STRENGTHENING CIVIL SOCIETY IN CAMBODIA
ALTERNATIVE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS REPORT

The Cambodian office of the Heinrich-Boell-Foundation recently launched a program in collaboration with the NGO Forum of Cambodia to promote effective participation by civil society in the process leading up to the World Summit in Johannesburg 2002. The program will cover several capacity building measures for key actors of civil society, particularly working on issues such as environment and development, fisheries, forestry, gender and justice. The idea is to enable the participants to act as multipliers of the WSSD process at provincial and grassroots level. An initial large meeting with representatives from civil society groups took place in Phnom Penh end of September.

ALTERNATIVE REPORT

At the initial meeting end of September, a working group has been established in order to draw on the views of civil society groups, particularly on grassroots level, and produce a civil society alternative report at national level. The team started its work immediately after the large meeting. Several working sessions have been held (and more will follow) at provincial level to study opinions and views of civil society actors and key experts in different issues. End of October 2001, another large meeting with representatives from civil society groups will be held in Phnom Penh. The data collected will be presented and discussed here to gain additional input for the alternative report. The report will be published mid-November. Through outreach to the mass media the general public will be informed about the report and to make them aware of the key challenges identified.

CAPACITY BUILDING

To enable key actors to participate effectively in the process leading up to the WSSD, an intensive capacity building programme has been set up for a selected group of those who have been members of working groups in Environment & Development, Fisheries, Forestry, Gender and justice issues so that they can serve as multipliers of the process at provincial and grassroots level.