Roundtable in Dhaka Focuses on Scalable Approaches to Women's Economic Advancement

By: WE Staff | Wednesday, 4 June 2025

• ‘Jasmine’ project’s aims to empower women in farming through joint efforts to improve leadership and nutrition
• Empowering women demands climate-resilient tech, accessible credit, capacity building, and market inclusion

Experts at a Dhaka roundtable identified women farmers as essential drivers of agricultural sustainability. This calls for enabling access to resilient technologies, financial resources, capacity-building, and equitable market systems. Panelists emphasized the need for a national rollout of the ‘Jasmine’ initiative, coupled with sustainable frameworks that promote women’s leadership and enhance nutritional development through integrated efforts between government and industry stakeholders.

Effective awareness-building initiatives such as the ‘Utthan Boithok’ meetings and ‘Homestead Vegetable Gardens’ were commended during the session, with stakeholders noting the added value of involving religious leaders to communicate key development messages through constructive and tolerant disclosure.

The discussion, ‘Inclusive Market Systems for WEE: Success, Opportunities, and Collaboration’ serves as a strategic forum for dialogue among policymakers, development practitioners, and private sector influencers. The event was organized by MR Consultants Ltd in partnership with TBS and moderated by Saleem Ahmed, associate editor of The Business Standards.

Chandan Z Gomes, senior director of Operations and Programme Quality at World Vision Bangladesh, "Sustainable economic empowerment for rural women is not possible without new technological training, easy access to agricultural credit, and market-friendly infrastructure. Strengthening public-private partnerships and involving religious leaders will further aid this effort."

According to, Syed Abu Siam Zulkarnain, Deputy Project Director of the Smallholder Agricultural Competitiveness Project, targeted interventions such as ‘Nari Stand’ and homestead gardening have strengthened women’s market engagement and financial autonomy.  the impact of integrated livelihood models and off-farm ventures as key drivers of women’s self-sufficiency.