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Strength in Numbers: How Women's Agricultural Associations Boost Outcomes and Competitiveness By Dr Su-San Chang, Lead Shepherd, Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group   Associative models are effective ways to encourage various individual women farmers and producers to join together to achieve common objectives. Women are often overrepresented in seasonal, informal, part-time, and low-wage work with limited access to social protection. It is critical to invest in economic empowerment of women in small-scale agriculture through various means such as education, training and financing, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. First and foremost, small-scale farmers generally face many challenges. However, women in small-scale farming face multiple constraints beyond those of male farmers. Women tend to be invisible to policymakers because they are not seen as productive as men. They often are expected to provide unpaid farm work and bear a disproportionate burden of care and reproductive roles within the family and community. They are deprived of access to markets, key assets and inputs, and are frequently excluded from decision-making.  And women are even disproportionately impacted by poverty and hunger—including having less access to education and healthcare facilities. These constraints indicate that agricultural policies for women need to be redesigned. In the 2024 APEC Women and the Economy Forum Ministerial Statement, it clearly states that “We seek to actively promote women's meaningful economic participation and leadership through access to markets, capital and information and communications technologies (ICTs). This includes the provision of training and education with a focus on capacity building and increasing their digital skills, financial literacy, and addressing structural barriers that limit women’s participation in the economy and impede gender equality, such as the unequal distribution of paid and unpaid care and domestic work. Women’s economic empowerment will build economic resilience for women and is critical to the inclusive economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region as it ensures long-term prosperity for all.” In this regard, it is timely and meaningful for Peru to initiate a project that demonstrates the importance of policies and programs for the productive inclusion of women in small-scale agriculture through different associative models. These models are effective ways to encourage various individual women farmers and producers to join together to achieve common objectives such as:  to better face market demand; to improve their competitiveness; to have greater bargaining power; to have greater access to financing; and to optimize production process through information exchange, among others.  I am confident that the implementation of this project will not only contribute significantly to La Serena Roadmap for Women and Inclusive Growth, but it would also help APEC member economies to identify policies, plans, interventions and efforts to improve the competitiveness of women in small-scale agriculture and strengthen their associative capacities for production, trade and business entrepreneurship. The project consists of two main components. First, the survey, which gathers detailed information highlighting the importance of productive policies and programs for the inclusion of women in agriculture through associativity with a focus on small-scale agriculture. The survey was designed to provide a thorough understanding of the existing approaches and practices, enabling economies to learn from one another's experiences and best practices. Second, the project features a workshop where participants from APEC member economies can exchange their experiences. This workshop, held in Trujillo this week, served as a platform for sharing best practices, lessons learned and innovative ideas. By encouraging collaboration and knowledge exchange, the workshop helped economies deepen their understanding of effective strategies and identify areas for improvement. A key takeaway from the workshop is the significant contributions of institutional frameworks, especially in providing access to specialized information, such as integration into the formal economy. When there are policies that offer benefits, services or tools to women’s associations, women begin to formalize their businesses, which is a clear benefit. This also enables economies of scale and connections to value chains. The discussion further emphasized the importance of support and collaboration in the agricultural sector, highlighting the involvement of governments at all levels. This includes not only central governments but also local governments that address more immediate and localized issues. We learned that the more critical factor is access to preferential credits and financial independence. Farmers need financial independence, tools, working capital, and resources. However, the primary issue is that many farmers do not own the land or their plots, which significantly hinders their ability to access the necessary resources. This is crucial to address. We also discussed the main challenges faced by some economies. Several opinions were shared, highlighting key issues, although they were not always fully visible. Most challenges are linked to access to digital resources, education and cultural factors. One significant cultural challenge is that women farmers are often still viewed as merely an extension of their domestic roles. Workshops like this one, along with other broader initiatives, play a vital role in capacity building, as does the digital landscape. Digital technology is recognized as both a success factor and a limitation. It is closely tied to education, and without education, people—especially women and small-scale farmers—are unlikely to benefit from digital innovations. I recall that the Policy Partnership on Women and Economy published a useful toolkit, APEC GIFTS A+: Policy Toolkit on Promoting Gender Inclusion in Smart Agriculture, in January 2021. This resourceful toolkit was developed to encourage more women participate in smart agriculture and to address the digital divide within the smart agricultural industry. Likewise, it was designed for public and private sector decision-makers to utilize gender-responsive approaches to create an enabling environment for women. To move forward, we should continue sharing best practices among member economies for strengthening related regulations and legal framework, as well as their enforcement to ensure gender equality. Additionally, APEC members should be encouraged to invest in infrastructure in order to provide female farmers access to education, training, social services and financial services. *** Dr Su-San Chang is the lead shepherd of the APEC Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group.  From Farm to Fork: Tackling the Global Challenge of Food Loss and Waste   The major challenge for our food systems is to revolutionize the way we produce, process, sell, consume, and ultimately dispose of food. Global hunger is on the rise, yet the World Food Program reports that one-fifth of food produced worldwide is lost or wasted. This amounts to one billion meals a day. Reducing food loss and waste is crucial, not only to preserve the food itself but also to conserve the vast resources required for its production. The major challenge for our food systems is to revolutionize the way we produce, process, sell, consume, and ultimately dispose of food. Food loss and waste significantly threatens the sustainability of our agri-food systems. When food is wasted, so are the resources used in its production—such as water, land, energy, labor, and capital. Furthermore, the disposal of food loss and waste in landfills generates greenhouse gases, exacerbating climate change. Food loss and waste generates up to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Food loss and waste can negatively affect food security and availability, driving up food costs. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), reducing food loss and waste can enhance food availability and access, though the impact depends on how close these reductions are to where the food is consumed. Food security is one of APEC’s top priorities. Members recognize the importance of agricultural productivity, international trade, and prevention and reduction of food loss and waste, in achieving food security. In fact, member economies have committed to fully implementing the Food Security Roadmap Towards 2030 and its implementation plan. Ahead of the Food Security Ministerial Meeting in Trujillo, Peru—APEC 2024 host economy—hosted a workshop to discuss challenges and opportunities on reducing food loss and waste to ensure food security in the APEC region. Policy formulation and implementation, stakeholder collaboration, technology and innovation were among the critical topics discussed by experts and policymakers. “In APEC member economies, the context is diverse and complex. We are a region with a great variety of cultures, levels of development and agri-food production systems,” said Jorge Fidel Castro Trkovic, general director of Agrarian Policies under Peru’s Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation. “However, what we all share is the urgent need to address the problem in an effective and coordinated manner.” Experts and policymakers highlighted the following key issues related to food loss and waste: Public policies and regulatory frameworks Effective policies can significantly influence loss and waste reduction throughout the entire supply chain, from production to retail and consumption. “Policy goals for food loss and waste reduction must recognize the links among the social, environmental and economic aspects across the food system,” said Maximo Torero Cullen, chief economist at the FAO. “Policies must acknowledge trade-offs and take a holistic view of agri-food systems. Policy coherence must be ensured.” According to the FAO, the percentage of food lost globally after harvest on farm, during transport, storage, wholesale, and processing in 2021 was estimated at 13.2 percent. Food loss and waste translate into a substantial economic loss. FAO’s estimates indicate that food losses alone are valued at an estimated USD 400 million every year. “Policies that incentivize upgrades and good practice to prevent food loss and waste are key in upstream segments of the food value chain,” Torero added. In Peru, for example, 12.8 million tons of food is lost or wasted. To address the issue, Peru has implemented domestic policies and laws that prevent food loss and waste as well as promoting food rescue that involved inter-sectoral and inter- governmental coordination. “Peru was a real leader in developing an enabling environment,” said Sara Laughton, director of World Food Program in Peru. The legal and normative framework for food waste deterrence through a food donation requirement that Peru set in 2016 was one of a very small number of economies that had a food donation requirement. When food has lost commercial value but is still edible, the law prohibits its destruction. It requires that supermarkets and food warehouses donate this food to a public or a private non-profit organization that will then distribute it for free to individuals facing food insecurity. Enacting the law back in 2016 tripled the donations to Peru's major food bank, Banco de Alimentos Perú. The law also updates Peru's income tax law to provide for tax incentives for donations. Peru has also adopted implementing regulations, describing how all of these tax benefits for food donations will operate. In 2022, another law was passed that promotes food recovery, promoting food redistribution through educational campaigns, coordination of projects and markets and tracking information on food recovery and its impact. “Overall, what these policies do is they are aimed at changing the balance of interest and create incentives to keep food out of landfills and also to encourage a cultural shift towards treating surplus food as a valuable resource,” Laughton added. Role of technology and innovation Technological innovation plays a crucial role in the fight against food loss and waste. Technology can play a transformative role in reducing losses, from improving efficiency in production and storage to using mobile apps that connect producers with consumers. “Technology and innovation are important accelerators and must play a key role in future policy development and design to reduce food loss and waste,” said Torero. “More investments and innovation should be involved in the reduction of food loss and waste to ensure food security in the APEC region,” said Dr Sun Hui from China’s Academy of National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration. “For smallholder farmers, keep conducting training classes on new technologies together with providing socialized service. Research and develop smart and well-targeted measures to promote transformation of agri-food system from digital to smart, to minimize food loss and waste.” “Sustainable practices can lead to cost saving, improve operational efficiency and enhance brand value. Enhancing waste management system is crucial,” said Dr Matthew Tan, associate professor at Singapore Institute of Technology. “Investing in advanced waste treatment technology, improving waste processing practice can help reduce maintain emission and lower overall waste management costs.” Collaboration with stakeholders Regional collaboration and international cooperation can be catalysts for change. The global nature of the problem requires a coordinated response. APEC, as an economic forum that promotes cooperation and development between its economies, is the ideal environment to strengthen links between key actors and develop joint initiatives that can have a significant impact on reducing food losses and waste in the region. “Successful implementation of reducing food loss and waste especially through food rescue movement indeed require support and collaborative efforts across sectors,” said Nita Yulianis, director of Food and Nutrition Surveillance of National Food Agency in Indonesia. “Synergy and collaborations with all stakeholders from upstream to downstream are needed,” she added. Collaboration and stakeholder engagement are particularly important in creating new policy instruments and its evaluation. Experts agree that peer-to-peer economy exchanges can add value and help in promoting better measurement and better policy evaluation practices. “The approach we call forward is more for policymakers to evaluate and to assess the existing policy instruments and have that informed future developments,” said Juan David Saenz Henao of the OECD. “The progress we've made so far has been thanks to our engagement with stakeholders. The stakeholders have a lot of knowledge and access to data that can help us fill in the gaps we have in monitoring.” "This is about bringing stakeholders together to define a common language. It's about co- designing what those solutions might be—looking globally at what's worked elsewhere, but also looking outside of food and drink to see how collaboration, how technology, is solving supply chain solutions, especially so that we can look to address this,” said Sam Oakden, industry action director of End Food Waste in Australia. On 17-18 August, Peru will be hosting the APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting in Trujillo, where minister-level government officials in the Asia-Pacific will tackle similar issues. In anticipation of this event, the Policy Partnership on Food Security has prepared week-long meetings and activities leading to the development of a 2024 Ministerial Declaration for the endorsement of the food security ministers. Ministers Commit to Safeguard a Clean and Inclusive Energy Transition Issued by the 14th APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting Lima, Peru, 16 August 2024 Facing the stagnation of the clean energy transition to combat climate change, energy ministers from APEC economies convened at the 14th APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting in Lima to shape effective policies and foster partnerships to spur efforts for sustainable and inclusive transitions across the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting, chaired by Peru's Minister of Energy and Mines Rómulo Mucho, focused on innovative strategies, capacity building, public-private partnerships, and equitable energy access, with a special emphasis on the development of clean and low-carbon hydrogen and the need to safeguard these transitions to be inclusive for people and communities. “When Peru decided to assume the presidency of APEC 2024 under the theme of Empower. Include. Growth., we set one of our priorities to be sustainable growth for resilient development, with the latter mainly focusing on the promotion of transition to clean energies,” said Minister Mucho in his opening remarks at the meeting. “This recognizes the need to intensify efforts to accelerate clean, sustainable, just, affordable and inclusive energy transition,” Minister Mucho added. Ministers engaged in a robust discussion on how APEC economies can leverage innovative technologies to ensure just, inclusive, and sustainable energy transitions, at the same time addressing potential socio-economic impacts this transitions on vulnerable populations, so that the benefits of clean energy can be distributed across all segments of the society. In her report to the ministers, Ariadne BenAissa, lead shepherd of the APEC Energy Working Group, highlighted an aquavoltaics development project in Chinese Taipei, one of the 10 winners of the 6th APEC Energy Smart Communities Initiative Best Practices Awards, as a “perfect example of a just transition effort that would be beneficial to learn from throughout APEC.” “The aquavoltaics project in Chinese Taipei involved working with local communities to install solar panels on ponds used for fish farming,” reported BenAissa. “What is especially notable about this case is that the project implementers were able to go from strong opposition from the community to full support through stakeholder engagement,” she explained. The importance of enhancing energy access in rural and remote areas was highlighted as a key driver for sustainable growth. Ministers explored effective policies and technologies that can overcome barriers to energy access, particularly for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and vulnerable populations. The discussion stressed the need for targeted government interventions to unlock untapped economic potential through improved energy access. “While we have done well, we can do more in the area of energy efficiency and renewable energy,” said Dr Rebecca Sta Maria, the Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat. “APEC is known as an incubator of ideas. As such we must lead in promoting clean and low-carbon energy transitions.” Ministers also endorsed the “APEC Policy Guidance to Develop and Implement Low-Carbon Hydrogen Policy Frameworks in the Asia-Pacific” —a pivotal document aimed at guiding APEC economies in their hydrogen development strategies. This policy guidance is expected to play a crucial role in the region's transition to clean and low-carbon energy, contributing to long-term sustainability goals. “This innovative document proposes key areas to advance the implementation, such as standards and certifications, value chains, research, finance and investment, and public awareness, and emphasizes the relevance of the principles of coherence and inclusiveness,” said Ambassador Carlos Vasquez, 2024 Chair of APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting. “Increasing the share of renewable energy in our energy mix is crucial in addressing the severe impacts of climate change,” Minister Mucho concluded. “To achieve this, I reaffirm Peru’s commitment to advancing the transition to clean and low-carbon energy.”   For further details, please contact: Masyitha Baziad +65 9751 2146 at mb@apec.org Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at mc@apec.org   News Releases • Features • Publications • Events • Photos • Videos