Press Release: Asia Nations Discuss Solutions To Advance Women’s Empowerment

Download: Press Release in Khmer

Stakeholders from across the region working on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and community resilience will come together from all sectors including government, I/NGOs, donor agencies and the private sector to share and analyze different approaches to promote and improve women’s access to economic opportunities in a two-day workshop at Angkor Paradise Hotel in Siem Reap on Thursday and Friday (Jan 25-26, 2018).

Oxfam is organizing the regional learning workshop on “Innovative Integrated Development Solutions to Advance Women’s Empowerment” capturing best practices, lessons learnt, challenges and facilitating collaborative solutions among all stakeholders. This workshop will provide a platform for experts and participants from countries in Asia to exchange expertise and discuss opportunities for greater cooperation on how to incorporate Women’s Economic Empowerment into a wide range of sectors including agriculture, gender-based violence and women leadership, reproductive health, livelihoods and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), urban migration, financial inclusion, microfinance and banking, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, guidelines and policy.

“Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) has become a pressing priority in recent years, as governments, the private sector, and donor agencies recognise its potential to simultaneously catalyse economic growth and contribute to broader human development,” said Solinn Lim, Cambodia Country Director, Oxfam.

Oxfam beliefs that effective economic empowerment for Cambodian women occurs when women enjoy their rights to control and benefit from resources, assets, income and their own time, and when they have the ability to manage risk and improve their economic status and wellbeing.

“For WEE, women in Cambodia must also have the autonomy and self-belief to make changes in their own lives, including having the agency and power to organize and influence decision making, while enjoying equal rights to men and freedom from violence,” added Solinn.

H.E. Math Mara, Secretary of State of Ministry of Rural Development, said that the Royal Government of Cambodia has been striving to build Cambodia by ensuring independence, peace and political stability as the basis for promoting economic growth and improving people’s livelihoods throughout the country especially with emphasis on those living in rural areas. MRD plays a vital role in promoting the livelihoods of people in rural areas through rural credit programs, encouraging the creation of small and medium enterprises in rural areas, ensuring market access and establishing linkages between producers and markets.

“MRD calls on all stakeholders, government ministries, development partners, national and international organizations, the private sector and rural communities to cooperate and to provide technical and financial support for women’s economic empowerment and for them to be able to participate in decision making in their families, communities and society,” said H.E. Math Mara. “Strengthening women’s economic empowerment means contributing to making “women’s lives valuable in all circumstances”,” she added.

The workshop brings together a variety of actors from Asia and the Pacific including participants from Cambodia, Laos PDR, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Nepal.

“We are privileged to have experts from an array of disciplines across various sectors to speak, enabling us to really explore the topic and capture learnings,” said Solinn.