CAVAC aims to address gender equality and women’s economic empowerment through both gender mainstreaming and specific measures targeted at achieving these ends. Both Australia and the RGC are committed to promoting gender equality. 

Research suggests that particular constraints to women in the agriculture sector in Cambodia include limited access to new agricultural technology, access to finance, lower educational attainment, as well as underlying norms that prevent them from expanding their opportunities. 

CAVAC undertakes gender analysis to ensure that both new and existing activities make the most of opportunities to address gender equity, and to manage any particular risks. Specific areas of opportunity include:

• ensuring CAVAC’s lessons from how irrigation schemes impact the lives of women are integrated into CAVAC’s policy engagement work, and
• promoting the role of women in agro-processing and agri-business more broadly

CAVAC partners with stakeholders including RGC and development partners to raise understanding of critical gender issues and shares information about strategies that have been used successfully to address constraints.