This session shares proven and emerging approaches to empowering women farmers and entrepreneurs across dryland agri-food value chains, drawing on CGIAR and partner experience. It features the ICRISAT-supported women-led self-help-group model in Telangana, India — where women lead 2,500 agro-processing enterprises being established at the Panchayati Raj level (2025–27), with ICRISAT playing a catalytic, supporting role. CGIAR, government and development partners will discuss success factors and pathways for scaling women-led value chain models across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. 
 
EVENT OBJECTIVES 
- Present proven and emerging models for empowering women farmers and entrepreneurs across dryland agri-food value chains — with women in the driving seat and CGIAR/partners playing a catalytic, supporting role, illustrated by the ICRISAT-SERP self-help-group model in Telangana, India. 
- Bring together CGIAR Centers and external strategic partners — government, NGOs specializing in women's business development, and grassroots networks — to share complementary evidence and expertise. 
- Identify common success factors and enabling conditions (policy, finance, institutional support) for replicating women-led value-chain and enterprise models. 
- Hold an interactive, cross-panel discussion — rather than sequential presentations — that surfaces concrete, actionable pathways for scaling across dryland Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. 
 
KEY OUTCOMES 
- Shared evidence and cross-learning on scaling women-led agri-food value-chain models, anchored in the ICRISAT-SERP Telangana experience. 
- Common success factors and enabling conditions identified for replication across regions. 
- Deeper engagement with strategic, non-CGIAR partners (e.g. SNV, Mercy Corps, Light for the World, UNCCD Women's Caucus, government actors), with partner voices given deliberate prominence on the panel. 
- An outline of next steps / an actionable roadmap for scaling women's economic empowerment approaches in dryland regions.