Promoting Regional Public-Private Cooperation and Partnership and Gender Mainstreaming in Crop Sector of ASEAN

The free movement of goods and services constitutes a central aspiration of ASEAN and is a cornerstone of the common market of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Among others, ASEAN strives to strengthen its position as a producer of “bio foods” in accordance with international food standards on quality and sustainability. In many ASEAN Member States (AMS), including CLMV countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam), agriculture continues to be a sector with economic importance and provide livelihood for the population. Agricultural sector also plays an important role in the context of regional integration, as outlined in the Strategic Plan for ASEAN Cooperation in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (SP-FAF) 2016-2025 and the Strategic Plan of Action for ASEAN Cooperation on Crops (SPA-Crops) 2016-2020.

While the SP-FAF focuses on facilitating ASEAN’s internal and external trade by improving the quality of agricultural production and cooperation amongst the Member States, the SPA-Crops concentrates on harmonizing standards and implementing accreditation and certification schemes. However, implementation of quality standards in ASEAN remains limited and it reduces opportunities to tap into global value chains and expand into markets within and outside of the region.

As outlined in ASEAN’s policy framework, cooperation and partnership with private sector is recognized as an important means to contribute towards improving productivity, competitiveness and ensuring sustainability and inclusiveness of the agriculture sector. Moreover, as part of achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) recognized the need to mainstream gender perspective and analysis in the formulation and implementation of policies, plans and programs of the FAF sector in ASEAN,  which is aligned with the commitments laid out in the ASEAN Declaration on the Gender-Responsive Implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. In 2018, the 40th AMAF Meeting adopted the AMAF’s Approach to Gender Mainstreaming in the Food, Agriculture and Forestry Sectors, which provide guidance on gender mainstreaming. As the new SPA-Crops (2021-2025) is in development, this provides opportunity for AMS to discuss and consider new activities that contribute to the achievement of the work plan, among which include the topic on cooperation between public and private sectors, and gender mainstreaming.

On September 30, 2020, the Regional Workshop on Promoting Public-Private Cooperation and Partnership, and Gender Mainstreaming in Crop Sector of ASEAN was organized to discuss and identify areas where cooperation between public and private sectors such as through PPP and gender mainstreaming could be promoted and implemented.

The event was attended by 50 participants. They are representatives from ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops (ASWGC), ASEAN AgriTrade’s Project Steering Committee Member/Focal Points, ASEAN Secretariat (Food, Agriculture and Forestry Division), GIZ, as well as representatives from relevant ASEAN working groups, expert(s) and other development agencies working on the topic.

The Secretariat of the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Vietnam (PSAV) attended the workshop and presented Vietnam’s experience in promoting cooperation and partnership between public and private sectors through public-private partnership (PPP) in the crop sector, including its issues and challenges.

The Workshop was organized to introduce and establish common understanding among AMS, particularly partners of the ASEAN AgriTrade project, on cooperation and partnership between public and private sectors through public-private partnership (PPP), and gender mainstreaming in the crop sector; present example cases in promoting public-private partnership and gender mainstreaming in the crop sector, and stock-take on existing relevant works and initiatives by AMS; and discuss and identify areas and activities to support the promotion and implementation of public-private cooperation and partnership, and gender mainstreaming in the crop sector of ASEAN.

The Workshop was organized within the framework of the ASEAN-German Cooperation Project, “Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains in ASEAN” (ASEAN AgriTrade), which was initiated with the objective to improve the framework conditions for the implementation of sustainability standards in agricultural value chains within the ASEAN region. The project is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is implemented in collaboration with AMS and ASEAN Secretariat at the regional/ASEAN level and at the national level in CLMV countries, under the purview of the ASWGC. The project supports the promotion of cooperation between public and private sectors such as through public-private partnerships (PPP) and dialogue, assessment of lessons learned on PPP, and development of toolkits to promote PPP implementation. It also promotes gender mainstreaming, innovation and digitalization in the crop sector value chain

In Vietnam, the project will cooperate with the Department of Crop Production, the PPP Task Force on Fruits and Vegetables under PSAV to implement a number of PPP models and initiatives in developing sustainable fruit and vegetable value chains to improve food quality and safety, meeting industry standards as well as requirements of the domestic and export markets./.