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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Maggie Huff-Rousselle, MA, MBA, PhD, Social Sectors Development Strategies, Inc., 464 Shawmut Avenue, Boston, MA 02118, 617-421-9644, mhuffrousselle@ssds.net
How the Dog Swallowed the Elephant: Institutional Development, Reproductive Health and Foreign Aid in Cambodia
Maggie Huff-Rousselle, M.A., M.B.A., Ph.D.
In just two years, the Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia moved from being one of Cambodia’s first fledgling indigenous NGOs in the health sector, with 40 employees and two sources of funding, to Cambodia’s largest private sector provider of out-patient services, with nearly a dozen sources of funding, over 100 employees, and a network of nearly 1,500 volunteers. Service delivery statistics trebled. Measured according to several variables, the quality of those services improved significantly. These radical and yet positive changes took place in the face of the added complexity and imposed bureaucracy of multiple funding sources. What caused the rapid changes? What allowed RHAC to survive and thrive in the midst of these changes?
Despite the best intentions of the foreign aid industry, indigenous organizations are often suffocated by imposed bureaucracy or lost in the shuffle of sweeping political or policy changes. RHAC managed to balance the needs of its recipient clients – the people of Cambodia – with the expectations of its funding clients – various actors in the foreign aid community. It fostered an organizational culture that inspired the best aspects of personal and collective ambition. And – since luck has a role in everything – it has perhaps been an organization that was in the right place at the right time.
This case study research is based primarily on qualitative methods, liberally illustrated with quantitative data, that allow interpretation of the variety of factors that facilitated the development of this foreign-aid dependent reproductive health organization.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Reproductive Health, Asian Women
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.