Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- In connection with 15 October, the International Day of Rural Women, an international forum was held in the capital on the theme "Prospects for the development of women's entrepreneurship in rural areas and the participation of the population in ensuring food security."

During the event, the topics of strengthening the role of women in society, especially improving the living conditions of compatriots living in remote villages, the need to solve their concerns, ensuring food security, and creating conditions for involving women in entrepreneurship in rural areas, were touched upon.

The forum was attended by the Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis, the chairman of the Republican Commission on enhancing the role of women in society, gender equality and the family Tanzila Narbayeva.

She drew the attention of the participants to the problem of employment of compatriots, stressed that formal employment is a serious problem, since in rural areas women are mainly employed in the informal sector. Ensuring official employment contributes to obtaining decent wages, reliable social protection, and pensions.

Tanzila Narbaeva focused on the level of education of girls living in the regions. “Currently, the number of women studying in higher educational institutions of the republic is 365 thousand people or 47% of the total number of students, which is a good indicator, but further improvement is needed, especially an increase in the number of women with an academic degree,” – she noted.

The participants of the event also discussed the role of compatriots in raising rural areas from a socio-economic point of view, in particular, increasing the export potential in the agricultural sector and industry. The ongoing work to improve the health of rural women, the protection and social protection of motherhood and childhood was assessed, plans for the future were adopted.