Background
In the Kingdom of Cambodia (hereinafter Cambodia), the male population over 40 years old is smaller than that of female as a result of the civil war for more than two decades. The Inter Census in 2013 shows that the proportion of female headed households is still significantly high, at 27.1% of the total number of the households. While there is a growing expectation towards women who play important roles in socio-economic rehabilitation and development, women’s social and economic status remains low compared to men. Women’s political participation is also limited; Key Gender Statistics in Cambodia (MOWA 2015) shows that women account for 20.3% of the members of the National Assembly and only 14.7% of that of Senate as of 2013. Although women and men legally have the equal rights to access to financial services, women do not fully enjoy such services because of women’s limited access to information. Low social and economic status of women manifested in the above situation can lead to incidents of domestic violence and human trafficking, which makes urgent action for women’s economic empowerment imperative.
Achievements of preceding projects and remaining issues
The current Project, Project on Gender Mainstreaming for Women’s Economic Empowerment (PGM-WEE) will enhance coordination capacity of MOWA/PDWA, implement scaling up projects in agriculture, and implement pilot projects to establish a gender mainstreaming mechanism, with the aim to facilitate planning and implementation of project activities to promote WEE.
Project objectives
PGM-WEE will, building on the experience and achievements of the Project on Gender Mainstreaming Phase 1 (PGM1) and the Project on Gender Mainstreaming Phase 2(PGM2), improve and test the gender mainstreaming mechanism in order to establish a sustainable system and strengthen public service delivery capacity to operate such a system.
Project implementation structure
Planning and Statistics Department (PSD), Economic Development Department (EDD), and Gender Equality Department (GED) of MOWA are the implementation agencies of the Project. Provincial level activities will be implemented in cooperation with Provincial Departments of Women’s Affairs (PDWAs). Major functions of each department are as follows.
The Project cooperate with, in addition to MOWA/PDWA, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry of Industry and Handicraft, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, Ministry of Tourism as well as the provincial departments of these ministries.
Project target areas
The Project works with MOWA and line ministries at the national level and establishes gender mainstreaming mechanisms at the provincial level. The provincial level activities include institutional development for dissemination and expansion of the gender mainstreaming mechanisms in 3 target provinces, and development of PGM method with market orientation for the tourism industry in one province.
Materials
PGM Method for Gender Responsive Sector Policy Formulation (English) DOWNLOAD(PDF)
PGM Method for Gender Responsive Sector Policy Formulation (Khmer) DOWNLOAD(PDF)