Phnom Penh (June 20, 2013) – Twenty participants were trained at a 3-day capacity building workshop on land rights, held in Phnom Penh from 19-21 June 2013.
The training of trainers workshop, organized by LWD and sponsored by Finn Church Aid (FCA), aimed to build capacity of the social land concession group so that they can provide training and awareness raising to the 1,293 families who settled in on the SLC areas in Aoral district of Kampong Speu and Sameakki Meanchey district of Kampong Chhnang provinces.
The new trainers included LWD’s field staff, village leaders, commune and district councilors involved the Social Land Concession (SLC) project implemented by LWD and funded by JSDF through World Bank.
Mr. Som Meng, Deputy District Governor of Sameakki Meanchey, said the training workshop was very important for the participants to improve their capacity on rights to land. “With the knowledge I got from the training, I will train my colleagues, local authorities, and the community,” he said.
Mr. Rim Bunthoeun, Deputy Leader of Prey Thom village in Aoral, also highly appreciated the training. “I am very happy to get a chance to attend this training workshop because I have shared my experience and lesson learned among the team,” he said. “After the training, I knew and understood clearly about the land rights, and I am confident and able to provide this training or awareness to the people in my village,” he added.
In his opening speech, Dr. Sam Inn, LWD Executive Director, expressed his deep thank to FCA, Finnmap and the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction for supporting the training. He also thanked village leaders, commune councilors, district working groups, and provincial land use and land allocation committees for accomplishing their critical mission to provide the landless and land-poor families with access to land.
All the new settlers need more assistance from LWD, FCA, World Bank, especially the local authorities at all levels so that they can live on their new land for at least five years before getting the land title, Dr. Inn said.
Dr. Inn said that beyond providing them with physical support, raising awareness for them about land law, land rights and land registration procedure was also important. And that was the key tasks of the newly-trained trainers. (Edited by Leak Ratna)
For more information, please, contact Leak Ratna (Mr.), LWD Communication Coordinator | E-mail:ratna@lwd.org.kh | Phone: 012 819 121