Cambodia IDF for Civil Society To help the government (and the Ministry of Interior - MOI - in particular) strengthen its engagement with civil society, including especially in areas of governance and policy-making.  The government has now created a unit within Ministry of Interior to provide leadership and coordination in these areas.  The purpose of the IDF activities is to enhance the capacity of this unit, to strengthen government-civil society engagement more generally, and to enhance civil society's awareness of government initiatives and opportunities to engage.  The activities comprise: 1)  Creating a structured strategy planning forum on the roles of civil society in Cambodia and providing an enabling policy environment, particularly in areas of governance reform, policy-making and poverty reduction.  This will comprise representatives from the main civil society networks and the relevant government departments and will propose changes in policy and perhaps a new law on NGOs (as RGC intends).  Its proposals will be informed by international consultants who will provide best practice in areas related to State-civil society relations.  Government and civil society members of this forum will visit two countries in the region (perhaps Philippines and Malaysia or Hong Kong) which exemplify best practice in areas identified by the forum as top priorities in Cambodia.  From the forum, MOI will submit proposals on laws/regulations/policies to the Council of Ministers for consideration.  The forum would also identify opportunities for enhanced civic engagement in specific policy processes (e.g. in poverty reduction).  The process will ensure that the proposed changes reflect citizens' demand, and that there is adequate government capacity to implement the changes. The IDF would finance international consultants to advise the forum on global best practice, travel and other costs for the forum, travel/consultant costs related to the two foreign visits, and technical assistance in preparing the draft policies etc. 2)  Strengthening the capacity of the NGO/Associations unit of MOI.  This unit has responsibility for registering NGOs and associations, providing information to civil society about government, and informing government departments about civil society organizations of relevance to them - encouraging them to deepen their engagement.  There would be a strong emphasis on enhancing the roles of civil society in the governance and effectiveness of public services. This is a new unit, and while staff have been identified, it currently has just embryonic capacity beyond meeting its basic administrative tasks.  The IDF would finance equipment needed for NGO registration and workshops, English language training for the Unit's staff (to equip them to engage more effectively with int'l NGOs and donors and to learn from global good practices), and technical assistance (national and international) to the Unit on effective outreach to other RGC units. 3)  Enhancing civil society awareness of and access to information concerning opportunities to engage with RGC.  a) MOI wishes to open a resources center for civil society to provide information about RGC activities, the NGO registration process, and opportunities for civic engagement.  This would be very much welcomed by civil society.  MOI will provide the physical space but requests help with other needs. The IDF would finance equipment for the resources center and design costs for the external website. b)  Developing a consultation draft of a policy regarding pubic/civil society access to information. Cambodia lacks a freedom of information policy; civil society and donors have urged that this gap be met, but at present RGC do not regard it as a priority. MOI wishes, however, to increase transparency and civic engagement at the local (especially commune) level and have experimented with "one-stop shops" in two locations for this.  MOI now seek to learn policy lessons from the pilots and expand grassroots transparency/engagement and hence will develop a policy/strategy paper on this. The IDF would provide technical assistance in developing a policy/strategy paper on access to information and civic engagement at the commune level, and for cataloguing government needs in order to put these into effect.  This activity might evolve into a fuller consideration (and perhaps discussion paper) on freedom of information.