Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The Asia Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA) is working to bring a sustainable impact on Agricultural and rural finance of its member countries, Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governor and APRACA Chairman SK Sur Chowdhury has said.
“Our ongoing effort towards development of Agricultural and Rural sectors will bring a sustainable impact in Agricultural and rural finance,” the APRACA Chairman said while addressing at a opening session of the its 66th Executive Committee meeting, held at Bank Keshavarzi Training Center in Iran on October 7-10, according to a press statement.
The meeting was organized by the Bank Keshavarzi-The Agricultural Bank of Iran. An International forum on “Formulation of Women Empowerment Framework towards Sustainable Development in Asia-Pacific” was also held in the same venue in conjunction with the meeting.
Mr. Sur Chowdhury also said the meeting is a platform for sharing resources, knowledge and experiences for APRACA members and partners in Asia and the Pacific.
APRACA Chairman Sur Chowdhury presided over the meeting while the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Bank Keshavarzi-The Agricultural Bank of Iran took part as special guest of the meeting.
Besides there were CEOs of the different organizations and executive director of Central Banks from 15 different countries present in the meeting.
“It has been globally accepted and evidentially proved that significant development gains could only be achieved by ensuring women’s equitable access to and control over economic and financial resources, including in relation to economic growth, poverty eradication and the well-being of families and communities,” the APRACA Chairman said while addressing on the occasion of “International forum on “Formulation of Women Empowerment Framework towards Sustainable Development in Asia-Pacific”.
He also said the impact of inequality in access to resources represents a challenge in the Asia-Pacific region with implications at individual, family, community and national level which needs focused attention by the policy makers at all levels.
Mr. Sur Chowdhury expects that the outcome of this forum will be used by the Federal Governments and civil societies to address the existing inequality within the society and facilitate tracking of progress and gap identification by developing common indicators, cross regional peer learning, sharing of best practices, as well as regional cooperation and collaboration.
At that forum, Mr. Chowdhury also presented a paper on “Bangladesh women empowerment and Development: Framework, Perspective, Strategies, Challenges and Future Directions”.
In his paper the APRACA Chairman focuses on the mainstreaming of gender issues into the development process is widely recognized as an effective strategy to development planning to achieve the expected development outcomes.
“Achieving sustainable development and desirable improvement in the lives and living of the country’s people, and urgent need therefore is to take integration of gender issues into the country’s development process. Over the last one and a half decades, various sectors have paid little direct attention to the gender concerns; the gender issues although received significant focus, mainstreaming has remained yet a half-hearted affair,” the APRACA Chairman explained.
He also said the most important constraint for effective integration of these issues has been the systemic failure.
Thus, a major step forward in the regard by the state would be to pay urgent attention to address the system on a priority basis, he added.
In his presentation, he also mentioned about the present situation of women empowerment in Bangladesh and the activity of the central bank of Bangladesh in co-operation with the different development activities of the Government, which was applauded by the representative of the member countries.
The APRACA has been involved in the promotion of rural and agricultural development and facilitation of exchange of information and expertise in rural and agricultural finance in the region since it was established in October 1977.
It’s representing 70 member institutions from 21 countries in Asia and the Pacific since its inception and the growth and development of APRACA certainly is the result of active cooperation and unsparing support of the member institutions throughout these years.
BBN/SSR/AD
