by Norah Lay, Communications Volunteer of Live & Learn Cambodia, Linking and Learning Facilitator of Voice in Cambodia  

The year 2023 is over and while the Voice Programme is coming to an end this year, it does not mean that the creation of Communities of Practice (CoP) and Communities of Stakeholders (CoS) stops!

The Linking and Learning Team of Live and Learn Cambodia has conducted many capacity-strengthening sessions with grantee partners to support their project implementation and journey as an organisation. With additional resource support to implement linking and learning activities among grantee partners, CoPs became more alive and allowed grantee partners to develop and pitch new, collaborative ideas. This is a beautiful opportunity to respond to the request of grantee partners and rightsholder groups to take on collective issues, learn together and deepen deepen their knowledge on certain topics.

In order to help the CoPs develop, the Linking and Learning Team provided two consultation workshops that aimed to help them develop project proposals and making connections with relevant stakeholders, ot the CoS.  

The first consultation workshop was held from the 8th till 10th of November 2023. The aim was to convey knowledge about project proposals, define key activities and develop budget plans. Engaging with relevant stakeholders was also an important task for the participants. That is why the Linking and Learning Team invited BBC Media Action and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to the training. ILO presented their project of “Decent Employment for Youth in Cambodia” while BBC Media Action introduced the KLAHAN9 SPACE project, where they cover stories about diverse groups of people such as indigenous communities and more. 

The consultation workshop provided the opportunity for the existing CoPs in Voice Cambodia to learn from one another. Sepcifically, they heard from the CoP-Women and their journey, being the the first CoP to successfully implement activities. Ms. Narom from the AUA organization and a representative CoP-Women shared her experiences with their project implementation. Participants learned about the challenges and hardships but also the rewarding feeling of working together with other grantees within the CoP-Women group. 

Soon after this presentation, the other CoP groups started to come together. There came the CoP-PwD (People with Disabilities), CoP-IP (Indigenous Peoples), and CoP-OPA (Elderly people and PwD). By the end of the session they had their key activities roughly planned out and they were given the task to complete their proposal template to be followed-up in the next session, held 13th till 15th of December 2023.

Since preparing the project budget is a difficult task, Ms. Heng Sokunthea, Operation Manager form Live & Learn Cambodia, presented how the approved budget can be managed, what they have to submit and what other important aspects of preparing a well thought-out project budget should be considered. In the following days the trainer helped the CoPs to work on their project proposals, budgets and activity plans. On the last day, the CoPs presented how far they have come with their agenda items.  

• COP-IP presented 2 agenda items: One-day performance of Kuy speaking people and an exhibition on Kuy culture followed by a reflection the day.  

• COP-PwD also presented 2 agenda items: one related to a training session about raising awareness on the rights at work for youth with disabilities. The other one is a campaign activity in which they also inform about rights at work and labor laws related to their rightsholder group. 

• COP-OPA wants to prepare a 4-day training, an event with a community forum, performance and a reflection after the completion of the project. 

These projects will start as early as January 2024 and the Linking and Learning Team is so excited to be part of each one of them. We are really grateful for everyone’s hard work and cooperation last year! Keep on Linking and Learning and Leave No One Behind in 2024!