ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK CAMBODIAN CLIMATE CHANGE RESILIENT RICE COMMERCIALIZATION PROJECT PREPARATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT AND GENDER ANALYSIS JUNE 2012 1 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3 National Gender Situation ............................................................................................................. 6 Institutional and Legislative Environment .................................................................................. 6 Gender Realities Today ............................................................................................................. 7 Gender in Agriculture ............................................................................................................. 8 Constraints in Market Access for Women ............................................................................ 11 Gender and Health – Avian Flu ........................................................................................... 11 Identified Subprojects ................................................................................................................. 13 1. Grain Handling Facility – Prey Veng ................................................................................... 13 2. Irrigation Rehabilitation – Kampong Thom .......................................................................... 14 3. Rehabilitation of Prey Sangha Small Scale Irrigation for Rice Seed Production – Battambang. ............................................................................................................................ 15 General Socio-Economic Conditions in the Target Provinces .................................................... 17 Battambang Province .............................................................................................................. 17 Kampong Thom Province ........................................................................................................ 17 Prey Veng Province ................................................................................................................. 18 Subproject Participatory Socio Economic Surveys ..................................................................... 19 Battambang Subproject Area .................................................................................................. 19 Kampong Thom Subproject Area ............................................................................................ 33 Prey Veng Subproject Area ..................................................................................................... 45 Main Findings and Recommendations ........................................................................................ 58 Migration .................................................................................................................................. 58 Off-farm Employment .............................................................................................................. 58 Poultry and Small Livestock Raising ....................................................................................... 58 Participation in Project Planning .............................................................................................. 59 Domestic Violence ................................................................................................................... 59 Women and Micro Credit ......................................................................................................... 60 Gender Action Plan ..................................................................................................................... 62 Annex 1 – General Socio-Economic Data .................................................................................. 65 Annex 2 – Subproject Socio-Economic Survey .......................................................................... 66 Annex 3: Battambang Socio Economic Survey Data .................................................................. 69 Annex 4: Kampong Thom Socio Economic Survey data ............................................................ 85 Annex 5: Prey Veng Socio Economic Survey data ..................................................................... 99 Annex 6 – Savings Groups ....................................................................................................... 115 Executive Summary This report examines the Royal Government of Cambodia’s (RGoC) policy environment in relation to Gender and identifies core national issues pertinent to Gender and development and particularly in the agriculture sector. The report also presents details and findings from socio- economic surveys, and focal group discussions, conducted in three identified subprojects and provides a gender analysis in regards to rice production. The identification of issues affecting women single heads of households were also seen as a priority during the survey. The report then provides an outline of the Gender Action Plan recommended for project implementation. Enquiries found national gender issues and trends were mirrored at the subproject level: i) women’s literacy lags behind that of men, and particularly so in regards to single female heads of household ii) single women heads of households have smaller productive land plots and less access to irrigation, and have reduced access to farming machinery and equipment resulting in lower levels of income; iii) off-farm employment is an important component of local livelihood systems for both women and men, and this includes short and medium term migration to neighboring countries such as Thailand; iv) women have many demands on their time as they occupy numerous roles within the household which include that of income earner, agricultural producer, a reproductive role of mother, parent and housewife, as well as religious and cultural roles within society – they do not have much spare time; v) women want to receive training, be informed and consulted and play a role in the consultative decision making processes of planning and implementing developmental initiatives – and many specifically indicated that whilst they wish to join and participate in community based organizations such as farmer co-operatives and farmer water user communities (FWUCs), they would prefer not to take on committee management roles; vi) women will often access credit for income generation and other purposes but find credit supply limited and expensive; vii) women want to work and will pursue off farm employment and even migrate to neighboring countries on a short or longer term basis . Based upon the study findings the following initiatives have been recommended for inclusion in the Gender Action Plan. (i) Participation in training and meetings that include amongst other subjects agriculture and credit - 50% of participants will be women. Separate on farm trials and demonstrations will be held for women and men’s farmer groups. (ii) Community based management committee positions - 30% of committee members will be women. (iii) FWUC Advisory Committees (Boards) will comprise 50% women in order to ensure women’s rights to equal access to water resources, decision making and rights to appeal management decisions are protected. (iv) Membership in farmer co-operatives and farmer water user committees - SDP will accept membership registrations from husband and wife, and membership targets are 50% male and 50% female. (v) Rice drying and warehousing facilities - target 25% employment of local women. (vi) On-farm seed production facilities - target 50% employment of local women as women have greater attention to detail in picking out non-conforming varietal phenotypes. (vii) Infrastructure design - women are equally represented and consulted as their male counterparts and construction planning sub-committees would be made up of 50% of women. 3 (viii) Irrigation rehabilitation and construction works will employ 40% women in unskilled labor positions. (ix) Poultry-raising is one activity favored by women and carries increasing risk for viral transmission (H1N1 - Avian Influenza) and this risk is seen to increase with continued climatic changes. Training on protection from health risks, such as Avian ‘Flu and HFMD, will be incorporated into poultry and animal husbandry trainings delivered to groups of women and older children (especially girls) who are often responsible for this activity. (x) Women’s representation and gender expertise will be included in all working groups established by the RGoC in relation to policy development under the SDP. (xi) Extension service field teams will comprise 25% female extension workers. 4 Introduction Development within Cambodia has achieved impressive levels over the past years and foreign investment continues to increase. ADB’s Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) with Cambodia acknowledges the country’s impressive economic growth rate averaging 10.2% for the period 2004-2008, even though it fell sharply in 2009 (to 0.1%) before recovering in 2010 to 6.3%. The decline reflected the impact of the global financial crisis on the country’s three traditional growth drivers - garments, tourism, and construction that account for nearly 40% of GDP. The strong performance of the agricultural sector during the crisis confirmed its potential to play a more important role in the economy, particularly in initiatives to reduce