Biography of Minister

Dr. Kantha Phavi ING has been reappointed since August 2023 as Minister for Women’s Affairs and as the Chairwoman of the Cambodian National Council for Women. Dr. Ing was Minister of Women’s Affairs and Chairwoman of the National Council for Women since 2004. She was responsible for the leadership and management of the Ministry and the National Council. Prior to becoming Minister, Dr. Ing served five years as Secretary of State of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs.

Under her leadership, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs has succeeded to advance women’s agenda in the government policies and reforms, in gender related national laws development and enforcement, in the compliance and enforcement of gender related international conventions and agreements.

The Ministry succeeded to institutionalize gender mainstreaming processes at national and subnational levels and contributed to the development and the integration of gender equality measures into important laws such as the Land Law, the Decentralization and Deconcentration Organic Laws, laws related to ending violence against women and girls such as the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, the Law on Domestic Violence and Protection of the Victims. Her dedication to advocate for gender issues continues in ongoing state reforms and in women’s economic empowerment and women leadership roles.

In the region and worldwide, Minister Ing has actively contributed to the advancement of women’s agenda, especially at the East Asia Ministerial Meetings on Gender Equality and the ASEAN Ministerial Meetings on Women, in UN regional and international forums and meetings. In 2014, Minister Ing was one of the nine women leaders awarded by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women Leadership Forum as “Most Outstanding Women”. In 2024, Minister Ing has actively contributed to the winning of the Global Summit of Women 2024 Roundtable Ministerial Award for a rural women economic empowerment project with the use of digital payment system (Bakong) under the collaboration between the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the National Bank of Cambodia. Recently in August 2024, under the leadership of Minister Ing, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was elected to receive the 3rd ASEAN Women Leaders’ Care Economy Recognition Award at the 3rd ASEAN Women Leaders’ Summit, acknowledging the Ministry’s efforts, dedication and initiatives to advance the Care Economy, and receive the 2024 Asia Pacific Care Champion on the Care Policy Ecosystem for instituting whole-of-government and society policy making process on care.

In the nineties, Dr. Ing worked in France as a medical doctor in hospitals and later on as director of the medical drugs trials department at a French firm involved in marketing and research on medical drugs. Dr. Ing also served as Deputy Secretary General in the medical NGO « Association des Médecins Cambodgiens (AMC) » which provided medical and social assistance to Cambodia.

Dr. Ing holds a Doctorate of Medicine from Saint Antoine Faculty, University Paris VI with a specialization in nutrition and tropical diseases and a Brevet in Public Administration from Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), Paris. She has also participated in the Executive Leadership Program: “Leaders in Development: Managing Political and Economic Reforms” at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2004.