Download or read book Advancing Sustainable Development and Women's Empowerment in Asia written by and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the first 10 years since it was designed, the EU-funded SWITCH-Asia Programme has been supporting 95 grant projects across 18 developing countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. These projects promote Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) amongst Asian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), business intermediaries and consumer organisations. In their pursuit of SCP promotion and related contribution to poverty alleviation and sustainable, environment-friendly economic growth, project propos-als are also encouraged to support women's empowerment. Extensive consultations with projects and a review of their implementation practice indicate that to date approximately 20% of them, including both ongoing and completed projects, have directly contributed to empower women in the course of their interventions, although they do not necessarily have gendered data and reports on results and impact. During their lifetime, 19 projects generated specific results supporting women's empowerment in 11 countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia, which traditionally have some of the lowest rates of women's empowerment in the Asia Pacific region. These 19 projects are presented as case studies in this publication. They are grouped into four main thematic areas, based on their sector of intervention: garment and textile, agriculture and natural resources (jute, rattan and forestry), energy and sustainable consumption.