The Cambodian Development Mission for Disability (CDMD) is a key player in promoting disability inclusion in Cambodia. It was originally founded in 1993 under the name Rehabilitation for Blind Cambodians – Community Based Rehabilitation (RBC- CBR) and administered by different international civil society organisations (i.e. Maryknoll Sisters and Caritas), until it became fully independent organisation in 2007.

The CDMD envisions a future where people with disabilities live with dignity and prosperity; and where they are empowered to actively participate in their communities, work to improve their livelihoods, and advocate for their needs on their own. As an organisation and with decades of experience in rural Cambodia, CDMD focuses on implementing holistic Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programmes, addressing five components (such as health, education, livelihood, social and empowerment) as a way to promote equal opportunities, reduce poverty, and advance social inclusion of people with disabilities.

Therefore, as part of its mission, CDMD coordinates and develops the capacities of; people with disabilities organisations, communities, and other relevant stakeholders committed to provide equal opportunity for people with disabilities. CDMD is presently committed to three main purposes:

• Continue its work in Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) to promote the rights of people with disabilities. This includes training and supporting local governments, and working with people with disabilities to advocate for their own rights.
• Advocate increasing access to all social services for people with disabilities. Strengthening its local Advocacy Network and referral systems in Cambodia, but also working directly with public health and social service centres.
• Work to improve the livelihoods of people with disabilities, as a way to reduce poverty overall. This involves working to increase access to employment, support development to assistive technologies, and connecting with the private sector to demonstrate how people with disabilities can meet employer’s needs.

Cambodia and Indonesia are home to about 30 million economically active persons with disabilities and different groups of people with activity limitation (especially the elderly). Agriculture is a vital sector for the high percentage of the economically active population in the two countries, but it is one where persons with disability and the elderly face some of the greatest challenges and exclusion.

The Creative Capacity Building to empower rural farmers with disabilities project shares knowledge on Creative Capacity Building (CCB) in Cambodia and Indonesia; as an inclusive design methodology with the objective of creating awareness, increasing problem solving skills, developing transformative leadership, and promoting the (self)empowerment of those groups so-far excluded in rural farming areas, with a particular focus on people with disabilities and the elderly.

As a social innovation tool, the CCB methodology uses a five-stage model to develop assistive technologies, comprising of formation and planning, pre-design, generative design, evaluative design, and post-design phases. The entire process follows a participatory human-centred design process, where a problem is identified, researched, ideas are generated, experimented and most promising solutions are designed, built and tested.

For this project, the Cambodian Development Mission for Disability (CDMD) as the lead applicant, is partnering with Pursat Rehabilitaties Yakkumwith (PRY) in Indonesia, and Light for the World in Cambodia and Engineers without Borders as technical advisors. Both CDMD and PRY have worked in community development for many years with a focus on disability inclusion.