Phnom Penh (July 08, 2013) – LIFE WITH DIGNITY (LWD), a leading local NGO in rights-based empowerment, received “The ASEAN Leadership Award on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication” at the ASEAN Forum on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on 4-5 July 2013.
The plaque was presented to LWD in recognition for its efforts to support the Royal Government of Cambodia’s poverty reduction policy in rural development sector.
The Forum was attended by the government officials and representatives of NGOs from the ASEAN member countries. It aimed at providing a platform for dialogue and sharing of information amongst participants towards closer relations and cooperation on rural development and poverty eradication agenda.
Dr. Sam Inn, Executive Director for LWD from Cambodia,shared best practice on LWD’s development approach to empower rural women to improve their livelihoods, food security and capacity building for women to assume leadership roles within the community. Challenges in ensuring the effectiveness of women empowerment program was also highlighted.
“I am happy to see ASEAN starting to consider civil society organizations as a key actor in contribution to poverty reduction in the region. I hope that ASEAN will further strengthen their cooperation with the civil society organizations to find a joint solution to address challenges and reduce poverty in the region more effectively,” he said.
“I highly appreciate the ASEAN’s approach to include the concept of people-centered community in their overall goal. It’s a very good move that ASEAN engaged NGOs in dialogue on poverty reduction. I think that more engagement lead to more common understanding on issues we have faced together such as poverty, climate change, respect for human rights and democracy promotion,” he said.
“We, Civil Society Organizations, want to see the ASEAN economic policy which is pro-growth, but also pro-poor. I am happy to see ASEAN starting to use the approach of ‘community empowerment’ in their poverty reduction work,” Dr. Inn said.
He added that the award represented LWD’s good work in poverty reduction through the application of Rights-based Empowerment and Integrated Approaches with strong support from its traditional donors and other development partners, including Cambodia’s Ministry of Rural Development.
LWD is an independent Cambodian NGO localized from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)/Department for World Service’s Cambodia Program in Jan 2011. LWD provides development service for the rural poor through the implementation of the Integrated Rural Development through Empowerment Program (IRDEP) to empower the rural community to claim their rights, manage the community development work by themselves and individually improve their living standards.
LWD’s IRDEP covers nine target districts in four provinces of Battambang, Pursat, Kampong Chhnang and Kampong Speu with a total population of about 3 million.
Beyond a focus on the delivery of Development Service to the poor in rural Cambodia, LWD has also provided Training and Consultancy Service (TCS) for its partner NGOs both inside and outside the country, line government agencies, community-based organizations, women’s group, and youth group.
For more information, please, contact Leak Ratna (Mr.), LWD Communication Coordinator | E-mail:ratna@lwd.org.kh | Phone: 012 819 121