Cambodia - Australian NGO Cooperation Forum

Srijeda, Juni 7, 2017

Phnom Penh - World Vision was a keynote presenter at the 1st Cambodia Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) Forum, organised by the Australian Embassy at the Cambodiana Hotel on April 25th, 2017. The forum, opened by Ms Angela Cocoran, Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, provided an overview of the ANCP in Cambodia to all partners and an opportunity to network and learn. Over 100 participants from private sector and NGOs joined the forum. 

Through the support of the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through the ANCP, World Vision’s Micro-Franchised Agricultural Service Expansion (MASE), Cambodia Sustainable Business Development (CSBD), and Youth Leadership and Livelihood Development (YLLD) projects, are being implemented with a combined of budget over seven million US dollars which focus on improvements of market-led livelihood opportunities for poor farmers and youth in Cambodia.  

We partner with World Vision because we saw the real opportunity to benefit from and add value to their agriculture work in communities

The ANCP is an annual grants program, which provides funding to accredited Australian NGOs to deliver community development projects. In 2016-17, the ANCP provided $12.3 million to 27 NGOs in Cambodia to deliver projects in a range of sectors including education, health, water and sanitation, food security, civil society and economic development.

During the forum, World Vision presented the MASE and CSBD projects through short videos and introduced partners who shared about their partnership with World Vision, and keys to successful partnering in general.

“These projects increased the impact to the communities by working with partners, especially private sector, who shared common values such as IDE, AMRU, and others.” said Vireak Leng, Associate Director for Grant Operations, World Vision.

Simon Buckley, First Secretary of the Australian Embassy, remarked that World Vision is a well known organisation that builds trust, transparency, and integrity, through working in partnerships. The ANCP Forum emphasised to all partners, both private sector and NGO, that the building of trust is the key to healthy partnerships that are better able to develop communities.

IDE is partnering with World Vision in the MASE Project to help to deliver agriculture services to households in Takeo province. “We partner with World Vision because we saw the real opportunity to benefit from and add value to their agriculture work in communities.” said by Michael Roberts, Country Director of iDE CAMBODIA.

The forum ended with a plenary panel discussion on what makes partnerships effective in development.  Key NGO leaders shared their experiences of lessons learned from effective and ineffective partnerships.  Overall it was a successful half day workshop of building stronger connections with NGO partners and DFAT in Cambodia.