The CDF are primarily responsible for building community relations and work in partnership with the Christian Core Group (CCG). They assist the CCG in facilitating a range of community development processes including needs assessment and analysis, developing a village vision, development plans and providing support in implementation of village level activities.

The CDF staff are extensively trained in community development theory and practice, and use a range of participatory tools to help the CCG to mobilise communities and build relationships. Essentially the CDF adopt a ‘people centred’ approach to their work, with the aim of transferring skills and knowledge of community development to the CCG, such that this group are confident and have sufficient capacity to replicate similar development processes independently.

The CDF work in collaboration with 3 technical staff (agriculturists, income generation) who provide training, demonstration and advisory support in sectoral aspects of the programme. The CDF, where appropriate, assist in training and help to provide monitoring support to on-going village activities.

The CCG are central to the success of the work and as such are the main project partner of WDO. A CCG is a team of 5-8 volunteers, who are elected by the local church or cell group to fulfil a vital role of facilitation and mobilisation within the village community. The process for selection of members entails the CDF conducting participatory workshops and a focused bible-study on the principles of leadership and stewardship, following which candidates are nominated and elected.

The role of the CCG largely centres on building relationships and fostering good communication within the community and with local authorities. However, they also perform an important function in facilitating the community to have a vision for development; identifying local resources and overseeing the implementation of projects.

Communities are either recommended by the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia (EFC) or individuals approach WDO to request assistance in developing a village. WDO will seek permission from the relevant authorities and conduct some initial fact finding visits before making a commitment to work.

Communities are primarily selected by WDO on the basis of a poverty assessment taking into account factors such as size of the population, presence of clean water sources, food security, distance to nearest health centre and primary school, land ownership, and availability of work opportunities. Normally the project will not engage villages where there are other NGOs already providing community development type initiatives.

Prospective partner or target communities are also selected on the basis that there is an existing Christian presence within the community. This may be a church or cell group, which meets the following criteria:

• the group should be recognised by the village community and local leadership;
• he group has been in existence for at least one year and has received continuous and consistent discipleship from the parent church, or from a recognised mission body;
• the group has a permit from the local authority to gather for worship, or the parent church agrees to cover this requirement in it’s permit.