Nisha Onta, Knowledge Management Coordinator, presented the W+ Standard during the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Asia Pacific Regional Workshop on ‘Challenges and opportunities towards rural women’s empowerment Agrarian transformations and the changing role of women in agriculture and food systems held on 7-8 July in Bangkok. The objectives of the workshop were to foster exchange of knowledge and experiences among member countries in Asia and the Pacific on rural women’s key role in agriculture, food systems and food and nutrition security, and to identify and discuss priority areas for action and good practices that can support gender equality and rural women’s economic empowerment.
During the panel discussion on ‘Promoting women’s collective action and participation in rural institutions’, Ms. Cirila M. Oyoa, Chair of the Gender and Membership Development Committee of PAKISAMA (Asian Farmers Association) discussed the importance of peer to peer learning and shared how inspiring it was to learn about HIMAWANTI Nepal’s success on influencing the national policies especially in the case of Forestry. Both PAKISAMA and HIMAWANTI are WOCAN’s partners. This meeting provided an opportunity to show how supporting women’s collective actions are critical for women’s leadership and empowerment.
The participants were gender focal points from member countries, FAO gender focal points in each country, as well as representatives of UN agencies, civil society organizations, farmers’ organizations and development partners.
