Leadership in Local Politics of Cambodia: A Study of ... - CDRI

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and tax collection and will help arrange capacity development for councillors. This could be a
starting point for cooperation and support from district authorities.
According to the government, reviewing which sectoral functions should be transferred to
which council levels and which should remain with line ministries and their sub-national units
may take even longer than 10 years. Some civil servants are still quite reluctant to devolve
power and authority.
Furthermore, given the dominance of the ruling party in the communes, there is no doubt
that district and province councils will be made up of CPP councillors. Party politics might
thus be further enhanced. It all depends on the will of the CPP to follow liberal democratic
representation and accountability whether true democracy is to develop and the above issues
are to be eased.
Women Need More Support
Currently, women and women leaders suffer from a lack of power, support and opportunities.
Women need more support in terms of empowerment, improved capability and livelihood
knowledge, peer networking and compensation for and recognition of their contribution.
Promotion of gender should start with awareness and recognition of women’s practical roles
and by focusing on improving rural women’s lives in basic areas, not only on the inclusion of
women in politics and on addressing domestic violence.
More gender workshops are not necessarily needed, but more and better coordination and
cooperation between different training-related institutions. Different institutions can work
together to establish their common areas of expertise and perhaps reduce the amount of
redundancy and overlap in training.
Provide Additional Financial Support and Incentives to Women Leaders
As there is not much chance of renegotiating women’s household roles, one support for women
leaders could be paying them extra or having a separate pay scheme to compensate for the
unpaid work they do at home. The small compensation could ease family frustration at losing
some of their household work or pay for someone to help them with housekeeping.
A woman assistant could be hired among local junior or high school students. This could
expose them early to commune work and help build an interest and a career path for them after
school.
Peer Networking and Public Awareness Programmes for Women Leaders
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councillors and village committees and perhaps men of like mind in nearby communes can
get together to discuss issues and strategies to deal with them. Support should be provided to
help them form a committee and to meet regularly and develop a clear mentoring and training
scheme. There is a similar committee of women commune councillors at the district level, but
it is strictly for those from the same political party. Our recommendation refers to a committee
for women and men leaders of like mind on gender promotion, not a party-based one.
Public awareness should be raised in support of women and their participation in politics.
Television interviews of strong and potential women leaders can be one mode of doing this.
Presenting women in positive and sympathetic ways can over time make public views more
accepting of women leaders while encouraging other women to follow similar paths.
CDRI
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