CC 8398 en

ISSN 2710-1622
NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE

OF AGRICULTURE AND
RURAL LIVELIHOODS
Cambodia
COUNTRY
GENDER
ASSESSMENT
SERIES
ASIA AND
THE PACIFIC
NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE
OF AGRICULTURE AND
RURAL LIVELIHOODS
COUNTRY GENDER ASSESSMENT SERIES
Cambodia
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Phnom Penh, 2023
Required citation:
FAO. 2024. National gender profile of agriculture and rural livelihoods – Cambodia. Country Gender Assessment Series. Phnom Penh.
https://doi.org/10.4060/cc8398en
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Contents
List of tables iv
Acknowledgements v
Abbreviations vi
Executive summary vii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Background 2
1.2 Scope and methodology 2
1.3 Limitations 3
1.4 FAO’s work in Cambodia 3
1.5 Structure of the report 4
2. Cambodia country context 5

2.1 National social and economic context 6
2.2 Human development and gender equality 6
2.2.1 Gender indexes in human development 6
2.2.2 Employment and access to decent work 6
2.2.3 Literacy, education, and vocational training 7
2.2.4 Land rights and inheritance 8
2.2.5 Health, food security and nutrition 9
2.2.6 Women’s participation in decision-making power, voice, and political representation 9
2.2.7 Gender-based violence and social norms 10
3. Policies and legal frameworks for gender responsive agriculture 11

3.1 Gender equality commitments, policies, and plans 12
3.2 Government mechanisms and institutional frameworks for gender equality 15
3.3 Gender aspects in agriculture and rural development policies and strategies 16
4. Gender analysis of the agriculture and rural sectors 19
4.1 Emerging gender inequalities in the agricultural value chains and rural livelihoods 20
4.1.1 Agricultural crops production 20
4.1.2 Livestock and poultry 21
4.1.3 Fisheries and aquaculture 21
4.1.4 Forestry 23
4.1.5 Livelihood diversifications 23
4.1.6 Access to agriculture value chains and markets 23
4.1.7 Access to finance services and credit 24
4.1.8 Access to agricultural Labour and migration 25
4.1.9 Access to and benefit from agricultural extension services and other services 27
4.1.10 Access to improved and innovative technologies, mechanization, and digitalization 27
4.1.11 Access to land and water 28
4.1.12 Women’s representation in agriculture administration and rural organizations 29
4.2 Challenges and gaps related to policy, legal and institutional context from a gender perspective 29
iii
5. Stakeholder analysis 31
6. Conclusions and recommendations 35

6.1 Conclusions 36
6.2 Recommendations 37
6.2.1 Recommendation for macro (policy) level 37
6.2.2 Recommendation for meso (institutional and technical) level 37
6.2.3 Recommendations for micro (community and household) level 38
References 39
Annexes
Annex 1: Interview guides with stakeholders 42
Annex 2: List of people consulted 45
List of tables
1: Summary of country programming frameworks of FAO Cambodia (2019-2023) 3

2: Summary of key data on women’s employment and labour force 7
3: Gender equality relevant policies and frameworks in Cambodia 13
4: Summary of government mechanisms and institutional framework for gender equality 15
5: Relevant policies and frameworks on gender in agriculture and rural development 18
6: Number of households raising livestock and poultry by sex of head of households and zone, 21
2019/2020 (in thousands and percent)
iv
Acknowledgements
This Country Gender Assessment (CGA) was commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO) to promote gender equality through knowledge generation and to accelerate the
implementation of the FAO Policy on Gender Equality and the Asia-Pacific Regional Gender Strategy and Action
Plan 2022–2025.
The assessment was conducted under the overall supervision of Rebekah Bell, FAO Representative in Cambodia,
the technical supervision of Kae Mihara, Regional Gender Officer of FAO Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAORAP),
and the direct supervision and coordination of Kosal Oum, Assistant FAO Representative (Programme) and
Gender Focal Point of FAO Cambodia, and Verdiana Biagioni Gazzoli, Programme Specialist of the Inclusive Rural
Transformation and Gender Equality division (ESP), FAO headquarters.
The report was prepared by Sereyroth Lim, National Gender Specialist with inputs from relevant colleagues within
the country office. The assessment benefited from technical inputs, editing and comments by Bettina Gatt,
International Expert on Gender and Child Labour in Fisheries of FAO Cambodia, Ide Nomomi, Economist of ESP,
FAO headquarters, and the Country UN Gender Thematic Group.
The CGA team would like to sincerely thank all representatives from government ministries, international and local
non-governmental organizations, development partners, agricultural cooperatives, producers and farmers who
were engaged in the interviewing, shared useful reports and documents, and provided their recommendations
for working towards gender equality in Cambodia. The team would particularly like to thank FAO colleagues who
provided support to facilitate and coordinate for meetings and interviews with all stakeholders. Finally, the team
would like to specially thank the women and men who participated in focus group discussions as part of the
fieldwork for this assessment.
v
Abbreviations
ADB Asian Development Bank

AIPP Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact
CA conservation agriculture
CARDI Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute
CAS Cambodia Agriculture Survey
CDHS Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey
CDRI Cambodia Development Resource Institute
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
CF community forestry
CFi community fishery
CPF Country Programming Framework
CSES Cambodia Social and Economic Survey
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FiA Fishery Administration
FWUCs Farmer Water User Committees
GMAG Gender Mainstreaming Action Groups
GMPSFA Gender Mainstreaming Policy and Strategic Framework in Agriculture
GRAISEA Gender Transformative and Responsible Agribusiness Investment in South-East Asia
IFC International Finance Corporation
MAFF Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
MEF Ministry of Economic and Finance
MLMUPC Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction
MoWA Ministry of Women’s Affairs
MoWRAM Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology
MRD Ministry of Rural Development
MSME micro, small, and medium enterprises
NGO non-governmental organization
NIS National Institute of Statistics
RGC Royal Government of Cambodia
RUA Royal University of Agriculture
SDG Sustainable Development Goals
SNV Foundation of Netherlands Volunteers
TVET technical and vocational education and training
UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization
UNSDCF United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework
WAT4CAM Water Resource Management and Agro-ecological Transition for Cambodia
WFP World Food Programme
vi
Executive summary
Gender equality is central to FAO’s mandate in in resources management (including financial,

achieving the elimination of poverty, hunger and business management skills, digital marketing,
malnutrition and essential in achieving the SDGs and human resources, etc.) of women as compared to
the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. men. Women in the rural areas have limited access to
and control of productive resources, natural resources,
The Country Gender Assessment (CGA) of Agriculture services, and to markets and other opportunities to
and the Rural Sector is mandated in the FAO’s Policy scale up their businesses. Furthermore, there is still few
on Gender Equality 2020-2030 and is required by women holding high-ranking positions at government
the Country Programming Guidelines. The CGA level, with lower representation at decision-making
contributes to the formulation of the next Country positions as compared to men. Moreover, there is still
Programming Framework (2024-2028), a framework a lack of sex-disaggregated and gender specific data
which will be developed by FAO and the Royal and research in the sectors.
Government of Cambodia to support in enhancing
understanding women’s and men’s roles in agriculture Key lessons taken from some selected initiatives
and rural development. It also contributes to advancing from stakeholder’s consultations, documents review,
gender equality and women’s empowerment for food and key informant interviews are highlighted in the
security, nutrition and poverty alleviation. ‘stakeholders’ analysis’ section of this report.
The CGA assessed men’s and women’s roles, gender The following recommendations below are drawn
division of labour and gender gaps, including from the gender findings and conclusion of the CGA
women’s needs and constraints in agriculture and in agriculture and rural sector at different levels:
rural development sectors. The study assessed policies macro, meso, micro including for FAO country
and frameworks pertaining to gender equality in programme in Cambodia.
agricultural and rural development. Moreover, good
practices have been collected through key informant
interviews with FAO’s project and programme staff, Recommendations for macro (policy) level:
development partners, private and public counterparts
• Promote equal representation of women and
relevant to both sectors.
men in decision-making and in the workforce of
governmental institutions at all levels.
Gender equality promotion and achievements to
advance women’s empowerment have been widely • Improving the investment and business
recognized in Cambodia through key policies, environment by government ministries, including
mechanisms, and initiatives in agricultural and rural the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
sectors. The analysis found that girls and women (MAFF) to encourage the creation of agri-
farmers have been more recognized and given businesses for small-scale holders, including
opportunities in Cambodian political and economic women-led micro, small and medium enterprises.
activities compared to the past two decades. Tax incentives, innovation matching grant funds
However, gender inequalities remain. These include: and agri-business incubators can be considered to
entrenched unbending gender and social norms support the growth of innovative small and medium
that place men and boys as superior to women agri-business enterprises, especially among young
and girls; women with the ‘triple work burden’ of women business entrepreneurs.
multitasking, including unpaid jobs and social roles • Identify and work with gender champions within
but with less recognition of women’s roles, limited Cambodian and development partner institutions
representation and opportunities in leadership tasks to advance efforts in making the trade and business
and roles; limited educational access to agricultural environment more gender sensitive.
technique skills and related technologies, capacity
vii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
© FAO/TANG CHHIN Sothy
viii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• Enhance capacities of the government at the • Promote the integration of gender transformative
national and sub-national level, and communities approaches in agricultural and rural development
to address gender challenges by enforcing programmes and applying at different levels
related policies and the management of fisheries to reduce gender norms and bias stereotypes
and farming resources, community forestry at various policy, institutional community, and
conservations, and land rights. household level.
• Advocate for initiatives, research and studies for

better evidence of gender gaps and women’s
Recommendations for meso
needs, as well as practices that promote gender
(institutional and technical) level:
equality evidence which provide for a
better-informed decision-making at policy
Institutional level:
and practitioner levels.
• Operation and management:
• Advocate for resources mobilisation efforts that
• Improve gender integration and mainstreaming contribute to closing gender gaps and promote
approaches, tools and the design, monitoring, gender equality in agriculture, food and nutrition,
and evaluation frameworks: in compliance to technology, and rural development, including
SDGs, institutional policy for gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and climate
CEDAW and relevant frameworks of the RGC, change issues.
the project’s management framework.
• Ensure that gender analysis and assessment
is integrated into each project proposal and
Technical level:
formulation, with inclusion of gender indicators
and objectives. This includes gender data and • Joint government and stakeholders’ efforts in
information such as sex-disaggregated data improving market information platforms, transport
and ensures that gender-differentiated infrastructure, adoption of climate resilient
impacts are embedded or enhanced across agriculture technologies, digital skills where men
projects/programmes, including relevant and women farmers can access price information
research and studies related to agriculture and marketplaces.
and rural development. • Establish initiatives for better ecosystem services
• Identify, assign, or recruit gender focal points that enable agricultural-businesses, commercial
within the institution and counterparts of line viability, particularly for produces and products from
ministries and sub-sectors. start-ups, smallholder farmers, and disadvantaged
• Encourage for gender equality compliance groups such as minorities or indigenous groups.
across institutional management frameworks. • Efforts for better financing in agricultural value
This includes reviewing the current practices chains should be promoted at all levels. Initiatives
and mainstreaming gender considerations in and funds include investors, grants, value chain
recruitment processes of the implementing financing, or revolving funds that support farmers
institution and of partners. cooperatives or groups at production or
• Enhance technical skills and knowledge post-harvest actors.
on gender equality, gender mainstreaming
• Assist farming communities, fisheries-dependent
and women’s empowerment within staff,
communities, farmers’ organizations, and other key
counterparts and other key stakeholders at all
stakeholders at the sub-national level to improve
levels. Ensure curriculum for an orientation
their adaptive capacity to climate change, and to
and refresher training to all relevant staff
be ready in responding to natural threats and
on guideline for gender sensitization and
related crises.
awareness, and for mainstreaming gender into
project cycles, any new developed tools. • Work in collaboration with the national
councils, governmental institutions, civil society
• Promote the best practices and user guides of
organizations, development partners and private
gender mainstreaming and producing more good
sectors to encourage and support in applying new
practices and user guides with adequate resource
technologies that should be in support of women’s
and budget for development of case study and
processing, post-harvest and marketing activities,
conducting research.
as well as their production activities.
ix
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
© FAO/Enric Catala Conteras
Recommendations for micro • Promote voices and representation of women, poor

(community and household) level: and vulnerable groups in the farmer associations,
community fisheries, forestry, customary land
• Increase more women trainers and provide more
and climate change issues and establish special
capacity activities on climate resilience agriculture
measures to address gender challenges.
techniques, administrative, financial literacy,
and leadership skills to existing and new women • Support the community and multi-stakeholder
smallholders, female members and leaders of to address gender issues/challenges in climate
farmer’s associations and community resilience and smart agriculture, fisheries, forestry,
conservative groups. customary land, and climate change related risk
and crisis.
• Enhance knowledge and skills for the community
enterprise groups, associations, and women
farmer on entrepreneurial skills, including business
development concepts, financial literacy, loan and
credit management, and related leadership skills.
x
1
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background 1.2 Scope and methodology
Gender equality is central to FAO’s mandate in The assessment used methods as a combination of
achieving the elimination of poverty, hunger and literature review, policy analysis and consultations
malnutrition and essential to achieve the SDGs and with stakeholders. Data collection methods
the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. employed include:
The FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030 aims
Desk review: the desk review encompassed relevant
to “achieving equality between women and men in
existing national, regional, and global policies,
sustainable agriculture and rural development for
frameworks, programmes, and projects to understand
the elimination of hunger and poverty”. This policy
the context and to assess issues relevant to gender
represents the main guiding framework for FAO’s
equality and opportunities for advancement of rural
technical and normative work, and to support the
women in agriculture, food security and nutrition in
establishment of institutional mechanisms for gender
the country. An online search was conducted to get
mainstreaming. The four-year regional gender strategy
updated relevant policies and frameworks.
and action plan 2022-2025 for Asia and the Pacific
were developed in line with the FAO Policy on Gender Key information interviews and consultations
Equality 2020-2030 and the FAO Strategic Framework. were conducted from August to September 2022
to identify and understand the different roles, needs,
The Country Gender Assessment (CGA) of Agriculture obstacles, and opportunities of men and women
and the Rural Sector is mandated in the FAO’s Policy engaging in agriculture and rural development,
on Gender Equality and required by the corporate and to formulate concrete recommendations on
Country Programming Guidelines. The CGA the advancement of gender equality and women’s
contributes to the formulation of the next Country empowerment in agriculture and rural sector.
Programming Framework (2024-2028) that will The research team met around fifty women and men
be developed between the FAO and the Royal key relevant stakeholders, including FAO project staff
Government of Cambodia to support advancing and development partners/agencies through their
gender equality and women’s empowerment which work with farmers and the communities directly.
are key for improved food security and nutrition. They were asked to share gender case studies and
The CGA supports efforts to enhance understanding context with relevant gender-relevant data and reports.
of women’s and men’s roles in agriculture and the Interviews with government agencies were
rural economy in Cambodia. conducted through face-to-face and online meetings
with key ministries and departments involved in
The primary objectives of this assessment are agriculture and rural development including
1) to provide information to the Royal Government sub-agriculture sectors of the Ministry of Agriculture,
of Cambodia to support the development and Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Ministry of Women’s
implementation of effective policies and plans to Affairs (MoWA), Ministry of Environment, Ministry of
tackle gender inequalities and to empower rural Rural Development (MRD), Ministry of Water Resources
women in all areas of life, 2) to inform FAO country and Meteorology (MoWRAM), Ministry of Economic
level planning and programming in line with the and Finance (MEF), Cambodian Agricultural Research
national development priorities on promoting gender and Development Institute (CARDI). International
equality in agriculture and rural development in organizations, including UN Women, UNIDO, UNDP,
Cambodia, and 3) to facilitate FAO’s support to UN WFP, and ADB in Cambodia were also consulted for
inter-agency activities, including the United Nations this assessment. The guiding questions are included
Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework in Annex 1 and the list of organizations that were
(UNSDCF) and its contribution to the UN Country interviewed is in Annex 2.
Team CEDAW report with up-to-date information of
the situation of rural women and gender inequalities Interviews with civil society organizations and the
in rural Cambodia. private sector partners: both face to face and online
interviews and workshops were also conducted to gain
their perspectives on key gender inequality issues and
opportunities for supporting positive changes in the
enabling environment for gender-inclusive practice.
2 NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA

INTRODUCTION
The list of organizations that were interviewed is • The researcher was not able to directly interview
in Annex 2 and the guiding questions are included farmers in the field. Analysis was limited to available
in Annex 1. data and consultations with groups and networks
that represent beneficiaries and secondary data
of available projects and programmes. This was
1.3 Limitations: supplemented with qualitative data from interviews
with key FAO’s projects’ focal points, stakeholders,
Limitations of the gender assessment are as follows: and extended relevant studies and research, etc.
• Lack of gender-disaggregated data given that

gender statistics are often compiled from data
1.4 FAO’s work in Cambodia
sources developed for other purposes, the scope
of the analysis is limited by data availability.
FAO Representation in Cambodia works closely
This is exemplified by the lack of sex-disaggregated
with the Royal Government of Cambodia and in
statistics on agricultural-related sectors such as land
collaboration with development partners to achieve
use, livestock, water management, climate impact,
three key outcomes of the Country Programming
livelihood diversifications, etc. Thus, this assessment
Framework (CPF) 2019-2023 (FAO, 2019a).
used existing data from the National Institute of
This CGA assesses sub-sectors under the CPF
Statistics (NIS)’s Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey
framework as below:
(CSES), Cambodia Inter-Censal Agriculture Survey
2019 (CICAS), Cambodia Agricultural Survey 2020
(CAS), and Cambodia Demographic and Health
Survey (CDHS).
Table 1: Summary of country programming frameworks of FAO Cambodia (2019-2023)
Key outcomes Sub-Sectors and cross-cutting issues
1) Enhanced agricultural • Gender roles and dynamics

productivity, diversification and • Food security and nutrition
commercialization,
• Livestock
and safe and nutrition-sensitive
food systems for poverty reduction • Crops
and food and nutrition security. • Fisheries and aquaculture
• Agricultural value chains/agri-food systems, infrastructure,
markets and agro-food trade
• Rural finance
2) Equitable and sustainable • Migration

management of natural resources, • Land
and increased capacity to monitor
• Water for agricultural use
and report climate action.
• Forestry
• Participation in development planning and decision-making
in the public sphere
3) Reduction of vulnerability, and • Agricultural and rural employment

improved resilience to climate • Rural advisory services (agricultural extension services)
change and shocks at national,
• Climate change, disaster risk reduction and management
community and household level.
• Technology
• Social protection
• Representation in rural organizations
Source: Authors’ own elaboration.
NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA 3

INTRODUCTION
The CPF sets out three country priority areas to 3) Ensuring environmental sustainability and
guide FAO in partnership with and in support of the readiness to respond to climate change: RGC’s
Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC), to promote goal is to minimize environmental impacts, to
innovative international best practices and global enhance the capacity to adapt to climate change,
standards through the provision of national, regional and to contribute to climate change mitigation
and international expertise from 2019 to 2023. for sustainable development. Key priorities
including promoting sustainable consumption
The CPF was developed in line with the RGC’s and production, climate-friendly technologies,
Rectangular Strategy Phase 4 (RS4) for Growth, carbon trading mechanisms, financing for climate
Employment, Equity and Efficiency, and the National change actions, clean and renewable energy,
Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2019–2023. solid and liquid waste management, development
The RS4 provides the framework for policies and and implementation of integrated water resource
strategies addressing poverty reduction and promoting management plan, implementation of key national
economic empowerment; and strengthening “gender strategies and action plans.
equity” is one of the major focus areas in the first
strategic rectangular of human resource development
(RGC, 2018a). This has been further elaborated in the 1.5 Structure of the report
NSDP (2019-2023), which focuses on promoting the
role of women in political and technical positions at The report consists of six main sections. Section one
the national and sub-national levels, mainstreaming is the introduction which includes the background of
gender in government initiatives and policies, and the assessment, scope, and methodology, including
promoting women’s economic empowerment, data collection, followed by a brief explanation of
particularly through entrepreneurship and increased FAO’s country programming framework in Cambodia.
access to technical and vocational training for women Section two describes the country context focusing
(RGC, 2018b). on an overview of social and economic context,
human development, and gender equality. Section
The FAO CPF is relevant to the following three key three includes country’s policy, legal and institutional
priorities of the RS4 on inclusive and sustainable arrangements, and mechanisms to promote gender
development: equality and women’s empowerment. Section four
is devoted to gender analysis of the agriculture and
1) Promoting the agriculture sector and rural
rural sector with more focus on identifying challenges
development: RGC’s goals are to strengthen the
and gaps related to political and policy commitments
role of the agriculture sector in jobs generation,
and institutional context, gender inequalities, issues
to ensure food security, reduce poverty, and to
and constraints in agriculture, food security, and rural
support rural areas. The focus aims at improving
sector. Section five is a stakeholder analysis of key
productivity, quality, and diversification, promoting
programmes and projects with some selected
agro-processing industry and market linkage,
initiatives to promote gender equality in agriculture.
boosting vegetable production for import
Finally, section six summarizes the main findings of
substitution, improving irrigation infrastructure,
the report and the recommendations.
and at developing and implementing a number of
regulations, strategies and action plans.
2) Sustainable management of natural resources

and culture: RGC’s goal is to ensure a balance
between development and conservation.
Key priorities include ensuring sustainable
management of forest, wildlife and fisheries
resources and ecosystems; maintaining forest cover
up to 60 percent, protection and conservation of
biodiversity, wetland and coastal areas; promoting
engagement of communities in the protection and
management of natural resources, and restoration.

CAMBODIA
2 COUNTRY
CONTEXT
CAMBODIA COUNTRY CONTEXT
2.1 National social and economic context 2.2.2 Employment and access to decent work
Women have significantly been engaging in
Cambodia’s economy has been rapidly growing economic activities in the country. In 2020, the
over the last decade, despite the impact of the women’s labour participation rate in Cambodia was
global COVID-19 pandemic. The poverty rate has 84.1 percent compared to men’s labour participation
dropped significantly from 22.9 percent in 2009 to rate of 91 percent (MoP and NIS, 2021). The CESES
13.5 percent in 2014 (World Bank, 2019). However, showed that women aged 15 to 64 years were
the National Social and Economic Survey (CSES) employed at 38 percent in the agriculture, forestry
report revealed that the country’s poverty rate and fishing sectors while 24.2 percent were in
increased to 17.8 percent (2020), largely due to industry sector and 27.8 percent in providing services
impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Poverty is (MoP and NIS, 2021).
mainly concentrated in rural areas with 40 percent
of the rural population living in multidimensional However, only 41.2 percent of women in the labour
poverty, compared to 7 percent in urban settings market are salaried workers, while 58.8 percent are
(MoP and NIS, 2021). in vulnerable employment, with insecure working
conditions, low pay, and no access to social
About 30 percent of GDP was attributed to protection (MoP and NIS, 2021). In the agriculture
agriculture from 2010 to 2019. In 2019, the sector sector, the majority of women are represented in
employed more than 4.5 million workers annually, low-skilled and low-paid roles. Unpaid family work
of which 60 percent were rural and 52.2 percent involved 25.7 percent of rural women, more than
were women (ADB, 2021). twice higher than rural men at 11.5 percent. Most
female household member workers are not paid for
Thus, the agriculture sector plays a crucial role in their work contributing to agricultural households
supporting economic growth, alleviating poverty (MoP and NIS, 2021).
through strengthening the rural economy and
promoting sustainable development. Moreover, women still earn an average of 19 percent
less than men for equivalent work. This is tied to
gender disparities in education (a higher share of
2.2 Human development and no primary education, and lower tertiary enrolment),
gender equality as well as labour market discrimination,
gender-segregated occupations, and social norms
2.2.1 Gender indexes in human development associated with women’s primary domestic role
Cambodia’s gender-related indexes are ranked the (UN Cambodia, 2022).
lowest among the neighboring countries in the
ASEAN region. Cambodia is ranked 117th out of 189 Although women accounted for 65 percent of
countries in the Gender Inequality Index (GII) (UNDP, all business owners in Cambodia, the majority of
2020). GII is a measure reflecting inequality between women’s businesses are informal microenterprises
women and men in three different dimensions: including in agriculture sector. 51 percent of women
reproductive health (maternal mortality ratio and entrepreneurs employs only one person, and
adolescent birth rate), empowerment (share of 96 percent engage four or fewer persons.
parliamentary seats held by women and share of the Women-owned businesses face several challenges,
population with at least some secondary education), including limited access to resources to expand
and labour market participation (labour force their business such as information on markets,
participation rate). financial inputs, new technologies and processes,
communications, and limited access to professional
Cambodia is also ranked 98th out of 146 countries in and technical training (ADB, 2014).
the Global Gender Gap Report (2022) (WEF, 2022).
This is an improvement from 103rd rank in 2021 with Unequal caregiving and domestic loads are major
an overall performance in closing the gender gaps structural barriers for women to take and stay in paid
with a score of 0.69. The biggest gender gap in employment, undertake skills training, and pursue
Cambodia (ranked 121st) is in political empowerment opportunities for career development. Childcare
category, specifically with less women in ministerial is available through a range of formal providers
positions and seats in parliament. including government-managed public pre-schools

and a small number of NGO-led community-based nearby childcare options for garment workers.
models in rural areas. The UN reported that, as It also noted the insufficient childcare allowance
of 2018, there were only two enterprise-funded from employers, with 70 percent of companies
childcare centers in garment factories, the major providing less than USD 10 per child per month as a
employing industry of reproductive-aged women milk or formula allowance (My, 2021). The estimated
(UN Cambodia, 2022). average cost of childcare is USD 100 per month
for one child. There is limited data on the informal
Moreover, limited social assistance for childcare is provision of childcare by family members, although
a barrier for women’s access to paid employment. reports refer to grandparents but also children,
An International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s study primarily girls taking on care roles (IFC, 2020).
in 2020 confirmed the limited number of onsite or
Table 2: Summary of key data on women’s employment and labour force
Employment and labour force Women (percent) Men (percent)
Labour force participation 84.1 91.0
Employment 81.0 90.0
• Paid employee/employer 41.2 53.6
• Own account/self-employed worker 38.6 37.1
• Unpaid family worker 20.2 9.3
• Unpaid family worker in rural areas 25.7 11.5
• In Agriculture 38.0 33.0
• Industrial 24.2 27.9
• Service 37.8 39.1
Women’s earning on average less than men – gender wage gap 19.0
Women-led businesses (MSMEs) 65.0
Source: Asian Development Bank. 2018. Detailed Gender Analysis. Cambodia: Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector.
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/linked-documents/48409-002-sd-06.pdf
Ministry of Planning, National Institute of Statistics, 2018. Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2017.
https://www.nis.gov.kh/nis/CSES/Final Report CSES 2017.pdf
United Nations Cambodia. 2022. Common country analysis – gender equality deep dive for Cambodia.
2.2.3 Literacy, education, and vocational training There has been significant progress in achieving
In Cambodia, the adult literacy rate has been gender parity in basic education of the country.
improving over the past decades, from 77.6 percent Of the total of net enrolment students, net
in 2008 to 87.7 percent in 2020 (World Bank, 2022). enrolment rate of girls is 49 percent at the primary
The adult literacy rate for rural population is lower school level and 53 percent at the secondary level
than that for the urban population, at 83.3 percent (Ministry of Education Youth and Sports, 2022).
compared to 93.3 percent. Women have a lower On skillsets and tertiary education, even though the
literacy rate as compared to men, at 86.2 percent number of female students in tertiary education and
versus 91.1 percent respectively (World Bank, 2022). Technical and Vocational Education and Training
(TVET) has been increased, it is still a lower number,
particularly for non-traditional areas of study,

© FAO/Keo Sopheak
such as science, technology, engineering, and math. 2.2.4 Land rights and inheritance
For TVET, women often participated less in In Cambodia, the 2001 Land Law establishes a system
high-skilled and high-demand training programmes, for the systematic titling of the land but does not
where occupations are higher paid and more valued. explicitly provide for joint registration of common
Women also face further challenges, including marital property. Beginning in 2002, the Government
lack of accommodations, financial barriers, lack of of Cambodia started efforts to systematically
connection between vocational education and labour classify and register all land parcels according to the
market demands, and limited part-time programmes. categories detailed in the 2001 Land Law. In 2008,
These challenges in both basic education and TVET there was a change in the land titling process to
explain the constraints on the participation of girls ensure the strengthening of women’s access to land
and women. A recent study also indicated that gender tenure. The change provided for the registration of
disparities in education and experience contribute to the names of both spouses. Certificates of land title
6 percent and 14 percent respectively of the gross can be granted by the local Cadastral Administration
gender wage gap (UNDP, 2021). Office, although the process of obtaining a land title
is lengthy and often includes delays. Many women
Gender gaps in access to education are particularly also struggle to get land registered in their name due
evident among ethnic minorities and people with to a lack of information about land rights and land
disabilities. Indigenous women in Cambodia have title processes in the law (Cambodia Land Law, 2008).
a higher illiteracy rate and fewer educational
opportunities than their male counterparts (IWGIA, A report by FAO (2022) indicated that, in Cambodia,
2022). The drop-out rate for both Indigenous female women hold more than 18 percent of the land title
and male adolescents aged 14-18 is of significant and 63 percent of land title is conjugal (MoLMUPC,
concern. Girls are more affected than boys due to a 2019). Even though progress has been made for
higher demand on girls to do extra household chores gender equity in land tenure, women still face several
during COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a widening challenges. Women in female-headed households
educational disparity for people with disabilities and and rural women in male-headed households face
people living in poverty (UN Cambodia, 2022). barriers in access to land titles including customary
practices that undermine the principles of joint
land ownership (Land Portal, 2022). Gender-biased
norms often prevent women from exercising or

claiming their rights. Consequently, land titles are In 2017, one in five Cambodian people and in some
mostly registered in the name of men (MAFF, 2022). parts of the country two in three people could not
In addition, many rural women are facing the risk of even afford the least expensive nutritious diet
losing their land in case of a divorce, widowhood or (CARD and WFP, 2017). Thus, children in Cambodia
their husband’s migration since many poor families are not consuming adequate quantities of needed
in rural Cambodia lack vital registered records nutrients. After COVID-19, Cambodian households
for identification of property ownership such as reported that they responded to reduced food access
marriage certificates, separation certificates, spouse by switching to cheaper food, with more than half of
disappearance confirmation, etc. households cutting the size of meals and reducing
intake of foods with important nutrients. This affects
2.2.5 Health, food security and nutrition more on women and girls due to their social norms
In the 2022 Global Hunger Index, Cambodia ranks and given priority to feeding and taking care of family
75th out of the 121 countries with a score of 17.1 members, especially men (considered as breadwinner
indicating that Cambodia has a moderate level of the family) and boys. Notably, the proportion of
of hunger (Global Hunger Index, 2022). Although women meeting the standards for minimum dietary
Cambodia has made significant progress in improving diversity dropped from 68 percent to 55 percent in
food security and nutrition and health services, these 2021 (UNICEF and WFP, 2021).
issues remain a challenge for young children, women
and many rural people. Female-led households’ share Women play a crucial role in Cambodia’s food
of moderate or severe food insecurity in 2022 was at system. They are involved in production, processing,
28.7 percent compared to 23.1 percent of male-led transport and preparation of food. Cambodian
households (MOP and NIS, 2022). The preliminary women undertake diverse activities, from unpaid
finding of Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey work, such as cooking food for their families on a
(CDHS) 2021-2022 also shows that the prevalence of daily basis, to generating livelihood through their
stunning (chronic malnutrition) in children under five work in the farming activities. Most of women are
was reduced from 32 percent in 2014 to 22 percent also involved in harvest and post-harvest activities
in 2022 while 10 percent of children under five still and have roles in their community.
suffer wasting (acute malnutrition). This has remained
unchanged in the past decade. The level is even Moreover, women’s fundamental role in providing
higher in some provinces where the level of wasting food security and maintaining the role of caregiver,
exceeds the emergency level at over 15 percent. In being responsible for most of the housework and
contrast, childhood overweight and obesity levels raising children, is usually considered an expectation
have doubled in recent years. This issue of overweight of their traditional gendered role. Women have
and obesity is also increasingly high among women at limited access to needed resources and unequal
reproductive age at 18 percent. Most women who are decision-making powers at different levels,
overweight are older women. including at household and community levels
(EU in Cambodia, 2021).
This malnutrition is a major concern contributing
to mortality and decreased health and productivity, 2.2.6 Women’s participation in decision-making
including the maternal and child mortality death power, voice, and political representation
rate. A recent report in July 2022 from the joint UN Women’s participation in decision-making and
agencies pointed out Cambodia now faces new leadership remains limited in both the public and
threats to food security and nutrition as local and private sectors. The proportion of women in the
global food prices have increased dramatically. National Assembly is only 20.8 percent (26 out of
This has been compounded with existing 125 seats) and 16 percent in the Senate (10 out of
socio-economic vulnerabilities due to COVID-19 62 seats) (MoWA, 2019).
pandemic and multiple climate shocks. Due to the
rise of local prices, especially on inputs supply, the Although women accounted for 41 percent of civil
prices of locally produced food, including widely servants, women’s representation in government
consumed like duck eggs and morning glory and administration and decision-making is generally
imported products for daily consumptions have also at the lowest levels of the hierarchy in all levels of
rapidly increased. government from the national to the local level. In
2020, women made up about 16 percent of senior
government positions from Under-Secretary of State

to Deputy Prime Minister. One woman (10 percent) that it had considerable negative impact on their
held the position of deputy prime minister, three physical and/or mental health, ranging from physical
women (10.3 percent) were ministers, 17 percent of injuries to loss of concentration and memory loss,
secretaries of state, and undersecretaries of state to having suicidal thoughts (MoWA and WHO, 2014).
or holders of equal ranks, were women. Women The emotional abuse may be less visible but equally
comprised less than 10 percent in the positions of devastating. It was reported that almost one third of
general directors and deputy general directors as well women (32 percent) have experienced emotional
as the directors of the department (MoWA, 2022). abuse from their partner (MoWA and WHO, 2014).
At the subnational level, there was only one-woman The prevalence of violence against women is higher
governor (4 percent) at the provincial or capital level, in rural areas than in urban areas with 29.6 percent
and 7 women (3.5 percent) out of 197 municipality/ and 23.1 percent respectively. Women in rural areas,
district/khan governors. There were more female particularly those having lower income and those
deputy governors, with women comprising 26 of 150 with no schooling or lower levels of education are
(17.3 percent) capital/provincial deputy governors, more likely to experience violence (MoWA, 2016).
and 25.2 percent of municipality/district/khan deputy
governors (MoWA, 2022). The proportion of women’s Reports from men confirms that IPV is pervasive in
representation in the commune/Sangkat council (CC) Cambodia. More than one in three (36 percent) of
increased from 14 percent in 2017 to 22 percent in ever-partnered men reported perpetrating physical
2022. There is an increase in women as commune/ and/or sexual violence against a female partner
Sangkat chiefs from 7.8 percent in 2017 to 10 percent during their lifetime (Fulu, 2013), and this was true
in 2022 (NEC, 2022). across different ages, regions, and income levels.
Men also reported particularly high rates of economic
2.2.7 Gender-based violence and social norms abuse. More than half of ever-partnered men (53
Numerous forms of gender-based violence (GBV), percent) had perpetrated some type of economic
including rape, domestic violence (DV), and intimate abuse (Fulu, 2013).
partner violence (IPV), affect many men, women,
boys, and girls in Cambodia, but reporting of The cost of sexual harassment of garment workers–
incidents remains low. Poor access to services and in turnover, absenteeism and reduced productivity
justice for survivors are serious constraints. on the job – has been estimated at almost USD 89
million per year (CARE International, 2017). Research
However, there has been progress in addressing into sexual harassment found that 89 percent
GBV. The National Action Plan on Violence Against of all respondents (not just those who reported
Women 2019-2023, coordinated by the Ministry of harassment) felt unsafe working or studying at night
Women’s Affairs (MoWA), has been developed to and 24 percent felt unsafe when using public spaces
include contemporary issue and new initiatives to at any time (ActionAid, 2014).
more effectively address violence against women.
Based on secondary data analysis of the report of Harmful social norms and gender discrimination
Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey 2014 are both a cause and consequence of violence
on women’s experience of domestic violence, both against women and girls. Harmful social norms
physical and sexual violence remain major concerns including patriarchal values that condone violence
for adult women. One in five women aged 15-49 against women and children remain the main
have experienced physical violence at least once barriers hindering Cambodian women from gaining
in their lifetime and 6 percent of them had been wider opportunities for economic empowerment,
exposed to sexual violence at least once since they participation in the household and in different levels
were born. 85 percent of ever-married women who of decision-making, enjoying career development,
experienced sexual violence also experienced other and acting against domestic violence. Women and
forms of violence (including physical and emotional men still believe that husbands can beat their wife
violence). Nearly half of ever-married women aged or female partners for a specific reason, mostly
15-49 who had suffered both physical and sexual related to unperforming well in their roles at home.
violence perpetrated by their partners sustained Cambodia’s cultural practices and gender norms
physical injuries. Another national survey from MoWA continue to contribute to gender inequality in the
and WHO showed that one quarter of women who division of labour at the household level (MoP and
had experienced physical or sexual IPV reported NIS, 2014).

POLICIES AND LEGAL
3 FRAMEWORKS FOR GENDER
RESPONSIVE AGRICULTURE
© FAO/Than Rathany
POLICIES AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS FOR GENDER RESPONSIVE AGRICULTURE
Cambodia has developed a robust policy and the framework for policies and strategies addressing
institutional framework to promote gender equality poverty reduction and promoting economic
and support gender-responsive agriculture. This empowerment in four strategic areas: (i) human
section includes a summary of gender equality in resource development, (ii) economic diversifications,
agriculture commitments and policies of the RGC, (iii) promotion of private sector development and
and the national and sub-national institutional employment, and (iv) inclusive and sustainable
mechanism and frameworks for gender development. The strategy recognizes gender equality
responsiveness in agriculture. as a key component of national development, capacity
building, and human resources development, and
highlights the need to further improve the status of
3.1 Gender equality commitments, women, who are the backbone of national economy
policies, and plans and society (RGC, 2019). This has been further
elaborated in the National Strategic Development
The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has Plan (2019-2023), which focuses on promoting the
indicated a commitment to promoting gender role of women in political and technical positions at
equality and the empowerment of women and girls. the national and sub-national levels, mainstreaming
This is reflected in a number of gender-focused gender aspects in government initiatives and policies,
policies and national strategic plans. and promoting women’s economic empowerment,
particularly through entrepreneurship and increased
Cambodia has ratified almost all international human access to technical and vocational training for women
rights instruments, several of which are relevant in the (RGC, 2018).
advancement of gender equality and protection of
women’s and girls’ rights, notably the Convention on The Fifth Neary Ratanak – a five-year national
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against strategic plan (2019-2023) developed under the
Women (CEDAW) and the CEDAW Optional Protocol, coordination of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, also
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and provides comprehensive framework and objectives for
Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of mainstreaming gender and women’s empowerment
the Child. It also endorsed the Beijing Platform for in sectoral policies, strategic plans, and development
Action in 1995 on advancing gender equality and programmes at all levels throughout the country.
women’s empowerment (GEWE) and the Beijing+25 It focuses on key strategic areas related to women’s
review report which also called for the action, to economic development, education, health, legal
ensure that all people, particularly women and girls protection, women’s public leadership and politics,
living in poverty and in vulnerable situations benefit and climate change.
from inclusive economic growth and development
(UNESCAP, 2019). The constitution of Cambodia also Cambodia has enacted several laws to promote and
clearly states that men and women are equal before protect women’s and girls’ rights and interests. This
the law and that women should be free from all forms includes the 2001 Land Law to ensure women’s
of violence and exploitation (RGC, 2008). and men’s equal rights to land ownership, the 2005
laws on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and
Cambodia has endorsed the 2030 agenda for the Protections of Victims, and the 2008 Law on
Sustainable Development. The Cambodia Sustainable the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual
Development Goals (SDGs) 2016-2030 provides a Exploitation. Cambodia also endorsed a National
strong framework to promote gender equality and Social Protection Policy Framework (2016-2025)
improve the status of women, particularly in the SDG which has recently been expanded to cover women
goal 5 on gender equality, the SDG goal 2 to ‘end and girls in vulnerable situations, including those
hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition experiencing shocks. It has limited scope in
and promote sustainable agriculture’, and the SDG goal addressing gender-related issues, including unpaid
12 on responsive consumption and production. care and domestic work.
Aligned with the above international frameworks The National Social Protection Policy Framework
and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 2016–2025 is comprised of two main pillars: Social
Rectangular Strategy for Growth, Employment, Equity Assistance and Social Security. It has been developed
and Efficiency Phase IV 2019-2023 (RS-IV) provides using a life cycle approach to the social protection

system. Social Assistance foresees interventions poor and vulnerable people, including people living
for the poor and most vulnerable and includes four close to the poverty line, infants, children, pregnant
components: 1) emergency response, 2) human capital women, families with food insecurity, people with
development 3) vocational training and 4) welfare for disabilities and the elderly.
vulnerable people. Social security focuses on assisting
Table 3: Gender equality relevant policies and frameworks in Cambodia
Sector Name of Strategy/Plan Key Focus
Women’s rights Convention on the Elimination of All Rights-based approaches towards

Forms of Discrimination Against prevention and protection of all forms
Women (CEDAW) of discrimination against women.
Human rights International Covenant on Economic, Rights-based approaches towards

Social and Cultural Rights economic, social and cultural rights.
Child’s rights Convention on the Rights of the Child Prevention and Protection of
(Girl’s rights) Child’s rights.
Gender equality Beijing Platform for Action Advancing gender equality and
women’s empowerment (GEWE)
Economic Beijing+25 Actions reviewed for women and girls

development living in poverty and in vulnerable
situations to benefit from inclusive
economic growth and development.
Sustainable Sustainable Development Goals Promoting gender equality and

development (SDGs) – goal 5 improve the status of women.
Rectangular Strategy for Growth, Poverty reduction and promoting

Employment, Equity and Efficiency economic empowerment in four
Phase IV 2019–2023 (RS-IV) strategic areas.
Gender and The Fifth Neary Ratanak 2019–2023 Mainstreaming gender and women’s
women’s economic empowerment aspects in sectoral
empowerment policies, strategic plans, and
development programmes at all levels
throughout the country.
Land 2001 Land Law Women’s and men’s equal rights to

land ownership.
Domestic violence The Law on Prevention of Domestic Human rights and protection from
Violence and the Protections of domestic violence.
Victims, 2005
Human trafficking 2008 Law on the Suppression of Human Human rights and law on human
and sexual Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation trafficking and sexual exploitation.
exploitation
Social protection National Social Protection Framework Social protection, which has recently
(2016-2025) – 2 pillars been expanded to cover women and
girls in vulnerable situations, including
those experiencing shocks


3.2 Government mechanisms and efforts and commitments to promote gender equality

institutional frameworks for and women’s empowerment. It is chaired by MoWA.
gender equality GMAGs is mandated to develop and implement
gender mainstreaming action plans (GMAPs) for their
Cambodia has established national machinery to respective ministries. At MAFF, it is named as the
promote gender equality and women’s empowerment “Working Group on Gender and Child Labour
under the coordination of the Ministry of Women’s (WG-GCL)”. They provide a mechanism for
Affairs (MoWA). MoWA provides support for gender institutionalizing gender mainstreaming into sectoral
mainstreaming activities across all government policies and programmes. There were 30 out 31
ministries. The Cambodian National Council for line-ministries and institutions that had developed
Women (CNCW) is an inter-ministerial mechanism to Gender Mainstreaming Action Plans (GMAPs) in 2018
oversee, coordinate and report on the implementation (UNESCAP, 2019).
of CEDAW. It is responsible for providing
recommendations to the RGC on the implementation At the sub-national level, the Women and Children
of CEDAW in Cambodia and compiling periodical Consultative Committees (WCCCs) have been
national CEDAW reports. instituted at the provincial, municipal, district/khan
levels; Commune Committee for Women and Children
Other structures of national machinery are the (CCWCs) were established at commune/sangkat level.
Technical Working Group on Gender (TWG-G) and The roles of these committees are to provide advice
the Gender Mainstreaming Action Groups (GMAGs) and recommendations on issues related to gender
in the line ministries and government agencies. equality, women’s and children’s issues within the
TWG-G is an inter-ministerial coordination body authority, function, and duties of the council at
that supports the implementation and monitoring of sub-national levels.
Table 4: Summary of government mechanisms and institutional framework for gender equality
Responsible Ministry Name of the Framework Key Focus
At national level
CNCW Inter-ministerial mechanism to oversee, coordinate and report

on the implementation of CEDAW
MOWA Technical Working Group on Gender Inter-ministerial
Line Ministries Gender Mainstreaming Action Groups Mandatary for gender mainstreaming
(GMAGs) action plans in respective ministries
MAFF Working Group on Gender and to promote gender equality and

Child Labour (WG-GCL) women’s empowerment within MAFF
At sub-national level
District/Provincial Women and Children Consultative to provide advice and

Governor Committees (WCCCs) recommendations on gender-related
issues at provincial, municipal, and
district/khan levels
Commune Chief Commune Committee for Women to provide advice and

and Children (CCWCs) recommendations on gender-related
issues at commune level

3.3 Gender aspects in agriculture and rural the development and implementation of the Action
development policies and strategies Plan, and, in collaboration with various development
partners including FAO, has been working towards
Agricultural policies, strategies and plans recognize these objectives. A stocktaking of the progress, gaps
the crucial role of women in production processes in and challenges of the implementation of previous
agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and in environmental gender action plan in this sub-sector was conducted to
stability. The Agricultural Sector Master Plan 2030 and inform and update the next five years of the action plan
particularly the Agriculture Strategic Development for the Gender Equality and Child Labour Elimination
Plan 2019-2023 acknowledge gender differentiated in Fishery sector. The national Fishery Administration’s
roles and integration of gender aspects in strategic Gender Promotion and Child Labour Action Plan
development, including raising awareness about 2022-2026 was developed by FiA in consultation
gender issues, strengthening women’s networks in with relevant development partners and local
agriculture, increasing the influence, capability and communities. This action plan aims to contribute to
number of women in leadership roles at national and the following five interconnected long-term objectives:
sub-national levels, and improving accessibility to 1) effective mainstreaming of gender and child
resource management and extension services for rural protection perspectives in main Strategic Frameworks
women (UN Women and CDRI, 2021). through strengthened capacities and management
mechanisms; 2) equality of women and men in
MAFF’s recent Gender Mainstreaming Policy and representation and participation in decision-making
Strategic Framework in Agriculture (GMPSFA) for informed fisheries planning; 3) equality of women
2022-2026 aims to effectively implement and achieve and men to access economic and natural resources,
gender equality and women’s empowerment stated in training opportunities, information and technology;
the Agriculture Strategic Development Plan. GMPSFA 4) protect girls and boys from child labour in the
recognizes the significant contribution of Cambodian’s fisheries sector; 5) strengthened accountability
women in the agricultural sector, including in and delivery mechanisms, includingtargeted data
agricultural labour, production, harvesting, processing, collection within the sub-sectorial information
marketing and food supply chains. Climate change is systems and research. The action plan was informed
a cross-cutting issue that affects agriculture, livestock, by the recommendations to combat child labour and
fisheries and forestry practices. GMPSFA’s key strategic enhance women’s empowerment in fisheries. These
objectives focus on 1) promoting women’s economic recommendations were derived from the Gender
empowerment through women’s access to goods and Analysis and Gender and Child Labour assessment
services for agricultural development and market; conducted in 2021 in the context of the Cambodia
2) strengthening capacities, resources and Programme for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in
commitment within MAFF to ensure effective the Fisheries Sector (CAPFISH) which was financed by
mainstreaming of gender perspective into agriculture the European Union (EU).
sector; 3) increasing women’s and men’s equal
representation and participation in agriculture sector; The government is also committed to promoting
and 4) improving collaboration and coordination gender considerations in the forestry and the natural
between all stakeholders in agriculture sector, climate resource management sectors. The National Forest
change and natural resource management. Programme 2010-2029 includes the participation of
women in the management of the institutional
The Fisheries Strategic Planning Framework structures and management of the Forestry
(2019-2023) recognizes the important role of women Administration to make the forestry sector more
and persisting gender inequalities in the sub-sector. efficient and effective. An update of Gender
The Fishery Administration has endorsed the Action Mainstreaming in the forestry sector by the Forestry
Plan for Gender Equality Promotion and Child Labour Administration is currently prepared (UN Women and
Elimination in fisheries 2016-2020 in alignment CDRI, 2021).
with the implementation of the ministry’s gender
mainstreaming policy. To update an action plan for Cambodia’s Roadmap for Food Systems for Sustainable
the Gender Equality Promotion and Child Labour Development 2030 also emphases empowerment
Elimination in Fishery sector, 2022–2026, the FiA of youth, women and the vulnerable groups in
Working Group on Gender and Child Labour Cambodia, through promotion of gender equality,
(FiA WG-GCL) was established to lead and coordinate decent employment, enterprise development and the

© FAO/Cambodia
creation of job opportunities for youth, women and the impacts of climate change and proposing to promote
vulnerable in the food system (Council for Agriculture an understanding of the impacts of climate change and
and Rural Development and the Technical Working the need for disaster risk reduction among males and
Group for Food Security and Nutrition, 2021). females (MAFF, 2013, 2014).
Gender aspects have been mainstreamed in key The RGC’s National Action Plan for Disaster Risk
policies and strategic plans on addressing issues of Reduction 2019-2023 (NAP DRR) also emphasizes
climate change and disaster risk in relevant ministry enhancing vulnerable social groups’ (such as women,
sectors, such as specific impacts of climate change youth, children the elderly and people with disabilities)
on women. awareness of and resilience to disaster risks and
increasing the accessibility of early warning systems
The Cambodia Climate Change Strategic Plan for these groups (NCDM, 2020).
2014-2023 (CCCS) recognizes women’s differentiated
vulnerability to climate change and presents gender The Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Plan in
equality as one pathway to reduce vulnerabilities Environment Sector 2021-2025 has been developed
(UN Women, 2016). Women’s reliance on agriculture based on the experiences and achievements of
and natural resources is also highlighted, as are the Strategic Plan 2016-2020. This Strategic Plan
women’s limited resources and capacity to adapt to the is a roadmap contributing to gender inequality
changing climate. CCCSP’s strategic objectives include reduction, women’s rights improvement and women
consideration of gender issues and identifies women as empowerment in the environment sector by creating
beneficiaries (Royal Government of Cambodia, 2013). spaces and opportunities for women in access to
resources and in decision-making in the use of
The Climate Change Strategic Plan for Agriculture, resources, enhancing agricultural livelihoods and
Agri-industry, Animal Production, Fisheries and Forestry rural communities’ resilience to climate change
2013-2018, and the Climate Change Priorities Action and in strengthening the equal partnership of men
Plan 2014-2018 also highlight gender responsiveness and women in natural resources protection and
in the policy, strategies, key activities, management governance that promotes participation and inclusion,
and financial management, and monitoring and especially disadvantage groups.
evaluation framework by recognizing the gendered

Table 5: Relevant policies and frameworks on gender in agriculture and rural development
Responsible Ministry Name of the Framework Key Focus
MAFF Agriculture Strategic Development Strategic roadmap for agriculture sector,

Plan 2019-2023 in which there are links to Gender
Mainstreaming Policy.
MAFF Gender Mainstreaming Policy and Main guiding framework for gender
Strategic Framework in Agriculture equality and women’s empowerment
(GMPSFA) 2022-2026 stated in the agriculture.
Fishery Fisheries Strategic Planning A strategic framework for fisheries plan.

Administration, MAFF Framework (2019-2023)
Fishery Action Plan for Gender Equality Fisheries administration’s working Group
Administration, MAFF Promotion and Child Labour on Gender and Child Labour (FiA WG-GCL)
Elimination in Fisheries 2016-2020
Forestry National Forest Programme Includes the participation of women in the

Administration, MAFF 2010-2029 management of the institutional structures
and management of the Forestry
Administration to make the forestry sector
more efficient and effective.
Forestry Gender Mainstreaming in the At preparation stage – it will focus on the

Administration, MAFF Forestry Sector empowerment of youth, women and the
vulnerable groups in Cambodia as part of
food system and forestry.
RGC Cambodia Climate Change Recognizes women’s differentiated

Strategic Plan 2014-2023 vulnerability to climate change and
presents gender equality as one pathway
to reduce vulnerabilities. Each ministry
needs to establish action plans to
implement this.
MAFF Climate Change Strategic Plan Highlights gender responsiveness in

for Agriculture, Agri-industry, the policy, strategies, key activities,
Animal Production, Fisheries and management and financial management,
Forestry 2013-2018 and monitoring and evaluation framework.
RGC National Action Plan for Disaster Emphasizes enhancing vulnerable social
Risk Reduction 2019-2023 groups’ (such as women, youth, children
the elderly and people with disabilities)
awareness of and resilience to disaster
risks and increasing the accessibility of
early warning systems for these groups.
MoE Gender Mainstreaming Strategic A roadmap contributing to gender

Plan in Environment Sector inequality reduction, women’s rights
2021-2025 improvement and women empowerment
in the environmental sector.

GENDER ANALYSIS
4 OF THE AGRICULTURE
AND RURAL SECTORS
© FAO/A.K. Kimoto
GENDER ANALYSIS OF THE AGRICULTURE AND RURAL SECTORS
4.1 Emerging gender inequalities in fruit trees as cash crops for sale. The tasks are generally
the agricultural value chains and performed close to home and are more likely to be
rural livelihoods performed by women than men. The cultivation of
other industrial crops is often the primary responsibility
The majority of rural households in Cambodia are of men although women actively contribute to
small-scale farmers engaged in crop production, weeding, harvesting, and post-harvest management
including rice-based agriculture, cultivation of (MAFF, 2022). Moreover, Cambodia Agriculture
vegetable and fruit crops, livestock production, Survey (CAS) 2020 shows that women’s involvement
fisheries, and collection of forest products to meet in agriculture is 522 hours per year, not much
household consumption needs and, through the sale different from the 651 average hours performed
of surpluses, to generate income. This section by men (MoP, 2021).
describes women’s and men’s roles in agriculture
value chains, access to and control over productive Decisions related to agricultural production were not
resources and services in the context of structural always made jointly by women and men, although
changes to agriculture and rural economies, including women are actively involved in performing tasks.
labour migration, export-led agriculture, and Men usually make all decisions related to seed
climate-related impacts. selection, herbicides used, and the cropping system
to follow. They also propose investment ideas related
4.1.1 Agricultural crops production to purchasing machinery and expanding agricultural
For crop production, women are engaged in a wide production. Women are primarily responsible for
range of crop value chains and manage many functions managing household income and spending and are
as small-scale farmers and collectors, retailers, and usually consulted on household finance related issues
wholesalers. In general, farming is considered as a prior to the men making the decisions (ADB, 2018).
household activity. However, agricultural activities
such as land preparation, irrigation control, fertilizer There is often a joint discussion and agreement
and pesticide application are divided as men’s or between women and men on selling or purchasing
women’s work. Mechanization, manual works, and land and accessing loans as it is a requirement from
operation of farm equipment are generally performed the bank to have both husband and wife’s names and
by men, whereas women take care of seed, seedlings, signatures. Searching and identifying the sources of
weed control, transplanting, etc. (ADB, 2018). loans is usually done by women.1
Women are often responsible for communication Decisions about where and to whom crops should
and contact with local service providers or hiring be sold is often made jointly by women and men.
labour in the cycle of transplanting and harvesting. It is often the responsibility of women to contact the
When men chose to migrate for waged employment, collector via phone and source the current market
women increasingly manage all farming activities. price of their products.2
Women are also increasingly engaged in the In some Indigenous communities, women have
programmes’ activities at the national and less voice and power in the major decision-making,
sub-national levels on improving technologies, and men usually perform all tasks including
practical demonstrations with modern seeds to contacting collectors and searching for the market
increase yields, and in monitoring rice seeds for price of the products. The price is set by the local
quality (MAFF, 2022). collectors as there is limited access to market
information among household members. The price
Cambodian women are increasingly engaged in often fluctuates and may be very low during harvesting
horticultural crop production such as vegetables and and collection of crops.3
1
Interviews with women and men farmers in various studies, including gender assessment of agri-ecological transition and through WFP study.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.

4.1.2 Livestock and poultry Based on the CSES 2019/2020, 54 percent of all
Rural households generally perform various farming households engaged in raising livestock and poultry.
activities, including farming crops, animal raising, and The most common types of livestock and poultry
other jobs for income generation. Raising livestock and are chickens (57 percent), followed by raising ducks
poultry in Cambodia is an important source of food (35 percent), and cattle (4 percent). Comparing by
and supplementary income for the rural households. gender, the share of households headed by men who
For many rural poor households, especially for women, raised livestock and poultry is higher than the share of
livestock and poultry serve as a source of saving households headed by women in four zones, except
as well as insurance for health issues and shocks, Phnom Penh (MoP and NIS, 2020).
including natural disasters such as flood and drought.
Table 6: Number of households raising livestock and poultry by sex of head of households and zone,
2019/2020 (in thousands and percent)
Zone
Cambodia Phnom Penh Plain Tonle Sap Coastal Plateau/

Mountain
Female
Female
Female
Female
Female
Female
Male
Male
Male
Male
Male
Male
Number of
households
Households 336 1 622 3 13 155 628 107 541 23 129 48 310

missing livestock
and poultry
All households 782 2 854 161 371 290 992 208 843 37 194 86 455
Percent of all 42.9 56.8 1.6 3.6 53.4 63.3 51.4 64.2 62.7 66.4 56.2 68.2
households
Source: National Institute of Statistics, 2020. Cambodia Agriculture Survey 2019/2020. www.nis.gov.kh/nis/Agriculture/ CAS2020/CAS2020_
Final_Report_EN.pdf
The national CSES report also showed that women and/or skills in operating medium or large scale-farm,
actively engage in livestock and poultry activities and they lack entrepreneurial skills and capital to invest
nearby their house while their reproductive roles are in poultry and livestock infrastructure, medication/or
constructed traditionally in household caring for the vaccines, and to purchase feed.
family (FAO, 2022). However, on average women have
fewer animals than men (13.4 chickens for women 4.1.3 Fisheries and aquaculture
and 19.5 for men) (MoP and NIS, 2020). The interviews Based on a Gender Analysis report on post-harvest
with key informants of the study indicated that fisheries in Cambodia in 2021 (UNIDO) fisheries play an
despite women’s active participation in livestock and important role for the Cambodian economy, providing
poultry value chains, they usually recognized poorly income, jobs, food security and nutrition for the rural
in value chain interventions and received less benefits. population. Small-scale fisheries contribute to the
Moreover, livestock and poultry raising was reportedly majority of fish catches (more than three-quarters)
decreasing due to the threatening impacts of climate in Cambodia and employ more than 90 percent of
change, such as floods, increasing temperature and people working in fisheries. About half of the workers
diseases. Other challenges include lack of water, lack of in fisheries are women, who are mostly active in the
food, and the intensive nature of labour. The traditional pre- and post-harvest sector as preparing fishing
method of animal and poultry raising, such as leaving operations, processing, marketing and trading,
the cows to feed on the farm or forest nearby is still but also fish in their own boats or together with other
practiced by most rural villagers. Most smallholder family members.
farmers, especially women still have limited knowledge

However, albeit the significant contribution of women Fisheries (CFi) that were formed with 332 168 members,
at all stages of the supply chain, including captures, countrywide there were less than 35 percent women,
and their preponderance in downstream activities and only 17 percent women have been selected for
of fish selling and processing, their role tends to be taking roles in the Community Fisheries’ Management
conceptualized more as an extension of domestic Committees, being in administrative roles, cashiers,
work, and thus not sufficiently documented in and so on. Therefore, it is recommended to set a
fisheries statistics and research and undervalued in gender quota when selecting a committee at CFi level.
the economic sense.
This may be explained by underlying gender
All along the fish value chain, women face gender inequalities as women’s lack of time due to their triple
inequalities that limit their capacity to develop, upgrade roles, social norms undervaluing women’s contribution
and secure their livelihoods and income. and knowledge in fisheries and hindering them to
raise their concerns, women’s low literacy skills, and
The report on post-harvest fisheries in Cambodia their lack of mobility, especially since some fishing
in 2021 (UNIDO) reveals that a half of the wholesale communities are floating villages or close to the water
businesses and 80 percent of retail businesses are (MAFF, 2020). Other prevailing constraints include
owned by women, whereas 38.5 percent of these that women lack capital, technology and equipment.
businesses are co-owned by both men and women. The reduction of available fish resources leads to
However, women-led post-harvest MSMEs tended to reduced capacity to repay loan and fears of debt
have smaller business operations and were less likely to bondage. A 2021 report of UNIDO-Captured Fisheries,
have plans for business expansion, than the SMEs solely also highlighted the concerns of men and women
owned by men or in joint ownership. fishers on illegal fishing activities, adverse effects from
hydropower dams in the Mekong and its streams,
Among fish processing businesses, female ownership limited capacity of community fisheries to protect
accounts for 42 percent of the business, while joint their natural resources, lack of understanding of their
ownership is at 55 percent (UNIDO, 2021). Women are rights and the law, weak law enforcement, effects
predominately employed in the processing segment, from the use of chemical inputs in agriculture etc.
accounting for 54 percent of fermented products, (UNIDO, 2021).
67 percent of marinated fish and fish ball products,
and 75 percent of fish sauce production and half of Based on discussion with multi-stakeholders and staff
dried shrimp production (MAFF, 2022). Women mostly of FAO projects, they suggested that there is need for
support fisheries in the tasks such as purchasing raw joint efforts in addressing challenges of the CFi and to
materials, fish selection, sorting, cleaning, salting, improve fishery conservation and protection. Three key
fermenting, and smoking fish. They are more visible concrete actions are essential to be considered:
in decision-making and post-harvest activities related 1) enhanced capacity of the government at the
to marketing, and in tasks that require negotiation national, sub-national level, and community to
skills. Most bookkeeping at household level, as well as manage fisheries resources including efforts to enact
community financial management, is done by women. and implement domestic fisheries legislation, related
regulatory frameworks and international treaties;
In addition, about 47 000 households, more than 2) support targeted fisheries and conservation area
1 percent of all households in Cambodia, were in the community fisheries and fishery domains, with
engaged in aquaculture activities in 2020. Women particular attention to women’s political and economic
were also found to be playing a larger role in empowerment to better manage natural resources and
household-based aquaculture than men. Despite livelihoods through the design and implementation of
women’s extensive participation in aquaculture gender-sensitive strategies for fishery management,
activities, they are largely bypassed for technical and for food system; and 3). assist fish farming
training and technology transfer and underrepresented communities, and dependent community fisheries and
in community fisheries and local leadership positions. fish farmers’ organizations and other key stakeholders
Moreover, women’s representation and voices in at sub-national level to improve their adaptive capacity
decision making in the Community Fisheries (CFi)4 to climate change, and to prepare for and respond to
remain limited. Out of the total 516 Community the natural threats and related crises.
4
Community Fishery (CFi) is established to improve management of local fisheries and to ensure local food security. The CFi is managed and
coordinated by the management committee members that are selected from community members.

4.1.4 Forestry Women and CDRI, 2021). These have tremendous

Forestry accounted for about 1.6 percent of GDP impact on climate change resilience, carbon emissions,
(2019) in Cambodia (ADB, 2021) and contributed to the biodiversity loss, and on rural communities and
livelihoods of many communities and impoverished livelihoods dependent on agricultural lands and forest
families living near and in the forest area. Men and resources. The indigenous communities who are most
women have different interests in accessing to forest likely living nearby forest are the most affected by
resources, with men focusing more on forest products deforestation and forest degradation, especially
and women more on non-timber forest products for women as they highly depend on forest products.
subsistence such as food and for income generation. Research suggested that gender concerns should
The 2019 censure showed that women comprised of be taken into consideration in forest projects and
41.4 percent of those working in forestry, including programmes. The better inclusion of women and
hunting and logging services, gathering non-timber gender-responsive processes would more successfully
forest products and supporting other forestry related address concerns relating to sustainable forestry and
services. Collecting non-timber forest products, environmental management.
accounted for 65.1 percent of forest work, with
45.7 percent of this workforce being women and 4.1.5 Livelihood diversifications
54.3 percent for men (UN Women and CDRI, 2021). The report by the Asian Development Bank (2019)
reveals that besides agricultural income generation
Although women’s involvement is believed to activity, many of Cambodia’s rural households
contribute to sustainable forest management in especially the poor rely on natural resources such
term of the most effective use of forest functions, as land, fisheries, forests, and clean rivers and other
women’s participation in important meetings and livelihood activities. Many rural women are also
decision-making processes at different levels are very engaged in other economic activities through owning
limited. Only 21.5 percent of women represented in the and operating micro-enterprises or are employed in
management committees of 645 forestry communities a range of income-generating activities such as small
with almost half of total members are women stores that sell food, drinks, household goods, and
(RECOFTC, 2019; Forestry Administration Report, other commodities and services such as food carts
2022). Moreover, the Gender Mainstreaming Policy and and restaurants, tailoring and sewing and hairdressing,
Strategy Framework in Agriculture 2022-2026 pointed and handicrafts. These activities can be seasonal,
out that women’s access to information and education, informal, full-time, or part-time work to provide
including technical capacities is still limited. Women are additional household income and income security;
less likely than men in accessing to new technologies, however, they do not provide rural women with decent
appropriate trainings and credit and market. Social and formal employment opportunities.
norms and attitudes are still strongly enforced in this
sector. There are perceptions that forestry activities 4.1.6 Access to agriculture value chains and markets
are men’s work. Women are usually not encouraged
Both men and women can access to agricultural
to participate in forestry community committee as it
inputs and supplies for production. However, women
is not appropriate for women to perform the tasks at
play a more important role in some farming tasks
nighttime and due to concerns for women’s safety
such as seedlings, planting, buying and applying
(MAFF, 2022).
fertilizer whereas men manage other tasks such as
machinery, pesticide spray, transportation of post-
Furthermore, expansion of agricultural lands has been
harvest produces (MAFF, 2020). Furthermore, women
known to be the main driver of deforestation and
are responsible for these activities in addition to
forest degradation. In Cambodia, this has been linked
their crucial role of ensuring the food security and
to the agricultural production of commodities such
nutrition of their households and managing the care
as rubber, palm oil, and cassava. The forestry sector is
needs of their children and families. Women are
being impacted by changes in forest cover, increasing
also accountable for the financial supervision of the
forest conversion and land-use change, and the impact
household (MAFF, 2022).
of climate change on the forestry community (UN

Significantly, women make major contributions in Women farmers increasingly supply local markets and
planting, crop caring, harvesting, processing, and high-value products, but compared to men, women
transporting from communities as well as in managing still face a number of disadvantages, including less
logistics of the wholesale or retail of the agricultural mobility, lower literacy level, less access to training,
crops and products. Managing multiple tasks, women less access to market information, and less access to
are small-scale producers, operators or owners of their productive resources. Their low financial literacy and
agri-businesses5 and as small-scale non-timber forest concerns for safety during travel are identified as the
collectors and retailers (FAO, 2022). main gender gaps for Cambodian women to access
to markets (ADB, 2018).
With the growth and expansion of the agricultural
economy of Cambodia, women are increasingly As export opportunities in agriculture and agri-
involved in the commercially oriented agricultural processing continue to increase, men are better placed
production and agri-business value chains including to benefit due to having greater access to market
the wholesale and retail marketing of agricultural information and networks, enabling them to better
products. They are involved as collectors and/or understand and work within the system (MAFF, 2022).
traders, are the principal retail sellers in the local
markets and are often responsible for managing the Women have less confidence in accessing to
finances of their enterprises (ADB, 2018). In addition, knowledge and business skills, particularly of pricing
many women own or are active partners in the input information of their products and services, or being
supply of agri-businesses, dealing directly with clients less competent in business development including
and providing information and knowledge of the use accounting and business planning skills as compared
of inputs, fertilizers and pesticides. to men. Women-owned SMEs have shown lack of
capacity in financial accounting, marketing, and human
In recent years, improvements in transport resources development compared with men-owned
infrastructure, adoption of value chain approach by SMEs (IFC, 2019).
different stakeholders as well as the prevalent use
of mobile phones and other digital technologies 4.1.7 Access to finance services and credit
have facilitated easier access to markets, pricing and Cambodia has made significant efforts to increase the
reduced market costs for women and men farmers. financial inclusion of women. There are considerable
The value chain strengthens business linkages and potential rural financial services in Cambodia,
between producer groups, service providers and but women still do not have equal access to or fully
other actors, such as processors and importers, benefit from these financial services.
rather than focusing exclusively on farm interventions
(MAFF and RGC, 2022). According to Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey
2019, men-headed households have better access to
Yet, Cambodian farmers, especially women, have credit than women-headed households. 52 percent
difficulties finding markets for their products. 90 of women-headed households recently borrowed
percent of smallholder farmers usually sell their from banks or MFI compared to 65 percent for
products to middlemen or brokers, traders who men-headed households. When comparing the credit
dominate in price setting at the farm gate (World Bank, that was approved, the gender ratio was 1:5, meaning
2015). Based on the experience of FAO projects, female that only one woman was given a credit for every
and male farmers have limited knowledge about the five men that got a credit. Moreover, only three percent
products or field crops (short and medium-term) to be of the nation’s women entrepreneurs, majority are of
produced or cultivated and often follow neighboring micro and small businesses, have access to formal
farmers who also have limited information on market credit (IFC, 2019).
needs. Lack of market information for agricultural
commodities results in excess production. Peak time of Farmers generally take loans from MFIs in small
surplus produce results in a very low price. amounts and at greater interest rates compared to
commercial banks. The majority of women access
5
There are a total of 3 359 000 hectares of agricultural land in Cambodia. In 2016 approximately 12.4% (418 000 hectares) was owned by
women-headed households, while 87.6% (2 941 000 ha) are owned by men (NIS, 2017).

informal loans, rather than MFIs to avoid the necessity through joint MAFF and NCDDS project funded by ADB
of providing collateral. Multiple stakeholders pointed (TSSD-AF Project, 2022). In average, 68 percent of
out that at household level, women were primarily saving group members are women, however, only
responsible for managing household finance, 10 percent of these saving groups are led and
expenses, and purchases. Micro-finance or credit is managed by women.
accessed to pay for production costs and purchase
agricultural inputs and equipment such as seeds, 4.1.8 Access to agricultural labour and migration
chemical fertilizers, hand tractors, or motorcycles, In Cambodia, internal and external migration has
and also to cover a variety of expenses for food, health heightened the labour shortage in rural areas, although
and household maintenance. Loan repayments and it contributes to increasing incomes of many rural
seeking sources of credit are assumed to be women’s households through remittances. Around 4.1 million
responsibilities rather than those of their people have migrated domestically, and approximately
male counterparts. Repaying interests on loans poses 1.1 million have migrated internationally. More than
a significant burden for women farmers. 35.7 percent of women and 34.4 percent of men
migrate from rural to urban areas. Almost half of
Furthermore, women farmers tend to purchase the migrants were between ages of 20 and 39 for
agricultural inputs and equipment on credit (seed, both males and females and 90 percent were aged
fertilizer, pesticide, water pump, etc.) which can put 15-64 years old (MoP and NIS, 2020). Poverty,
them in a risky debt situation with suppliers. They lack of income generated from farming activities,
often pay off the debts after they have harvested and debts resulting from crop failure, and emergency
sold their agricultural products. A low yield or crop medical expenses, are the main reasons for the
damage caused by natural shock, however, can push decision of many rural people to migrate and look
women and in particular female headed households for alternative work.
more deeply into a critical situation in terms of loan
repayment and food shortage. This problem of debt Migration has a strong impact on gender roles and the
relationship with suppliers can impact women’s ability division of labour in rural Cambodia. It has resulted in
to access better sale price or market via a mechanism a shift in women’s participation in the agricultural
such as collective Agriculture Cooperative or labour force and their participation in agriculture value
contract farming. chains. There has been increased migration of young
women and men to garment factories, construction
The recent COVID-19 situation has made borrowing work, service industries, and others.
even more difficult, especially for women-headed
households, and farmers vulnerable to climate change. Moreover, migration has increased the burdens of care
Many family members lost or could not find jobs with responsibilities of older women in rural communities
a reasonable income to pay back the interest to the to look after children and grandchildren and to take
bank (ADB, 2022). Microfinance loans to vulnerable care of domestic labour as well as to contribute to
groups and the rural poor by microfinance institutions productive work (Green and Estes, 2019).
(MFIs), agricultural and rural development banks,
and private or informal lenders represent a severe Outmigration of men, on the other hand, can create
concern for women. new opportunities for women, such as becoming
more involved in farm management, gaining greater
Saving groups supported by government projects control over household resources and having access
and non-governmental organizations for poor and to learning opportunities that offered nearby or in the
small-household farmers offer a more flexible form community (MAFF, 2022).
of credit loans that can assist farmers with small
amounts of household expenditure, and do not require Migration can also increase demand for other services,
collateral. The interest rate is usually at 1-2 percent such as saving markets for remittances, childcare
per month. Loans are also products being offered by options in the village, the enhancement of a formal
farmer associations or agriculture cooperatives to their agri-business sector for young rural women and access
members. In the last five years, 817 saving groups were to digital literacy.
stablished by MAFF and another 1 905 established


4.1.9 Access to and benefit from agricultural communes and hands-on technical assistance
extension services and other services provided to women farmers would be helpful to
Access to information, advice, training, and knowledge gain better knowledge. Increasing female agriculture
related to agriculture, fisheries or livestock production, technical staff and extension workers at both national
processing, and marketing has improved but is still and sub-national levels and improving their access to
limited for both men and women farmers. Women capacity-building opportunities is therefore
often have limited access to extension services and considered essential.
training opportunities due to social norms and gender
stereotypes of being responsible for the household and 4.1.10 Access to improved and innovative
technologies, mechanization,
child-care responsibilities, the lack of childcare options
and digitalization
and other factors, including distance to the point of
service provision and insensitivity to the level of literacy, Agriculture mechanization has been increasingly
time constraints and mobility difficulties. introduced based on the government’s vision to
transform and modernize the country’s industrial
At the same time, there is still a perception that men structure from a labour-intensive economy to a
are exclusively responsible for agriculture-related skill-driven industry by 2023, and the labour shortage
activities and should have better knowledge and skills caused by people migrating outwards from rural areas.
related to agriculture. Thus, often men are more Hand-tractors, tractors, and planter and harvesting
likely to be encouraged to participate in agriculture machines are increasingly available and used by
extension activities, learning events and farmer field farmers across the country.
demonstrations of main crops, than women. Moreover,
invitations to extension training activities are made to The introduction to new technologies and
the head of the household, rather than other members mechanization impacts women and men farmers
of the household. So, this gives limited opportunity differently. Mechanization contributes to increased
for women farmers to access agriculture-related production, reduces women farmers’ workload and
knowledge and skills compared with men. facilitates some hard operations. Based on the recent
study on Conservation Agriculture and Gendered
There is also the limited capacity of institutions Livelihood in Cambodia, the use of no-till equipment
to address this issue for rural agriculture. Despite and machinery in conservation agriculture (CA)
government efforts to expand extension services for practices was indicated to have helped to reduce
men and women, extension services in Cambodia the amount of time men and women allocated to
are still predominantly provided by men, who tend land preparation. A widowed woman in the Ratanak
to focus service delivery on male farmers. In 2018, Mondul district, for example, reported that ‘she hired
women accounted for 9 percent of the 9 276 village the service of the planter, and the machine does all the
agricultural extension agents and 41 percent of the work, including applying the fertilizer and sowing the
1 220 commune agricultural extension agents. corn seed’. By doing so, she was able to save time and
Women comprised of 31 percent of the total expand corn production (UNDP, 2021).
participants in the training courses provided to
provincial, district, communal, and village agricultural Increasing mechanization in agriculture may reduce
extensions staff, agents and farmers (MAFF, 2019). the opportunities for unskilled labour that are
In the field of animal health and animal production, particularly important to landless households or
among the 9 262 village animal health agents in the those with small plots of land, and women, to generate
villages who provide technical extension service, income. Tractors, planters, or harvesting machines
care, and protection related to animal husbandry, are typically operated by men which has reduced the
only 7.7 percent of them were women in 2018. opportunity for women being engaged in paid jobs.
For example, harvest and post-harvest activities,
Women also showed their interest in learning practical which are often carried out by women, are increasingly
information and agricultural techniques that could help undertaken with the use of machines (ADB, 2018).
their households to increase agricultural productivity,
including other crops, besides rice, which are resilient There are still limited efforts to ensure women have
to diseases and climate change, improved cultivation equal access to machinery or training in using new
techniques, and water management technologies. agricultural technologies, particularly machinery.
Field visits to crop demonstrations in nearby villages/ Recent research from the ‘gender technology
assessment’ (2019) showed that access to

women-friendly hand tools and equipment for CA Among the total agricultural land used in the wet
in vegetable production can help to simplify season (around 2 million hectares), 272 thousand
women’s time and labour requirements. Equipment hectares was used by women headed households and
such as the drip irrigation system was mentioned by 1 682 thousand hectares by men-headed households.
women farmers as useful but technical assistance is Moreover, in the dry season, the share of agricultural
needed. Moreover, women need to have access to land used is even smaller at 36 thousand hectares
knowledge on herbicides or cover crops to reduce which were used by women-headed households,
weed pressure and reduce women’s labour burden while 336 thousand hectares are used by men-headed
related to manual weeding. households (MoP, 2020).
Digitalization has been introduced and is rapidly There are some remaining gender-related barriers
increasing in business practices, including in agriculture to access land security, particularly land registration,
and agriculture value chains, especially during the including issues with access to information about the
restrictions on movements caused by the COVID-19 land titling process, difficulties for women-headed
pandemic. Digitalization can create potential benefits households to acquire paperwork to prove their single
for women, including working remotely or from status and gender imbalance in control and decision
home. Women still face a gender gap in access to making. Although there are some barriers to land
such technologies and training for the necessary skill ownership, women can make use of agricultural land
development, particularly for rural women. The digital owned by men.
divides remain a challenge. A study of digital and
agriculture (2020) indicated that 85 percent of females • Water governance:
own smartphones compared to 94 percent of male In total, there are 33 Farmer Water User Committees
respondents. Only 36 percent of female respondents (FWUCs) registered in 13 provinces of Cambodia
know how to search for agricultural input information (Gender Analysis Report, 2020). A study report of
through the internet compared to 47 percent of men the WAT4CAM programme of the Ministry of Water
(CPS, 2020). Resources and Meteorology (MoWRAM) and MAFF
indicated that women have less access to and control
4.1.11 Access to land and water over water resources, but they are actively engaged in
• Access to land: agricultural activities and household work that are
Despite some improvements in women’s access to related to the needs of water. However, there is low
land, including for agricultural land, there are still some levels of women participating in and voicing their ideas
gender-based constraints on land registration. in the decision-making process of FWUC because
women’s roles are determined by men. Women have
The number of male-headed agricultural households not been invited by male committee members to
with access to agricultural land is higher than that of meetings and discussion of irrigation planning.
female-headed agricultural households. The report Furthermore, women are less supported and
of the Cambodia socio-economic survey, conducted encouraged to participate in water resource
between 2019 and 2020, indicates that only around management by their husbands as well as
12 percent (448 thousand hectares) of the total the community.
33 819 thousand hectares of agricultural land in
Cambodia were owned by female-headed households. A discussion with the Department of Water
The report also shows that 49 percent of female Management and Conservation of MoWRAM revealed
headed-households have only one plot, while more that less than 25 percent of representatives in
than 61 percent of male headed-households have management positions of FWUC’s committees are
more than one plot (MoP, 2020). women. This is corroborated by a report of gender
assessment of HEIK/CARITAS (2022). The report also
In addition, 85 percent of the total agricultural highlighted the lack of women in the leadership roles
households in Cambodia have access to agricultural due to the decision-making and preferences of the
land, with an average area of agricultural land per people in power in FWUC. Women can be members
agricultural household of 1.4 hectares. Men comprised but not leaders. From a man’s perspective, they think
of 1.4 million or 73 percent of all holders while women they are concerned with women’s security. It may be
accounted for 0.5 million or 27 percent (MoP, 2019). that men prefer women to perform subordinate tasks in
the committee such as secretary, assistant, treasurer or

to put more effort into domestic work at home rather forestry, 30 percent in livestock, 31 percent in rubber,
than taking risks. In addition, other reasons for and 23 percent of staff in fisheries. The representation
women being less engaged in the committee roles of women in decision-making positions at the national
may be that the positions are requiring time and level remains low for all sub-sectors.
availability for patrolling, attending meetings, and
traveling for distances on difficult roads to track the In 2018, women accounted for 62 percent of a total of
illegal acts of offenders, which usually occur at night 130 059 members of 1 116 agriculture cooperatives in
(HEIK/CARITAS, 2022). Cambodia. However, of the agricultural cooperative’s
Board of Directors, only 34 percent were women
The results from key informant’s interviews show that (MoWA, 2019).
women often lack confidence and knowledge in works
that require physical and more laborious as compared Women’s representation in the academic institutions
to men. The perception and preference derived from of agriculture remain relatively low compared to
social norms that majority of women think that they men. In the last five-years, the number of women in
prefer performing less labour intensive and less senior positions in the three-agriculture university,
time-consuming tasks while optimizing time doing institute and school has remained the same for some
other income-generating activities that are closer positions, has slightly increased for a few positions
to home. Women have limited knowledge of using and even decreased for others. Among these three
machinery to pump water from the river for their institutions, only one woman become Vice Rector
farm. Moreover, women showed low interest in water at Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) while as the
management committee because they consider number of women who were Vice Chief has decreased
the work of FWUC to involve technical matters, by two. Moreover, the number of female students is
intensive physical works, time-consuming, tasks that still lower compared to the number of male students.
are responsibility of men. However, women perform The number of women students studying at the
various tasks, including drip irrigation or sprinklers, Royal University of Agriculture, Prek Leap National
as the tasks are less technical and less labour-intensive Agricultural College, and Kampong Cham Agriculture
(FAO, 2022). Institute, has slightly increased in recent years from
34 percent in 2017 to 39 percent in 2021 (MAFF, 2022).
Ensuring women’s participation, rights, and their roles
and responsibilities in access to and control over Although women’s roles and contributions to
water resources in the community, it is essential for agriculture activities are in some ways recognized, the
government institutions, development partners and low representation of women at all levels reinforces
the private sector to assert their roles to coordinate, women’s lack of skills and limited access to social
facilitate, and support the strengthening of community networks to undertake greater roles, influence
capacity especially in relation to women-headed decisions, and support collective actions to promote
household, the poor, indigenous and vulnerable agriculture value chains and sustainable resources
people to gain access to land tenure rights and water. to address women’s specific needs. Efforts by MAFF,
Building gender awareness among farmers and water MoWA, and development partners have sought to build
user associations and groups, as well as sustainable gender awareness and change discriminatory attitudes
agriculture and climate resilience, should be integrated against women throughout Cambodia.
as a cross-cutting issue.
4.1.12 Women’s representation in agriculture 4.2 Challenges and gaps related to policy,

administration and rural organizations legal and institutional context from
Women are still under-represented in key decision- a gender perspective
making bodies of the agriculture sector at all levels,
including community-based organizations and rural There are notable legal frameworks, policies and
institutions. Women represented for 28 percent of plans to advance gender equality and women’s
MAFF staff at the national level and 20 percent at empowerment in Cambodia, including in the sector
the provincial level (MAFF, 2021). In the sub-sectors, of agriculture and rural development. However,
women presented 24 percent of staff working in implementing these policies and frameworks is
challenging. Those challenges are summarized

as follows. assessment and analysis to understand and identify

differing needs, challenges, and opportunities of
• Gender aspects are not integrated systematically
women and men in relevant policies, programmes
into the polices and framework of sub-sectors
and projects of relevant sub-sectors of agriculture.
related to agriculture, food security, nutrition and
The result is limited interventions and solutions
other relevant sectors, although there is a national
in the policies or frameworks to address issues in
gender mainstreaming strategy and in agriculture
agriculture and rural development sectors.
sector by MAFF. Some task forces and working
groups are limited to only some sub-sectors. • Lack of gender data, including sex-disaggregated
For instance, the Gender and Children Working data and information to provide an evidence- base
Group of MAFF has been established to coordinate (UN Cambodia, 2021) to inform policy and
and support for development of policies and intervention development.
plans to promote gender equality and women’s
• Limited resource allocation for the implementation
empowerment for the sub-sectors of agriculture,
of gender mainstreaming policies and plans per
forestry, and fishery. There are gender focal points
line ministry, and at sub-sector at both national
at the provincial departments of agriculture, forestry
and sub-national levels. Most interviewers,
and fisheries, but they are responsible for mainly
including representatives of line ministries indicated
agriculture, not fisheries or forestry.
“insufficient resources allocated to carrying out
• Limited inter-ministerial coordination in activities under the gender related policy or
implementing gender-related policy or frameworks action plan.” Progress is slow on integration of
of the sectors and sub-sectors. For example, MoWA gender perspectives into the national budget
reports that the Industrial Development Policy framework and public financial management
2015-2025 does not explicitly tackle the challenges reform. A lack of gender-responsive budgeting and
faced by women, although there are an increasing planning has led to a lack of financial and human
number of women-owned enterprises. Most are still resources to effectively design the gender-specific
concentrated in low productivity industrial sectors, national policies and efficiently implement the
of which agro-processing is part (Oxfam, 2020). policies at the sub-national and local levels
(Oxfam, 2020).
• Lack of holistic coordination and support in fixing
gender gaps to address social norms and gender • Limited leadership, guidance, mechanisms,
stereotypes. Current interventions tackle issues on and capacity in inter-ministerial coordination,
a project-funded and ad-hoc basis. They depend including resources and capacity in monitoring
on external donors and often work in silos, hence mechanisms, technical guidance, tools and
compromising investment and scale of impact. systems for gender-based issues at sectoral
More investment and adequate resource allocation ministries and sub-sectors and in resource
are needed to address these gender-related issues. mobilization (MAFF, 2022).
• Limited institutional and technical support to enable • Limited representation of women in leadership
all staff to integrate and implement gender related roles in agricultural and rural development
policies (MAFF, 2022). This includes lack of ongoing sectors. This is related to the low rate of women
funding and/or supports building capacity on who hold positions or degrees in agriculture or
gender issues and gender responsiveness for staff. rural development, particularly in higher-ranking
positions. Women hold lower-ranking positions
• Lack of resources and investment in research on
compared with their male counterparts.
gender gaps. In particular, there is a lack of gender

5 STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
© FAO/Than Rathany
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
The assessment included interviews and assessment of • Third, through the EU-funded CAPFish project
relevant key programmes and projects, including from (2021-2024), FAO provides complementary
FAO. The list below shows some selected initiatives that support to the component of Capture Fisheries
promote gender equality in agriculture. that focuses on strengthening inclusive and
sustainable management conservation, and control
• Through the Country Programming Framework
systems in Cambodia’s inland and marine fisheries
(CPF) and other relevant frameworks aiming
through improved conservation, management, and
at achieving gender equality, FAO Cambodia is
compliance with fisheries laws and regulations in
implementing a globally initiated project on piloting
the inland and marine domain; the development
and building evidence-based gender transformative
of the post-harvest fisheries; and the improved
approach in agriculture, food security, and nutrition.
resilience of the fisheries communities in the inland
The projects and models below show success
and marine fishery domains. As part of this project,
and catalyze efforts for women equality work in
FAO provides policy support to FiA in updating their
agriculture sector.
Strategic Framework on Gender Equality Promotion
• First, the Women’s Empowerment Farmer Business and Child Labour Elimination and integrating
School (WE-FBS) model has included a gender gender and child protection targets into FiA legal
transformative approach that seeks to build the frameworks, policies, programmes and projects as
capacities of female and male small-holder farmers reflected in the budgeted FiA workplan on gender
to create sustainable and profitable agriculture and child protection, technical support to the FiA
enterprises and to transform gender relations gender and children working group in enhancing
in households, communities, and markets. female representation in institutional decision
The approach was recently introduced by FAO with making and capacity development on gender and
a training of trainers’ model targeting government child issues in FiA, targeting women’s economic
officials and agriculture extension practitioners. empowerment in CFi and improving gender and
• Second, Dimitra Clubs (DCs) were also introduced. child-specific data collection and research for the
DCs is a community-led and participatory approach fisheries information system.
with a strong focus on tackling gender inequality • SNV (Foundation of Netherlands Volunteers) and
and issues of social inclusion, particularly in USAID: are actively supporting the development
marginalized groups. of agricultural value chains and market linkages
and working with women farmers. The recently
completed Cambodia HARVEST project
FAO’s WE-FBS:
(2017-2022) and a new USAID Cambodia
1. Introduction to the WE-FBS approach horticulture project and the work SNV’s is doing,
particularly on SDC’s funding project, namely
2. Gender analysis and tools for gender analysis ‘CHAIN’ show that horticulture crops have highly
potential for income generation, especially for
3. Social analysis and action (SAA) women. In the SNV project, more than 60 percent
of farmers were women who learned of improved
4. Gender Action Learning System (GALS)
technologies that resulted in increases in yields
methodology
and household incomes as many of them gradually
5. Introduction to marketing systems and became semi-commercial or commercial farmers.
product ranking and enterprise selection The project introduced production technologies
through demo-farm, including growing nets, drip
6. Establishing a marketing committee and irrigation, quality seeds, plastic mulch, shaded
participatory market research greenhouses, and mechanized land preparation.
A cluster approach supports market linkages
7. Collective marketing between the clustered farmer groups with key
private actors and farmer incubator activities to
8. Gender value chain mapping
support farmers with business skills for vegetable
9. Group dynamics and women’s leadership aggregation and input sales to group members.
The project also supports SMEs, vegetable
10. Business planning and record keeping as collectors, traders, market sellers, and input retailers
key components of WE-FBS with improved business skills to expand their
businesses. The project works on the development

of greater climate resilience by promoting groups of producers with 40-60 women and
year-round production, smart water solutions, and increased their access to market information
water resource management, especially to support and pricing.
women’s access to technologies for water drip
• TSSD-AF project (2019-2023) (Tonle Sap Poverty
and pipe systems which can reduce a lot of labour
Reduction and Smallholder Development Project
burden and save time as well as to encourage
with additional funding from ADB and IFAD, has
women and men farmers to invest in higher-value
recognized the important roles of women in the
crops and smart water and irrigation systems.
agriculture value chain and rural livelihoods. The
• HARVEST project (2022-2027): USAID projects project promotes the role of women in providing
related to agriculture work with a wide range leadership and participation in decision-making at
of actors on a demand-driven orientation the community level through various groups and
approach through improving capacities for market women’s equal access to agricultural inputs, value
participation, market linkages, governance and an chain and agribusiness enterprise development
enabling environment. The recently completed services, extension training, and rural finance.
HARVEST II project helped strengthen women- The project works to ensure that at least 50 percent
and youth-led businesses. A total of 55 entities not of women, including female-headed households,
only expanded their businesses but also survived participated in project activities and that 60 percent
during the COVID-19 pandemic by improving of rural loans (saving and/or revolving funds) are
new processing lines, developing new products, taken by Livelihood Improvement Group (LIG)’s
and improving quality standards. The project also rural women members.
supported farmers, more than half of whom were
• Oxfam: Gender Transformative and Responsible
women, to apply new and improved agriculture
Agribusiness Investment in South-East Asia
practices, including expanding net-house
(GRAISEA) programme (2018-2023) in Cambodia
technology and other climate-smart agriculture,
works to achieve transformed opportunities for
tools to support year-round production. The
marginalized women and men in the agriculture
project supported the dissemination of digital
sector in Cambodia through inclusive value chains
technologies, a digital sourcing system for farmers,
and business models that drive women’s economic
and an accounting system for ACs and SMEs
empowerment and climate resilience. It works to
and the increased registration of new products
promote financial viability, and gender-equitable
via a certification system. As a result, the project
and sustainable supply chains with a focus on rice
assisted farmers to increase their sales and enabled
farming as a key source of income for smallholder
Cambodian farmers to reinvest in equipment and
producers and their families, especially women
input supplies, extended their markets as well
through three intertwined approaches:
as leveraged private sector’s investments, which
1) supporting men and women smallholder farmers
contributed to increasing effective and sustainable
in building their capacity to participate in agriculture
development outcomes, inclusive economic
value chains and benefit fairly from economic
growth, and accountable governance. The project
opportunities; 2) engaging with and supporting
helped to increase skills and expertise by supporting
market actors in agricultural value chains to deliver
131 female and male students to pursue long-term
opportunities that integrate smallholder producers,
training, including associate, bachelor, MSc, and
promote women’s economic empowerment
Ph.D. degrees in agriculture, food security, or
and support climate resilience; and 3) engaging
environment-related sectors.
with government actors and coordinating with
• MAFF’s projects: a number of projects being civil society organizations and NGOs to influence
implemented by government ministries and led by national policy frameworks to drive inclusive
MAFF with co-funding from the government target business models that support women’s economic
enhancing agriculture and making linkages to empowerment and climate resilience. Through
smallholder farmers. ASPIRE (Agriculture Services GRAISEA and Fair Finance Asia (FFA), Oxfam with
Programme for Innovation, Resilience, and its partners developed a policy brief on sustainable
Extension) (2015-2022) is IFAD funded project. finance and gender issues in the agribusiness sector
The project works to enhance the agriculture for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
services model that supports small-holder farmers (ASEAN) governments with four broad policy
to contribute to broad-based economic growth recommendations, including sustainable finance
through profitable and resilient farm businesses. taxonomies that uphold human rights and social
It supported the establishment of diverse cluster standards, adopt sustainable finance taxonomies

that will uphold human rights and social standards; in the CAPFish-Capture component which works
strengthen enforcement mechanisms to ensure on improving the agro-value chain by promoting
that regional (e.g., ASEAN RAI Guidelines) and competitive and inclusive growth of the country’s
national guidelines are fully adopted; adopt agro-industrial sector. The CAPFish-capture project
national human rights due diligence regulation (2019-2024) recognizes the key contribution of
for the private sector and financial institutions women in fishery activities, particularly in
in accordance with the United Nations Guiding small-scale processing and marketing-related
Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) activities, and works to increase women’s agencies
and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and improve women’s access to productive assets
and Development (OECD) Guidelines for and resources. The women-owned MSMEs,
Multinational Enterprises; as well as improve particularly in the post-harvest fishery have been
women’s access to credit and financial products. prioritized and supported through 1) institutional
support for establishing an efficient food safety
• Oxfam is also a leading consortium of
official control system in post-harvest fisheries to
15 organizations working on the CAPFish/Foster6
harmonize Cambodian products with global market
project (2021-2024) which focuses on improving
requirements, including the EU; 2) supporting value
resilience, productivity, and socio-economic
chain investment for upgrading the operations
conditions of fishing communities as well as the
and market compliance to enhance business
ecological sustainability of the Tonle Sap Biosphere
competitiveness; and 3) including women’s
Reserve (TSBR) through community-centered
knowledge, skills, and needs related to processing
interventions that improve access to safe water,
and technology upgrading into research and
sustainable sanitation, eco-waste management
development by working in collaboration with
services, enhanced education opportunities, and
Universities and research institutes for improving
sustainable alternative livelihoods. The project’s
capacities for product development, innovations,
key cross-cutting approaches are gender equality
and entrepreneurship.
and disability-sensitive approaches and biodiversity
protection. The project aims to improve the • World Food Programme (WFP): Gender equality
increased leadership and management capacity and women’s empowerment are central to
of women in the community fisheries in green WFP’s mission of saving lives and changing lives and
economy activities. The Gender Road Map (GRM) supporting countries in their mandate to achieve
and Gender Action Learning (GALS) tools are the Sustainable Development Goals. Home Grown
adapted for the needs of CFi committee members, School Feeding (HGSF) is a signatory programme
along with the development of specific training of WFP Cambodia to support the Government
manuals on strengthening the entrepreneurial of Cambodia, and particularly the Ministry of
capacity of CFis, women’s economic Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) to improve
empowerment, leadership and management for household food security and nutrition through
CFi leaders and women’s economic empowerment increased availability of nutritious foods in
for fishery communities. A study was conducted schools and the diversification of crops grown by
to gain an in-depth understanding of the current smallholder farmers in the community. WFP has
demographic and a needs assessment on worked to improve gender transformative HGSF
Women’s Leadership (WL) in targeted locations of and across all of its programmes. Through HGSF,
the CAPfish/Foster project that provided a better studies have been conducted, including a study
picture of gaps, enabling factors, and challenges undertaken to deep dive into the barriers that limit
for women in CFIs and their training and the meaningful engagement of women smallholder
vocational needs in relation to the application of farmers in the HGSF supply chain that provided
various gender tools and modules such as Gender insights on the needs and opportunities for female
Action Learning (GAL) tools and women’s farmers by providing key recommendations
leadership training. for improving women farmers’ engagement in
the HGSF supply chains and in broader market
• UNIDO: women’s economic empowerment and
opportunities. The project has collaborated with
youth employment are integral parts of the
FAO and the organization partners to improve
cross-cutting themes for all interventions of
gender equality and women’s empowerment in
UNIDO’s Programme for Country Partnership (PCP)
the agriculture value chain.
in Cambodia. UNIDO is one of the key partners
6
Full name of the project is ‘Fisher Folks Making Circular Economy Work For The Western Tonle Sap Lake’.

6 CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
© FAO/Rathany Than
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 Conclusions female-headed households to effectively work

while being able to perform agricultural activities,
The analysis shows that Cambodia has made significant safeguard their household members and land, reduce
progress in improving gender equality over the their mobility and resources, and reduce migration.
last decade. Agricultural activities in Cambodia are However, interventions need to take into account
considered household roles, generally performed by capacity building and women’s access to these tools
both men and women in the household. The role of and minimize trade-offs between the advances of
women in agricultural development has been strongly tools and women’s roles and responsibilities in social
recognized as contributing to supporting economic contribution (reproductive, cultural, religious, and
growth, ensuring food security and nutrition, and community responsibilities, etc.)
promoting the development of the rural economy in
the country. The analysis shows that women’s rights to access and
use land have improved. However, access to land
Women are increasingly participating in crops, ownership remains a critical issue for female-headed
livestock, poultry, fisheries, and vegetable growing, households, Indigenous groups, and poor and
activities customarily considered rural Cambodian work vulnerable people.
for income generation, food security, and nutrition.
In the last decade, farming mechanization and
The RGC recognizes important role of the women with technologies have advanced and become more
many existing policies, frameworks, and agricultural significant in agriculture. They help farmers and
and rural initiatives that promote gender equality and producers to save labour, time and costs.
women’s empowerment and make women integral to
the development of the interrelated sectors. However, Although mechanization has replaced some manual
the analysis shows that there are still lack of resources labour performed by women, such as crop cultivation,
and data in gender-related and sex-disaggregated the study found women undertake multiple roles
categories in specific sectors. There is limited concurrently: unpaid work, paid works, and community
resource allocation and commitment to addressing roles, in the households and community development
gender-related issues across all levels. while men tend to focus on productive and leadership
Many gender-related frameworks are broadly roles sequentially.
institutional-based and mainly donor-driven, which
means they operate in silos with limited timeframes The analysis shows that many farmers, both men and
and resources. The analysis shows there is limited women, have limited capacity to cope with natural
research and credible data at key sectoral level, disasters, with women having lower capacity than men
limited integrated guidance in gender analysis, due to their limited knowledge of climate resilience.
monitoring and evaluation frameworks available for There is a lack of frameworks and policies for social
key sectors in agriculture and rural development; protection or agricultural protection schemes for both
and limits to the integration of frameworks and men and women rural farmers in coping and mitigating
commitment for sectoral gender focuses, particularly climate change impacts. The analysis shows that the
for inter-ministerial coordination mechanisms. impacts are more severe for women, smallholder
farmers, and poor households, and the impacts,
Women’s role and engagement in agricultural and if not addressed, will hinder the efforts towards gender
rural development activities at all levels has been equality and socioeconomic growth in the country.
enhanced, evolving from more traditional roles to a
more recognized role by their community and society, Agricultural productivity is relatively low due to reliance
especially in new agricultural techniques, skillsets, on rain-fed systems, poor farm management practices,
technologies and digitalization. limited access to quality inputs and seeds, high cost
of production, and lack of market value chain and
Advancement and optimization of farm technologies lack of investment capital. Women, women-headed
and mechanization are crucial tools for shifting households, and poor and vulnerable groups lack
and improving women’s roles with their male and access to market information on the needs of domestic
household counterparts in agriculture and rural and export agricultural markets, and lack farming
development. In particular, the tools help technologies, skills, and techniques.

Despite increased representation and voices for agri-businesses for small-scale holders, including
women in the Agricultural Cooperative (AC) and farmer women-led micro, small and medium enterprises.
water user committee (FWUC), their representation Tax incentives, innovation matching grant funds
in management committees remains low due to their and agri-business incubators can be considered to
limited education and skills, time constraints, and support the growth of innovative small and medium
lack of availability to participate in the association’s agri-business enterprises, especially among young
work. This requires support from local stakeholders women business entrepreneurs.
and development agencies to strengthening women’s
• Identify and work with gender champions within
roles and relevant skills (agricultural techniques,
Cambodian and development partner institutions
marketing, the value chain, better access to credit, and
to advance efforts in making the trade and business
comprehensive extension services) and integration of
environment more gender sensitive.
gender awareness in the farmer water user associations
and groups, and smart climate resilience agriculture • Enhance capacities of the government at the
and water technology. national and sub-national level, and communities
to address gender challenges by enforcing
Addressing key challenges and significantly related policies and the management of fisheries
accelerating the gender-responsive agricultural and farming resources, community forestry
value chain, climate resilience and smart agricultural conservations, and land rights.
practice would require collaborative work involving • Promote equal representation of women’s and
the various stakeholders including the government, men’s voices in decision-making in the workforce
private sector, and development partners. There is of governmental institutions at different levels.
need for tangible support including the capacity to
manage human resources and financial resources in 6.2.2 Recommendation for meso (institutional and
order to increase women’s technical knowledge of technical) level:
agriculture, entrepreneurial skills, farm technologies
Institutional level:
(climate resilience and water saving technologies,
digital marketing etc.) and business knowledge so • Operation and management:
that they can take on more entrepreneurial businesses • Improve gender integration and mainstreaming
and farm management opportunities for both domestic approaches, tools and the design, monitoring,
and international markets. and evaluation frameworks: in compliance to
SDGs, institutional Policy for Gender Equality,
CEDAW and relevant frameworks of the RGC,
6.2 Recommendations the project’s management framework.
• Ensure that gender analysis and assessment
The following recommendations emerged from the
is integrated into each project proposal and
key findings and conclusions from a gender perspective
formulation, with inclusion of gender indicators
at macro (policy), meso (institutional and technical),
and objectives. This includes gender data and
and micro (community and household) levels,
information such as sex-disaggregated data
including for FAO country programme in Cambodia.
and ensures that gender-differentiated impacts
The recommendations draw out different levels of
are embedded or enhanced across
interventions with the concrete suggestions
projects/programmes, including relevant
to promote gender equality, women’s empowerment,
research and studies related to agriculture and
and social inclusion in food security, nutrition,
rural development.
sustainable agriculture and technologies.
• Identify, assign, or recruit gender focal points
within the institution and counterparts of line
6.2.1 Recommendation for macro (policy) level:
ministries and sub-sectors.
• Promote equal representation of women and
• Encourage for gender equality compliance
men in decision-making and in the workforce of
across institutional management frameworks.
governmental institutions at all levels.
This includes reviewing the current practices
• Improving the investment and business and mainstreaming gender considerations in
environment by government ministries, including recruitment processes of the implementing
the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries institution and of partners.
(MAFF) to encourage the creation of

• Enhance technical skills and knowledge • Efforts for better financing in agricultural value
on gender equality, gender mainstreaming chains should be promoted at all levels. Initiatives
and women’s empowerment within staff, and funds include investors, grants, value chain
counterparts and other key stakeholders at all financing, or revolving funds that support farmers
levels. Ensure curriculum for an orientation cooperatives or groups at production or post-
and refresher training to all relevant staff harvest actors.
on guideline for gender sensitization and
• Assist farming communities, fisheries-dependent
awareness, and for mainstreaming gender into
communities, farmers’ organizations, and other
project cycles, any new developed tools.
key stakeholders at the sub-national level to
• Promote the best practices and user guides of improve their adaptive capacity to climate change,
gender mainstreaming and producing more good and to be ready in responding to natural threats
practices and user guides with adequate resource and related crises.
and budget for development of case study and
• Work in collaboration with the national
conducting research.
councils, governmental institutions, civil society
• Promote the integration of gender transformative organizations, development partners and private
approaches in agricultural and rural development sectors to encourage and support in applying new
programmes and applying at different levels technologies that should be in support of women’s
to reduce gender norms and bias stereotypes processing, post-harvest and marketing activities,
at various policy, institutional community, and as well as their production activities.
household level.
6.2.3 Recommendations for micro (community and
• Advocate for initiatives, research and studies
household) level:
for better evidence of gender gaps and
women’s needs, as well as practices that promote • Increase more women trainers and provide
gender equality evidence which provide for more capacity activities on climate resilience
a better-informed decision-making at policy and agriculture techniques, administrative, financial
practitioner levels. literacy, and leadership skills to existing and
new women smallholders, female members and
• Advocate for resources mobilisation efforts that
leaders of farmer’s associations and community
contribute to closing gender gaps and promote
conservative groups.
gender equality in agriculture, food and nutrition,
technology, and rural development, including • Enhance knowledge and skills for the community
women’s economic empowerment and climate enterprise groups, associations, and women
change issues. farmer on entrepreneurial skills, including business
development concepts, financial literacy, loan and
Technical level:
credit management, and related leadership skills.
• Joint government and stakeholders’ efforts in • Promote voices and representation of women, poor
improving market information platforms, transport and vulnerable groups in the farmer associations,
infrastructure, adoption of climate resilient community fisheries, forestry, customary land
agriculture technologies, digital skills where men and climate change issues and establish special
and women farmers can access price information measures to address gender challenges.
and marketplaces.
• Support the community and multi-stakeholder
• Establish initiatives for better ecosystem services to address gender issues/challenges in climate
that enable agricultural-businesses, commercial resilience and smart agriculture, fisheries, forestry,
viability, particularly for produces and products from customary land, and climate change related risk
start-ups, smallholder farmers, and disadvantaged and crisis.
groups such as minorities or indigenous groups.

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Ministry of Planning, National Institute of Statistics, 2019. Cambodia Inter-Censal Agriculture Survey 2019.
Ministry of Planning, National Institute of Statistics, 2018. Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2017.
https://www.nis.gov.kh/nis/CSES/Final Report CSES 2017.pdf
Ministry of Women’s Affairs. 2016. Secondary data analysis report of CDHS 2014: women’s experience in
domestic violence and other forms of violence.
MoWA. 2019, Cambodia Report on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on
Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995).
My, S. 2021. Reconfigurations of Femininity and Masculinity in and through the National Childcare Policy in
Cambodia [The University of Melbourne]. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/275000
National Election Committee (NEC). 2022. Results of commune election in 2022.
National Institute of Statistics, 2020. Cambodia Agriculture Survey 2019/2020. www.nis.gov.kh/nis/Agriculture/

CAS2020/CAS2020_Final_Report_EN.pdf
NCDM. 2020. Cambodia Disaster Risk Management National Action Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction (NAP DRR)
2019-2023.
Open Development Mekong. 2020. Annual report on agriculture, forestry and fishery situation in the first semester
of 2020 and future plan activities OD Mekong Datahub.
Oxfam. 2020. Report of Promoting Economic Empowerment for Women in Marginalized Conditions.
Promoting Economic Empowerment for Women in Marginalized Conditions | Oxfam in Cambodia.
Primary data of Gender Assessment for the Nurture Project in May 2022.
RECOFTC. 2019. Cambodia Research Report 2019.

REFERENCES
Royal Government of Cambodia. 2018a. Rectangular Strategy for Growth, Employment, Equity and Efficiency
Phase IV.
Royal Government of Cambodia. 2018b. National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2019-2023.
Tonle Sap Poverty Reduction and Small Development Project. 2022. Progress report 2022.
United Nations Cambodia. 2022. Common country analysis – gender equality deep dive for Cambodia.
UNDP. 2021. The gender wage gap in Cambodia.
UNDP, The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene, Briefing note for countries on the 2020
Human Development Report: Cambodia, 2020, http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/Country-Profiles/KHM.pdf
UNESCAP. 2019. Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment:
Beijing+25 Review: https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Beijing percent2B25-Declaration-percent28ENG
percent29-20200220.pdf
UN Women. 2016. ACTION NOT WORDS: Confronting Gender Inequality through Climate Change Action and
Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia.
UN Women and CDRI. 2021. State of Gender Equality and Climate Change in Cambodia.
World Bank Data. 2022. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS?locations=KH
World Economic Forum (WEF). 2022. Global Gender Gap: Insight Report. Geneva: WEF.

ANNEXES
Annex 1: Interview guides with stakeholders

A. Interview guide with government representatives
I. Background information:
Name of the organization: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Position: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Sex: ………………………………………
Department/Unit: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
II. Gender equality and women empowerment
Objectives Questions
Gaps, constraints, needs and priorities
Objective 1: 1. What value chains and markets do women and men participate in?
To identify needs In which phase/node are they mainly present?
and constraints of 2. What constraints do women and men face in agricultural related activities?
both women and
men in selected 3. How are gender inequalities affecting household food security,
FAO areas of poverty reduction, agricultural production and rural employment?
competence as 4. Why are these problems (gender inequalities) occurring and persisting?
well as priorities What needs to be done so that these household roles and responsibilities
and gaps are shared equally across all household members?
5. What are some of the practical barriers that hinder women’s ability to engage
in and fully benefit from agricultural activities and rural development?
Can you suggest ways of eliminating such barriers?**
6. How has the emergency situation of the country impacted rural women and men?
Is there any difference in the way they cope with the emergency?
7. Are women directly involved in the way the productive land, forestry,
livestock and aquaculture is put to use?
8. What do we need to change in the accustomed roles of men and women for
increased agricultural productivity?
9. What do women and men require increasing crop and animal production?
10. What do you suggest as appropriate and sustainable ways of addressing men
and women’s needs in agriculture?**
Progress towards women’s empowerment
Objective 2: 1. What key achievements have been registered at household and community level
To assess the in country with regards to women’s empowerment and gender equality in the
progress towards agriculture sector?
women’s 2. Do you have ongoing programmes aimed at improving agricultural livelihoods?
empowerment and If so, how these programmes improved the livelihood of women at household
gender equality and community levels?
in the agriculture
sector 3. Can you provide examples/good practices/successful approaches that have
worked in the Somalia as regards improvement of the livelihoods of women?
How? Why?
4. What do you suggest should be done differently to empower women in country?
5. In which economic activity supported by FAO rural women participate in and why?

ANNEXES
Objectives Questions
Gender equality, women empowerment, food security and agricultural growth linkages
Objective 3: 1. Are women engaged in agriculture for commercial or subsistence production?

To examine the 2. To what extent can women make decisions in agricultural production and
links between marketing? What decisions do women make?
gender equality
and women’s 3. Are there cases of malnutrition? If yes, what are the root causes and what
empowerment, interventions are in place?
food security and 4. Do women have opportunities to organize themselves into agricultural groups;
agricultural growth for example, agricultural production, marketing, and can they be in key
leadership positions in these groups?**
5. Do women farmers have access to agricultural extension workers, trainers,
advisers, and successful private farmers for information sharing and learning?
If not, why not?**
6. Do both women and men have access to financial services to boost their
agricultural production? If not, why not? If yes, which financial services are
mainly accessed by women and men rural farmers in the country?**
Institutional capacity
Objective: 4 1. Do you have a GFP/gender advisor in your institution? If yes, do you liaise with him/
To assess the her? How? If not, who advises you on how to integrate gender into your work?
institutional 2. Do you have a policy/guiding framework/strategy on gender in agriculture to
capacity for guide the integration of this issue in your work?
gender equality
and women’s 3. Do you have tools that enable you to integrate gender in your work?
empowerment 4. Have you ever received training or attended awareness raising sessions of
gender issues in the agriculture sector?
5. What would be needed to allow you to better integrate gender in your work?
Recommendations and stakeholders
Objective: 5 1. What are your future recommendations to improve the quality of the programme
To provide for the improvement of men and women in the agricultural sector?
recommendations 2. Are there any other organizations, (CSOs, networks, private companies,
and guidance to individuals) involved in gender and agricultural activities in your area?
promote gender What is their mandate? What is your working relationship with them, if any?
sensitivity of future
programming and 3. What should FAO do to contribute to more gender equality in agriculture
projects, as well as in country?
identifying possible
partners for gender
related activities.
B. Interview guide with UN Agencies, Development Partners, INGOs/NGO and Private Sector
a) Programme management level
Position: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Sex: ………………………………………
Department/Unit: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Objectives: to identify and analyse the factors that hinder efforts to integrate gender into organization
programmes/projects and to identify approaches to strengthen staff capacity to integrate gender in planning,
implementation, and evaluation of programmes/projects.
1. What type of agricultural value chains does your organization/department work with?
2. Have there been any gender analyses in your organization to determine gendered constraints and
opportunities along the agricultural value chains you work in and to incorporate these in planning,
implementation, and M&E?

ANNEXES
3. Do you have ongoing programmes aimed at improving agricultural livelihoods? If so, how have these
programmes improved the livelihood of men and women at the household and community levels?
4. Are gender equality goals and objectives included in project or programme activity designs?
5. Has your organization budgeted adequate financial resources to support its gender integration work?
6. Is sex disaggregated data collected and used systematically in planning and reporting?
7. Does your organization have any projects or programmes that focus exclusively on gender equality?
8. Does the implementation plan for your project or programme include activities that strengthen skills and
provide women/girls, men/boys with equal access to services and trainings?
9. Can you provide examples/good practices/successful approaches that have worked in the Cambodia
as regards improvement of the livelihoods of women? How? Why?
10. Do you monitor and evaluate gender impacts of projects and programmes?
11. What key achievements have been registered at the household and community level in the country with
regards to women’s empowerment and gender equality in the agriculture sector?
12. Do men and women farmers have equal access to agricultural extension services, inputs, advice, trainings,
and financial services? If not why?
13. What are some of the obstacles to integrating gender in project planning, implementation,
M&E in your organization?
14. How are gender inequalities affecting household food security, poverty reduction, agricultural production and
rural employment?
15. Why are these problems (gender inequalities) occurring and persisting? What needs to be done so that the
household roles and responsibilities are shared equally across all household members?
16. Do you think that the national gender machineries like MoWA, GMAG/CWCG and CCWC at sub-national level
are working at best expected of them? If yes how? If not why?
17. How do you evaluate coordination of stakeholders in gender equality and women empowerment?
18. What else is needed to increase gender integration in organizational project or programme works?
19. What do we need to change the accustomed roles of men and women for increased agricultural productivity?
20. What do women and men require to increase crop and animal production?
21. What are your future recommendations to improve the quality of the programme for the improvement of
men and women in the agricultural sector?
22. What should FAO do to contribute to more gender equality in agriculture in the country?
b) Higher officials
Position: …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Sex: ………………………………………
Department/Unit: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
II. Gender equality and women empowerment

1. How do you evaluate the process of policy dialogue and programme development in agricultural and
rural development sectors in Cambodia?
2. Do you think that all stakeholders, particularly national gender machineries and gender equality and
women empowerment advocacy organizations have been adequately represented in such processes?
3. What has been the role of your organization/FAO in the process of developing key national policies in relation
to agriculture and rural development?
4. Do you think that the national policies, programmes in agricultural and rural development sectors and
FAO-Cambodia and CPF adequately addressed gender issues?
5. Do you think that adequate resources (budget) have been allocated to the gender equality and women
empowerment activities in the country?
6. What are the constraints in integrating gender in national policies and programmes?
7. What are constrains in implementing gender equality and women empowerment components of the policies
and programmes?
8. What are your future recommendations to improve the quality of the programme for the improvement of
men and women in the agricultural and rural development sectors?
9. What should FAO do to contribute to more gender equality in agriculture and rural development sectors in
the country?

Annex 2: List of people consulted
No. Organization’s name Name of person Sex Position
A. Government ministries/institutes
1. Ministry of Women’s Affairs H.E The Chhunhak Male Director General of Gender
(MoWA) Equality General Department
2. Sav Kimsoeun Female Deputy General Director of

Gender Equality
3. Gender Technical Working H.E Hor Malin Female Secretary of State and MAFF
Group (GTWG) of Ministry and chair of GCWG
of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries (MAFF)
4. Fishery Administration (FiA) Kang Kim Female Deputy Director General

of MAFF
5. Forestry Administration (FA) Vong Sokpanha Female Deputy Director

of MAFF
6. General Department of Sin Sophorn Female Deputy General Director

Agriculture (GDA) of MAFF
7. Royal University of Representative Female Vice-Rector of RUA

Agriculture (RUA)-MAFF
8. General Secretariat for the Sek Raksmey Female Director General of Social
National Social Protection Protection Assistance
9. Chan Davit Male N/A
10. Chhay Chhat Male N/A
11. Ministry of Health (MoH) Dr. Chea Mary Female Director of National Nutrition
Program, National Maternal
and Child Health Center
12. Council for Agricultural H.E Sok Silo Male Secretary General, CARD
and Rural Development
13. (CARD) H.E Bunheang Chou Male Deputy Secretariat General
14. Say Un Male Director of Department

Director of Food Security
and Nutrition
15. Nea Chamman Male SP-CARD
16. Chea Somalina Female N/A
17. Hem Sopheap Male N/A
18. Meng Hongkry Male N/A
19. The National Council for H.E Mom Thany and Female Secretary of State and MoE and
Sustainable Development Team Chair of GMAG
(NCDS)- Ministry of
Environment (MoE)

ANNEXES
No. Organization’s name Name of person Sex Position
20. Ministry of Rural Noun Monichenda Female Director of Department of

Development (MRD) Ethnic Minority Development
21. Sam Somaly Female Deputy Director of Ethnic

Minority Development
22. Ministry of Water Resources Mr. Thach Sovanna Female Director of Dept of Water
and Meteorology (MoWRAM) Resources Management
and Conservation
B. United Nations (UN) agencies and development partners
23. United Nations Women Sovann Rotvatey Female Programme Officer

(UNW)
24. World Food Programme Chea Phalla Female External Partnerships Officer
(WFP)
25. Ul Socheat Male Programme Officer
26. United Nations Rany Pen Female Assistant Resident

Development Programme Representative
(UNDP)
27. United Nations Industrial Meas Chanthavy Female National Gender/livelihoods

Development Expert
Organization (UNIDO)
28. Asian Development Bank Chea Chandy Female Senior Program Officer
(ADB)
C. INGOs/NGOs/private sector
29. World Fish Mark Dubois Male Country Lead
30. NGO Forum Ouk Vannara Male Deputy Executive Director
31. Oxfam Natacha Kim Female Gender and Social Inclusion

Specialist
32. SNV Rik Overmars Male Team Leader CHAIN Project

at SNV
33. Agricultural and Rural Thay Jeudi Male Head of Green Finance
Development Bank (ARDB) Department
34. Hong Mayhai Male Chief of Research Policy and

Training Division
35. Path Saveth Male Deputy Division of Green Loan

Underwriting and Portfolio
Management
36. That Sokrachan Female Deputy Division of

Administration and Relation
37. AMK Sothea Phan Male Head of Research Department
38. Amru Lun Yeng Male Secretary General

COUNTRY
GENDER
ASSESSMENT
SERIES
ASIA AND
THE PACIFIC
The FAO Country Gender Assessment series provides updated insights, based on available
sex-disaggregated data, on the main gender dimensions of the agriculture and rural sector by country.
In alignment with the FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030, the Assessment describes women’s
and men’s specific roles and opportunities in agriculture and rural development, and explores the
impact of existing gender inequalities. Through a detailed analysis of the various subsectors, the policy
framework and the main national stakeholders, it offers concrete recommendations to the government,
FAO and other relevant partners for strengthening the integration of gender equality dimensions in
agricultural and rural development policies and programmes.
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ISSN 2710-1622

NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

ISSN 2710-1622 [Print]

Cover photograph: © FAO/Cambodia

Executive summary vii

2. Cambodia country context 5

3. Policies and legal frameworks for gender responsive agriculture 11

6. Conclusions and recommendations 35

1: Summary of country programming frameworks of FAO Cambodia (2019-2023) 3

ADB Asian Development Bank

Gender equality is central to FAO’s mandate in in resources management (including financial,

© FAO/TANG CHHIN Sothy

• Advocate for initiatives, research and studies for

© FAO/Enric Catala Conteras

Recommendations for micro • Promote voices and representation of women, poor

1.1 Background 1.2 Scope and methodology

2 NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA

• Lack of gender-disaggregated data given that

Table 1: Summary of country programming frameworks of FAO Cambodia (2019-2023)

Key outcomes Sub-Sectors and cross-cutting issues

1) Enhanced agricultural • Gender roles and dynamics

2) Equitable and sustainable • Migration

3) Reduction of vulnerability, and • Agricultural and rural employment

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA 3

2) Sustainable management of natural resources

4 NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA

6 NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA

Table 2: Summary of key data on women’s employment and labour force

Employment and labour force Women (percent) Men (percent)

Labour force participation 84.1 91.0

Employment 81.0 90.0

• Paid employee/employer 41.2 53.6

• Own account/self-employed worker 38.6 37.1

• Unpaid family worker 20.2 9.3

• Unpaid family worker in rural areas 25.7 11.5

• In Agriculture 38.0 33.0

• Industrial 24.2 27.9

• Service 37.8 39.1

Women-led businesses (MSMEs) 65.0

NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA 7

8 NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA

NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA 9

10 NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA

12 NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA

Table 3: Gender equality relevant policies and frameworks in Cambodia

Sector Name of Strategy/Plan Key Focus

Women’s rights Convention on the Elimination of All Rights-based approaches towards

Human rights International Covenant on Economic, Rights-based approaches towards

Economic Beijing+25 Actions reviewed for women and girls

Sustainable Sustainable Development Goals Promoting gender equality and

Rectangular Strategy for Growth, Poverty reduction and promoting

Land 2001 Land Law Women’s and men’s equal rights to

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA 13

© FAO/TANG CHHIN Sothy

14 NATIONAL GENDER PROFILE OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL LIVELIHOODS – CAMBODIA

3.2 Government mechanisms and efforts and commitments to promote gender equality

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

3.2 Government mechanisms and efforts and commitments to promote gender equality

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

4.1.12 Women’s representation in agriculture 4.2 Challenges and gaps related to policy,