ActionAid Cambodia (AAC) announces Ms. Mark Chann Sitha as the new Country Director

Mark Chann Sitha is from Cambodia and is a feminist activist with around two-decade of experiences working in the areas of women’s rights, labour rights, economic justice, conflict analysis and peace building programming. Sitha was a former Coordinator at Worker Information Center (WIC), an organization that works to empower women garment workers, and is a member organization of the United Sisterhood Alliance, an alliance of four social constituencies that is dedicated to addressing the needs of the people, particularly women, and to realizing social development, change, and justice in Cambodia. She worked with workers focusing on women’s rights and labour rights, mobilization and campaigning, capacity development and evidence-based advocacy. She led participatory evaluation, action research and had a few publications to her credit, including “The Reality of National Economic Backbone” and “Covid-19 and Impact: The Experience of Cambodia Garment Workers”.

 

Prior to working at WIC, Sitha has experiences working on development, conflict resolution, peace building and in guiding aid/assistance to the ‘Do No Harm’ initiative focused on dynamic conflict situations of Southeast Asia, in particular Cambodia and Myanmar. Over the past ten years, Sitha has also advised and consulted a number of local, international and bi-lateral organizations in Myanmar. She is co-author of the books called Listening to Voices from Inside: Ethnic People Speak (2010) and Listening to Voices from Inside: Myanmar Civil Society Response to Cyclone Nargis (2009).

 

Sitha has done her Master’s in applied conflict transformation studies. Since January 2014, Sitha has been also serving as part-time teacher/instructor to the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Department of Social Work. She teaches the courses on Causes and Consequences of Poverty, Advance Case Study Practices, and Ethics and Human Rights in Social Work.

 

Currently, Sitha serves as the member of the Board of the Messenger Band (MB) and Just Associates (JASS). MB is a grassroots advocacy group that uses the power of song and arts to lobby for positive change in Cambodia, and JASS is a feminist movement support organization anchored in the global south that is dedicated to strengthening and amplifying the voice, visibility, and collective power of women for a just and sustainable world.

 

While preparing to take up this role, Sitha said: “A strong and inclusive grassroots movement for social and economic justice requires the understanding of the deep-rooted structures and the dominance of power, and the ability to create a vision for transforming those structures collectively. Significantly, it requires individuals and organisations who are in the movement to be reflexive and reflective, and transformative. I am so very excited to be a member of ActionAid in Cambodia – an innovative and evolving organisation, focusing on human rights based approach and transformation, and is embracing the feminist leadership to “walk the talk” and to live its commitment to social justice and a life with dignity for every person.”

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