How MDF Asia assisted Care Cambodia in attracting an EC grants

CARE Cambodia has been active to work through and with NGOs, CSOs and CBOs to improve the accountability and transparency of service delivery by the sub-national government in Cambodia. CARE Cambodia has attracted a grant from the European Commission for this purpose. The European Commission in Cambodia is supporting the Government of Cambodia with strengthening sub-national democratic development processes. The EC works together with the National Committee for Democratic Development (NCDD) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to strengthen the democratic accountability of the sub-national government. The European Commission had issued a Call for Proposals to financially support alliances of NGOs and CSOs who could implement the “Social Accountability Framework (SAF)”, which is a government adopted approach for promoting “democratic development processes” through capacity building projects for community groups. These projects would lead communities to become more aware and more vocal about the timely and efficient delivery of government services by the Government authorities in Cambodia.

CARE Cambodia invited MDF to assist with the preparation of the concept note and full proposal to be submitted to the European Commission. To do so, MDF organized a mini-workshop with the CARE staff to clarify the logical framework, and worked with CARE staff to draft the final submission. CARE was awarded the contract.

Similarly, CARE Cambodia was also active in strengthening the labor rights of female construction workers in Cambodia. With CARE taking a lead and coordinating an alliance / technical working group composed of 2 CSOs (CWPD, LSCW) and the Trade Union, the project purpose is to improve the working conditions on construction sites, as well as raise awareness among female construction workers on their rights and enhance their voice through advocacy on their rights, and seeking access to increased protection and better working conditions at the workplace.

Due to the success of the previous assignment with CARE, MDF was again requested to facilitate and draft the submission of the proposal to the European Commission. After a series of meetings between the Cambodian CSOs and the Trade Union, CARE and MDF consensus was reached on the details of collaboration and partnership. The logical framework, and the full proposal were drafted and submitted, leading to the 2nd award from the EC to CARE in 2015.

MDF is actively supporting NGOs and CSOs with drafting proposals for submission to the European Commission. Koen Toonen, Director MDF Asia Vietnam regional branch office, has successfully supported and drafted proposals for submission to the European Commission. He works closely with colleagues at the MDF Brussels office, which are fully up to date on the policies and approaches by the EC.

Want to know more? 

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Author Name: Koen Toonen Director/Senior Trainer & Consultant at MDF Asia Vietnam Office

Contact our expert at MDF and let us help you! Mr. Toonen has delivered workshops on “Successful EC proposal writing” to various clients. He worked for over 22 years with various United Nations agencies, and is driven by helping communities and community based organisations thrive, through direct support to these communities and (local) governments. He helps organisations, projects, programmes and advocacy initiatives in finding sustainable solutions. He has worked extensively on rural development and local governance issues, also in (post-)conflict areas, and has specifically focused on poverty – environment linkages, and advocated for mainstreaming environmental management issues into development planning processes.

Intercultural Communication: High Cultures vs Low Cultures

It is generally acknowledged that people from different cultures communicate in ways that often lead to misunderstandings (Nishimura et al, 2014). The differences can be on many levels of communication, starting with the language. But underneath the language are a whole set of (cultural) norms and values that direct our behavior and influence the way we communicate more than we are aware of. We all work in an environment with many different nationalities or sub cultures, and we work intensively with them. How do these differences affect our cooperation and communication and in that sense, what effect do they have on the effectiveness and performance of our organization? Let us share some examples we encountered in our work.

A Western (German) manager delegated work to his Vietnamese staff. After a certain amount of time, he wondered if the delegated work was delivered. He approached his staff and heard that nothing had happened. He was quite upset and asked us what to do.

One of the Indonesian managers we coach, delegated some work to his Dutch staff. Immediately after this staff member sent out an email to all his colleagues, telling them that he was in charge of the project and that any kind of communication about the project, should go via him. This certainly wasn’t the intention of the Indonesian manager, he was still in charge.

There are many examples and many ways to look at these differences and I guess you all have some experiences with this. You can imagine these two situations are not conducive to a productive and pleasant working environment. Edward Hall (1976) suggested the categorization of cultures into high context (HC) versus low context (LC) cultures in order to understand their basic differences in communication style and cultural issues.

High Context Cultures
In HC cultures, communication style is influenced by the closeness of human relationships, well-structured social hierarchy, and strong behavioral norms (Kim et al., 1998. 512). In a high context (HC) culture, internal meaning is usually embedded deep in the information, so not everything is explicitly stated in writing or when spoken. In an HC culture, the listener is expected to be able to read “between the lines", to understand the unsaid, thanks to his or her background knowledge.

In an HC culture, people tend to speak one after another in a linear way, so the speaker is seldom interrupted. Communication is indirect, ambiguous, harmonious, reserved and understated. In an HC culture, greater confidence is placed in the nonverbal aspects of communication than the verbal aspects (Hall, 1976).

Low Context Cultures
In an LC culture, meanings are explicitly stated through language. People communicating usually expect explanations when something remains unclear. As Hall (1976) explains, most information is expected to be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context (both internal and external). An LC culture is characterized by direct and linear communication and by the constant and sometimes never-ending use of words. Communication is direct, precise, dramatic, open, and based on feelings or true intentions.

Going back to our examples from before, German and Dutch cultures are considered to be low context cultures, whereas Vietnam and Indonesia are seen as high context cultures. The misunderstanding between the colleagues in the examples above can be explained by this insight. How do you transform misunderstandings into inspiring working relationships? How do you actually use the differences and go one step higher in the cooperation? Here are some tips:

1. Expect that someone else thinks differently and may have other values (this can also apply to people from your own culture). 
2. Check understanding by summarizing what the other says and asking for clarification before you draw conclusions (in a polite, ‘non-violent’ way). 
3. Accept that you may have a different role than you are used to playing. Managers from a low context society could find it difficult to be a hierarchical manager and managers from a high context culture may encounter confrontations with Western staff. Adapt your (management) behavior to what is most effective (realizing your goals and maintaining a good relationship). 
4. Consult colleagues from the other culture with whom you have a good relationship as an intermediate or adviser. 
5. Always be critical of your own ‘truths’ and know that these come from your (personal and cultural) values and beliefs. 

If you want to learn more about other cultures and how you can increase cooperation and communication or if you simply want to improve your intercultural management skills, please don’t hesitate to contact us at MDF Asia (mdfpi@mdf.nl).

Author Name; Silvia van der Cammen (Senior Management Consultant at MDF Asia Indonesia Office)

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Ms. Van der Cammen has over 25 years of experience in different roles working in Asia, Africa and Europe. She is driven by involving and connecting stakeholders with different backgrounds and from other cultures in the process of finding the best solutions in any given situation. Her qualities and experience are in the field of leading and inspiring others to reach their desired goals together with a team. She is highly communicative and ‘involving’ and believes that in our inter-connected world, being able to effectively communicate with others of different cultures and backgrounds is one of the key factors to success. She is analytical and visionary as well as result-oriented and has proven to be a creative force and leader within a team.