The 3rd Asian NGO Leaders’ Dialogue (ALD3) was held last February 6-10, 2006 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was participated by key NGO leaders from eleven countries in Asia and was the culmination of the first phase of AsiaDHRRA’s programming on leadership development. It was warmly and successfully co-hosted by CEDAC, SILAKA, and CamboDHRRA.
The ALD3 provided a venue for participants, especially those who participated in the WTO campaign in Hongkong to share reflections and insights on leadership and globalization. It also created an opportunity for the leaders to articulate and come to a consensus on the leadership framework they want to foster and advocate in advancing leadership development in their own organizations and among the civil society community in their respective countries. At the end of the dialogue, the leaders were in consensus to sustain the ALD as a mechanism to advance leadership development at the regional and national levels.
A dialogue with Cambodian NGO leaders also took place to draw out deeper understanding of the Cambodian development context from among the participants. With the encouraging growth of CSO initiatives in Cambodia amidst the tremendous challenges that CSO leaders face, the exchange was rich, inspiring, and encouraging enough for everyone to continue to be stubbornly positive and persistent in their respective works.