For Environment, Democracy and Livelihoods
A symposium on Women’s Economic Empowerment through Natural Resources: Opportunities, Innovations, and Challenges was conducted on 24 th February 2025. The symposium successfully brought together diverse stakeholders—including government representatives, researchers and academia, development partners, civil society, and the private sector—to discuss current challenges, review and learn from best practices and innovations, and develop approaches and methodologies to inform policymakers and other key stakeholders in advancing women’s economic empowerment.
Building on three years of collaboration between SIAS and ForestAction Nepal in the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) project, along with the collective efforts of 11 knowledge partners, the symposium aimed to share opportunities and challenges in WEE, fostering new knowledge and innovations to address these challenges.
The symposium focused on three major thematic areas of WEE; Opportunities and challenges, innovations and good practices and frameworks, approaches, and methodologies. Dr. Meena Bohara of ForestAction Nepal presented key lessons learned of women in forest-based enterprises. Similarly, Dr. Naya Sharma Paudel facilitated the thematic session on innovations and good practices. Overall, the symposium effectively sparked discussions on empowerment
through natural resource-based enterprises, key governance aspects, institutional and technological innovations, best practices, innovative research methodologies, and inclusive intervention processes to create an enabling environment for women's economic empowerment (WEE).
