MoWA, in addition to sectoral program in education, health, economic empowerment, legal protection, women’s in decision making and climate change, has been active in ensuring that gender is mainstreamed in key policy documents, including the NSDP, Public Investment Program (PIP) and CMDGs, as well as on-going government reform efforts such as Decentralization and Deconcentration reform (D&D), Public Administration Reform (PAR), Public Financial Management (PFM) and Legal and Judicial Reform. Gender mainstreaming is one of the strategic approaches for gender equality.
Partnership and gender mainstreaming mechanisms in line ministries and institutions
CNCW is the one of the major national women’s machineries and was established in 2001. It is an inter-ministerial mechanism whose members include Secretaries of State from all key line ministries and government agencies. The CNCW is mandated to “assist the Royal Government to coordinate, follow up and evaluate the implementation of national policies, laws, orders and measures relating to the promotion of status, roles and social welfare of Cambodian women”. It is also responsible for following up on the implementation of international conventions in relation to women’s rights, providing recommendations to the RGC and compiling national periodic reports on CEDAW implementation. CNCW is led by Her Majesty the Queen as the Honorary Chair, the Prime Minister of Cambodia as the Honorary Deputy Chair, the Minister of Women’s Affairs as the Executive Chair, and representatives from relevant ministries as members. CNCW has its own five-year strategic plan (2010-2014), independent of Neary Rattanak.
TWG-G: The Technical Working Group on Gender (TWG-G) was established in 2004. It is chaired by MoWA with UNDP and JICA as co-facilitators. Members of the TWG-G include representatives from 31 government agencies, 14 development partners and 15 civil society organizations. Since its formation, the TWG-G has provided a forum for discussion and inputs into the formulation of gender-related policies, laws and strategies. For better results, the TWG-G formed smaller working groups (TWG-G sub-groups) to coordinate the implementation of MoWA’s two main thematic programs: Gender-Based Violence and Women’s Economic Empowerment within the framework of PBAs.
GMAGs (Gender Mainstreaming Action Groups) have been established since 2005 in line ministries and government agencies. GMAGs develop each ministry’s Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan (GMAP), which provides a mechanism for institutionalising the gender mainstreaming into sectoral policies and program. GMAGs are led by a Chair at the Secretary of State or Under Secretary of State level, Vice Chair at Director General or Deputy Director General level, and include members from all line departments. They have the following roles and responsibilities within their respective ministries:
- Review program activities of each sector and analyze them from a gender perspective.
- Advocate and provide recommendations regarding gender issues in line ministry programs and projects.
- Analyse the current situation of women in their ministry and provide recommendations to promote women into decision-making positions
- Design gender mainstreaming action plans (GMAPs)
- Participate in sectoral program design and planning processes of their ministry to ensure they are gender responsive.
- Build capacity on gender mainstreaming and advocate for program activities to be gender responsive.
- Mobilize resources for the implementation of GMAPs.