
Women's
economic empowerment
Our Women's Economic Empowerment Program amplifies the business case for women’s economic empowerment and incentivizes public and private investment into gender-inclusive and transformative actions, practices, and policies.
Up to 1 in 3 individuals engaged in agriculture in Southeast Asia are women, yet they face more barriers to accessing finance, extension services, land ownership, information, and inputs relative to men. ​
Research shows that empowering women in agriculture as decision-makers — as customers, farmers and business owners — drives equitable economic growth, injects more cash into rural economies and increases investments in solutions and services that help communities thrive.
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This program is funded by the GrowHer multi-donor impact fund to amplify the business case for women's economic empowerment, incentivize public and private investment into actions, practices, and policies that accelerate diversity and inclusion. Learn more here.
UNDERSTANDING GENDER INCLUSION

Snapshot of Southeast Asia's progress on women's economic empowerment
Women are often invisible in the smallholder farming landscape in Southeast Asia, perceived as being “unproductive” compared to men while also being expected to provide unpaid farm labour and bear the burden of care and reproductive work. As a multi-stakeholder platform, Grow Asia’s approach to supporting women’s economic empowerment targets promoting deeper understanding of the value of engaging women in agriculture value chains and gender mainstreaming among our partners.

Grow Asia generates case studies demonstrating the business benefits of becoming more gender-inclusive, responsive, and transformative. This includes attracting and retaining top talent, increasing returns on inclusive spending and supplier recruitment, sustaining value chains, improving environmental and social outcomes, and generating positive reputational value.
Case studies
ADOPTING BEST PRACTICE
EMPOWERING WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE
Our ongoing programs, designed and implemented together with our Country Partnerships, include GrowHer, THRIVE and AGREE.
The GrowHer Community
Launched in 2019 by Grow Asia - alongside AGREA, Corteva Agriscience, and WOMAG - GrowHer is a community-based platform that connects women to learning events, essential resources, and best-practice sharing from other women agripreneurs, with the aim of supporting women's economic empowerment in the agriculture sector.
STRENGTHENING POLICY ENVIRONMENTS

Grow Asia synthesizes learnings from across our programs and Country Partnership Working Groups to inform policy and engage governments in moving from dialogue to action. Our network's learnings and insights help policymakers better design and implement gender-inclusive policies, incentives, and access to finance for women.
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Interested in working with us? Please contact Ranthi to learn more.
HOW CAN WE LEVERAGE PARTNERSHIPS TO INVEST IN WOMEN?
Our work on Women's Economic Empowerment is funded by the GrowHer multi-donor impact fund. GrowHer is supported by:



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