Cambodia, East Asia and Pacific  Show on interactive map

Jun 2006 to Jun 2011

ADRA Cambodia

AusAid and Community Donors

Harvest Project

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 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”

he 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.

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.

Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation

Outcome Mapping, a system to monitor and evaluate behaviour changes at the outcome level was attempted at the beginning of the project. Two monitoring sessions were held and some time was invested in developing “Outcome Maps” of where the project wanted to see change occurring in the behaviours of its partners. Quarterly monitoring sessions would discuss and detail achievement towards these outcomes and also review and revise plans. If implemented properly, it could have been a strong and informative system for feedback and revision to activities. After the second monitoring session, there was better understanding of the system and staff were beginning to grasp the process a little. However, with management and time constraints, changes within the management team and shifting priorities, the "Ways to incorporate the “key parts” of Outcome Mapping such as regular reflection sessions that can immediately have implications on activities. Potentially monthly monitoring sessions that discusses issues with management, determines solution and documents the session as part of the monitoring / report system (all done at the time of the meeting). Components would reduce report writing and be able to use that time in meeting with management, using a pre-determined format, to capture issues faced and determine solutions".