CRDT's Approach
CRDT's approach sees our staff living and working in villages. We ensure beneficiaries implement project activities themselves. We adopt an enterprise approach, and link development to conservation. CRDT continuously adapts and learns.
Living and Working in the Field
CRDT is unique in that its field staff live in target villages for extended periods of time. This builds relationships with communities, and ensures that our projects are successful. We work more effectively with local people when trust is established. Once beneficiaries become our friends, they feel free to tell us their real problems and needs so that our staff can fine-tune the responses in project implementation.
Cambodian villagers and CRDT staff installing a village water supply.
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Learning by Doing
To ensure effective transfer of knowledge, we let all our beneficiaries implement project activities themselves. The ripple effect ensures experience is disseminated throughout the target villages. Before a project closes, local communities are ready to sustain their activities and skills in the long term.
A grandmother in a Cambodian village learning to pump water from a new well installed by CRDT.
​Sustainable Enterprise
​CRDT adopts an enterprise approach to development. CRDT can plan for the long-term and embrace concepts of stewardship and sustainable income. The enterprise approach is especially important for our community-based organizations (CBOs) to improve market access for local products.
Visitors disembarking from a Mekong River boat to stay with Koh Preah Island community tourism.
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Linking Development and Conservation
Poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability are the two intertwined goals of CRDT. Working in high priority areas for conservation, CRDT supports alternative livelihood activities to reduce natural resource dependency among the rural poor. We believe that development and conservation must support each other following the sustainable development approach.
Learning and Good Practice
CRDT continuously adapts and learns. We refine and revise methods of implementation, facilitation, and participation to suit differing environments of our work.
Cambodian village women planting vegetable seeds.
