Opening remarks: Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Moderator: Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, Center for Policy Dialogue, Bangladesh
Panellists:
Session 1: 16.35 – 17.00
Closing the gender gap in agriculture: towards gender-sensitive rural transformation
•Zenebu Tadesse, Minister of Women and Children Affairs, Ethiopia
•Sekai Nzenza, Head of Public Affairs, Amatheon Agri, Zimbabwe
•Kostas Stamoulis, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Development Department, FAO
Session 2: 17.00 – 17.25
Enhancing rural women's economic empowerment through off-farm activities
•Willy Bett, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Kenya
•Jayanta Chand, Minister of Commerce of Nepal
•Arancha González, Executive Director, International Trade Centre (ITC)
Session 3: 17.25 – 17.55
Promoting coordination mechanisms at the national and local levels to advance gender-sensitive rural development
•Diana Ofwona, Regional Director for sub-Saharan Africa, UN Women
•Pauline Ngari, Director, Hand in Hand Eastern Africa
•Faizaz Siddiq Koya, Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Fiji
Ending poverty demands actions to combat it in rural areas, where 70 percent of the world's 1.4 billion extremely poor people live. Women will be key agents in this effort, as they comprise about half of the agricultural labor force in LDCs and are also overrepresented among the poor. But they face multiple constraints that hinder their productive potential. This round table will discuss how empowering women can raise productivity, integrate smallholder farms into regional and global markets, and boost synergies between agriculture and non-farm activities.
