KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA

FY2014 Seminar for Gender Equality Officers andWomen Leaders in the Asia Pacific Region

Country Report
Ms. Chim Manavy
Ms. Keo VathnaCambodia
NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
Officers and Women Leaders in the Asia PacificRegion

1- Overview of Cambodia• Official name: Kingdom of Cambodia• Official Language: Khmer• Total area: 181,035 km2• 24 Provinces• 1 Capital : Phnom Penh
• Population :14.86 millions• Women : 52%• Density: 75 people/km2 (2008)• GDP : 760$ (2008), approximately 1000$(2012)• Currency Riel (KHR)
NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
Officers and Women Leaders in the Asia PacificRegion22- Gender Equality Policy
National Frameworks for Gender Equality (I)Constitution of Cambodia: Adopted in 1993
• It states that “men and women have equal rights before the law andenjoy equal participation in political, economic, social and cultural life;
equality in marriage and family; employment and equal pay for the samework. It also includes measures to prevent and eliminate of all forms ofdiscrimination and exploitation of women”.
National Strategic Development Plan and Rectangular Strategy for Growth,Employment, Equity and Efficiency, Phase II•

Aim at reducing gender disparities in all development sectors and theneed to put in place effective measures to remove barriers that womenface, and increase opportunities for women to fully participate andbenefit from development.
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National Frameworks for Gender Equality (II)Cambodia Millennium Development Goals•CMDG 3 focuses on promotion of gender equality and theempowerment of women through reducing gender gaps ineducation at all levels, increasing women’s participation ingovernment and ensuring equal wages between men andwomen.

The Five-Years Strategic Plan For Gender Equality and Women‘sEmpowerment 2014-2018 (Neary Rattanak IV)•Strategic areas:•

1. Economic Empowerment of Women•

2. Education of Women and Girls, Attitudes and Behavior change•

3. Legal Protection of Women and Girls•

4. Health and Nutrition of Women and Girls, and HIV/AIDS•

5. Women in PublicOfficers
Decision‐making
andinPoliticsand Women Leaders
the Asia Pacific•

6. Women in Climate Change and green growth

NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
Region4National Women’s Machineries•

Ministry of Women’s Affairs•Cambodian National Council for Women•

Other Mechanisms for Gender Equality•

Gender Action Groups and Gender Action Plans from LineMinistries•

Women’s and Children’s Committees (at sub-national level)

International Frameworks for Gender Equality
1.

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995)

2.

Millennium Development Goals for 2015

3.
4.

Conference on Population and Development El Cairo (1994)
Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW, 1979) : Signed and ratified by Cambodia in 1992.
NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
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53. Current Situation for Gender Equality in Cambodia• Education
Educational level

Percentage

Primary and Lower Secondary

Gender parity index achieved

Upper Secondary Education

Ratio of girls to boys is 72.9 (CMDG
target is 100)

Tertiary Educationbachelor degree 40.19%
master degrees 19.24%
undertaking a PhD 5.56%[Data from academic year 2011-2012, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport]

Economic sector

Women presenting in formal sector

27 % (men: 73%)

Women presenting in informal sector

82 %[Data from CSES 2009]
NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
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6National level

Politics and Decision Making

Parliamentarians inNational Assembly
Senators
Deputy Prime Ministers
Ministers
Secretaries of State
Public Civil Servants

Subnational level

25 of 123

20.32%

9 of 61
1 of 93 of 28
38 of 185
70,526 of 192,029

14.75%
11%
10.71%
20.54%
37%

Politics and Decision Making

Provincial Governors
Provincial Deputy Governors
District Governors
District Deputy Governors:
Commune Council members
Commune/Sangkat Chiefs

no women20%
1 %(2 female district governors)
29 %17.78%
5.8%

Data fromNational
Committee
NWECthe2014
SeminarElections
for Gender
Equality 2012
Officers and Women Leaders in the Asia PacificRegion7• Healthmedian age at first marriage among
womenMedian age of first sexual intercourse
for womenmaternal deaths

20 years ( men: 23 years)
21 years old ( while for men is 22 years)
206 per 100,000 live births in 2010
(rate decreased almost 60 percent in
only five years, between 2005 and 2010
[DHS 2005 and 2010]).

women report having one or moreproblems in accessing health care72%

women aged 15-49 years using amethod of family planning

31%

women aged 15-49 years having
abortion

at least 1 abortion of 6 % women inurban areas, while 5 % in rural areas

NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
Officers and Women Leaders in the Asia PacificRegion84. Overview of ICTs: Media and Gender in the country•••

4.1: Women in Media:
The Women´s Media Centre of Cambodia (WMC 2005)
survey found that women are a minority across all media
sectors, comprising 17% of those in journalism, 21% intechnical roles and in 28% in administrative positions.
No statistics are available from the Ministry of Information(MoI) on the number of female journalists in Cambodia,according to WMC. However, the WMC 2005 survey
covered 145 media organizations and reported the total
number of people working in media and media related
fields as 4,623 with 79% males (3,652) and 21% females(971). among 137 journalists whose positions were decision
makers only 6% were female.
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94. Overview of ICTs Media and gender in the country(cont.)• 4.2: Women in ICT :Women and ICT status in Cambodia
The lack of access to ICT because of societal, cultural and market constraints
have led women to become distant from the global pool of information andknowledge.
Reasons for less representation of women holding jobs in ICT fields include
lower percentage of female student's enrollment in IT related education.
• 4.3 ICT Policy
The National Summit on ICT Policy and Strategy took place on 3 July 2003 toinvolve key actors to determine a draft of National ICT Policy.
NIDA proposal for National ICT Policy for 2015 included the creation of legal
framework, ICT services, to develop a knowledge based system, ICT accesspoints, reduce public administration cost, ICT4D that support Women InDevelopment (WID) in theICT sector.
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4.Overview of ICTs Media and gender in the country(cont.)

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4. Overview of ICTs Media and gender in the country(cont.)• International Instruments: Gender and ICT4D:Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing Sept.1995- BeijingDeclaration and Platform of Action: Women in media
Strategic objective J1: Increase the participation and access ofwomen to expression and decision-making in and through themedia and new technologies of communication. Actions to betaken.
Strategic objective J2:Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped
portrayal of women in the media. Actions to be taken.
NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
Officers and Women Leaders in the Asia PacificRegion124. Overview of ICTs Media and gender in the country(cont.)• International Instruments: Gender and ICT4D:•56th UN CEDAW session in Geneva from 30 Sept-18 Oct, 2013

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4. Overview of ICTs Media and gender in the country(cont.)• International Instruments: Gender and ICT4D:•

Concluding Observation of the Committee on the Elimination ofDiscrimination against women ( CEDAW/C/KHM/CO/4-5 A , Geneva 18October 2013 )NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
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4. Overview of ICTs Media and gender in the country(cont.)• International Instruments: Gender and ICT4D:•Gender and ICT4D-Concluding Observation of the Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against women( CEDAW/C/KHM/CO/4-5 A , Geneva 18 October 2013 )•Article 19. The Committee reiterates its previous
recommendation (CEDAW/C/KHM/CO/3, para. 18) andrecommends that the State party:(c) Explore the use of information communication
technologies, including social media, in the dissemination ofNWEC 2014 Seminarfor Gender
Equality
information on women’s
rightsandgender equality;•Officers and Women Leaders in the Asia PacificRegion

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4. Overview of ICTs Media and gender in the country(cont.)• Women & ICT in Education (MoWA Research 2010)
The total of female who get the bachelor degree of ICT in the last
four years'2005 to 2009' was 12.4% of total student in ICT if
comparing with 8.4% of the proportional of female students who
has been studying ICT of the 1st year to the 4th year of the year
2009-2010 .
• Women & ICT in Employment
Women & ICT in The proportional of women in ICT' jobs:• The percentage of women can use ICT in civil society is
44.4% of total staff• In government and ministries is 15.5%,• Internet ProviderNWEC
is 2014
32.5%
and Education institution is 33.3%.
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4. Overview of ICTs Media and gender in the country(cont.)

Result of the Research (MoWA 2010).
Only less than 1/4 of NGOs (22.5%), 9% of HE institutes, 14% ofISPs and 35% of government ministries have a policy
implemented to encourage women to build their own capacity in
the ICT sector.
This status will not have much changed in the near future
because for the rest of them, there are only 23% of NGOs, 41%of government ministries, 21% of ISPs 21%, and 21% HE
institutes are willing to design a policy to encourage ICT skills &capacity building for women (MOWA et.al 2010).
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Consultative meetings of NGOs to promote theintegration of Gender Perspective in ICT Policy
Development.

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5. Case Analysis:•Story Telling 1Ms. Chea Sipheng, Second Assistant of Chiefof Kor Ki Sangkat, Phnom Penh had
commitment to learn how citizen journalist
and ICT were interested in her work.

She initially engaged political activists ofHuman Rights to help people to solve
problems so it made her more popular inpolitics until she became the Second
Assistant to the Chief Commune. During
the election she was battled by many
men’s advocacy efforts, but she still
received her position as intended. She
was delighted that Open Instituteprovides the opportunity to attend
training and added that she was notaware of media practices and did notknow how to write news any way until
she received the appropriate training.

NWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
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195. Case Analysis: (Cont.)•Story Telling 2

1. Miss. Keang Hy, became a strong
facilitator in a youth club

My name is Keang Hy, 26 years
old; I live in house number 20D,
Street Veng Sreng, Sangkat Choam
Chao, Khan Dangkor, Phnom Penh.
After I got involved with Open
Institute, “it made me got wellcommunication with the other,
improve and building my ability,
participate in helping social, could
sharing information through theuse Facebook and email, knew
aboutsocialaccountability
meaning…”. I have become afacilitator at in National Youth
Senate’s KYSD.

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6. Best practices:
Take Back The Techmodel to use ICTfor discussion anddissemination ofinformation
onwomen right andeVAWMedia monitoringfor ending VAW

The Integration of gender sensitive in the draft of National ICT Policy 2015.
Integration of the promotion of the use of ICT and media in Neary Ratanak
and National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women (NAPVAW).
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7. Major Obstacles to reduce gender gaps in accessto ICTs and to overcome gender-bias in the media• 7.1. The challenges of women in ICT4 development:
Family responsibility such as take care husband, children, elderly person infamily (66%).
Female get less opportunities than male in getting chance to study more(64%).
State policy and sectoral implementation (60%), Language (57%).
Infrastructure (53%), High cost of Internet (52%)• 7.2.Challenging: VAW&ICT:
However, Women are concerned about the new form of VAW:
Some groups of people have been using ICTs for other purpose that against
women rights. Negative portrayal of women.
The growth of Internet tends to push the limits of a society's attitudes
towards acceptable media
images.
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7. Major Obstacles to reduce gender gaps in accessto ICTs and to overcome gender-bias in the media• 7.2. Challenging: VAW&ICT: (cont.)
Technology is moving across boundaries faster than the law can address. Thisis a blurred line between freedom of information and cultural preservation• 7.3. Government Policy
Since 2005 the Ministry of Information has set some rules for all media
organizations advising and reminding them to respect the press law Chapter
2, Article 7 that states “Publication of obscene texts or pictures or graphicallyviolent materials is prohibited.”
During the Annual Cambodian National Council for Women Meeting (NWC) in2007, the Prime Minister recommended that the Ministry of Interior closefacilities which show or sell obscene films.
Advocacy for improving the portrayal of women in themedia should bestepped up and continued, as there is still much progress to be madeNWEC 2014 Seminar for Gender Equality
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8. Conclusion and Policy
Recommendations•••

Stronger commitment of the government, donor agencies
and civil society for supporting consultative meetings for theintegration of gender sensitiveness in National ICT Policy
2015 and beyond; as well as support for the development ofsectoral ICT Policy.
Stronger commitment of government in nomination more
women to take decision maker post in ICT development
sector.
Stronger commitment of the government and donor support
for the integration of women in ICT development in nationalpolicy and action plan such as Neary Ratanak, National Action
Plan to Prevent VAW, National Strategy Development Plan.
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8. Conclusion and Policy
Recommendations•••

To add “ women in ICT development” in Joint Indicator Matrixof Cambodia Development Council.
Stronger cooperation between the government and UNWomen and with other donor agencies for theimplementation of the UN CEDAW Concluding Observation
point 19 c. about “…to explore the use of ICT for womenrights and gender equality.”
Stronger commitment of the government and donor
countries for the implementation of Beijing Declaration andPlatform for Action (Beijing 2004) about Women and Media.
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Thank you!

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