Susie and Oli represented the Organic Lingua project and the agINFRA project at the launch of the ‘Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index’ (WEAI) at the Houses of Parliament on the 7th of March 2012. WEAI is a measure that captures the empowerment and inclusion of women in the agricultural sector in order to identify ways how possible constraints and obstacles could be overcome. Apart from gaining an understanding about the possible uses of the index in research and monitoring, this event was a great networking opportunity with people from various international organisations related to agriculture and development. The main speakers included: Dr Meredith Soule, Senior Technical Advisor, USAID Bureau for Food Security, Dr Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Senior Research Fellow, the International Food Policy Research Institute and Dr Sabina Alkire, Director, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford.
The 21c team met professionals working on agriculture-related topics, raised awareness of both projects and established roots for possible future cooperation.