The Ministry of Women’s Affairs chose “Women: Together for Peace and Development in the Digital Age” as the theme to organise an event for International Women’s Day on March 8, to continue to highlight the value of women’s active participation in all areas of societal development.
According to the announcement, the ministry in collaboration with other government institutions, civil society organisations, celebration of the 112th anniversary of International Women’s Day will be held in collaboration with private sector and development partners, and the media.
The event aims to highlight the invaluable contributions of women’s participation in maintaining peace and actively participating in Cambodia’s accelerating development in all areas, the announcement said.
The campaign also aims to mobilize the participation and promotion of accountability from all national, national and sub-national institutions, the private sector, national and international organizations as well as all citizens to work together to achieve gender equality in the digital age.
“In response to this theme, we must work together to continue to promote and urge the implementation of the Royal Government’s policy to promote gender equality, which considers women as the backbone of economic and social development and gender mainstreaming which is inter-sectoral work.
“The gender equality promotion is to ensure the sustainability of peace and accelerate the pace of national development, especially in the digital age, and to build the foundation towards achieving the vision of Cambodia as a high-income country by 2050,” the ministry said.
The statement added that the promotion of gender equality continues to be a priority to ensure that all women and girls have equal access to all aspects of politics, economy and society. It is also aimed at promoting the right of women to participate equally as an indispensable partner with men in developing the nation and living in a society with dignity, a better life and well-being.
Eng Chandy, executive director of Gender and Development for Cambodia (GADC), said that the theme selected by the ministry on International Women’s Day on March 8 is a topic that is being used globally and in the Asia-Pacific.
She said that in particular, for Cambodia the topic is used with the term “women together”, which means to show the role of women and the work of women by not focusing only on women working in politics, economics or civil society.
“While there has been a recent increase in gender-based violence online, such as the case of Pheng Vannak harassing women by using inappropriate language on social media and the Internet, this collaboration can solve the problem now, stopping it from happening to women in the future,” Chandy said.
