Component 4: Institutional development
29. CBRDP provided considerable capacity development to improve coordination and
cooperation between various administrative levels, and to foster participatory
decision making and demand-driven service delivery. Assistance included
supporting sub-national government agencies through coaching and advice, study
trips, and formal training on understanding decentralization and its implication for
development, steering and coordination of development activities, monitoring and
evaluation (M&E) and financial management. Support was also provided for
provincial administrative units through provision of capacity building measures to
the commune councils.
30. Based on project documentation, these activities resulted in 173 communes and
their commune councillors being able to steer the yearly process to implement
development measures properly, and to respond to people‟s problems and needs.
Provincial and district government agencies considerably improved their
understanding of the commune planning process, project implementation, civil
registration and procurement during the project‟s implementation. In addition, four
Commune Council District Forums were established in Kampong Thom province in
2005, serving as spaces where councillors can share common issues and concerns.
Key points
The project was a broad-based rural development project, and was the third IFAD-financed project
in Cambodia.
The overall goal of CBRDP was to reduce poverty of targeted households.
The election of commune councils in 2002 provided commune councils with more authority.
The project included national and international partners and donors.
Output targets were mostly achieved.
III. Review of findings19
A. Project performance
Relevance
31. Objectives. CBRDP objectives were highly relevant to the Royal Government of
Cambodia‟s policies for poverty reduction as set out in the First Socio-Economic
Development Plan (1996-2000); the Rectangular Strategy for growth, employment,
equity and efficiency (2004); and the National Strategic Development Plan (2006-
2010). The project had interventions in three of the four strategic growth angles
namely: i) enhancement of the agricultural sector; ii) continued rehabilitation and
construction of physical infrastructure; and iii) capacity building and human
resource development. By working with provincial, district, commune and village
institutions, the project supported the policy of decentralization and involved a
number of civil society organizations. The project‟s relevance to government policy
was facilitated by being entirely implemented by provincial and commune
government agencies, with policy guidance provided by national focal points.
32. CBRDP was also consistent with IFAD‟s corporate strategic frameworks (2002-2006
and 2007-2010) that highlight the importance of agricultural productivity and
access to markets for improving the livelihoods of the rural poor. It was also
generally consistent with the 1998 country strategic opportunities paper (COSOP)
for Cambodia.20