Seila, a Cambodian word, evokes the image of a foundation stone that represents the solidity of both the Government’s decentralization programme and the Seila project itself. Following its launching of the programme in 1996, the Government has been involved in helping the rural poor to bring about solid, lasting improvements to their lives. IFAD began financing the Agricultural Development Support Project to Seila in 2000.
“I believe that beneficiaries are quite satisfied with what we are doing …. We are concerned about the sustainability of the project. We concern ourselves with real participation, not only in implementation but also in the monitoring and impact processes. This sort of participation would be very useful for those of us who work with communities to get the feedback to redesign the existing and design the coming agricultural project …. So we are trying on-the-job training to learn how to work together, to involve all the actors in the same design and implementation processes, and to ensure transparency and accountability ….