Gender
in Poverty Reduction
(i) Introduction
In Cambodia, women customarily have been seen as men’s subordinates; they also tend to suffer more seriously from the impact of poverty. Women are generally in a disadvantaged position within the country; they have less access to education, paid employment, land ownership and other property rights, resources and power than men.
Violence of both a physical and sexual nature continues to rise and is thus a serious matter of concern. It is disturbing to find that some 25 percent of Cambodian women are affected by domestic violence. Yet it is seldom punished, even when women are severely injured. Violence against women and children should be seen as being both caused by poverty and as causing and deepening their impoverishment.
The NPRS contains many references to gender equality and numerous points requiring implementation to achieve poverty reduction. It is not yet clear how the government intends to carry out its action plan to achieve sustainable development in Cambodia.
(ii) Key
Issues
Health:
Over 80 percent of the nation’s population resides in rural areas where there is limited access to education, basic health services and broadcasted information. More medical workers are based in the cities than in rural areas and the majority of doctors are male. Due to poverty there are greater difficulties generating an income in remote areas, so people move to the cities to seek employment. Migrant workers are then often exposed to greater risks, such as poor living conditions, poor diets, HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, prostitution, sex trafficking and gender violence.
In 1995, with the introduction of the birth spacing policy, contraceptives have become widely available to women and men. 24 percent of women are now currently using contraceptives and Cambodia has experienced a period of fertility decline from 5.4 to 4.0 children per woman of reproductive age. The coverage of maternal health services still remains low and there is still an unmet need for birth spacing. At the same time many women do not have access to safe abortions.
Every year in Cambodia 2,000 women die during childbirth and over 200,000 women suffer from pregnancy related complications because of poor access to maternal health care, often as a consequence of poverty. The maternal mortality ratio for the period between 1994–2000 is 473 per 100,000 live births — an alarming figure. The main medical causes of women dying in childbirth (maternal mortality) include the following:
▫ Post partum hemorrhage
▫ Eclampsia
▫ Obstructed labour
▫ Unsafe abortion
▫ Sepsis
▫ Malnutrition (anaemia)
▫ HIV/AIDS
Education:
Illiteracy is a barrier for the poor to improve their lives. This has the effect of excluding women from the development process. The illiteracy rate is very high — roughly 45 percent of female adults are completely illiterate (compared to 24.7 percent for men), and approximately 25 percent of youth are also illiterate. 70.8 percent of women and 50.4 percent of men are functionally illiterate[1]. The training opportunities for women are limited to “women’s skills” such as dressmaking.
Poverty rates are higher for households in which the head of the household has had either no formal education or only some primary schooling. The share of education in household consumption expenditure of the poor is less than 1.1 percent.
Access to education for girls is improving and the inclusion in the NPRS Action Plan of targeted scholarships for girls from poor families is welcomed. This commitment needs to be supported by the allocation of real resources to ensure it reaches those who need it most in an ongoing and sustainable fashion. At the same time, action needs to be taken to ensure that the high dropout rate for girls from schools is addressed.
Lack of access to information and education about law and rights is a serious issue; ignorance of legal protections leaves the poor vulnerable to exploitation. This is also the case in relation to access to government information and decision-making. Without access to this, the poor — particularly poor women — are excluded from participating in community activities, and are unable to contribute information that could fill the gaps between government policies and their implementation.
Gender-based
violence:
The law on domestic violence has not yet been passed, having been delayed by the National Assembly Elections. The new National Assembly should take immediate action to legislate in this area and ensure that the law is properly implemented as rape, violence against sex workers, and trafficking of women and children to neighboring countries is on the increase.
The rise in reported rapes indicates that a number of effective strategies need to be developed. Education on gender matters for the general population to address deep-seated views regarding the role of women within Cambodian society is a long-term process. However, in the more immediate context the legal and judicial system should take serious steps to ensure that those accused of rape are caught, tried, and if found guilty, adequately punished. The low level of convictions for rape reinforces an attitude that it is either not a serious offence, or it is an offence that is unlikely to result in a conviction.
The Anti-trafficking Law passed by the Council of Ministers needs to include all kinds of trafficking such as organ trafficking, labor exploitation, sex trafficking and baby trafficking. The government should rigorously enforce the MOU on trafficking between Cambodia and Thailand signed in 1992, and encourage the Thai authorities to do the same.
Women in
leadership:
The
role of women in the political life of Cambodia is developing but it remains a
slow process with only small numbers reaching a level of real power. Thus the
2003 election resulted in 12 women being elected to the National Assembly, an
increase of 5 from the 1998 election.
Following
the 1998 election, there were only 2 female ministers among the 25 ministries
and 4 female Secretaries of State out of a total of 50. At the time this was an
improvement, though there are still no female provincial governors. Previously
there were only 4 women in politically appointed positions and no female
ministers, secretaries of state or provincial governors. Only 9 percent of the
169,000 civil servants are women, and only 8 of 110 judges in Cambodia and no
prosecutors are women.
Prior to the 2002 Commune Elections there was discussion of developing a quota of 30 percent of seats for women. However, this suggestion was rejected and only 8.5 percent of the councilors elected were women. The involvement of larger numbers of women in politics at the local level would be an important step forward in developing both a culture of acceptance of women in power, as well as fostering the empowerment of women who have a valuable contribution to make to the future of the country.
Economy and agriculture:
In Cambodia 65 percent of agricultural labor and 75 percent of fisheries production are in the hands of women. Poverty cannot be reduced unless policies, programs and budget equitably address the situation of Cambodian women’s needs.
Rural women are responsible for 80 percent of food production, and more than 65 percent of women are farmers. Half of those women are illiterate or have less than a primary school education. 78 percent are engaged in subsistence agriculture, compared to 29 percent for men. In rural areas, only 4 percent of women and 10 percent of men are in waged employment.
Women-headed households are more likely to work in agriculture than male-headed households, and yet they are also more likely to be landless or have significantly smaller plots of land. Nearly 80 percent of these workers are primarily engaged in subsistence agriculture with women comprising 56 percent of the primary work force in subsistence agriculture, and 54 percent of the work force in market-oriented agriculture. The majority of women are also unpaid family workers.
Access to quality extension services is a serious issue for both men and women farmers, and women have significantly less access to what little extension services and training are available. Agricultural research and extension are not focused on the activities of women farmers; even though men and women tend to specialize in different tasks.
Although more than 70 percent of Cambodia’s population are employed in agricultural production, between 12 percent and 15 percent of them have no agricultural land. The access of the poor to other natural resources such as forest, fisheries and related resources is constrained.
Women with disabilities:
Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) are discriminated against at all levels of society in all aspects. This causes PWDs to live in isolation, excluded from the mainstream of society, and have no access to equal rights and opportunities like others. Disabled women face double discrimination — as women and as PWDs.
Disability issues seem to be ignored by the government. At the most recent Disability Day (3 December 2003) it was said that less than 2 percent of Cambodian people are PWDs. But the World Bank estimates the number of PWDs living in Cambodia as 20 percent.
In water and sanitation, disabled women are the most vulnerable. There is no appropriate toilet or bathroom for women with disabilities. In many cases they are living in an unhealthy environment.
People with seeing, hearing and speaking impairments have no access to education. Most of them cannot read or write. Moreover children with disabilities cannot go to school or stop going to school because the buildings have no ramps.
Disabled women suffer more from domestic violence. Their husbands mostly abandon them after they become disabled. There are many cases of disabled women being exploited.
Poverty can only be reduced when the needs of the most vulnerable groups are addressed — especially, women with disabilities.
(iii) Recommendations
The draft law on domestic violence should be passed by the National Assembly and implemented effectively as a matter of priority.
The government should ensure the effective implementation of the Labour Law, Anti-Trafficking Law, Marriage and Family Law and Domestic Violence Law. Increased transparency within the police and judicial systems needs constant support and monitoring.
Industrial workers should be provided with clinics, day care centers, and improved health protection particularly related to sanitary and rooming and working conditions of the workers.
Reporting requirements under the CEDAW convention need to be met in order to show that the government is willing to eliminate discrimination against women. CEDAW encourages full implementation of measures to ensure that the rights to employment, rights to political and public life, equal rights, and the rights to social and economic benefits are truly protected. The government should ensure adequate systems of implementation of rights and continuing improvement in community education and access to information about rights for women.
Ensure that there is an increase in the national budget for education aimed at providing sustainable progress on gender issues, for example by providing scholarships and dormitories for female students. Furthermore, the budgets for health and for agriculture should be increased in order to provide better medical services and livelihood conditions for women. Strategies and budget allocations are needed to address the needs of disabled women and children.
Gender database information should be established and disseminated widely in order to provide useful indicators on progress in this area and to show women’s contributions to the development of society.
There should be a quota for the number of women on commune councils, in the National Assembly, and in government positions from the top to the local level.
The government should provide more opportunities for women to be recruited to ensure that they have equal opportunity to gain access to decision-making positions.
All development plans should have gender indicators and analysis, and a pro-poor gender strategy.
For more information on the issues raised in this paper, please contact:
The Gender and Development Network, Tel: 023 215-137, Email: gad@online.com.kh
The Gender Forum of the NGO Forum on Cambodia,
Tel: 023 990-063, Email: ngoforum@ngoforum.org.kh