CWA: ‘Expanding economic opportunities for women in the Caribbean and the Pacific’

The next Women´s Forum on ‘Expanding Economic Opportunities for Women Farmers and Entrepreneurs in the Caribbean and the Pacific’ will be held on Tuesday 8 October 2013 during Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) 2013. It aims at strengthening inter-regional linkages and it will discuss the challenges and opportunities in the process of linking the smallholder farmers to the local market as a strategy for improving investment and agricultural growth in the region.
The forum will also look at strengthening inter-regional linkages in areas including women’s producers and entrepreneurs contribution to food and nutrition security; linking local and regional production to the tourism industry and boosting agro-tourism, and in particular food tourism; sharing lessons in adaptation strategies for increasing resilience to climate change impacts; developing niche markets which add value to indigenous products and build upon local traditions, regional branding and positioning.
Forum organizers report that Agriculture can be an important engine of growth and poverty reduction and women play a crucial in the growth of the sector through their roles as farmers, labourers and entrepreneurs; however, they face more severe constraints than men in access to productive resources such as weak governance structures and mechanisms, and the lack of business knowledge.
The forum is organized by the Technical Centre for Agriculture (CTA), together with the Caribbean Community Secretariat, the US State Department, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, and the Caribbean Network of Rural Women Producers (CANROP).