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Households Are Renewing Vital Energies
for Sustained Transformation (HARVEST)
June 2006 to June 2011 * District of Prsat
Bakong, Siem Reap, Pouk, Angkor Chum, Varin, Kralanh in
Siem Reap Province; District of Rovieng and Chey Saen in Preah
Vihear Province
* Beneficiaries: Direct 62,400; Indirect 135,000 * Budget: $3,672,000
*
Donor/s: AusAID and Community Contributions
The HARVEST Integrated Rural Development project, beginning in
June 2005, has been developed based on the experience of ADRA Cambodia
through many years of food security in Cambodia and around the
Asia region. The project’s ultimate goal is life enrichment
and poverty reduction for rural Cambodian families currently close
to or below the poverty line. Achievement of this goal will be
evident by people experiencing a deepening sense of fulfillment
in their lives along with enhanced ability to influence relevant
and lasting transformational change. This will take place
through a holistic participatory approach to identifying and responding
to the needs and opportunities within the target communities.
The project targets “boundary partners” which are
specific groups of people with whom the project will have an influence. These
include 1) farmers with special interests (rice focused farmers,
forest access farmers and peri-urban farmers) 2) associational
groups (currently ADRA sponsored Farmer Associations and Women
Empowerment Associations are present in 28 communes representing
8,000 farmer families in the target area) and 3) the provincial
and district level government staff within the Ministries of Agriculture
Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Rural Development (MRD), and Environment
(MOE). The largest proportion of the projects resources will
be dedicated to the “Farmer” boundary partners with
the focus on improving rice production/yields. The project will
include opportunities to help marginalized groups.
The project will use the “participatory extension approach” model,
versus a “transfer of technology” model. While
the target beneficiaries have widely different livelihood foci
and live in a diverse environment, one core principle within participatory
extension unifies the strategy: Effective and sustainable
development will occur where natural energy to drive it is harnessed.
An initial point of entry will be the identification of these “hot-spots” and
of individuals who have these special interests and are willing
to group with other like-minded people. They must sincerely
desire change and be willing to work for it. ADRA Community
Development Facilitators will use a method of total immersion in
the community in order to identify these issues and individuals
and to facilitate their formation into functional groups. From
Design Phase findings, it is expected that these will focus around
a number of livelihood issues including rice improvement, cash
crop production, water and sanitation, community forestry and land
issues. Plans for action will be developed around these “hot-spots”.
Project monitoring will feed learning into the project activity
cycle to enable adaptation and improvements throughout implementation
and thus an emphasis on monitoring and evaluation for learning. Outcome
Mapping (OM) will be a tool used to inform monitoring of behavior
changes, appropriateness of strategy and effectiveness of organizational
performance.
The project will work to achieve its goal through the following
four component objectives with specific outputs based on past experience
and rapid response to opportunities identified during the Participatory
Extension Approach process. The emphasis on each area will
depend on community identified functional groups as to be defined
after the staff immersion in each target community .
Objective 1: Rural farmers apply improved technical
knowledge and skills to solve problems and manage their resources
in economically profitable, socially responsible and environmentally
sound ways.
- Fully operational “participatory extension approach” program
- Improved access to water for agricultural and household usage
- Improved access to safe water supplies and household sanitation
- Improved access to quality veterinary services
- Awareness conducted on practical implications of HIV, AIDS,
Avian Influenza and other environmental health issues and relative
to their farming enterprises
Objective 2: “Hotspot” centered
cooperative groups of rural farmers synergistically help production,
processing, marketing and / or other social needs of their
farming enterprises.
- New interest area (hotspot) groups established
- Capacity building conducted for the interest area “hotspot” centered
cooperative groups
- Services of existing Community Finance Institutions (CFIs)
improved to meet needs of members (focusing on Farmer Associations
and Women’s Empowerment Associations)
Objective 3: Government rural support services provide
improved practical and timely support to rural farmers.
- Customized capacity building conducted for government rural
support services
- Community irrigation schemes constructed (under supervision
by PDoWRaM)
- Commune Agro Ecosystem Analysis (AEA) conducted (under supervision
of PDoA)
- Establishment of Community Forestry units (supported by PDoE
and/or PDoA)
- Advocacy conducted for community and household Land Tenure
issues
Objective 4 (Management): The ADRA/IRD project
team professionally meets accountabilities to stakeholders
and innovatively incorporates learning experiences to achieve
project goals.
- Competencies, systems and procedures fully operational
- Situational analysis conducted with boundary partners
- Effective project harmonization informs project implementation
- Effective Monitoring and Evaluation for Learning (MEL) systems
are operational
- Research and lessons learned conducted, documented and disseminated
Click the following links for human interest stories
 More Archived Stories For You To Read!
Click
to download ADRA Capacity Statement for Australia - Cambodia
NGO CA 05 - 09 Web Version.pdf
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