H.E. Dilbar Nazari, Minister of Women's Affairs H.E. Ms. Laila Bokhari, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs,  Distinguished Speakers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The film we have just seen is a glimpse of India's multi-faceted development partnership with Afghanistan. This includes for capacity building in spheres such as education, health, agriculture, skill development, energy, infrastructure and strengthening of democratic institutions.

2.    Women empowerment and gender equality are essential to peace building. I would like to highlight one interesting and innovative example where civil society groups of women from India and Afghanistan are working together with the support of the governments of Afghanistan & India.

3.    Since 2008, the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a women's NGO from India is working with women in Afghanistan. The project involves vocational training for women in the areas of food processing, garment stitching and embroidery and eco-regeneration. Under the project, Afghan women groups have registered a federation named Sabah Bagh-e­ Khazanah which means Garden of Wealth. In this case, it is Women's Wealth as it is for women and its center is in Kabul's iconic Bagh-e-Zanana (the Women's garden). It has 22 women's groups or producer collectives who formulate their business plans, run their production centers and market their produce in local shops. They have also set up a small trade facilitation and marketing center in Kabul.

4.    Initially about 45 local master trainers received training in and visiting SEWA teams from India. They also visited India for vocational training and then in turn imparted their skills to thousands of Afghan women, particularly war widows, destitute women, and enable them to earn a livelihood. Starting with 1000 women initially, more than 4000 poor/destitute/widow women have been trained and are now earning decent livelihood. Its total cost was about $ 2 million.

5.    In the second phase, it has spread beyond Kabul and has attracted other funds such as from USAID to train master trainers from  Mazar-e-Sharif, Baghlan and Parwan Provinces. Over 3000 women would benefit in this phase which runs through mid-2018. So what began as a small project has  now grown and spread. A Marketing Network and Trade Facilitation Center, aimed to create trade linkages between SAARC countries has been set up.

6.    I invite you to enjoy a one minute documentary on the Bagh-e-khazana project as that will convey much more than what I can.

Thank You