Addressing
\ngender issues is essential in promoting and advancing the role and economic, social,
\npolitical, legal and cultural status of women. The need to address this concern
\nhas been increasingly acknowledged by the government of Cambodia since it would
\nhelp to improve and sustain not only family economy but also national
\ndevelopment and economic growth (UN Women 1995) (RGC 2010). In its third five-year
\nstrategic plan, Neary Rattanak III, the Ministry of Women\u2019s Affairs (MOWA)
\nsought to ensure gender-responsive national policies, legislation and reform
\nprogrammes, support the economic empowerment of women, develop the capacity of
\nwomen and address the main barriers to women\u2019s access to their right to fully participate
\nin, and benefit from, economic and social development (MOWA 2011b).Cambodian
\nfarmers mainly depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. However, during the
\nlast one and a half decades, Cambodia has experienced frequent floods,
\nwindstorms and droughts that have severely damaged agriculture as well as
\nproperty and human life. Significant rice production has been lost to drought,
\nwhich has mainly occurred in the mid-wet season almost every year in the major
\nrice-producing provinces. Flooding has also become a real challenge for
\nfarmers, especially the rural poor. The 2011 flooding had a severe impact on
\nhuman life and assets, infrastructure and crops (ADB 2011). The
\ngovernment is strongly committed to addressing climate change impacts (MOE
\n2006). As part of this, it is managing water resources following the integrated
\nwater resource management (IWRM) principle (MOWRAM 2007a). Under
\nIWRM and participatory irrigation management and development (PIMD) policies, women
\nhave gradually participated more in village and community water management. However,
\ndue to limited capacity and socio-cultural and physical constraints, only a few
\nhave been able to fully join farmer water user communities (FWUCs) in water and
\nirrigation management as well as in disaster risk reduction activities. This
\nstudy aims to establish women\u2019s roles and constraints in irrigation and
\nagricultural development and management in the context of the changing climate,
\nanalyse their priority needs and raise awareness of women\u2019s major challenges in
\nwater resource management and climate change adaptation. This will enable
\nagencies and groups working on gender issues to take appropriate action and
\ngive support. It also seeks to generate realistic recommendations for reducing
\nor eliminating barriers to Cambodian women\u2019s greater engagement in sustainable water
\nresource management, environmental protection and climate change resilience. The
\nresearch involved a desk review, focus group discussions (FGDs) and key
\ninformant interviews (KIIs) to gather information on water governance,
\nagriculture, gender roles in irrigation management and development,
\nsocio-economic and livelihood improvement and related issues. The study drew
\nupon the results of FGDs, KIIs and provincial workshops in late 2010 in the
\nthree provinces in which women were asked to present their critical challenges
\nin water and irrigation management and the appropriate measures to solve those
\nchallenges. The collected data were summarised in a matrix format following the
\ngender analytical frameworks employed in the study: the Harvard Analytical
\nFramework or Gender Roles Analysis Framework, the Community-based Risk
\nScreening Tool\u2013Adaptation &
\nLivelihoods, the Socio- Economic and Gender Analysis and the Longwe Framework
\n(or Empowerment Framework). This was done to identify gender differences and
\ninequalities, including access to and control over resources among men and
\nwomen, responsibilities and roles in society or the community, practical and
\nstrategic gender needs, constraints and benefits. The
\nstudy found that people generally want to have more women in management and development
\nroles in local communities and in public work (such as FWUCs or commune councils)
\nbecause women understand their issues and can solve some critical issues (water
\nuse conflict, money or irrigation service fee collection and management, women\u2019s
\nissues and needs) better than men in a fast and peaceful manner. At commune
\nlevel, women have opportunities and chances equal to those of men. Rural women
\nhave notably participated in meetings or training on women\u2019s rights, saving
\ngroups and agriculture. They are actively involved in their communities.
\nFurthermore, they are well aware of their rights in society and are able to
\nsettle complicated issues of their families or communities. In
\nFWUCs, men and women play very important roles in the development or
\nrehabilitation, operation and maintenance of irrigation systems. Compared with
\nthe past, women have become more active, committed and able to put forward
\ntheir views. However, gender imbalance in FWUCs still exists, since women have
\nmany household chores to perform. Because of this, only a few women have the
\ntime to join FWUCs and village and commune development activities, particularly
\nin water and irrigation management or in disaster risk reduction. At the same
\ntime, even though they are committed, women still lack capacities, experience
\nand skills in this sector. These barriers have affected the willingness of the
\nwomen to join in public affairs.It
\nis noticeable that men and women have different roles, challenges and
\nabilities. Compared with men, the number of women in FWUCs (and also in commune
\ncouncils) is low. Among 43 members of FWUCs in the study areas, only nine are
\nfemale (21 percent). Most of the important positions in FWUCs, such as chair
\nand first and second vice-chair, are dominated by men. While women mostly hold
\npositions as treasurers and accountants in the committee, men tend to take
\noverall management control, including water allocation, irrigation system operation
\nand maintenance and water use conflict resolution, as well as in rice planting.
\nMen also provide technical input and final (household and community)
\ndecision-making. Unequal numbers, roles and power have pushed women into a
\nweakened position. Rural
\nfarmers have faced frequent and severe natural disasters and climate impacts,
\nparticularly floods, windstorms, high temperatures, vector-borne diseases and
\ndroughts, in the last one and a half decades. Interviewees observed that the
\nclimate is becoming more abnormal from one year to the next. The temperature is
\nrising, and farmers experience increasing numbers of pests (mainly from
\nFebruary to March) like worms, grasshoppers, small caterpillars and brown leaf-hoppers
\nthat can destroy many hectares of rice in just one night. High temperatures
\nalso increase the incidence of sickness in children and reduce crop growth and
\nyield. Droughts are increasingly frequent, and droughts or dry spells have
\nbecome longer in the last 10 years. Livelihood resources have been damaged or
\nare unavailable. During droughts and water shortages, the families most
\naffected are poor and\/or female-headed, because they lack both equipment
\n(pumps, hand tractors) and labour. A further change can be noted in rainstorms that
\nare longer or shorter than the norm, or that are delayed. Sometimes rice fields
\nare quickly inundated and damaged by heavy rain. For example, the floods that
\noccurred in 2009 and 2011 severely damaged agriculture, the environment,
\ninfrastructure, human settlements and even human life. Given
\nthese challenges, significant land and water resources are required. These
\ninclude funds for building or maintaining irrigation systems and flood
\nprotection dams, technical support from relevant provincial departments, FWUCs,
\ncommune councils and other social groups. All of these are crucially important
\nfor both male and female farmers to improve agricultural production, to
\ngenerate income, adapt to climate change and to generally build resilience. However,
\nwomen have less access to and control over those resources than men. It
\nis clear that the vulnerability to climate change among men and women is
\ndifferent. This relates to their capacities, the resources available to them,
\ntheir experience and their levels of responsibility. Women have potential roles
\nin provincial, district, commune and village climate change adaptation and
\ndisaster management mechanisms. They work in volunteer groups, in women\u2019s help
\ngroups, on women and childcare committees and on women and child consultative
\ncommittees to assist women and children when disasters occur. Rural
\npeople need to have equal rights and access to and control over those
\nresources, as well as the opportunity to participate in public decision making.
\nAlthough legal frameworks and mechanisms have been developed for gender
\nequality and for empowering and inspiring women\u2019s commitment and participation,
\nthe capacities of women, social and cultural norms and internal rules and
\nregulations in rural areas are still challenges to be overcome. FWUCs,
\ncommune councils and men and women from relevant institutions are very
\nopenminded about women\u2019s participation in the community, the commune and public
\nwork in general. However, as mentioned above, women\u2019s experiences in water and
\nwater governance or in climate change adaptation activities remain limited
\ncompared with those of men. Women tend to be hindered by the demands of
\nhousework, and this reduces the time and opportunities they have to participate
\nin public affairs. As a result, FWUCs have tended to be dominated by men: women
\nare mostly found in more passive positions and have to seek support from men on
\nwater allocation, irrigation system construction and maintenance, water use
\nconflict resolution and disaster risk reduction activities. Therefore,
\nmore needs to be done to promote gender sensitivity and gender empowerment in water
\ngovernance, agriculture and climate change adaptation. Recommendations
\nBelow
\nare some key options to diminish challenges. They also stimulate discussion on
\nthe empowerment of women and the mainstreaming of gender sensitivity and the
\nrole of women within water management, agriculture and climate change
\nadaptation that will boost the mandate and responsibility of FWUCs without
\ndiminishing the important local role and authority of men. Recommendation
\n1: Minimise women\u2019s challenges in water, agriculture and climate change
\nadaptation A
\ndeficiency of suitable capacity, skill and experience, and limited
\nopportunities and time for working in these sectors, remain challenges for
\nwomen\u2019s participation in water and agriculture development and climate change
\nadaptation. To minimise those challenges, the following measures should be
\nundertaken:\u00b7
\nstrengthen the capacity of women through FWUCs and other
\nlocal social groups and motivate men and women to work towards gender equality;\u00b7
\nreview and reform existing rules (community internal rules,
\nelection criteria and by-laws) and regulations that may hinder the
\nparticipation of women or their representatives;\u00b7
\nensure that new policies and development programmes or
\nprojects take into account gender sensitivity and promote the active
\nparticipation of women at all levels; \u00b7 establish and facilitate women\u2019s help groups to support
\ngender mainstreaming and reduce gender constraints;\u00b7 \u00b7 enhance women\u2019s economic, social, political, legal and
\ncultural status and promote gender awareness-raising for women and men in
\ncommunities, villages and communes; \u00b7 \u00b7
\nencourage men to allocate time (by taking on some of their
\nhousehold jobs) for women to work (or to participate) in the community or
\npublic affairs.Recommendation
\n2: Improve water governance, irrigation system expansion and extension services
\nWomen\u2019s
\nlivelihoods are more susceptible than men\u2019s to climate shocks because their
\nfarming activities rely mainly on water. The irrigation systems and
\nagricultural extension services that use, or relate to, modern technologies
\nthat help farmers to cope with climate change, are not available to the
\nsmall-scale farming activities in which women are involved. Thus, key areas to
\nbe taken into account include: \u00b7
\nstrengthening water governance by addressing its economic,
\nsocial, gender, environmental and political dimensions to ensure that water
\nresources and irrigation systems are managed in a transparent, participatory,
\nequitable and accountable manner; \u00b7
\nsupporting and reinforcing FWUCs following IWRM and PIMD
\nprinciples and communitybased adaptation frameworks;\u00b7
\nhanding over appropriate responsibilities to women in FWUCs
\nsuch as planning and decisionmaking in water management and development and
\ndisaster risk reduction activities; \u00b7
\nexpanding irrigation systems to secure water availability,
\nto reduce water stress and user conflict arising from water scarcity and to
\ncontrol flood water. In addition, awareness raising about irrigation
\nmanagement, agricultural development and climate change adaptation should be
\nstarted with women at household level; \u2022\u00b7
\nwidening the provision of agricultural extension services to
\nfarmers and increasing field demonstrations and local short training courses; \u00b7 \u00b7 encouraging women to
\nbecome involved in agricultural extension services and in women\u2019s help groups
\nand field demonstrations;\u00b7 \u00b7 improving women\u2019s engagement and strengthening
\ngender equality mainstreaming.Recommendation
\n3: Improve gender mainstreaming in water governance and adaptation to climate
\nchange Under
\ngovernment directives, various state, private sector and civil society
\ninstitutions are to incorporate gender equality through their sectoral
\nimplementation plans. Women\u2019s livelihoods are even more vulnerable when there
\nis a discrepancy in gender equity in social, cultural and political
\ninstitutions. Thus, some important measures include: \u00b7
\nestablishing appropriate policy and guidelines that enable
\nwomen and men (girls and boys) to have equal opportunities in resource
\nallocation and management, and to share their views and concerns in decision
\nmaking;\u00b7
\nenhancing gender considerations across sectors in order to
\ngive women the education, skills and capacity needed to participate in an equal
\nmanner with men; \u00b7
\npromoting and integrating local knowledge with scientific
\nresearch into climate change adaptation strategy and actions; \u00b7
\nproviding equal opportunities for men and women to control
\ntheir livelihood resources, to have their voices heard and their challenges
\nremoved. Particular attention should be given to the development of a
\ncomprehensive gender equality strategy that will ensure that men and women have equal social, economic, decision-making and political opportunities; \u00b7
\npromoting the participation of men, women and social groups
\nin water and agricultural development initiatives and climate change adaptation
\nprogrammes and projects, and establishing mechanisms that enable them to
\nbenefit equally from these; \u00b7
\nenhancing collaboration among state, private and civil
\nsociety organisations to review and reform existing unequal structures in FWUCs
\nand other local social groups. Practical efforts should be formulated and
\npeople motivated to strengthen or create more gender equity in social, economic
\nand livelihood development and climate change response.Recommendation
\n4: Promote women\u2019s participation and empowerment in water governance and
\nclimate change adaptation Population
\ngrowth, human development activities and climate-related hazards threaten the resources
\non which rural women depend. Improving women\u2019s rights and ensuring their access
\nto those resources are therefore significant. Important activities include: \u00b7
\nproviding equal and suitable opportunities for farmers,
\nFWUCs and other social groups and committee members to participate and exercise
\ntheir rights and obligations in natural resources utilisation, management and
\ndevelopment (in leadership and decision-making roles), and to have equal access
\nto and control over common property resources; \u00b7
\nincreasing women\u2019s access to professional skills and
\non-the-job training (based on practical and strategic needs) and capacity
\ndevelopment programmes in agricultural production and diversification;
\nirrigation management, operation and maintenance; gender equality; disaster management;
\nand climate change adaptation; \u00b7 \u00b7 motivating competent women to share experiences, skills and
\ninformation that would empower and enhance the knowledge and capacity of other
\nwomen; \u00b7 \u00b7 supporting farmer associations, cooperatives and other forms
\nof local collective action to solve gender and women\u2019s issues;\u00b7 \u00b7 reviewing gender strategy and integrating the principles of
\ngender equality and women\u2019s empowerment into all sectors; \u00b7 \u00b7 reviewing and monitoring ongoing water and irrigation
\ndevelopment and climate change adaptation programmes and projects to ensure
\nthat pro-poor and gender issues have been taken into account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Addressing gender issues is essential in promoting and advancing the role and economic, social, political, legal and cultural status of women. The need to address this concern has been increasingly acknowledged by the government of Cambodia since it would help to improve and sustain not only family economy but also national development and economic growth (UN Women 1995) (RGC 2010). In its third five-year strategic plan, Neary Rattanak III, the Ministry of Women\u2019s Affairs (MOWA) sought to ensure gender-responsive national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33071","publications","type-publications","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n