Training Courses

This course is meant primarily for representatitves of NGOs and community based organisations, and it aims at developing and improving their skills in the areas of advocacy and influencing policy development. Participants will acquire basic notions of advocacy campaign management, they will learn to identify stakeholders and set up communication channels with them. During the training, we will help civil society organisations develop plans for advocacy, lobbying and influencing government policy.

This training package is organised in partnership with the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC) and it is part of the programme called “Change the Game Academy”, funded by the Wilde Ganzen Foundation (Netherlands). The main target group are representatives of civil society organisations who are concerned about certain issues, but are struggling to make their voices heard. At the end of this ambitious, five month long journey, the participants will gain a broad understanding of all key aspects of lobbying and advocacy, they will know how to get more support and commitment from stakeholders and decision makers, and will therefore be able to better advance the causes that are important to them. A key element of the package is working together in order to develop a solid mobilising support plan based on the concepts and methods participants will learn. You can find more information about this course by downloading our flyer or visiting this online resource page.

Access to information is a fundamental right of everyone, including citizens, government officials, public service providers, representatives of the private sector and NGOs. It is crucial in promoting transparency, accountability and fight against corruption. In other words, it enhances people’s knowledge and promotes effective participation. In this course, representatives of civil society organisations will get a better understanding of the right to access public information and the principles it is based on. Our trainers will present the main Cambodian laws, policies and regulations currently governing this field, will provide details on the roles and duties public officials have in this respect, and will also elaborate on the contents of the new Draft for an Access to Information Law.

Our aim here is to build the capacity of NGOs, youth groups and other community based organisations in the areas of citizens’ right to participate in planning and budgeting processes at the district level. We will learn about the roles and responsibilities of district authorities, enabling participants to gain the skills needed during budget dialogues and negotiations. Trainees will get the chance to share their knowledge with their teams, club or members, in an effort to advocate for their concers to be taken into account when the district authorities decide on the three year rolling investment plans (IP3). Moreover, our trainers will provide technical and logistic support, as welll as teach participants how to actively engage their members, collect issues and inputs from them and effectively represent them in the district annual planning and rolling investment planning processes.

Similarly addressed to local councillors, this course is aimed at teaching them how to communicate effectively in order to better fulfill their roles and pursue their aims. The topics we will be addressing include: What is communication? Why do we need to have good communication skills? The structure of communication processes. The skills required to effectively communicate with different stakeholders (e.g: active listening, summarizing, active observation, effective questioning, effective verbal and non-verbal communication, building confidence). How to avoid mistakes and wrong habits in communication? How to find out what the best tools are for your own communication efforts, fitting your own personality? What are possible barriers in communication and how to overcome them?

This training strengthens the participants’ capacity to facilitate council meetings and workshops. The questions we will be addressing include: What is facilitation? What is meeting, training and workshop design? What needs to be considered when organizing these events? How to effectively organize them in order to achieve the expected objectives? What are the key methods which can be used? What are the characteristics and skills a facilitator should have? How to gain those skills? What to do in a difficult circumstances, for example, when dealing with participants who lose attention or create unexpected problems? The training uses mixed methods, various exercises on meeting, training and workshop design and facilitation, as well as on requesting feedback from participants.

During this course, local councillors will reflect and try to clarify their roles and responsibilities in opening spaces for and encouraging community based organisations, youth and other citizens to engage in various activities, such as the monthly meetings of local councillors, public fora, awareness raising activities or other events. Officials will be reminded about their mission to serve citizens as the right holders who elected them, as well as about the need to respond to the citizens’ requests, including requests for public information disclosure. By the end of the course, local councillors will better understand their general mandate and permissive function. Moreover, they will learn how to better monitor the implementation of local projects, how to decide on budget plans and expenses, and how to ensure all expenses are effective, efficient, and transparent.

Local officials also need to be able to design project proposals and budget plans, especially after the recent decentralisation reforms. This is not always an easy task, and therefore, in the course, we will be dealing with topics such as: What is proposal writing? What are the main steps of successful proposal writing? How to come up with project ideas by undertaking, for instance, a problem tree analysis? How to select your goals, objectives, outputs, indicators and desired impact in real project practice? How to design a logical framework for projects in general, using a simple format? How to prepare of budget plan? How to evaluate your own project proposal according to a checklist? The training uses a variety of practical exercises emphasising the steps of proposal and budget development. Participants will be requested to actually write short proposals, and will also receive feedback and advice from the trainers, regarding the proposals they have been writing.  

Here, we are also addressing youth groups and community based organisations with an ambition to engage in decision making processes at the local level. However, the main goal of this course is to teach participants how to analyse commune budgets using a simple digital tool. After undertaking the analysis of the current Commune Investment Plans (CIPs) of their local administrations, trainees will have an overview of the expenditure, and their chance to succeed in making concrete requests and suggestions for future budget allocations to their favourite sectors or activities will therefore improve.