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Daayitwa’s ECO Talks backs MPs with evidence on economic affairs

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KATHMANDU: Daayitwa organised the inaugural ECO Talks, the policy dialogue on women’s economic empowerment, on Friday. The dialogue featured Kamala Roka, Member of Parliament and former Minister for Youth and Sports, as the Policy Champion. The panel comprised Radhika Aryal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS); Neeru Rayamajhi Khatri, President of Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Associations of Nepal and Yamuna Ghale, agriculture, food security and gender expert. The panel examined the challenges of inclusive financial investment and innovative ways of resource mobilisation and made recommendations to take parliamentary actions to promote women-led indigenous enterprises and accelerate the economic growth of Nepal. The event brought together more than 60 policymakers, Civil Society organisations (CSOs), private companies, journalists and other relevant policy stakeholders. In the Eco Talks Series, the dialogues will continue to feature panels with three key policy stakeholders — policy beneficiaries, policy critics and policy implementers and championship of the major takeaways by the young parliamentarian as the policy champion. Addressing the inaugural dialogue of ECO Talks, MP Roka expressed her commitment to taking forward the recommendations and bringing in necessary policies, updates and changes as the Policy Champion who will be endorsing the issue of women’s economic empowerment put forward by this dialogue. She said “Women living in the nooks and corners of Nepal have amazing skills and they have been using those skills for their livelihood for ages. It is not just enough to promote those skills and products of women locally. Nepal can witness the economic transformation if we, the people’s representatives, and the government along with the private sectors shift our focus on how to back up the women’s skills and produce with relevant technology, industrialise and market them at local, national and international levels”. Appreciating the efforts of Daayitwa in bringing together all relevant stakeholders to discuss challenging economic issues, Secretary at the MoICS, Arjun Pokharel said, “Nepal government has passed very strong policies but we need to appropriately establish institutions, design and effectively implement programmes and engage relevant people as outlined in those policies to achieve the desired economic growth in the country”. “Our country is bound to witness an unavoidable economic crisis if appropriate actions are not taken on time. To solve the national economic challenges, good public policies along with result-oriented political leadership are required. Daayitwa has introduced the ‘ECO Talks’ with a mission to advocate and promote evidence-led policy decisions for the economic growth of the nation”, said Dr Pukar Malla, Founder and Chairperson of Daayitwa. The inaugural dialogue has successfully built a strong base for the policy recommendations regarding the promotion of women-led businesses as well as conservation of indigenous skills, knowledge and resources for the economic development of Nepal. The dialogue was moderated by television journalist Sama Thapa. [gallery columns="1" size="full" link="file" ids="24855"] Five more similar dialogues will be held under the ECO Talks Series. ECO Talks Policy Dialogue Series is a collaborative effort of Daayitwa and National Democratic Institute (NDI) that aims to support the Members of Parliament to engage with stakeholders on key economic policy issues regarding Nepal’s economic development. Daayitwa is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that envisions an enterprising Nepal, where every individual has opportunities for a prosperous future. Since 2013, Daayitwa has supported 141 young policy professionals from 30 countries to collaborate with 51 government organisations and 24 parliamentarians to conduct policy research projects at federal, provincial and municipal levels. Additionally, Daayitwa has accelerated 85 growth-oriented rural enterprises (45 women-led) to embrace business innovations, access low-interest loans, and create local jobs in three provinces in the country. READ ALSO: