SDG 5 Gender equality

The Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) is initiated to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. The global SDG 5 consists of 9 targets (3 targets as means of implementation) and 14 indicators. The objectives of SDG 5 are expressed in terms of promoting gender equality highly at local and national levels, whereas the last three targets serve as the means of implementation to validate and assess the goal along the 14 indicators.¹

Women’s equality and empowerment do not only have a substantial effect on sustainable growth and inclusive development but are also integral to all respective goals in the overall 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The achievement of Goal 5 is a fundamental ground leading to the fulfillment of the other SDGs.² In the course of SDG 5, separate targets incorporated with more measuring indicators are put all together in place.³

The SDGs also provide linkages and possibilities to address cross-sectoral challenges, and gender issues are represented in both a stand-alone goal as well as in other SDGs. For example, a draft report from the World Food Programme (WFP) introduces a cross-sector linkage of SDG 2 to SDG 5. The report indicates that gender inequalities can significantly affect access to food security and nutrition. Improving food security and nutrition will also combat poverty, reassure health quality and promote educational attainment. ⁴ Additional training for professional health staff on food security and nutrition are crucial so that monitoring and access to information on food nutrition can be established to women and children at the community level.⁵

Transition from the MDG 3 to SDG 5 targets in Cambodia

Millennium Development Goal 3 (Gender Equality and Empower Women) set a sole focus (3.A) on the elimination of gender inequalities in all levels of education by 2015. The global MDG 3 emphasized three aspects which aimed to increase the proposition of female participation in (i) education, (ii) wage employment exclusive from agricultural sector and (iii) seats in national parliament.⁶

The Cambodia Millennium Development Goal 3 (CMDG 3) followed these global components.⁷ Moreover, the Cambodian Government also introduced a national target (3.d) which aimed to promote the prevalence of violence against women and children into the CMDG 3.⁸

Cambodia was able to successfully achieve the first indicator (3.a), meaning that gender disparities in access to education by 2015 had been eliminated. The achievement of this indicator was also highly related to the implementation of CMDG 2 (achieve universal primary education).⁹

Significant improvements had been made by 2015 on gender empowerment in wage employment (3.b) and economic and political decision making (3.c). In fact, the participation of women in wage employment of all sectors was 42.2 percent in 2010 which was close to the 50 percent (2015 target), whereas contribution to wages by service sector was rather low, at 32 percent in 2013.¹⁰

The result of the last indicator (3.d – gender-based violence) was not available due to a lack of reliable data. Despite unspecific data, there are already some existing laws to tackle this serious issue. The unfinished business of CMDG 3 will be further addressed in the CSDG agenda, although challenges such as gender stereotypes and rooted cultural norm are visible and significant. Reliable data collection will also be prioritized.¹¹

Localization of SDG 5 in Cambodia

Among the 9 targets and 14 indicators of global SDG 5, the Cambodian government has accepted 7 targets and 12 indicators into the CSDG framework.¹²

Similar to the other CSDGs, the localization from global SDG 5 into Cambodia’s national context was conducted with a rapid integrated assessment against the existing national strategy (Cambodia’s National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2014-2018) and other relevant sector plans such as Neary Rattanak IV 2014 – 2018 for the readiness of CSDG 5.¹³

It was found that the National Development Plan and relevant sector strategies have raised about 78% of the CSDG 5 and other relevant people-related CSDGs (1, 2, 3, and 4).¹⁴

In the Socio-Economic Policy Agenda (Rectangular Strategy IV) of the current government, human resource development of the first rectangular is given the highest priority. It includes mainstreaming of gender equity in policy framework and national development plan which will lessen the gender gap in education, widen women entrepreneurship initiative, reduce domestic violence and sexual abuse against women and children and uplift social morality.

Below offers an overview of assessment and implemented strategies from the Royal Government of Cambodia and relevant bodies regarding specific targets and indicators of CSDG 5.¹⁵

Target 5.1 –  to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.

It is necessary to “promote and enforce existing laws and legal frameworks” (indicator 5.1.1), such as CEDAW Convention and ILO’s guideline on Equality and non-discrimination at work in Cambodia. Reducing (sexual) harassment at workplace creates a welcoming working atmosphere and has positive potential to eliminate gender-based discrimination; for example, by introducing a ‘whole of organization’ approach.¹⁶

Target 5.2 – to eliminate all forms of violence against women and children everywhere, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.

Domestic violence in Cambodia had decreased from 41,474 cases in 2006 to 35,408 cases in 2009 or by 29 percent. Increasing awareness that domestic violence against women is a crime has been made.¹⁷ Existing strategic plans such as National Action Plan to prevent violence against women 2014-2018 and  Referral Guidelines for Women and Girl Survivors of Gender-based Violence will aid prevention of violence toward girls and women and also provide assistance to the victims of domestic violence.

Target 5.3 – to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

This localized target stresses out the child marriage issue in Cambodia. According to the Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS) 2014, 15.6% of 15 to 19-year-old respondents were in a union.¹⁸

Target 5.4 – to instill the value of unpaid care and domestic work and promotion of shared responsibility within the household.

High responsibilities in unpaid domestic and care work continue to hinder women’s economic empowerment. In Cambodia, women undertake household responsibility four times more than men in 2015.¹⁹

Target 5.5 – to ensure women’s full and efficient participation in economic and politics, notably ratio of seats held by women in the legislative institutions (indicator 5.3.1), female civil servants holding high position in public sectors (indicator 5.3.2) and women in Commune or Sangkat council (indicator 5.3.3).

Since 2008 until 2013, the percentage of women in the National Assembly decreased from 21.10 percent in 2008 to 20.32 percent in 2013, while 14.75 percent exhibited a straight linear representing a stable percentage of women senators from 1999 until 2012.²⁰ In addition, the 2018 national election revealed that the total proportion of women Member of Parliament amounted to 20 percent of female representatives. This number decreased slightly by 0.3 percent if compared to the result in 2013 (20.3 percent). ²¹

Target 5.6 – to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.

A recent data from 2014 indicated that only 13 percent of married women in Cambodia who did not want any more children were not using any form of contraception due to lack of information (indicator 5.6.1).²²

However, it was found that the localized target 5.3 and 5.4 are not addressed in the national strategic plan. These missing gaps result from a much shorter time frame of national strategies and action for the period 2014 – 2018 in NSDP and other relevant sector strategies, which make these goals, targets and objective less ambitious than those given in the SDG Agenda.²³

Means of Implementation of SDG 5 in Cambodia

The last three targets of the SDG 5 aim at developing the means of implementation to achieve gender equality in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.

In the process of localization, the Royal Government of Cambodia has approved adaptation of merely one means (5.c) for implementing the CSDG 5.²⁴

The localized target 5.c seeks to adapt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels. It comes with two indicators:

• The indicator 5.c.1 is to be able to track and allocate budget systematically that promotes gender equality and women empowerment by ministries and agencies.
• The indicator 5.c.2 is to have Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Plan developed and implemented by Line Ministries (LMs) and Line Agencies (LAs).

The implementation of indicator 5.c.1 falls under the joint responsibility of three ministries such as Ministry of Economic and Finance (MEF), Cambodian National Council for Women (CNCW) and Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA); and indicator 5.c.2 by MOWA and Ministry of Civil Service (MCS).²⁵

Development partners as well as local NGOs also play a key role in driving the implementation of the CSDG 5. USAID has offered a million dollar grant for a collective project initiated by Gender and Development in Cambodia (GADC) in partnership with the Amara Cambodian Women’s Network for Development (AMARA), the Alliance for Conflict Transformation (ACT) and Women Peace Makers (WPM) to promote the leadership and engagement of women in politics (target 5.C) in six provinces.²⁶

In the mission to respond most effectively to Cambodia’s development needs, priorities and aspirations, UNESCO presents a Strategic Framework (2019-2023) which will engage comprehensive interventions of its priority areas regarding SDGs in Cambodia.²⁷ This framework will influence the integration and enforcement of the global target 5.b (enhance the use of enabling technology to promote the empowerment of women) and target 5.c in the upcoming National Development Plan (2019-2023).

Monitoring and evaluation of SDG 5 in Cambodia

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) is the leading institution in supporting CSDG 5. This goal requires involvement from various institutions and line-ministries, as gender equality is essential in every aspect of sustainable and inclusive development.²⁸

Other responsible agencies for CSDG 5 are Technical Working Group Gender – Gender-Based Violence (TWGG-GBV), Ministry of Planning (MoP), National Institute of Statistics,  Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MOLVT), Ministry of Health, National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development (NCDDS) and other Line-Ministries.²⁹

The progressive monitoring and evaluation of most indicators will be gathered and updated every 5 years, although a few indicators (5.6.2, 5.c.1 and 5.c.2) require a more frequent follow-up, specifically every year.³⁰ In contrast to other CSDGs, the 5-year interval of data collection for the CSDG 5 starts from 2018 to 2030.

Table 1: Monitoring of Targets and Indicators of the CSDG 5³¹