CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT OF FEMALE COMMUNE COUNCIL NETWORK

The goal and objectives of the project are:

• To build the capacity to government staff of the District Office of Women Affairs (DoWA) and Provincial Department of Women’s Affairs (PDoWA) to be able to organize Forum for CWCFPs and Female Councilors.
• 2- To build the capacity to female commune councilors and the CWCFPs in exchange of experiences and increase their self confidence; and consequently;
• To encourage/influence the female commune councilors and CWCFPs desire to run as candidates at the 2007 election.

             
TARGET GROUP/AREAS

• 109 P/DoWA staff,
• 1,245 (Commune chiefs, 1st  & 2nd  deputies, CC, FCC/CWCFPs, Clerks)
• 5 provinces:  Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Siem Reap, Kampong Chhnang, Pursat.           

 
DONOR
            The Asia Development Bank (ADB)

ACTIVITIES

A. Training of Trainers (TOT):

- 5 Five-day Training of Trainer session have been organized at provincial level by WfP : 112 participants from PoWA and DoWA attended the TOT, from 47 districts of 5 target provinces (Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Kompong Chhnang, Pursat).
 
B. Demonstration:

- 5 Two-day forum’s demonstrations
have been organized by WfP in consultation with DoLA and MoWA, each, in Kampong Chhnang district,( Kampong Chhnang province), Sampov Meas district(Pursat province) Battambang district (Battambang province) Serey Sophorn district (Banteay Meanchey province) and Siem Reap district (Siem Reap province).
- 90 Female Commune Councilors (FCCs) & Commune Women and Children's Focal Points (CWCFPs) attended the five-forum demonstration. They came from 67 communes within 9 districts of 5 provinces.  Among those: 2 commune chiefs; 2 first Deputy chief; 7 Second Deputy Chiefs; 62 Commune members; and 17 CWCFPs. By province:  67Communes (18 communes of Pursat, 18 communes of Kampong Chhnang, 9 communes of Battambang, 12 communes of Banteay Meanchey, and 10 communes of Seam Reap)

C. Building the capacity of women councilors and WCFPs:

            -  Among the 112 attendees in TOT, 49 P/DoWA facilitators (about 44%) were able to facilitate and organize forums.
            -  60 Two-day forums have been organized at the district level (5 demonstration forums by WfP, and 55 forums jointly organized by WfP and P/DoWA staffs).
            -  464 FCCs & WCFPs from 371 communes attended the forums. They consisted of female commune chiefs, female first and second deputies, female councilors and women and children's focal points.
            -  WfP, DoLA, & MoWA staff met with P/DoWA facilitator team one day prior to the forum’s schedule to go over the schedule, clarify issues, and divide responsibilities among team members. As more forums took place, P/DoWA staff gained more and more experiences.
            -  Most of the FCCs & WCFPs claimed that they have effectively used the skills and information  provided  during forums in their daily work such as advocacy/lobby with commune chiefs and other council members to support their ideas and to recognize their contribution; public relation with other institutions/ NGOs to financially support commune projects and activities; identify & prioritize issues which respond to the community’s need and incorporate them into commune development plan; developed action plan/strategy on issues that arise and request for support from the commune councils; gained more trust from commune chiefs and male council members to be assigned in different commune committees, especially in solving disputes; gained knowledge on how to integrate gender in decentralization system or initiate project that benefit women and children; the information about Cambodian Millennium Development Goals (CMDGs) helped them to begin documenting and collecting  data to show improvement of local service delivery such as civil registration, child & maternal mortality, children’s vaccination, health check up for pregnant women, domestic violence, land dispute, school registration & drop out, building of community pre-school, hygiene and sanitation which include building of toilets etc...
            -  There are 51 issues identified by FCCs & WCFPs during forums. And a total of 42 issues have been resulted and developed into action plan for implementation back in their respective commune.
            -  84% of participants applied the strategies developed during forum: 87 FCCs & WCFPs (19%) provided written report back to the forums with acknowledgement (stamps) from commune chiefs, 148 FCCs & WCFPs (32%) provided report back without acknowledgement, and 153 FCC & WCFPs provided verbal report to the forum.

D. Wrap up session                   
                                     
     - 5 Wrap Up Session (2.5 days) were organized with an overall goal & objectives to evaluate the whole project, which involved about 1,053 people (536 female and 517 male) who are  P/DoWA officers, District Office members, Commune chiefs, first & second deputies of commune, commune councilors, WCFPs, and commune clerks. The first full day of the wrap up session aimed to evaluate the confidence and competence of FCCs & WCFPs, and another one and half day to assess and evaluate P/DoWA performance.
     -  Representative from 378 commune councils, in 5 provinces, gathered to hear and learn about the forum process, reviewed and discussed of their common concerned, and made commitment to support, assist, and facilitate each other need, mainly for FCCs & WCFPs, for better performance of council’s affairs, improve working coordination among councils members, CCWCs, and other institutions to strengthen social service delivery that benefit their own constituencies, especially women and children, such as civil registration, education, health, legal protection for women & children etc...
     -  Commune chiefs and clerks recognized the benefit of having FCCs & WCFPs involved in commune daily affairs, and committed to support, assist and participate with FCCs & WCFPs propose plan and activities.
     -  Commune chiefs and clerks committed to call councils and CCWC meetings regularly, therefore, an approximate of 2,296 male councilors and 1,484 male members of CCWC from 378 communes in the 5 target provinces are sensitized to women’s and children’s issues and support women’s greater participation and representation in local decision-making processes and structures.