On Cambodia’s southern coast, Lina* rises before dawn to prepare for another day at sea, hoping to bring home enough to support her household and pay for her children’s education.
“Sometimes we spend the whole day at sea and catch nothing,” Lina says. “When that happens, our debt keeps increasing. … In the past, the rain and wind followed familiar patterns. It is no longer like that.”
Across Cambodia, women like Lina are on the front lines of climate change – impacted in ways that are starkly detailed in Cambodia’s first Gender and Environment Survey (GES), published in 2025. It revealed that 99% of people experienced at least one disaster in the 12 months prior to the survey, and that women were more likely to report disaster-related crop damage or destruction (59%, vs. 44% of men) and livestock deaths or disease (35%, vs. 26% of men).
According to Cambodia’s Minister of Planning Bin Troachhey, who authored the GES foreword: “These foundational data are crucial for understanding the diverse impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution on women and men, enabling the formulation of policies and programmes that ensure resilience and equity.”
Rolled out by Cambodia’s National Institute of Statistics with UN Women support in 2024, the GES findings have already influenced multiple policies, disaster preparedness responses and climate change mitigation plans.
“This survey gives Cambodia a foundation – we can now use the data as a reference to design interventions for women and children in the environment sector,” says Ngin Lina, Secretary of State of Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment. “The Ministry of Environment is committed to using [these] data as a baseline for policies and actions.”
One concrete example of such uses is for Cambodia’s Third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0), submitted in 2025. Led by the Ministry of Environment, it integrates gender equality throughout; has a chapter dedicated to women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities; and features gender equality and social inclusion indicators from the GES. It also establishes Gender Mainstreaming Action Groups (GMAGs) across line ministries, which are tasked with preparing Gender Mainstreaming Action Plans (GMAPs), enabling gender equality policy commitments to be monitored across different sectors.
GES findings also shaped realistic yet ambitious mitigation and adaptation measures in the NDC 3.0. For example, the GES revealed that under 4% of Cambodians are in green jobs and the NDC proposed youth-focused training – especially for women – in grid technology to address this gap. GES data showed women’s overrepresentation in waste work and the NDC introduced three gender-responsive waste policies. The GES showed 12% of women and 9% of men ate less as a result of climate change, to be able to feed their family – especially single parents – and the NDC responded with new priorities on social protection, child welfare and food systems, alongside health, water, livelihoods and disaster risk reduction (DRR).
UN Women was heavily involved in organizing dialogues that shaped the NDC process itself, with inclusive consultations that engaged more than 650 stakeholders – including line ministries, development partners, NGOs, academia, the private sector, Indigenous groups, women, youth and persons with disabilities – in 17 sectoral consultations and subnational workshops. UN Women worked closely with the Ministries of Environment and Women’s Affairs to ensure the issues they raised were included in the NDC draft.
UN Women has equally supported national dialogues between data users and producers, strengthening their capacities to use GES data for evidence-based and gender-responsive policy- and decision-making. This included supporting officials from the Ministry of Rural Development to develop a Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Plan.
And according to Soth Kimkolmony, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM): “Strengthening disaster management information systems, including gender-based data analysis, is helping us better identify the risks and needs of vulnerable groups.”
Local DRR planning has also improved. Yun Sina, from Plan International, explains that commune contingency plans now integrate gender-sensitive indicators and measures to prevent gender-based violence during emergency evacuations – an often-overlooked risk in crisis settings.
Other development programmes are also using and requesting more GES data, such as the Cambodia Australia Partnership for Resilient Economic Development (CAPRED).
According to Vatana Chea, Economic Policy Associate at CAPRED, these data “are highly relevant to our policy analysis, policy briefs and technical support to the Royal Government of Cambodia. Reliable gender and environment data help us develop and communicate policy advice that brings together both Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion and climate considerations, ensuring that these issues are integrated into wider economic development and policy discussions rather than treated separately.”
As next steps, there is also interest from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and NCDM to promote the use of GES data to enhance policy monitoring and further DRR preparedness planning at the subnational level.
*Name changed to protect identity.
