Cambodian domestic workers learn about SDGs
Date:
Author: Sandra Hopkins
60 Cambodian domestic workers participated on a workshop to learn how the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) can influence their lives. The training, organized by UN Women and the Cambodian Domestic Workers Network, focused on two of the seventeen SDGs: Goal 5 on achieving gender equality and Goal 8 on achieving full employment, sustained economic growth and decent work.
“The SDG’s were developed to make life better for everyone. That includes better education, better healthcare, better working conditions and better governance.” Said Sarah Knibbs, Deputy Country Representative of UN Women Cambodia in her opening remarks.
“In families, girls are not kept in school as their future is assumed to be married at a young age and confined to the kitchen” said one of the domestic workers during the discussion. Many of the participants stated that women in Cambodia continue to face discrimination on access to education and domestic workers are usually assigned little value in the eyes of many employers.
Facilitated by Socheath Heng, National Programme Manager for Women’s Economic Empowerment at UN Women Cambodia, the workshop generated lively discussions on the meaning of gender equality and decent work for domestic workers. The importance of learning how to negotiate and reach agreement on the conditions of domestic work was emphasized.
For more information, please contact:
Mariken B. Harbitz
Communications Officer
UN Women Cambodia Country Office
E-mail: mariken.harbitz@unwomen.org