GMS - Phnom Penh Plan for Development Management
2009 LEARNING PROGRAMS

Integrated Sustainable Development Planning & Strategies for the GMS

14-18 December 2009, Asian Development Bank Thailand Resident Mission, Bangkok, Thailand

The participant is disembarking the bus after a visit to the NSTDA. Although it has been a long day with exposure to cutting edge Thai know-how, state-of-the-art-technology and environmental science, he and his Chinese counterpart are enthusiastic about what they have experienced and agree that they can each apply the new knowledge immediately when they are back in their home ministries next week. The statement above comes from one of the participants in ADB’s Phnom Penh Plan for Development management seminar on sustainable development as he is telling me about the field trip.

Along with 20 other GMS nationals from a wide range of ministries and agencies in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, PR China, Viet Nam and Thailand, they have just completed the Phnom Penh Plan for Development seminar under the headline: Integrated Sustainable Development Planning Strategies in the GMS. The seminar was held last week at the ADB Thailand Resident Mission. It has been planned in a fruitful collaboration between the PPP and the Core Environment Program and aimed to introduce natural resources management tools to national policy planners and government officials in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Over 5 days, participants have been given a thorough and broad introduction to integrating sustainable development issues in strategic policy planning, and overall, feedback from the team resonates positively.

“As a manager, the seminar has provided me with new knowledge and inspiration, and I look forward to using some of the approaches in my everyday work to inspire work processes and bring fresh aspects back home”, one participant, who works in the Ministry of Agriculture tells me. She mentions that the exercises on looking at policy options towards sustainable development planning gave practical and relevant insights into topical environment processes. “Working in teams was fun, and we could supplement each other’s knowledge well. I am learning a lot about how important issues are being targeted in natural resources management in our neighboring countries”, the participant says, before she turns back to continue team preparations – the teams are presenting to each other the results of their exercise before the day’s session closes.

The program has been designed to allow for maximum interactive participation and the interchanges between introductory lectures and group work through case studies seems to work well. During the afternoon’s presentations, all participants are listening to each other, and the questions for each country are ample and substantial. The late-afternoon fatigue that sometimes rolls over even the most interested audiences seems to escape this group and their concentration is admirable.

For a Thai official from the Ministry of Energy, it is his first experience at a PPP seminar. “It is quite interesting to see how ADB and we in the GMS countries are attempting to ensure sustainability in development through the solid part that the GMS Core Environment Program plays in the larger GMS Economic Cooperation Program. We have been introduced to central methodologies, processes and methods such as working with indicators, implications of climate change, and sustainable environment assessments that ensure that environment is an integrated part of policy development.”

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