Cambodia's Post-harvest Fisheries

development:
Gender Equality and
Women's Empowerment
CAPFISH-Capture: Post-harvest Fisheries Development Project under the Cambodia Programme for Sustainable
and Inclusive Growth in the Fisheries Sector (2019-2024), co-funded by the EU.

Mr. Seetharama Shetty THOMBATHU, Chief Technical Advisor and Project Manager
with support from Chanthavy MEAS & Ms. Bettina GATT, Gender Experts on behalf of the project team
CAMBODIA: The Land of Angkor Wat
Post-harvest Fisheries in Cambodia: Challenges & Opportunities*
Rich inland and marine fisheries
Over 20% of the population relies directly on the fisheries supply chain (10% of GDP; population:
15.4 million and 77% in rural areas)
Local consumption: 52.4Kg/person/year; approx. 82% protein intake from fisheries
Post-harvest Fisheries in Cambodia: Challenges & Opportunities*

Workforce: app. 33,000 persons, vast majority of

retailers, wholesaler, processors and business
owner are women:
• Small and micro scale
• Informal and unregistered businesses
• Traditional and labor-intense techniques
Limited exports: lack of food safety
knowledge/standards; markets

Gaps in knowledge, skills and technologies;

aquaculture development

Lack of competitiveness and poor market access

beyond national boarder
*Fisheries Administration, 2016. Fisheries Statistics
CAPFISH-Capture: Post-harvest Fisheries Development
Goal:
Enhance the capacity of Competent authority and harmonize the Cambodia food
safety systems with global requirements including the EU
Objectives:
Post-harvest fisheries development by enhancing institutional food safety system
and supporting the private sector in adopting better and innovative practices.
Key Pillars:

Strengthening Upgrading value Promoting research and

institutional capacity of chains through development and
the official control investment support for innovation by the
systems for food safety market compliance Universities

Gender, Environment, Project management, monitoring and evaluation

Expected outcomes
Regulatory Framework aligned with global requirements

Food safety systems established for enabling global market access

Fishery private sector upgraded and modernized & food safety compliant

Market access expanded - domestic/regional/global-EU

Business expansion and Export growth- job creation/export revenue

Universities are better capacitated towards research and development

 Gender-Sensitive Fish Value Chain Mapping
Pre- Production Collection Post-harvest: Distribution
harvesting Capture from Landing processing and sales
Site

Preparing, cleaning Fishing, gleaning, Sorting, cleaning, Packaging and

Purchase raw Transport to
and repairing nets, collecting, material, transport Salting/
boats, gear, food; aquaculture loading and fermenting/ market, selling,
cleaning smoking/drying negotiating

Women play key roles along the whole fish value chain: from production, distribution,
trading, processing and marketing;
Women’s work is KEY for food security, sustainability and rural economies: vast majority
of the retailers, wholesalers, processors and collectors in the fishery value chains are
female, and most MSMEs (62,5%) are owned by women (intergenerational transfer of
knowledge and skills)
Gender Inequalities in Cambodia's Post-
harvest Fisheries*
Women play key roles along the whole value chain: constituting up to
70% of the workforce in the post-harvest fisheries, with limited
capacity to develop, sustain and secure their businesses.
Women lead 62.5% of MSMEs, but they:
• Remain concentrated at the bottom of the value and supply chain
• Lack assets and opportunities to scale up their businesses
• Lack opportunities to enhance their skills and benefit from
training
• Severely underrepresented in management and decision-making
positions
• Face gender-based violence; more vulnerable to socio-economic
crisis/climate change
• Have a higher illiteracy rate
• Face time poverty: higher work burden due to triple roles
CAPFISH-Capture Gender Equality Approach: Strategy and Action
Plan (2020-2024)
Up-scaling the informal fishery sector, and linking to global value chains, while not leaving women behind

GENDER OBJECTIVES
• Ensuring that women and men
can access, participate and
benefit from the projects’
GENDER MAINSTREAMING throughout the interventions on an equal
project cycle across all the activities
footing, including affirmative
actions to address gender
Two-fold inequalities
GENDER EMPOWERING WOMEN-LED MSMES
STRATEGY and women PROCESSORS through investment • Gender inequalities in activities
support and business development services
and outcomes are not
perpetuated.
 POLICY AND GOVERNANCE: Integration of Social Requirements in Regulatory
and Institutional Systems, including capacity enhancement of relevant
stakeholders on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE)

Integrated social requirements on gender equality in the food safety

certification system: 62,5% women-led MSME CQS certified
Auditing System: 27 (10F) inspectors trained on social requirements for
food safety Cambodia Quality Seal (CQS) inspections;
Capacity development on GEWE for stakeholders (Trainings to more
than 100 governmental staff, including exchange of good practices of 47
processors/44 F; 16 local BDS counselors; and UNIDO PMU);
Social Safeguards on GEWE in Environmental and Social Management
Plans: 28 enterprises commitment to ESMP;
Collaboration on Policy Update: Fisheries Administration, MAFF gender
mainstreaming strategy 2022-2026 and Ministry of Industry, Science,
Technology and Innovation GAP 2023-2028
 Sustainable and Inclusive Value Chain Investment Support
To date: 71% women-led MSMEs, incl. 05 women producer groups with 141 members

Address gender gaps in the transformation from informal to formal businesses by:
Business plan development and food safety training (1st batch: 28 MSME, 20 women-led; 2nd batch: 13/20);
Strengthening women’s entrepreneurial and technical skills
Access to technologies, equipment, trainings, business support services, and networks among women producer groups; e.g. Step-
step guide: fish-shrimp-drying-process-solar-dryer-dome
Job retained and created at enterprise level with 68 % being women;
Job retained and created along value chain actors with 50% being women
Incentivize investment in Fishery Post-Harvest around USD 1 Million provided by the project, leveraging additional USD 1.2 mil
from the enterprises, around 20% of sales increased among enterprises
 VCIS-FTS: Sustainable and Inclusive Value Chain Approach

VALUE CHAIN SUPPLIERS AGGREGATOR (AWARDEE) CURRENT & POTENTIAL

PARTNERS (AWARDEES) MARKETS

Fish
suppliers
Samnang Sothea,
Salt Small Enterprise
producers Dried Fish &
Ice producers Fermented Fish
Producer

Collectors

Buyers

Distributors Bun Vang, UNICA, Processor &

Processing Group Distributor
Dried Shimp and
Other Shrimp Paste • Staff: 13 (F=10)
partners Producer • 34 Associated Business
Actors:
Business development and Food • 20 stores Consumer
Safety Technical Support • 5 processing groups Awareness
• 6 aquaculture farms
Equipment • 3 fishing groups
Au Akោលl
Processing Group
Prohok Producer Market Linkages & Business
Matchmaking
Promoting Gender-responsive Research, Development and Innovation by
Universities
Product development responding to women’s
needs and constraints; incl. gender equality
commitments;
Encouraging female researchers to access
research and development support (gender
targets); to date: supported 04 women-led teams,
out of 8 research proposals; R&D responding to
women’s needs;
Linking women-led enterprises with new
partners’ R&D services;
Gender-sensitive online food safety awareness-
raising campaign, over 2 million viewers
 THANK YOU

CONTACT Ms. Chanthavy MEAS, National Gender Expert

UNIDO, CAPFISH-Capture Project
Email: C.meas@unido.org