Gender and Development

Cambodia

Empowering Female Commune Councilors’ Networks

In Cambodia, commune councils are the lowest level of public administration. The Government of Cambodia’s strong commitment to decentralization and gender was reflected in its adoption of the Law on Commune/Sangkat Administration and Management in March 2001 and its subsequent Sub-decree on Decentralization of Powers, Roles and Duties to communes/sangkat councils in March 2002. Article 9 of this Sub-Decree states that every council must appoint a woman councilor to be in charge of women’s and children’s affairs If a council does not have a female elected commune councilor, it should appoint a woman from the commune to undertake this task. At the first commune and Sangkat elections in February 2002, a total of 11,261 commune and Sangkat councilors were elected for a period of five years, of which 8.5% were women.

Interviewed male commune councilors said that they had received some gender training from provincial or district departments of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs under the Capacity Building Component of ADB’s Commune Council Development Project (CCDP). As decentralization was a new process and a large number of councilors were elected throughout the country, training seats were first prioritized for clerks, chiefs and deputy-chiefs of commune councils who were mostly males. Male councilors noted that some female councilors never showed up and some resigned from their elected positions.

Interviewed female commune councilors during the Rapid Gender Assessment of CCDP said they all wanted to serve the people who had elected them. However, they faced serious personal and work-related challenges to achieve their goal. Their personal challenges included low level of education and lack of support from husbands in household activities and child care resulting in time conflicts among productive, reproductive and commune council responsibilities. Their critical work-related challenges included

• lack of understanding about their roles and the operational mechanisms of commune councils, facilitation and advocacy skills, information about commune council meetings and support from male councilors, and transportation means
• low salary

Women were generally alone among 5-11 commune councilors depending on the size of the commune. They felt very lonely and marginalized-neither confident nor articulate. They lacked access to training opportunities and were not respected by their male colleagues. Some female commune councilors who could attend CCDP training sessions complained that the content were difficult for them to understand and they did not dare to ask questions in a plenary session full of men with very few women. They needed moral support, skills training appropriate with their level of education, and, above all, a network of solidarity, mutual consultations and problem solving to boost their confidence and capacity to perform their duties well in this difficult working environment.

In this context, an ADB project entitled “Strengthening and Capacity Building of Female Commune Councilors’ Network” was initiated and implemented by a local NGO – Women for Prosperity (WFP), under the regional technical assistance on Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (RETA 6143) from August 2005 to July 2006.

Objectives and Activities of the Project

The objectives of the project were to promote transformative leadership for good governance and human rights at the local level through capacity building and strengthening of the women’s network at the commune level. Capacity building of female councilors was conducted through 20 forums (or participatory training sessions) with the participation of 174 female councilors from Takeo, Kampot/Kep, Kampong Chhnang, Preah Vihea provinces and Phnom Penh. There were 4 forums per province (Kep is a small municipality, located next to Kampot; only 4 forums were organized for both Kep and Kampot). Each forum lasted 2 days. The forums allowed female commune councilors to meet regularly as a group to discuss their common experiences and concerns; and learn skills related to public speaking, lobbying, advocacy, problem solving and facilitation.

During the first forum, participants articulated their expectations from the forums and their personal and work-related challenges. Participants reported domestic violence, lack of support from husband, and no delegation of work from chief commune councilors as the three most critical challenges; and brainstormed on possible strategies. The NGO encouraged 3 participants to volunteer for the implementation of these strategies in their communes, and report back about results and constraints at the next forum. Forum minutes were produced by 3 other volunteers and distributed at the second forum. The homework assignment for each participant was to share what they had learned with their commune council colleagues, try to convince them to put women’s issues on the agenda of commune council meetings, and implement the strategy commonly developed by the forum participants. Female councilors also learned skills related to facilitation, advocacy, leadership, management, community mobilization, effective communication, peaceful conflict resolution in the family and in the community, problem solving, problem tree analysis, how to ask questions, and how to be a good listener.

The NGO invited relevant government departments to give simple presentations related to the female councilors work and answer questions. For example, the Provincial Department of Administration briefed female commune councilors about Roles and Responsibilities of the Commune Chiefs and Deputies, Commune Committee for Women and Children, different local committees, Land Law, and other sub-decrees related to decentralization. They answered questions related to delays of remuneration to councilors and transparency issues related to commune expenditures. The Provincial Hang Sen Illness Program requested female commune councilors to disseminate information about this disease and its free medical treatment to their communities. The forums used different participatory methodologies - brainstorming, role play, group discussion, and energizers – to encourage participants to express ideas in public.

Impact of the Forums

By brainstorming, exchanging experiences, and listening to the success or failure in the implementation of the strategies jointly produced at the forums, female commune councilors learned ways to overcome their personal and work-related challenges. They valued the forums as a venue to share challenges and brainstorm for possible solutions to improve their work performance. From one forum to another, female commune councilors dared to speak, and volunteered to implement the strategies developed at the forum and prepare forum minutes. Team building among them was established and strengthened.

Female commune councilors also applied their newly acquired advocacy skills to get support from their families and change the mindset of their male colleagues about what women can do. At the third forum, many participants reported that their husbands helped them with household activities so they could have more time for commune council work. They were invited to attend every commune council meeting. Their reports about the forums were listened to, and, their male colleagues supported them in the implementation of the forum strategies. Topics requested by female councilors were taken into consideration and discussed at the commune council meetings. Female commune councilors had more respect from their male colleagues, while men and women in their communities began to approach them to resolve their problems.

Female commune councilors’ self-confidence and competence increased through more delegation of work from their male colleagues and involvement in solving community problems. Instead of being passive, they became more assertive. They dared to express ideas in public, participated in commune development planning and implementation, and advocated for women’s interests and concerns. They succeeded in mobilizing their communities to contribute in kind and in cash for local development projects. They knew how to contact NGOs and could get projects for their villages such as building community wells, assistance of food and medicine to victims of HIV/AIDS, cow bank and credit, income-generating activities, and health and sanitation projects. In Preah Vihear province, 1 participant succeeded in getting more women elected among village leaders. Among the 9 villages of her commune, 7 women were village chiefs, 7 were village deputy-chiefs, and 7 were members.

Moreover, 1,133 additional commune councilors-colleagues of the forum participants -developed their capacity through forum homework assignments which consisted of female forum participants sharing their new knowledge with their male colleagues and discussing the strategies developed during the forum (on issues like how to deal with land conflicts or domestic violence) at the commune council meetings in order to implement them. The male colleagues also wanted to participate in the forums since many councilors were farmers with low level of education, and before the forums, did not know where to turn for questions.

Chief councilors said that the burden of their work was reduced from one forum to another. They could delegate more work to their female colleagues. The knowledge their female commune councilors brought from the forums were very useful as they helped them find ways to address community issues.

WFP is also working with other donors on similar activities in other provinces; 17 out of 24 provinces have forums for female commune councilors. Despite having no quota and a party-list proportional representation system, the percentage of elected female councilors increased from 8.5% of the total number of councilors in the 2002 commune elections to 14.63% in the 2007 elections, and 74% of communes have at least an elected female councilor (there were 1,663 women in 1,231 communes). Female commune council chiefs increased from 47 to 67, female commune council 1st deputy-chiefs increased from 72 to 149, and female commune council 2nd deputy-chiefs increased from 86 to 120. Among the forum participants, many were re-elected and some got higher positions (i.e. 3 women were promoted from members to commune council chiefs and 10 women from members to 1st or 2nd deputy-chief commune councilors). This was the proof of the political party’s and the community’s trust on the female commune councilors’ competence and commitment to pro-poor service delivery.

Lessons Learned

• Despite their differences in education, age, work experience and political affiliation, female commune councilors got along very well during and after the forums because of common objectives and challenges.
• Confidence and competence of female commune councilors increased gradually, as forums were flexible and tailored to their different needs.
• Participatory approaches and forum homework assignments were very suitable for female commune councilors with low education levels as they enabled them to learn by doing.
• Women’s network is necessary as female commune councilors usually work alone in a male-dominated environment. At the end of the project, female councilors said that their male support had improved but much still needed to be done for improved transparency, management and accountability of the delivery of local development resources. This requires having competent female councilors in every commune, and reaching the goal of 30% female councilors in the 3rd commune elections in 2012.

Conclusion and Next Steps

As a result of its notable achievements, the Project was scaled up under CCDP 2. A piggybacked technical assistance for Capacity Development of Female Commune Council Networks (TA 4892) is being implemented for 18 months in 5 provinces around the Tonle Sap. TA 4892 aims to build the capacity of all female commune councilors and women in charge of Women’s and Children’s Affairs in the Commune Councils, as well as the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) staff through WFP. For institution building, WFP will provide Training of Trainers to provincial and district staff of MoWA on how to facilitate the forums. MoWA, in turn, will conduct forums for female commune councilors and women in charge of women’s and children’s affairs in their respective provinces which will be monitored and backstopped by WFP. At the end of the 18-month project, WFP will deliver a Training of Trainers manual to MoWA.