Mainstreaming the Transformational AVC Guidelines: ISEA meets the ASEAN Secretariat and Ministries from Indonesian Gov’t, joins the 19th SOMRDPE

The Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA) in partnership with United Nations ESCAP Subregional Office for Southeast Asia conducted two briefings on the Guidelines for Transformational Partnerships and Women’s Economic Empowerment in Agricultural Value Chains (Transformational AVC Guidelines) in Jakarta, Indonesia for the month of September.

The first briefing was with Poverty Eradication and Gender Division (Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, ACW and ACWC); Food, Agriculture and Forestry Division (ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry); and, Enterprise and Stakeholder Engagement Division (ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Small and Medium Enterprises) of the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat on September 5, 2022.  Bilateral meetings with the named divisions followed the briefing to explore mainstreaming of the Transformational AVC Guidelines in the various agenda, mechanisms and workplans of ASEAN and its sectoral bodies.

For the second briefing, ISEA, Dompet Dhuafa and Bina Swadaya engaged the Indonesian Government (attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, Ministry of Trade) on September 7, 2022. This briefing looked into opportunities to incorporate and champion the Transformational AVC Guidelines in the current programming of the ministries. 

Aside from these briefings, ISEA also joined the 19th ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication (19th SOMRDPE) last August 30-31 in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. ISEA representative, Mr Gomer Padong attended the 11th ASEAN Public Private-People Partnership Forum on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, taking this opportunity to share WE LIVE FOOD in AVCs and Transformational AVC Guidelines to the forum.

The Transformational AVC Guidelines is part of ISEA’s contribution to Gender Transformative and Responsible Agricultural Investments in SouthEast Asia (GRAISEA) implemented by Oxfam supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok.