CRDT Profile 2015
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Organizational Profile Cambodian Rural Development Team Background The Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT) is a local development NGO which aims to lift communities out of poverty in support of conservation through participatory community-based approaches. All of our initiatives are aimed at improving sustainable livelihoods and the well-being of rural subsistence farmers including marginalized indigenous people. Since 2001, CRDT has been working to improve and diversify sustainable agriculture to both lift people out of poverty and protect natural resources from over-exploitation. Since 2006, CRDT has developed its social enterprise program aiming to both fundraise for the organization to be gradually self-reliant while promoting life-skills and enterprise-based development for its target beneficiaries. Since 2004, CRDT have delivered community and rural development to over 7,000 families in support of conservation of the biodiversity and critically endangered Mekong River Irrawaddy Dolphins in Kratie and Stung Treng, and the protection of tropical forest biodiversity in Mondulkiri. CRDT was officially registered with the Ministry of Interior as a local NGO in 2005 and the original founding members of the organization are still involved in its management and governance. CRDT today is a rural livelihood and environment focused organization implementing various projects on environmentally appropriate agricultural development, increasing food security, supporting market linkages and income generation, environmental education, climate change adaptation, water and sanitation, renewable energy technologies, eco-tourism, micro-credit and community empowerment. Vision: A Cambodia free from poverty and environmental degradation Mission: To sustainably improve food security, incomes, and living standards of subsistence rural communities in support of environmental conservation throughout Cambodia Goal: To provide sustainable livelihood development through community organization, business growth and environmental protection. Values: Neutrality: independent, non-political and not for profit Cooperation: committed to working in partnership Participation: encourages the active engagement of team members and beneficiaries in decision- making and development Accountability: respects the rights and dignity of Cambodia’s impoverished rural people by living and working within beneficiary communities Empowerment: values its team members and beneficiaries and commits to supporting and empowering them to be confident and self-reliant Environmental Responsibility: values Cambodia’s natural environment and recognises the importance of protecting it for present and future generations Transparency: committed to transparency and aid effectiveness. Organizational History Belonging to the first educated generation after the Khmer Rouge period, the 5 founders of the Cam- bodian Rural Development Team (CRDT) were disadvantaged rural children. Access to education was an uphill struggle. Hard work saw our founders meeting at university, and being in the minority coming from underprivileged backgrounds, they banded together as a team. They developed a shared vision for the future of Cambodia – ‘one free from poverty and environmental degradation’ as they found that in Cambodia few rural people survive entirely on what they produce from their own land. They supple- ment their livelihoods by hunting, fishing or gathering forest products. But overfishing and deforestation are threatening both this way of living and ecosystems. The Mekong River Dolphin and many other critically endangered species are on the verge of extinction due to destructive natural resource usage. Our founding members experienced poverty first hand in their youth, and saw how closely linked poverty is to natural resources. If livelihoods are tied to environmental issues, a population exploding after years of atrocities means more people sharing Cambodia’s natural bounty. This free-for-all of natural resource exploitation cannot last. Founded in 2001 as a voluntary university-student initiative, called at that time the Cambodian Volunteer Rural Development Team (CVRDT), the strong motivation, deep technical expertise and hard work of the team resulted in the rapid growth of the organization. Through securing partnerships with large international organizations, CRDT changed from implementing one-off projects, to sustained integrated programs covering a variety of livelihood, natural resource management, and community development components. These aim to raise living standards and contribute to environmental conservation. Target Areas Head Office Stung Treng Province Project location: 6 communes with 16 villages in Siem Bok District and 4 communes with 21 villages in Ramsar Site Beneficiaries: total direct beneficiaries: 3,000 families Total indirect beneficiaries: 7,498 persons Kratie Province Project location: 5 communes with 26 villages in Sambo District, 7 communes in Chetborei District, 2 communes in Prek Prosob District, 3 communes in Chhlaung District, 6 communes in Kratie Town Beneficiaries: total direct beneficiaries: 3,500 families Total indirect beneficiaries: 17,500 persons Mondulkiri Province Project location: 2 districts Keo Seima and Oh-Rang with 6 villages Beneficiaries: total direct beneficiaries: 427 families Total indirect beneficiaries: 1,708 persons Global Total direct beneficiaries: 6,927 families (up to 2015) Total indirect beneficiaries: 28,000 persons Programs Since 2005, through securing partnerships with large international organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), CRDT has changed from implementing one-off projects, to sustained integrated programs covering a variety of sustainable livelihoods, natural resource management, and community development. These aim to reach the two intertwined goals which are to raise rural living standards and to contribute to environmental conservation. To this end, CRDT undertakes integrated community development projects through two programs: 1. Sustainable Livelihood Development Within this program, 5 components are usually integrated into a livelihood development project undertaken by a team of experts. Food Security: Supporting livestock, aquaculture and vegetable production, and increasing the yield of rice crops in order to ensure communities have access to a protein-rich and varied diet, and to diversify food sources to equip villagers to adapt to a changing climate. Income Generation: Adding another step beyond reaching food security, enabling farmers to identify value chains and directly access markets for their produce in order to generate income to raise standards of living. Also, diversifying income through the creation of small agricultural businesses and ecotourism. Water and Sanitation: Addressing chronic health problems associated with lack of water, CRDT provides construction of water supply systems, open wells and rain water collectors to provide communities with access to cleaner drinking water. Canal building and restoration and river hand pumps provide farmers with access to water for crop irrigation and build climate change resilience. Toilet construction aids hygiene and health of both the villagers and the environment. Renewable Energy: Working to reduce climate change through using solar power, micro-hydropower to generate electricity, and installing bio-digesters of our own design to capture methane gas from manure which is then used for lighting, cooking fuel and producing organic fertilizer. Environmental Education and Waste Management: Demonstrating how livelihoods link to sustainability, enabling communities to value their environment, reduce exploitation and manage their natural resources responsibly, at a time of climatic uncertainty. 2. Social Enterprises Our four enterprises apply commercial strategies to improve human and environmental well-being as well as generating profits to help fund for CRDT’s Livelihoods Program. Conversation With Foreigners (CWF): is an English center providing conversational English-language courses to local students and supporting quality volunteer experiences for English-speaking foreigners while raising money for CRDT’s work. Cambodian Rural Development Tours (CRDTours): specializes in offering unique travel experiences in Cambodia in particular the northeastern provinces of Kratie, Stung Treng and Mondulkiri. All funds generated from the tours directly support CRDT. Each tour activity is making a positive contribution to the places tourists visit and the locals they meet. Le Tonlé: is a vocational training center offering local poor and disadvantaged youth a professional training in tourism and hospitality thereby increasing their employment opportunities. With two guesthouses and restaurants open to tourists, the students put their theoretical learning into practice while generating some profit to support CRDT’s activities. Mekong Credit Association (MCA): is a program to provide financial solutions for the poor. This program aims at supporting women’s groups and empowering them to be economically self-reliant through job creation and enterprise development. Using SHGs as a platform, the objective of MCA is to help SHG members to improve their socio-economic status and contribute towards community development and natural resource conservation. CRDT’s Approach CRDT addresses poverty by working on the following five processes. 1. Living & Working in the Field: CRDT is unique in that staff resides in the target