Jakarta (VNA) – ASEAN countries have recently helda policy dialogue on strengthening women’s entrepreneurship in agriculture.

Representatives from the ASEAN Coordinating Committee onMicro, Small and Medium Enterprises (ACCMSME), ASEAN Committee on Women (ACW),Senior Official Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry(SOM-AMAF) and ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Network gathered to discuss aholistic, cross-sectoral, national and regional strategy framework to empowerASEAN female farmers and unlock their entrepreneurship potential in theagriculture sector.

At this online event, ACCMSME launched a background reporton Strengthening Women’s Entrepreneurship in Agriculture in ASEAN Countries,with technical assistance from the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) andinputs from ACW and SOM-AMAF.

The report discusses factors hampering theeconomic prospects of women in the sector, which are magnified by the impactsof the COVID-19 pandemic, and proposes a multi-façade policy framework toaddress them.

It highlights agriculture as an important source ofemployment for ASEAN women. On average, 26.7 percent of all working women inASEAN are employed within the sector.

In her opening remarks, Dato’ Suriani Dato’ Ahmad, Chair ofACCMSME and Secretary-General of the Malaysian Ministry of EntrepreneurDevelopment and Cooperatives, shared that empowering women entrepreneurs hasalways been a component of the MSME development agenda in ASEAN. She alsostressed that close cross-sectoral collaboration is needed to achieve thisobjective.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Mojadeddi, First Secretary of theMission of Canada to ASEAN, stressed that understanding the economic and socialpotential of women in agriculture helps contribute to ASEAN recovery.

On his part, Alexander Bohmer, head of the OECD South andSoutheast Asia Division, affirmed the importance of the agriculture sector inASEAN and shared the outcomes of several OECD reports highlighting the need toincrease the productivity and value-added of the sector.

The outcomes of the Policy Dialogue are expected to beintegrated into a set of high-level policy guidelines for governments andpolicymakers, so as to strengthen women farmers and entrepreneurs in theagriculture sector.

The dialogue is an initiative under the ASEAN StrategicAction Plan for SME Development 2016 – 2025, organised in collaboration withthe OECD and supported by the Canadian government through the Canada-OECDProject for ASEAN SMEs./.