PRA Study for baseline development of the LDCF project

The Ministry of Environment (MOE) in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-UN) organized a PRA study to develop baseline data for its GEF project “Strengthening the Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Rural Communities Using Micro-watershed Approaches to Climate Change and Variability to Attain Sustainable Food Security in Cambodia” in Lvea Krang Micro-Watershed from 3 to 10 June 2013.

PRA study team in Kok Kandal Village © Yim Soksophors

The purpose of the PRA study was not only to develop baseline data, but also to build up capacity of the relevant government officials how to collect the baseline data for measuring the project progress.

In total, 37 participants facilitated the PRA study, including 17 government officials from relevant ministries and key universities, 8 community members, and 12 FAO project team members from the Community Forestry and TCP/CMB/3302 projects.

Before the field study, one day training was conducted in Angkor Paradise Hotel, in Siem Reap Provincial Town. Trainer was from the Community Forestry project who has much experience in training and conducting PRA. More than ten PRA tools were trained, such as: Village historical timeline, Transect walk, General analysis, Livelihood analysis, Weather analysis, Village mapping, Forest resource analysis, Water resource analysis, Wealth ranking, and SWOT analysis. Varin district governor, Mr. Neak Neron, hosted the PRA team and motivated community members to actively participate in the study. At the end of the study, the PRA team presented findings to approximately 100 community members who came from the three studied villages.

As a result of the study, 3 PRA reports have been developed. In addition, the PRA report would be useful for the GEF project to develop its baseline data. Furthermore, the community members understood their community much better than before, and the local authorities and other stakeholders would use the basic data / findings to prepare from this PRA study to develop the community development plans.