Strengthening the Voices of Women Leaders: Lessons from Cambodia

Women For Prosperity (WFP) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) launched in July 1994 to help women councillors in Cambodia challenge discrimination, forge positive working relationships with their colleagues, and fulfil their responsibilities as elected officials. This 11-page paper from the Oxfam GB publication "Learning for Action on Women's Leadership and Participation" describes the strategies WFP has developed to ensure that economically poor, rural women have opportunities to participate in decision-making so that local development plans reflect their priorities.

Following the introduction of a decentralisation policy designed to strengthen pluralist local democracy, promote local development, and reduce poverty, local-level commune (or sangkat) elections were held in Cambodia for the first time in 2002. However, as detailed within the document, "the low numbers of women elected in 2002 reflect the considerable obstacles that women face to participating in local government and other decision-making institutions in Cambodia." Even if elected, women councillors reportedly face low confidence, lack of experience in office, discrimination from male colleagues, lack of family support, and low visibility as elected officials.

To address these barriers, WFP works to empower women in the recognition and exercise of their rights, on equal terms with men, through leadership training, advocacy, lobbying, media campaigns, and awareness-raising with government officials, policy makers, and the general public. Activities have included training courses on "Women's Legal Rights and Advocacy" and "Human Rights, Women's Rights and Democracy". These have been offered to female and male local-government and NGO officials, and are designed to equip participants with the tools necessary to become activists. WFP developed a comprehensive training programme for women who wished to stand for election in 2002, which was offered to 5,527 female candidates from all political parties. (Although only 977 (8.7%) of the 11,261 councillors elected were women, 34 women were elected as commune chiefs; prior to this, no woman had ever occupied this position).

In 2004 the organisation shifted its programme focus from capacity-building on women's legal rights to developing a network for women commune councillors from across the political spectrum, and providing training at a series of Female Councillor Forums (FCFs). These forums allow women councillors to share experiences and learning, build solidarity, and lobby policymakers on gender and development issues. At each forum, the WFP facilitator asks participants to determine core objectives and issues they wish to address, before dividing them into small groups. The idea is that participants can learn from each others' experiences, and work together to develop a strategy to address the particular issue in question. "The important thing in this exercise is that every participant must have the opportunity to contribute, as agreed in the ground rules for the exercise."

In 2005 FCFs were run in 7 pilot provinces with financial and technical support from Oxfam GB and other donors. Participants came from different communes and districts in each province, and represented different political parties. Forums have since been run each year in 9 provinces. "The success of the FCFs in raising the profile and credibility of women councillors among the electorate in Cambodia can be seen in the results of the commune elections held in April 2007, although of course many other factors will also have influenced the increased numbers of women elected": 1,651 women were elected as commune councillors (14% of all councillors), of whom 63 were elected as commune chiefs, which WFP calls "a considerable improvement on the 34 women elected as commune chiefs in 2002." In recognition of such facts, "The FCFs and the councillor network are now recognised throughout Cambodia for having contributed to increasing the capacity of women leaders at the local level, improving their ability to manage their work, and increasing their value in the eyes of male colleagues."

Eventually, WFP plans to hand over the management and leadership of the FCFs to the women councillors themselves. WFP is also working to ensure the future sustainability of this project by integrating the FCF network into existing decentralised local government structures. To that end, in early 2007, WFP organised Provincial Round Tables in 5 provinces. This garnered pledges of continuing support and involvement by Provincial Local Administration Unites (PLAU) and the Ministry of the Interior.