Cambodian Community of Practice
LIVE & LEARN CAMBODIA (LLC) is the Linking and Learning Facilitator of Voice in Cambodia. That means explicitly taking on issues of mutual concern further, learning together, and deepening our knowledge on particular topics. Moreover, it includes diving deeper into conversations about inclusion, collaboration, joint learning, or innovations on empowerment, influencing, or amplification. 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, Communities of Practice (CoP) became more alive and allowed grantee partners to develop and pitch new collaborative ideas.
This was a beautiful opportunity to respond to the request of grantee partners and rightsholder groups to take on collective issues, learn together and deepen their knowledge on specific topics. Inspired by the “Linking Toward Inclusive Community of Practice” event, where grantee partners and rightsholders joined, we revisited how we can do better together to address issues that communities often left behind face. That means mapping the CoPs according to the five rightsholder groups being supported. In the spirit of Linking and Learning, we cannot ignore the intersectionality within these groups, so we came together to share our knowledge within and across the communities.
To help the CoPs develop their project ideas, the Linking and Learning Team provided two consultation workshops that helped them develop project proposals and connect with relevant stakeholders who are working around inclusion and amplifying the marginalised voices. The first consultation workshop was held to convey knowledge about project proposals, define vital activities and develop budget plans. Engaging with relevant stakeholders was also essential for CoPs to explore the opportunities and ideas. The second workshop was held for consultation and follow-up to support the CoP in completing their project proposal and budget plan. The workshop covered two main aspects: the policies and procedures on the financial management of the CoP proposed projects and the practical work on developing the project proposal, budget plan, and draft agenda of each primary activity.
There are six communities of practice that LIVE & LEARN CAMBODIA facilitated:
1. CoP-Woman Phase: Women’s Voice Towards Inclusive
2. CoP-IP: Amplifying the voice of the Kui Indigenous community through an Opera theatrical performance
3. CoP-Elderly & PwD: Community theatrical performance of people with disabilities (PwD) and elderly
4. CoP- LGBTIQ+: Unfolding LGBTIQ+ journey: embracing diversity, equality, and inclusion
5. CoP-Art & Mental Health and Sign Language for All: “Paint Your Emotion” for deaf and people living with hearing impairments
6. CoP- Disability Identity Card: researching disability identity card (DIC)
This publication reflects our journey in Voice Cambodia as we co-created CoPs with grantee partners, rightsholders and external partners. Hopefully, this can also be a tool for others to encourage collective learning and movement-building.
