Cambodia hosts third OCP national workshop

"I really appreciate the Agitos Foundation support and sharing experience. As NPC we really want to improve our Para sport and we hope we will have success."

From 27-28 January, the National Paralympic Committee of Cambodia organised its third national workshop of the Agitos Foundation Organisational Capacity Programme (OCP). The activities, held in Phnom Penh at the NPC headquarters, were focused on improving the NPC’s governance and planning. Previous workshops have also covered the topics of athlete development and marketing and communications.

NPC Cambodia was founded in 1997 and has seen its staff grow to 45 in recent years. With this growth and the opportunities that lie ahead, the NPC aims to draft and submit its first NPC constitution and start to conduct general assemblies once member organisations are established. Cambodia’s first participation in the Paralympic Games was in Sydney 2000 and the country had only one Para athlete in Rio 2016, in wheelchair racing.

In the follow-up of the workshop the NPC will submit the NPC constitution and develop an athlete qualification pathway plan towards Tokyo 2020 and beyond. During the two-day workshop, the NPC staff has also set goals towards 2020, to diversify and increase funding streams, raise awareness about the Paralympic Movement in Cambodia and, ultimately, qualify a male and a female athlete for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Um Keorithea, who is one of the two OCP Programme Leads of NPC Cambodia, took part in the Para Sport Management Training workshop in October 2016 in Tokyo, financed by Sport for Tomorrow (an initiative of the Japan Sport Council) and the Nippon Foundation Paralympic Support Center.

Since then she has been very eager to apply the knowledge at national level. “I’m very pleased to be Programme Lead of the Organisational Capacity Programme in Cambodia. Knowledge, experience, facilitation skills, all of this is really essential for me and our work”, she said.

Coach Sokh Sorphea, from NPC Cambodia, said: “The workshop was really good and interesting, and I learned a lot from the lessons and all people involved. I really appreciate the Agitos Foundation support and sharing experience. As NPC we really want to improve our Para sport and we hope we will have success.”

The Organisational Capacity Programme is supported by the NPC Development Programme, which aims to build capacity within National Paralympic Committees around the world. Supported by the IPC’s Worldwide Paralympic Partnership with Toyota, the programme started in 2017 and will run until 2024 and will reach over 140 countries.