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On August 21, Fair Finance Asia (FFA), PRAKARSA, ResponsiBank Indonesia, and Oxfam in Asia will host a side event alongside the Sixth ASEAN Inclusive Business (IB) Summit in Bali, Indonesia, titled, “Inclusive Business in ASEAN: Integrating Sustainable Finance in the Agriculture Sector.” 

Background  

A 2020 briefing paper jointly published by FFA and Gender Transformative and Responsible Agribusiness Investments in South East Asia (GRAISEA) alongside research partner Profundo, titled, Understanding Financial Flows to Agriculture,¹ indicated that, as transboundary agricultural investments in ASEAN increase, it is imperative to develop a legally binding regional agreement that promotes the adoption of inclusive and responsible regional investment standards and guidelines, and ensures that the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA) is up to date and reflects recently adopted policy frameworks and provisions to mitigate the adverse impacts of cross-border investments, particularly for women in the food and agriculture sector. 

Meanwhile, the March 2022 FFA-GRAISEA report titled, Harvesting Inequality,² concluded that, despite government regulations on labor rights and gender equality, workers, smallholder farmers, and communities in the food and agriculture sector are still subjected to unequal working and living conditions, especially women.    

In this context, FFA and GRAISEA aim to facilitate a dialogue around the findings of the reports, Understanding Financial Flows to Agriculture and Harvesting Inequality, to synthesize policy recommendations on inclusive business, gender, and sustainable finance towards the ASEAN Chairship under Indonesia in 2023

Objectives of the Session 

• Facilitate a consultative dialogue on the strategic levers to better integrate social criteria, particularly gender equality, labor rights, and transparency and accountability into the ASEAN’s IB and sustainable finance policy frameworks and initiatives.   
• Support the ASEAN Indonesian Chairship in synthesizing policy recommendations and feedback from key stakeholder groups with regards to enabling IB and accelerating sustainable, responsible, and inclusive finance, with a strengthened lens on social criteria and impacts.   
• Identify meaningful linkages and synergies for other key initiatives on sustainable and responsible finance across the ASEAN, as a way to ensure follow up and momentum building on the next steps resulting from this dialogue. 

Session Modality  

The session aims to emphasize the importance and role of inclusive and responsible business and finance in enabling sustainable economic development in the ASEAN and explore a consultative dialogue on the strategic levers to better integrate social criteria, particularly gender equality, labor rights, and transparency and accountability into the ASEAN’s IB and sustainable finance policy framework and initiatives. The resulting policy brief will be submitted to the incumbent ASEAN Indonesian Chair, and for consideration by the incoming Laos PDR Chair in 2024, in order to prioritize the acceleration of IB, and sustainable finance in the region, with a strengthened lens on social and gender criteria and impacts.   

To read FFA-GRAISEA’s Understanding Financial Flows to Agriculture report, click here. 

To read FFA-GRAISEA’s Harvesting Inequality report, click here. 

To read FFA-GRAISEA’s Enabling Stronger Due Diligence in the ASEAN Financial Sector policy brief, click here. 

^[1]  Laplane, J., E. Achterberg, W. Warmerdam, and F. Muna, (2022, March), Harvesting Inequality: The social impact of financial institutions’ investments in Asia’s agribusinesses: Profundo, Fair Finance Asia, GRAISEA. See pps. 13, 130‒144 which references case studies on banana farmers in the Philippines and a case study on palm oil plantations in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. 

^[2] FFA and GRAISEA (2020), Understanding Financial Flows to Agriculture: Toward inclusive and responsible investments in the ASEAN region, https://fairfinanceasia.org/blog/2020/12/15/understanding-financial-flows-to-agriculture-toward-inclusive-and-responsible-investments-in-the-asean-region/