USAID/Cambodia views gender as a cross-cutting theme to be addressed throughout its country program. The Mission also has identified serious gender concerns requiring specific attention in the areas of basic education, human rights, participation in political life, economic growth, HIV/AIDS, and reproductive health. Illustrative interventions targeting these sectors include:

• Increasing the quality and relevance of primary education to increase retention, especially among the vast majority of girls who drop out;
• Supporting women's participation in political life, fighting trafficking in women and children-including coordinating anti-trafficking donor activities-and reducing domestic violence to strengthen democracy, build capacity in governance, and enable women to claim their human rights;
• Curbing the spread of infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and improving maternal health to reduce one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia and the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region;
• Stimulating desperately needed economic growth, private sector investment, and higher employment to provide jobs outside of subsistence agriculture, where nearly 80 percent of Cambodians work, half of whom are women;

SELECTED ACTIVITIES: