6 June 2013
Phnom Penh, Cambodia On June 6, the Cambodia’s Ministry of Planning, with support from GIZ and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), conducted a consultative forum on the use of the different information sources and data products offered by the Identification of Poor Households (IDPoor) Programme. Excellency Tuon Thavrak, Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Planning opened the forum, underlining the importance of the IDPoor data, which is used by a growing number of organizations and poverty-reduction programmes as a tool for efficient poverty targeting.
The forum aimed to collect feedback from a group of key stakeholders including Government agencies, bi- and multi-lateral donor organizations, as well as non-governmental organisations, on the usability of different existing formats (website, data DVD, IDPoor Atlas) of IDPoor and how they could be further improved. Participants also had the chance to provide feedback on potential data products linked to an online database, which GIZ supports the Ministry of Planning develop. Last but not least, participants had the opportunity to inform the Ministry of Planning what additional types of data, reports and formats they would like to have and need for their work. Ideas included services to poor households, and support to plan their programmes, monitor progress or prepare reports.
Most participants agreed that the IDPoor data is very useful for their work and appreciates that the Ministry of Planning provides access to this information. However, some organisations – specifically smaller organisations at subnational level – still face difficulties finding the most up-to-date information, as well as extracting and analyzing the data that they need for their work. Therefore, participants welcomed the idea of making more information available online in the future and the Ministry of Planning’s efforts to include new, more user-friendly features.
The feedback and recommendations received during the Consultative Forum complement the feedback received from a larger group of organizations from an online survey designed by GIZ and disseminated by Ministry of Planning in May. The feedback from the Forum and the online survey will be used to make IDPoor information and data formats easier to use and better fitted to the different users’ needs. This will help promote the utilisation of IDPoor data as the primary basis for identifying poor beneficiaries and targeting development programmes to the households and areas that are most in need of support.
The “Support to the Identification of Poor Household’s Programme” implemented by GIZ is funded by German Development Cooperation and Australian Aid.
For further information on the IDPoor Programme please visit: http://www.mop.gov.kh/Projects/IDPoor/tabid/154/Default.aspx