by LEAK Ratna

	From left to right: Pursat Governor H.E Khouy Sokha, H.E Sao Chivoan, and H.E Lay Voharith

Pursat – The Ministries of Rural Development (MRD) and Interior (MOI) highly appreciated and expressed their strong support to LWF Cambodia’s achievements and country strategic plan at a two-day annual workshop on 10-11 March.

The workshop, which was held at LWF Cambodia’s project office in Pursat’s Phnom Kravanh district, aimed to (1) strengthen cooperation between the two ministries and LWF Cambodia, (2) share experience and lessons learned from working in partnership for rural development, (3) present LWF Cambodia’s Action Plan 2010, and (4) evaluate the achievements jointly made by LWF, the rural communities, community-based organizations, and related government agencies.

LWF Cambodia Deputy Representative Dr. Sam Inn highlighted some major joint achievements made under LWF Cambodia’s support as of 2009. They included (1) building capacities of 44 commune councils and 380 village development committees (VDCs); (2) improvement of livelihoods of 2,934 poorest households; (3) establishment of 42 women groups and 56 youth groups; (4) construction of 13 more classrooms in 2009, provision of scholarships to 7,055 poor students, forming 25 non-formal education classes; (5) installation of 426 deep wells, 1,253 shallow wells, and 1,851 latrines (including 273 latrines for 2009); and (6) establishment of 7 agricultural development cooperatives and 28 forestry communities.

Dr. Inn said these were the achievements of joint efforts made by the communities, local authorities, related agencies and LWF Cambodia which was strongly supported by the MRD. Over the past 30 years, LWF Cambodia actively contributed to support the Royal Government of Cambodia in reducing poverty of the rural poor.

In his opening speech, H.E Sao Chivoan, MRD Secretary of State, applauded and strongly supported all achievements and strategic plan of LWF Cambodia, and said NGOs are key development partners.

“All achievements of LWF Cambodia really contribute to poverty reduction of the Royal Government, helping Cambodia achieve the Cambodia Millennium Development Goals 2015, and strongly support the policy and strategic plan 2006-2010 of the government,” he said.

Pursat Governor H.E Khouy Sokha

He added that the MRD robustly backed the strategic plan and the selection of target areas of LWF Cambodia, which focused on increasing incomes for low-income households through its integrated rural development projects. He suggested that LWF Cambodia paid more attentions to four priorities: (1) construction and rehabilitation of small scale infrastructure, (2) clean water and sanitation project, (3) community development, and (4) human resource development and institutional strengthening. The 380 VDCs which were trained by LWF Cambodia over the years are an invaluable achievement. The MRD takes human resource development as the most important tasks for rural development.

H.E Lay Voharith, Deputy General Director of MOI’s General Department of Local Administration, highly appreciated the support of LWF Cambodia extended to MOI over the past years. He also admired all efforts and achievements made by LWF Cambodia, MRD, and related agencies, and asked LWF to continue to support the two ministries.

Pursat Governor H.E Khouy Sokha, recognized the achievements and praised LWF Cambodia for its work and local authority’s support to make LWF Cambodia’s project possible.

LWF Cambodia is an international NGO whose headquarters locates in Geneva, Switzerland. LWF Cambodia started operating in Cambodia in 1979 after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge. In early 2011, LWF Cambodia will be localized transforming from an international NGO to an autonomous Cambodian NGO which will be known as “Life With Dignity (LWD)” in association with LWF-Department for World Service.