Water Energy for Food (WE4F) South-South East Asia Regional Innovation Hub – Regional Convening 2024 Is a regular regional-level meeting held to connect innovators to network with each other, exchange information and knowledge and gain fresh insights, and explore potential partnerships that can drive innovation and sustainability in South and Southeast Asia. 

Attended by 32 innovators from 9 countries as well as speakers from 6 different countries who shared knowledge including: “Opportunities in Climate Finance and exploring the methodology of carbon credit schemes, Climate Risk Modeling for Adaptation and Resilience, Regenerative and Sustainable Agriculture and Fisheries, Urgency to invest in Preventing Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Business”, as well as several variations of the themes in other Unconference sessions which were no less interesting. Field visits were also carried out to Kopernik and Omah Pupa to share knowledge regarding innovation and various R&D carried out in both places. 

In one of the unconference sessions with the theme “Enhancing Women’s Financial Capacity Through Innovation and Institutional Change”, YRE, represented by Gustina, Director of Operations, had the opportunity to lead, share insights, and facilitate discussions with other groups and hub members regarding this theme. YRE highlighted its experience in building the financial capacity of women and cooperatives in Indonesia, through intensive entrepreneurship mentoring activities for female MSME entrepreneurs and also a series of ToT financial literacy training for farming families and cooperatives and how the training was structured. The discussion became interesting when discussing the challenges of access to financing for farmers and women small entrepreneurs.