P RO J EC T S | C A L D 2 0 1 0
3rd Political Party Management Workshop on Party Finance and CALD Women’s Caucus Workshop Phnom Penh, Cambodia / 1-6 October. Sometimes living a cliché is not so bad, and CALD proved that by hitting two birds with one stone in a span of one week in October.
In cooperation with the Sam Rainsy Party and with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, CALD held back-to-back workshops on party finance and grassroots organizing in Phnom Penh, with delegates from CALD member parties (including observer and associate members) as participants. First up was the workshop on party management, which allowed participants to understand the key issues regarding political finance and how these affect parties. It also aimed to assess the performance of the participants’ respective political parties with regard to the institutionalization of transparency and accountability in the management and use of party funds. In addition, it sought to identify possible and specific policy recommendations on how the participants can promote or increase transparency and accountability in their parties. Once talks began to veer toward party finance, recommendations on the necessity of legislation, institutions, and mechanisms to promote transparency and accountability flew fast and furious. 20
Participants pointed out that state funding for political parties should be instituted to provide parties with the financial base needed to support party activities, especially in between elections. At the same time, they said, political parties must have their own internal mechanisms to guarantee transparency and accountability in the use and management of party funds. The grassroots-organizing workshop, meanwhile, enabled participants to learn from each other’s experiences and best practices on addressing the constraints to successful grassroots organizing. Participants themselves recognized that political parties should prioritize grassroots organizing, noting that not only would this ground parties in the issues and concerns of their constituents, it would also enable parties to contribute to the political education of the citizenry and the democratization of the polity. The workshop, though, also aimed to stress the significance of including women in grassroots organization, along with identifying techniques on how the participants could identify, research,
and target specific sectors – particularly women – in their grassroots efforts. The workshop participants later said that political parties should tap even what some perceive as “weak” characteristics of women, saying that these may just turn out to be useful for parties in achieving their goals and objectives. The participants thus agreed that parties should establish or strengthen their respective women’s wings. One highlight of the week-long series of activities was the 3 October live streaming address of exiled Cambodian opposition leader and MP Sam Rainsy. While he expressed regret that government-orchestrated legal and political intimidation against him and the SRP barred him from being there in person, he emphasized his party’s pleasure in being able to host the workshops that assist in strengthening not only political parties, but also other democratic institutions and processes. Speakers at the workshops were MP and CALD Women’s Caucus Chairwoman Mu Sochua (who is also the head of SRP’s Women’s Wing); FNF Cambodia