The importance of consultation and cooperation from the perspective of a local Cambodian NGO.

The paper analyses the structure and role of one local road safety NGO in Cambodia the Coalition for Road Safety (CRY). The paper is intended to give various organisations an insight into the administrative and project management objectives of a local NGO working to improve road safety in one developing country. An overview of two CRY projects is used to illustrate the type of work CRY does, and demonstrate the philosophy with which CRY carries out its work. Most importantly, this overview of the operations and programs of CRY highlights the importance and benefits of stakeholder consultation and program coordination. In the first section, we outline the administrative and strategic approach CRY employs in overcoming obstacles to effective management of road safety programs as a local NGO. The second section highlights these approaches with an overview and analysis of two CRY programs, both of which relate respectively to our core business functions of policy-based research and community-based education, specifically: (1) a completed road user research project involving university students in Phnom Penh; and (2) an on-going community-based education project for road users on major highways in rural Cambodia. The analysis highlights the peculiar vulnerabilities and opportunities of one local road safety NGO whose primary function has become the provision of outsourced program delivery services within a community of road safety stakeholders, all of whom are dramatically better resourced and more influential within the policy arena. To this extent, this paper represents the perspective of an organisation that is rowing rather than steering. In this regard, this paper is a case study on how one local NGO delivers programs. Importantly, because the management, organisation and philosophy of CRY is substantially different to the more powerful NGOs and government agencies, the importance of stakeholder consultation and collaboration in their various forms is highlighted. (A). For the covering abstract of the conference see E216632.