Dr. Sam Inn

Rights-based Approach (RBA) practitioners met together to share experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of their projects and valued RBA as catalyst for change in the development process at a half-day RBA Forum held on Feb 5 in Phnom Penh.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Sam Inn, Deputy Representative for Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Cambodia, said the development and respect for human rights were closely linked in the current context.

“Our years of experience recommended that to promote sustainable development requires an integration of human rights,” Dr. Inn said.

The forum, which was organized by LWF Cambodia under the theme “Emerging Need of RBA Capacity Building in Cambodia”, aimed to promote Rights Based Approaches to Development in Cambodia among LWF partners and development practitioners.

Ms. Tep Chanbora, Advocacy Coordinator for Gender and Development Cambodia (GAD/C), shared her experience and lessons learned from her project in applying RBA concept.

Ms. Chanbora and three of her colleagues attended two training courses—RBA to Development and RBA to Programming—provided by LWF Cambodia’s Training Unit in mid 2009.

Ms. Tep Chanbora shares her experience in RBA application at the forum.

“It is the right time to learn from the courses because GAD/C is developing its country Strategic Plan 2010-2012,” she said. She and her colleagues took part in designing this plan using RBA concepts. She also revised an approved gender project from targeting only on women group to work with relevant government stakeholders such as village leaders, commune chiefs, department of women’s affairs, and so on. The revised project which RBA concepts were integrated was resubmitted to and re-approved by donor.

Mr. Oun Syvibola, Water and Environmental Sanitation Advisor for Plan International, also gave credits to this new concept. Plan International and LWF Cambodia have worked in partnership for years to provide RBA training courses for their target groups, NGO partners and government line agencies. From 2008, Plan International started to change its approach from integrated development to rights-based development.

“Now, Plan International is developing its 5-year strategy based on human rights-based planning and programming,” said Mr. Syvibola, LWF Cambodia’s training partner. “We will launch our new strategy in March or April this year.”

Supported by DanChurchAid/Christian Aid (DCA/CA), LWF Cambodia through its Training Unit has been promoting RBA to development among its partners inside and outside Cambodia since 2007. For 2009, the Training Unit provided RBA training courses to 334 trainees from 11 local and international NGOs in Cambodia and 62 trainees in Indonesia and Myanmar.

Mr. Cheoung Yowoth, Program Officer for DCA/CA, reaffirmed that DCA/CA would still continue to fund RBA-related courses in order to promote this concept more comprehensively among development partners in Cambodia.

Mr. Chhuon Vuthy, LWF Cambodia RBA Specialist, highlighted in his presentation the paradigm shift of the development program which started from Charity Approach, to Needs-Based Approach and ended with Rights-Based Approach.

He emphasized that RBA helps to promote the sustainability of development work, empowering people themselves—especially the most marginalized—to participate in policy formulation and hold accountable those who have a duty to act. The RBA capacity building is essential for all development actors at different levels.

Fifty participants attended the forum.

LWF Cambodia’s Training Team