These guidelines1 are for the use of Village Planning Workshop Facilitation Team members working with the National Programme for Food Security and Poverty (FSPR) in Cambodia. The development objective of the Programme is to improve the food security situation and to reduce the levels of poverty in currently 6 provinces, 15 districts and 180 villages.
At the village level the programme operates mainly through:
Farmer Field Schools and field demonstration
Small Savings and Credit Groups of FFS participants
Community Micro Projects relevant to Food Security
The participatory village planning workshops are conducted to bring the villagers to the centre of decision making when preparing community micro projects that are part of their overall village development plans. While the Farmer Field School (FFS) activities of the FSPR primarily benefit 30 food insecure Farmer Field School participants, the Community Micro Projects are aimed to support the entire community or larger groups of the most food insecure in the village.
The participatory village planning workshop is conducted to jointly identify common key problems relevant to the food security situation in the village, to analyze the causes of key problems, to identify the livelihood strategies people use to cope with the problem and to discuss the potentials available to minimize or solve the problems to improve food security and livelihoods. Based on this analysis priorities for community micro project ideas will be identified and draft community micro project plans will be developed.
The results of the participatory village planning workshop will help the FSPR team to prepare draft village investment plans. The implementation of the Community Micro Projects will be the responsibility of the village. The supervision of the micro projects will fall into the responsibility of the VDC, while an elected group of villagers will have the key responsibility to take the necessary actions as outlined in their community micro project plans. The district officers will have the responsibility of providing technical advice and regular monitoring, while being backstopped by the provincial FSPR team.
Community micro projects that are regarded as a priority, technically feasible and financially sound, can also directly support activities of the FFS (e.g. wells, irrigation infrastructure), provided they benefit the entire community or a large group of the most poor. This linkage to the seasonal planning calendar of the FFS makes it unfortunately difficult to follow the planning calendar used in some villages/communes as part of the governmental decentralized planning process. However, the results of the village planning workshops will be integrated in the overall village and commune level planning processes.
Workshop Objectives:
Provide an opportunity for a wide range of different village members, leaders and influential individuals to jointly analyze the livelihoods of food insecure village members including problems, causes of problems, livelihood strategies and potentials that could help to solve the problems.
Identify priority community micro project ideas that are highly relevant for supporting food security and poverty reduction, benefiting the entire village or a large number of poorest villagers.
Build people’s capacity to more actively participate in development planning, strengthening both the top-down acceptance and bottom-up demand for more participatory and more inclusive village and commune planning processes.
Workshop Outputs:
A list of community micro project ideas to be supported through FSPR, prioritized by a wide range of different village members, leaders and influential individuals.
The first stage of the community micro project planning form is completed and a village group has been formed to take follow up action on the selected community micro projects.
A second list of priority community micro project ideas which have not been selected for support through FSPR is provided to the VDC and Commune Council for their review and possible inclusion in future village and commune planning processes.
Sufficient information for the FSPR teams at district, province and national levels to prepare jointly with the village workshop participants a draft FSPR village investment plan for community micro projects and FFS activities.
It is estimated that there will be some 50–60 people are participating in each village planning workshop representing a wide range of different villagers. Different socio economic groups and in particular the most food insecure and poorest village members need to actively participate in the workshop. A minimum of 5 villagers belonging to the poorest group of the village needs to be present during the workshop. Additionally it will be important to ensure that all different geographic areas of the village are represented. Villagers representing the different farming systems of the village need to be part of the workshop. There should be a good mix of different age groups ranging from the youth to the elderly and participation of women and in particular female headed households should be encouraged. As health problems, landlessness and domestic violence have been identified as key factors linked to poverty in many parts of Cambodia, representatives of these groups should take part in the workshop. Additional other interest groups might include representatives from different village committees, informal and formal groups, water user associations, community based organizations, entrepreneurs.
Village chief, VDC members, commune council representative, influential and respected individuals in particular a Pagoda monk should take part in the workshop.
The workshop facilitation team will include selected members from the National and Provincial team FSPR teams and all (three) district officers responsible for the FFS activities in the respective village. The facilitation teams will be trained, using these guidelines as a key point of reference to organize the training.
Summary of the key principles for organizing Participatory Village Planning workshops:
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Overall tasks:
Is responsible for all organisational and logistical matters concerning the workshop
Introduces the team to the community
Makes sure that the events can start and finish in time
Keeps an overview of the progress of the different groups and assists the sub-teams if they have any problems
Ensures women groups are facilitated by a female facilitator if possible
Co-ordinates the different focus group work
Facilitates the summarising and documentation process of the smaller teams
Hold an evaluation meeting with the Workshop team at the end of every workshop.
Attitudes/Behaviour:
Well organised
Kind and patient at all the time, keeps a cool head if things go wrong
Sense of humour
Keeps low profile
Listens, observes, consults
Facilitation
Tasks:
Facilitates the group events, moderates the process
Finds ways of integrating dominant and quiet people
Makes sure that the group keeps to the topic but is also flexible in handling additional important information
Repeats in own words what people say in order to confirm that there is a good understanding of the discussion
Ensures that proper visualization techniques are used by participants
Attitudes/Behaviour:
Has flexibility, patience and a sense of humour
Avoids to use complicated terms and words
He/she talks the local language
Encourages people and motivates them
“Hands over the stick” (responsibility) to the community group as much as possible
Keeps a low profile during the event
