I. OVERVIEW 

1.  Past and Current Activities

     1.1  Meetings of Officers

Porlim Van as WASMB founder has convened several informal working group meetings with other co-founders (Nina You, Theary Seng, Porleng Van) to discuss the establishment of WASMB.  Since, the Council members have held regular meetings.

      1.2 Registration of WASMB

Porlim and Theary picked up association registration forms from the Ministries of Interior and Commerce, and the Council is currently fulfilling the criteria in these forms for submission.  We anticipate official recognition of WASMB by July 2005.

      1.3 Meeting with MPDF and UNDP

On February 7, 2005, four Council members met with Karla Quizon of MPDF and Sari Laaksonen of UNDP to present WASMB to these institutions and to assess funding possibilities and other institutional support.MPDF Karla has introduced her colleague Lili to WASMB via email and future meetings are considered.  Since, we met with Trang Nguyen and have been in communication with Adam Sack and IFC James Brew.

On February 15, 2005, President Porlim and Vice-President Theary met with UNDP's Sari Laaksonen, Wisal Hin (Gender Focal Point) and Anna Chilczuk (Consultant on SME development).  They mentioned the future possibility of accessing support from their SME and Gender pilot programs that UNDP is in the process of organizing.

It was through an invitation from UNDP Wisal Hin that Theary represented WASMB in Manila, for the sub-regional launch of the UN Report "Unleashing Entrepreneurship - Making Business Work for the Poor", April 21-22, 2005.

     1.4 Meeting with Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Kantha Phavi Ing

On February 16, the four members of the Council met over lunch with the Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Kantha Phavi Ing to present WASMB and to discuss the partnership of the Ministry with WASMB, ie, the Technical Working Group.

On February 17, vice-president Theary attended the Technical Working Group on Gender (TWGG) at the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA), presided by Minister Dr. Kantha Phavi.  Toward the end of the meeting, Minister Dr. Kantha Phavi acknowledged the presence of WASMB and invited Theary to make a brief introduction of WASMB to the group, which she did.  (Porlim, Theary and another core member attended the March 31 TWGG.)

Thanks to this introduction by the Minister, WASMB generated a lot of interests.  Immediately after the meeting, various ministries and institutions approached WASMB to introduce themselves and learn more about the Association.

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