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Managerial Response to Mid-Term Review of the PArTNER Project – Cambodia – 2024

Read the full managerial response (in English)

PArTNER Project – Partnership for Agroecology Transition, Networking and Efficient Resilience – Cambodia – Summary of the management response to the 2024 mid-term evaluation

The PArTNER project, implemented by Uni4Coop (Eclosio and Louvain Coopération), aims to promote agroecological transition and gender equality in agriculture in Cambodia. At mid-term (2024), a cross-cutting evaluation was carried out with the support of ARTE-FACT to analyse the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impacts of the project.

Key responses from project management:

  • Majority acceptance of recommendations: 14 recommendations were made, the vast majority of which were fully accepted.
  • Strengthened coordination: Biannual meetings will be organised to improve synergies between partners.
  • Greater involvement of local authorities: Partnerships with community agricultural officers (CAOs) are being developed to promote agroecology.
  • Improved training: Training sessions for farmers will be shortened and adapted.
  • Strengthened communication: Visual aids (videos, social media) will be produced to disseminate agroecological practices.
  • Consolidation of farmers’ organisations: Long-term business plans and capacity building are planned for agricultural cooperatives and unions of cooperatives.
  • Gender promotion: Training and promotion of women’s leadership in partner structures.

Strategic points to monitor:

  • Review of the Theory of Change: Further collective reflection is planned to incorporate strategic adjustments.
  • Strengthening links with research and policy advocacy: Improving the dissemination of scientific results to decision-makers.
  • Sustainability of achievements: Increased efforts to ensure the economic viability of partner organisations after the end of the project.

Mid-Term Review of PArTNER project (Partnership for Agroecology Transition, Networking and Efficient Resilience) Cambodia – Final Report 2024

Read the full evaluation report (in English)

PArTNER Project – Partnership for Agroecology Transition, Networking and Efficient Resilience – Cambodia – Summary of the 2024 mid-term evaluation

Project objective

The PArTNER project, implemented from 2022 to 2026 by Louvain Coopération and Eclosio (UNI4COOP programme), aims to:

  • Promote agroecological transition.
  • Improve the income and social conditions of farming families.
  • Strengthen gender equality.
  • Consolidate a local, sustainable and safe food system.

Evaluation methodology

  • Cross-cutting evaluation, collaborative process involving project partners (CAOs/UACs, researchers, NGOs) with the assistance of an external facilitator.
  • Based on OECD-DAC criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, effects/impacts, sustainability.
  • Data from focus groups, interviews, self-assessments and a participatory workshop.

Main findings

Relevance

  • The project is highly relevant to current agricultural, social and environmental issues.
  • Need to strengthen links with local authorities (CAO) to ensure the sustainability of actions.
  • The approach could better integrate certain key crops (e.g. cassava).

Coherence

  • Good internal coherence thanks to the theory of change (ToC).
  • It is recommended that this ToC be further harmonised with that of the ASSET/ALISEA project at the regional level.

Effectiveness

  • Encouraging results despite initial delays in some diagnostics.
  • The farmer-to-farmer extension model is functional.
  • Cooperative unions (UACs), particularly BUAC, are showing notable progress.

Efficiency

  • Good cost-effectiveness, but gains are possible by strengthening local synergies.
  • Technical support should be more tailored to local realities.

Effects/Impacts (preliminary)

  • Increased adoption of agroecological practices by some farmers.
  • Emergence of women leaders.
  • Market still poorly structured to promote agroecological products, except for SRP (Sustainable Rice Platform) rice.

Sustainability

  • At the farm level: adoption of agroecological practices appears stable.
  • At the organisational level: BUAC is progressing towards sustainability, while others (TrUAC, Kampong Thom agricultural cooperative) are less advanced.
  • For ALISEA: sustainable financing is on track thanks to SDC support.

Key recommendations

  • Maintain horizontal coordination between partners.
  • Involve local authorities (e.g. CAO) more closely.
  • Diversify the means of disseminating agroecological practices.
  • Strengthen training and individualised support for farmers.
  • Consolidate the business plans of agricultural cooperatives and cooperative unions.
  • Provide greater support for the integration of women into leadership positions.
  • Promote ownership of the ALISEA network by its members.

Using digital technology to enhance young people’s civic engagement projects – why and how to have a digital intercultural experience? – Guide of good practices

We are delighted to announce the release of our best practice guide entitled ‘Using digital to enrich young people’s civic engagement projects – why and how to have a digital intercultural experience?’.

This guide has been co-constructed by the Connexion-s project partners, coordinated and produced by E&D, and is intended to provide concrete avenues for experiencing civic engagement online, based on examples of initiatives that have already been implemented. It also looks at the benefits and limitations of using digital technology, particularly in the context of interculturality.

We hope that this guide will serve as inspiration and support for all those who wish to use digital technology to strengthen young people’s civic commitment and enrich their intercultural experiences.

READ THE GUIDE

Intercutural and digital experience, essential levers for youth engagement? – Study

« Knowledge of a culture allows it to be understood and therefore to be potentially loved and of interest. This acceptance seems much more beneficial and richer than locking oneself into what one already knows and turning in on oneself. »

Our approach for this study focuses on exploring the various perspectives of interculturality as perceived, experienced and shaped by different actors: be they scientists, politicians, civil society or, more specifically, young people and youth workers. We will look at the intercultural experience as lived by young people, highlighting key aspects such as mobility, digital technology and intercultural communication. Our aim is to analyse the extent to which interculturality, particularly when facilitated by digital technology, can foster a deeper commitment on the part of young people. The multi-country context of this production has also enabled us to grasp the ins and outs of the notion of interculturality in different national contexts.

Read the study ⇒ “Intercultural and digital experience, essential levers for youth engagement ?”

Résidence Connexion·s 2023 - photo d'animation digitale

Connexion·s’ international seminar on interculturality and digital technology in Liège, 2023

Production context

This study was carried out as part of the Connexion-s project, funded by the European Union (ERASMUS+). This intercultural project, which began in May 2022, is supported by the French organisation Engagé-e-s & Déterminé-e-s, alongside three international partner organisations: Eclosio (Belgium), the Tunisian Forum for Youth Empowerment (Tunisia) and Coalition SEGA (Northern Macedonia).

Connexion-s is a participatory project consisting of a series of intercultural seminars (in person or online) co-constructed with young participants. The aim is for these young people to take up the themes of interculturality, digital technology and civic engagement in order to imagine and design responsible and inclusive digital alternatives to face-to-face intercultural experiences when these are not possible or preferred. In parallel with these seminars, a survey, a study and a best practice guide with its toolbox will be produced and distributed at the end of the project, in September 2024. The aim of these products is to enable other young people and local and international organisations to organise and better understand intercultural encounters assisted by digital tools, and their advantages and limitations.

Report survey on youth’s intercultural and digital practices – Project Connexion·s

“Exploring young people’s intercultural experiences: obstacles, motivation and the role of digital technology”.

You were wondering how young people born in the digital age view interculturality?

As part of the Connexion-s project, we conducted a survey:

What obstacles do young people face, what motivates them, what benefits do they derive from their intercultural experiences, what is their vision of interculturality and what role does digital technology play in facilitating these intercultural experiences?

A multi-country analysis carried out by 4 associations from different countries:

Tunisian Forum, Eclosio Belgique, Coalition Sega, Engagé-e-s et Déterminé-e-s

 

Agroecology, participatory processes and rights. Experiences with peasant families and communities in Peru and Bolivia

*Article published in Leisa magazine: http://leisa-al.org/web/index.php/volumen-38-numero-1

 

WALTER CHAMOCHUMBI, DIANA SANTOS, ERIC CAPOEN

Has the intervention of the Interacting with Living Territories programme (2017-2021) in Peru and Bolivia contributed from agroecology to the exercise of the rights of family farmers in relation to their food, to the care of the environment and natural resources, and to the reduction of gender inequalities?

In order to answer this initial question, we start from the accompaniment and the inter-learning generated with peasant families, communities and native peoples settled in territories of the high Andean zones and the Amazon of Peru and Bolivia. This accompaniment takes place throughout their complex transition from traditional agriculture to agroecology in search of healthy food, with territorial and environmental management, as well as in the reduction of social gender gaps.

The Interacting with Living Territories (ITV, see box) programme is the result of previous experiences with other agroecological promotion and participatory territorial management projects in the Andean region, coordinated by the Belgian non-governmental organisation Eclosio, which served as the basis for the ITV programme (2017-2021) implemented by nine partners/partners: five in Peru (Consorcio Agroecológico Peruano – CAP, Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales – CEPES, Diaconia – Asociación evangélica luterana de ayuda para el desarrollo comunal, Junta de Desarrollo Distrital de Pamparomás – JDDP and Grupo Género y Economía – GGE) and four in Bolivia (Asociación de Promotores de Salud del Área Rural – APROSAR, Fundación TIERRA, Asociación de Organizaciones de Productores Ecológicos de Bolivia – AOPEB and Red Boliviana de Mujeres Transformando la Economía – REMTE).

These organisations facilitated new approaches and participatory methods of approaching rural reality. This was done on the basis of the socio-territorial problems and dynamics of low-income peasant families, who live mainly from traditional agriculture and extensive livestock farming in different ecosystems and who are distant from the full exercise of their rights.

The ITV programme carried out advocacy and multi-stakeholder articulation actions of national scope in both countries, as well as local actions in five rural territories in Peru (municipalities of La Merced and Pamparomás in the Ancash region) and in three rural territories in Bolivia (municipalities of Taraco in the Altiplano and Palos Blancos in Sud Yungas, in the department of La Paz; and the municipality of Salinas in the Altiplano, in the department of Oruro).

Read more (Spanish only)

Case study on PGS rice seed in Cambodia

This case study is to document the set-up of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) for quality rice seed production and commercialization of AC (Agricultural Cooperation), established with support from AFSA (Agriculture Familiale et Souveraineté Alimentaire) program during 2015-2016 and from UPSCALE program during 2017-2021.

The main purpose of PGS establishment for quality rice seed was to promote the multiplication and use of quality rice seed amongt small-scale family agriculture farmers (represent the majority of Cambodian farmers) in order to contribute to increase the supply of quality paddy which is demanded by higher value-added export markets in developed countries as well as to contribute to respond the national rice export policy set by the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC).

Thinking, Acting and Building Together