institute for Local Development), Publication and Communication, Research and Development, Health and Environment, CEDAC Cooperative, etc.

Additionally, the election of CEDAC’s was conducted and Dr. Yang Saing Koma was selected to continue his duties as the CEDAC’s president for another 2-year mandate thanks to his good leadership. Moreover, 9 members of CSC (CEDAC Steering Committee) were also selected during the assembly. Up to 2014, CEDAC aims to improve the livelihood of 500,000 farmer families in 6000 villages in Cambodia.

Learning is Sharing – Sharing is Learning

On 22 January 2010, Dr. Yang Saing Koma, president of CEDAC will organize a series training for CEDAC’s staff. At that time, the training will focus on Learning is Sharing and Sharing is Learning. I myself, Yim Sok Sophors, is going to present the book, called “30 minutes before a meeting”. Hopefully, I will be able to learn from myself and to learn from the other.

Project management discussion meeting

December 23, 2009 there was a meeting at 4:00 PM at CEDAC Office in Phnom Penh with the participation of Mr. Khim Sophanna, Mr. Oum Savin, Mr. Ouch Ngak, Mr. Sim Samoeun, Mr. Yi Kimthan and Mr. Yim Sok Sophors to discuss about the reinforcement of project management within CEDAC, included to discuss about financial management, staff management, how to do contract with the project’s staff and CEDAC’s staff, etc.
Referring to the meeting, it enabled to learn more about project management especially to follow the guideline/procedure of the funding agencies.

CEDAC's Annual Assembly at CJCC

CEDAC will organize the annual assembly with the participation of all CEDAC's staff at CJCC (Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center) on 5-6 January 2010. We will present the general progress of each main program of CEDAC in 2009 as well as to think about future CEDAC's intervention in 2010 and the next 5 years (2010-2014).

Field Program will also present its strategy for 2010-2014 during the meeting at that time. It is expected that each main components of CEDAC Field Program will complete the strategy paper soon on January 01, 2010 and those will be compiled for printing and disseminating during the annual assembly of CEDAC on 5-6 Jan 2009.

Strategic meeting of CEDAC field program in Phnom Penh

I am participating in the meeting of CEDAC Field Program (FNP) in Phnom Penh from 14-15 December 2009. We have discussed about the concept notes of each manage program of FNP such as the concept note on climate change, primary education of poorest children, rural women, local governance, agricultural extension, Agricultural and Local Development Associations / Service providers, monitoring and evaluation, agro ecotourism, etc. The guideline of concept note was developed by plenary brainstorming among the participants. It was to note that the participants are the project officers of FNP come from different provinces with CEDAC's target provinces throughout Cambodia. Mr. Yi Kimthan was a chairman of the meeting in the first day. 

During the first day of the meeting, the participants were divided into various groups in order to discuss in detail for developing the concept notes of their respective program. The result of the discussion will be presented for a further discussion on tomorrow morning, December 15, 2009 at CEDAC Office. It is expected that each program of FNP will be able to gain more ideas to sharpen their concept notes.

I can say that the meeting is providing more inputs for the participants to learn and to finalize the concept notes of each important program of FNP. I believe that each main program of each FNP's program will be developed for effective advantages.

Training on Cooperative

On 5-6 November 2009, there was a training on cooperative provided by Mr. Carl from Cooperative in German. He came and shared general concept of cooperative in German and the progress of cooperative in German. Around 25 CEDAC staff participated in this 2-day training, included Mr. Yim Sok Sophors acting as the participants and the translator of the course.

2 German trainers  presented and explained about the history of cooperatives in Germany. Additionally, a program officer of Buddish for Development also presented his experiences in supporting farmer cooperatives in Cambodia for years. According to the result of the training, the participants could learn more about cooperative especially they have opportunities to learn practical experiences from other NGOs that is valuable for them to improve their work in relation to cooperatives and other related fields.

Meeting with Mr. Scott, from Australia

On 27 October 2009, Mr. Yim Sok Sophors together with Miss. Pheng Chandy run a meeting with Mr. Scott, evaluator from Autralia. Mr. Scott will conduct a social impact of CEDAC project in the following month. Perhaps in January or February 2010.

During the meeting, we discussed about the general information of CEDAC’s work in the communities relating to social action. We presented to him such information. Additionally, he will submit to me and other CEDAC staff the TOR of this evaluation so that CEDAC staff will be able to provide their comment on the evaluation. Possibly, the meeting can be organized to realize the concept/idea of this impact evaluation.