Lessons Learned from CSO’s Involvement in GAFSP Processes

Phnom Penh, Cambodia | November 8-11, 2012

Integrated Livestock-based Livelihoods

Improvement Project (ILBLIP)

Project Development Objective (PDO)

To improve rural livelihoods in selected soums (municipalities) through enhanced productivity, market access, and diversification in livestock-based production systems.

Schedule

CSO’s & FO’s Initiatives

• Organized Mongolian CSO Forum for GAFSP Project supported by AsiaDHRRA and AFA

• Conducted cooperative / herders group and NGO’s profiling.

• Conducted consultation workshop with members of herders group in GAFSP target areas to validate community needs and concerns .

• Meeting with FAO Chief Technical Adviser

Challenges faced by CSO’s in Mongolia

• Ministry of Agriculture is reluctant to engaged CSO’s / FO’s especially when CSO’s has some sort of monitoring responsibility over a certain government project.

• Involvement of CSO’s in government implemented projects is a new paradigm, and because it is a new modality, government agencies do not have the experience to effectively manage the interaction, and therefore is not able to benefit from the engagement.

• There is lack of transparency and accountability among government agencies

Recommendations

• Sustain CSO’s action of engaging government agencies either as proponent of change, partners of reform, voice of the people, or fiscalizer to stop corruption.

• Strengthen trust building measures between government agencies and the civil society organizations

• Mongolia CSO’s need to learn from the experience of other GAFSP project countries on how CSO’s engage their respective governments

• Mongolian CSO’s need to strategize on how they can add value to GAFSP

• Mongolian CSO’s need to learn how to constructively engage the government.

• Mongolian CSO’s also need to enhance their sense of accountability and transparency.

Thank you