The Forestry Administration, the international development NGO Pact, and several other partners have been developing the Oddar Meanchey Community Forestry REDD+ project (OM CF REDD+) in an effort to access sustainable financing for forest protection through the international voluntary carbon market. Using the Harvard Analytical Framework as a conceptual methodology, Pact initiated a gender assessment of the project in order to identify ways in which gender could be effectively mainstreamed during the project’s implementation phase. A Japanese institute provided funding and WOCAN provided technical support to the assessment. In order to collect data, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in four of the 13 community forestry sites in the project area in April, 2012.
WOCAN Core Associates, Phanlany Khamphoui and Abidah Billah Setyowati, traveled to Cambodia, to provide training and advisory support to the assessment team. The training included an orientation on gender analysis and 2 days field work in four different communities in the project sites. The study assessed the extent to which the project has incorporated a gender perspective, and provided recommendations and gender responsive action plans to ensure that the project activities and benefit sharing mechanisms are responsive to the needs of women and men community members.
