ASEANSAI Setting Clear and Measurable Goals for Success

The author (middle) sitting with workshop participants discussing indicators for the ASEANSAI Strategic Plan.

The author (middle) sitting with workshop participants discussing indicators for the ASEANSAI Strategic Plan.

26 August 2014

When I was younger, I used to ask my mom the time she would come home from work to play with me. She used to tell me: “I´ll be there at 4.30pm; I took the car to get home quickly.” Every day, at 4pm I would sit in the kitchen, checking the hour regularly to see when my mom would arrive. If she arrived after 4.30, I would reproach her with the exact amount of minutes she was late and ask her to give a reason. If she blamed the traffic, I would try to convince her that she should take the bike next time, to avoid being late again.

 

Simply put, this is what strategic planning and monitoring is all about:

 

  • Set a clear and measurable goal: be home at 4.30pm.
  • Decide on a strategy to achieve the goal: take the car.
  • Check on the achievement or failure: number of minutes late.
  • Discuss reasons for failure: traffic jam.
  • Revise the strategy to avoid future failure: go by bike.

In a regional organization of 10 Supreme Audit Institutions from ASEAN countries (ASEANSAI) deciding on strategic goals and setting up monitoring systems is much more complex, especially when dealing with good financial governance issues. Yet, the logic remains the same.

In a 4-day Workshop in May, participants from 6 members of ASEANSAI discussed how the goals of their ASEANSAI Strategic Plan can be amended with measurable indicators and what activities they needed to pursue to achieve the defined goals. As in other monitoring workshops, the challenge proved to be in the trade-off between relevance of indicators and costs for data collection. The ASEANSAI participants opted for a pragmatic solution: do not set goals too high and include proxy indicators for goals that are difficult to measure. I would like to recommend that approach to everybody dealing with monitoring on governance related topics.

For more information contact

 


Bio-agriculture Input Sector Pushes ‘Green Center’ Forward in Cambodia

DSC_000204 August 2014

Phnom Penh, Cambodia –Six private and social business companies leading the local market in providing inputs for agriculture and trainings in organic agriculture sent eleven of their representatives to join GIZ for a consulation this week. GIZ ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (Biocontrol) program hosted the consultation with local companies to discuss moving the concept of a ‘green center’ in Cambodia forward. The new center will aim to bring bio-agricultural companies under one roof, to provide their high quality inputs for a sustainable and environment friendly sound agriculture. Open to the public, the center plans to act as platform for training and dialog activities for national and international development partners, extension workers and farmers, and will provide seminars to consumers interested in learning about agriculture and urban gardening.

To push their vision forward, the participants of the workshop developed an action plan to map out the next steps for the center.

Companies that joined the consultations have the common aim to promote sustainable agriculture with little or no chemical (organic) use. These companies include Bayon Heritage Holding Group Co, Ltd., Angkor Green Investment and Development Co. Ltd., EX-M (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., iDE Cambodia, and Entrée Baitang Co. Ltd., which met at the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC).

For more information on the development of Cambodia’s first ‘Green Center’ contact:

Mr. Claudius Bredehöft

National Project Coordinator Cambodia

ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (Biocontrol)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

M     +855 12 21 54 30

E       [email protected]

 


Organic Food Certification Gives Consumers Confidence to Go Organic

Mr. Vannak interviewed

Display of certified organic products during COrAA’s 2nd Organic Fair, March 2014

11 August 2014

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Issues of food safety and nutrition have become a part of public discussions in many countries. Also in Cambodia, the number of people who are concerned about the quality of food and make an effort to consume safe and healthy foodstuff is continuously increasing. When in search of wholesome food, organic is the best option. However, many people rightfully ask, “How do we know that it is really organic? How can we trust claims that certain rice, fruits or vegetables were produced organically?” Commonly, certification of producers and processors is the means to enable consumers to trust products.

To gain consumer trust in organic products, the Cambodian Organic Agriculture Association (COrAA), with support from GIZ, is developing a certification system for the domestic market. To independently certify processes throughout the value chains for organic, chemical-free or other food production standards has been the founding mission of COrAA since 2006. However, it was only in 2010 that COrAA started to conduct inspections and to develop a certification system. Currently over 30 producers have obtained certification based either on the Standard for Organic Crop Production or the Standards for Chemical-free Crop Production.

On request, COrAA sends an independent inspector to inspect the farm, plantation, or food processing operations. Farmers are inspected individually, or in a group. Smallholders usually

An inspector, accompanied by the owner, checks an organic rice field.

An inspector, accompanied by the owner, checks an organic rice field.

join an organic producer association or a cooperative, which have set-up an Internal Control System to safeguard the integrity of the organic quality of their products.

All persons dealing with the products are identified, registered, instructed on the requirements for organic certification and contracted to ensure compliance. The activities of the persons involved are then monitored in a system of regular visits and documentary control. The inspectors of the group visit every field at least twice during the growing season and record their findings. COrAA’s inspectors check if the group can manage its control system. During the inspection they check different areas of the farms at random.

Farms and processors are inspected once a year, while organic vegetable producers are examined twice a year. However, certification bodies also have to conduct unscheduled inspections to assure that producers follow standards. During the audit, the inspector assesses the producer’s understanding of basic organic farming rules and tests for the possible contamination of organic fields with chemicals from adjacent fields. Then, the inspector will check the fields and all storage facilities, including the farmer’s house. The findings are summarized in the inspection report. Deviations or non-conformities and corrective measures will be pointed out. The COrAA-assigned inspector has to discuss the findings with the farmer or operator.

After this, the inspection report is submitted to the Certification Committee, which is composed of three people independent from COrAA. Based upon the review, the committee will decide if certification can be granted. COrAA can reject an application for certification if the respective standards were not met, or if they were violated.

Certification is expressed to the public by COrAA’s certification marks, also known as labels. These are marks of conformity, not to be confused with trademarks. A mark can only be used on products which come from farms that have been certified based on one of COrAA’s standards.

COrAA strives to further professionalize its certification system by upgrading the skills of the inspectors and the certification managers as well as by further defining the certification processes. In addition to cooperating with regional certification bodies that are members of the Certification Alliance (CertAll), COrAA is also working towards the recognition of its certification system by other ASEAN member countries. In the future, COrAA hopes to offer certification for international markets such as the EU at reasonable costs through CertAll members, which have obtained respective accreditation.

The Certification Alliance includes members from China, India, Nepal as well as several ASEAN countries. The aim is to improve exporting conditions for Cambodian organic products to reach buyers in the region.

COrAA is also preparing the certification for food products obtained through ‘wild collection’, such as honey. Commercial inputs for organic agriculture, such as organic fertilizers, are another area of concern. Furthermore, COrAA currently prepares guidelines for organic inputs to enable the certification of such products.

For more information, please contact Mr. Winfried Scheewe (email: [email protected]).


Signing ceremony for Memorial at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Unterzeichnung10 July 2014

German Ambassador Joachim Baron von Marschall and GIZ Country Director Mr. Adelbert Eberhardt witness the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by H.E. Chuch Poeurn, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, and H.E. Kranh Tony, Acting Director of the office of Administration of Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the establishment of a memorial for Khmer Rouge victims at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, on 10 July 2014.

The funds for this memorial have been provided by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through German Organization for International Cooperation (GIZ) as part of the German support for the ECCC Reparation Program 2013-2017, an extensive program of eleven reparation projects and five non-judicial measure projects for the benefit of the victims of the Khmer Rouge which is coordinated by the Victims Support Section of the ECCC.

 

Please follow the link below for the speech of the German Ambassador Joachim Baron von Marschall:

http://www.phnom-penh.diplo.de/Vertretung/phnompenh/en/00__start/Unterzeichnung_20MoU_20-_20Bo_20Rede.html


Seminar on Stone Conservation Training in Cambodia – Potentials of public private partnerships

Seminar on Vocational training for stone conservation in Cambodia.

Seminar on Vocational training for stone conservation in Cambodia.

28 April 2014

SIEM REAP, Cambodia–APSARA National Authority and GIZ recently organized a seminar on vocational training in stone conservation in Cambodia as part of a study to determine the annual demand of trained stone conservation experts inside and outside of Angkor Park and who might be interested in contributing to a long-term vocational training program for stone conservation.

Angkor is an outstanding UNESCO World Heritage site and people around the world are increasingly gaining awareness of the importance and its central role in the Khmer civilization. But there are many more ancient sites all over Cambodia that have not received comparable attention, as all temples of Angkor are in critical need of conservation. At present, the government of Cambodia is unable to suitably protect and preserve these sites due to a lack of sufficient financial and human resources.

Representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (MOCFA), APSARA National Authority, national and international conservation teams working in Angkor, UNESCO, as well as private companies were invited to visit the facilities of the APSARA Stone Conservation Training Center and to attend the seminar held last month. The director general of APSARA, H.E. Bun Narith and other Excellencies and guests from APSARA, as well as GIZ country director, Mr. Adelbert Eberhardt also attended the meeting.

Representatives of the Ministry of Culture, APSARA Authority and international conservation teams visiting the APSARA Stone Conservation Training Center.

Representatives of the Ministry of Culture, APSARA Authority and international conservation teams visiting the APSARA Stone Conservation Training Center.

GIZ advisor Ms. Josephin Rösler and conservation expert Mr. Long Nary presented the study objectives and introduced participants to the APSARA Stone Conservation Training Program.

As part of the study, questionnaires were distributed to participants. The information gathered from this study will be used to determine if a long-term vocational training program for stone conservation is feasible for the future.

To ensure heritage site conservation is carried out in the best way possible in the future, all stakeholders will need to prioritize investing in vocational training. There will be a role for everyone to contribute to, including the government, international donors, as well as the private sector.

For more information, please contact: Josephin Rösler (email: [email protected])


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All activities are implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

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