Project News

The Joint Coordinating Committee, which serves as the Project's highest decision-making body to monitor the progress to decide an annual plan of the Project, was held for the third time on November 25th to mark the beginning of the final year of SNRM's planned project period. Without previously imposed restricted gathering under COVID-19 pandemic, after two years of operation, the tired JCC was finally held in-person at Hotel Himawari in Phnom Penh which allowed a more inclusive participation to the central and local governments. From the Cambodian side, the representatives of each implementing agencies of the Project (Ministry of Environment, Forestry Administration, and Stung Treng Provincial Department of Environment and Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Forestry Administration Cantonment)), and the Chief of the pilot community forestry of SNRM was also invited to witness the discussions. From the Japanese side, in addition to JICA Experts, representatives from the Embassy of Japan in Cambodia, JICA headquarters, JICA Cambodia Office, etc. participated in the meeting.

The meeting was held in three sessions. In the first session, the representatives of the counterpart organizations reported the progress of the second year, and based on the result, the representative of JICA Experts stressed the necessity to ensure the sustainability after the termination of the project, and proposed the modification of the Plan of Operation of the Project. After a discussion, it was agreed to approve this modification.

Based on this agreement, in the second session, detailed plan of activities of the third year of the project was proposed by the Cambodian side in-charge of each activity and approved by the JCC. Though concerns were raised over the possibility of not being able to finish activities on time by the project's termination, members of the Project Management Unit confirmed that they would actively implement the activities in 2023 based on the approved detailed annual plan of operation in order to achieve the expected results within the planned schedule as much as possible. Furthermore, the JCC expected that all stakeholders will work actively and closely to achieve the desirable outcomes and ensure their sustainability even after the project has ended.

The third and last session was for sharing the contents of the training conducted by JICA in 2022. A trainee of Ecosystem-based Solutions for Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) disseminated the results of and feedbacks on the training she had participated in.

JCC3 discussions were fruitfully completed and the final year implementation was launched as the Committee announced the end of the meeting. At least, the worrisome period of COVID-19 is over and we now can smile to one another in-person. Welcome back to the JCC, "a face-to-face discussion"!

The 3rd Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC3)

The 3rd Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC3)

Ms. MIYAHARA Ai, Deputy Chief Representative of JICA Cambodia Office & Dr. SREY Sunleang, Co-project Director of SNRM

Mr. CHAN Ponika, Co-project Director of SNRM

Mr. SOU Sontara, Co-project Manager of SNRM

Mr. LONG Ratanakoma, Co-project Manager of SNRM

Mr. SRENG Cheaheng, Director of Department of Environment(DoE) in Stung Treng Province

Mr. ON Chansocheat, Director of the Forestry Administration Cantonment in Stung Treng Province