Encouraging youth and recognising the vital role of women in the development of the cocoa, vanilla and fisheries value chains was the main focus of a meeting between Support to Rural Entrepreneurship Investment and Trade in Papua New Guinea (EU-STREIT PNG) and East Sepik provincial administration and government line agencies in Wewak on January 26th 2021.
The purpose of the meeting is to seek understanding and collaboration in the mainstreaming of gender and youth inclusion under the three value chains of cocoa, vanilla and fisheries being supported by the European Union (EU) co-funded STREIT PNG Programme.
This collaboration will take place through a new Gender Mainstreaming and Technical Working Group (GMTWG) that will mainly communicate, coordinate and ensure collaboration among stakeholders including NGOs, donors, community leaders and provincial administration from line ministries and other United Nations agencies such as UN Women.
This collaboration is important to help all implementers and stakeholders to understand the programme as well as where women and youth can participate actively and assertively under the cocoa, vanilla and fisheries value chains.
The group will equally help to provide technical advice and support to key sectors as well as facilitate information sharing.
This core group will also be responsible for identifying trainers or coaches for Training of Trainers (ToTs), who will be extension officers in the province and district and also at local level government (LLG) or village level to provide support to communities on the cocoa, vanilla and fisheries value chain.
“These trainers, who will henceforth be called coaches, can be anyone that lives in the community such as farmers, teachers, or just any actor within the value chain who will remain in the community to continue to provide them support after the programme ends,” explained STREIT International Gender and Youth Inclusion Specialist Ms. Patu Shang.
During the meeting, the FAO Gender and Youth Inclusion Strategy was reviewed and discussed by the participants.
STREIT used the opportunity to also create a linkage with the provincial administration.
The meeting was co-chaired by STREIT and the provincial administration and was also attended by line ministries/partners and NGOs like East Sepik Council of Women, Youth and Persons with disabilities (PWDs) from Callan Services for Disabled Persons.
The same is being arranged for West Sepik Province.
“Gender and youth inclusion is a key part of the EU co-funded STREIT programme with women playing a key role in the targeted value chains.
“STREIT and the EU-funded SPOTLIGHT programme on Gender Based Violence will be co-ordinating closely in the Sepik,” advised Mr. A. Bennett, FAO Lead Technical Officer of the programme.
The EU Local Agent for STREIT PNG, Dr. Deane Woruba, in his opening remarks, explained that STREIT programme aims to help rural people move away from subsistence to commercial farming agriculture, especially now that cash crops such as vanilla and cocoa are being targeted for improvement.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is leading other United Nation agencies like International Labour Organisation (ILO), focusing on infrastructure developments; United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) assisting with financial capacity management; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for energy and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for telecommunications, to implement STREIT PNG in close collaboration with the Government of PNG and local partners.