For development and progress “serious attention” need to be given to women, US ambassador in Dhaka has said, calling women as “critical agents of change”.
“I have learnt over these many years that if you are serious about development, then you must be serious about working with women … that’s the bottom line: development and progress are driven by women,” Dan Mozena said.
He was speaking at a seminar on South Asia women entrepreneurship in Dhaka on Tuesday.Mozena appreciated women entrepreneurs who he said built businesses facing some “ingrained obstacles” in the society that include discrimination, insufficient networks, limited access to credit and gender-based violence.
“These are serious hurdles, but you overcame them and now you are building your businesses against all these odds… you are realising your dream of ensuring a better future for your countries, a better tomorrow for your children…,” he said.
He said in his more than four decades of service in development, he learnt that women were the backbone of their families, communities and “indeed backbone of their nations”.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki, President of the Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Rokia Rahman, and Asia Foundation Bangladesh Country Representative Hasan Mazumdar were present among others at the inauguration of the seminar.-bdnews24.com
