AWCF Members-Organizations--empowering women and men in Asia

Center for Agricultural Extension Volunteers (CAEV)

Dr. Bui Quang Toan, Executive Director

A1-Phuong Mai-102 Truong Chinh Street, Dong Da District, Hanoi City, VIETNAM Telephone: +844-3868-6653; +844-3869-6105 Fax: +844-3868-5654 E-mail: kntn@fpt.vn Website: http://caev-vietdhrra.org.vn/index.asp

• a non-government and non-profit organization, set up in 1991 by key officers and staff of the National Institute for Agricultural Planning and Projection (NIAPP). The NIAPP is an agency under Vietnam's Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, which oversees and regulates agricultural co-operatives in the country. Through NIAPP, CAEV aims to respond to the needs of more than 16,340 agricultural co-operatives (as of 1994) and 11 million farm households (as of 2003) in Vietnam.
• established to improve farming practices and increase income of poor farmers. CAEV recruits agronomists, agricultural scientists, skilled technicians, and community workers as volunteers. It provides agricultural extension services to poor farming communities; soil sampling and analysis, and land evaluation; and identification of suitable cropping patterns for each farm household. CAEV also provides technical assistance on the practice of VAC combined technique (gardening, fish rearing and livestock breeding in a small scale).
• addresses the needs of agricultural communities with a special focus on agricultural extension and rural development. Women in the agricultural sector in Vietnam are involved in the following activities: setting up mutual help groups, pilot field demonstration, creation of revolving funds to address the lack of production capital, and publication of magazines on agriculture.
• serves as a resource agency to the government as well as to international development agencies in developing genuine co-ops.

Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT)

Mr. Dabchai Jaisusuk, General Manager

40 Ramkhamhaeng Road (Sukhapiban 3) Sapansoong, Bangkok 10240, Thailand Telephone: +662-373-0020; +662-373-0021 Fax: +662-373-0022 E-mail: cult@cultthai.coop Website: http://www.cultthai.coop

• a national organization initiated by the private sector in 1972, bringing together more than 1,000 Thai credit co-operative groups, with more than 550,000 individual members, with women comprising more than 60 percent of the membership, as of year 2006.
• works toward developing a strong and viable credit union (CU) movement in Thailand founded on the values of commitment, honesty, sacrifice, responsibility, sympathy, and trust, to promote self-help and mutual help to achieve human development and peace.
• commits itself to delivering excellent financial services and other services that will respond to both the social and economic needs of the members.
• has programs and activities that include education and training, bookkeeping and accounting, dormitory and meeting room services, CU chapters promotion, women and youth development, mutual aid in CU, business enterprise development, information technology, and research and publications.
• since 1998, has been addressing the role and participation of women in co-ops, and part of its organizational structure is a Gender and Development (GAD) Committee that serves as advisory body on gender concerns to the CULT Board and General Assembly. Its Women Co-operative Products Development Center (WCPC) helps sustain women co-ops’ initiatives to create and develop products, for instance, through support in marketing and product development and design.

Credit Union Promotion Club (CUPC)

Ms Pappathiamah Alagadorai

19-1 Jalan 9/42 Taman Sejahtera off, Jalan Kuching, Kuala Lumpur 51200, MALAYSIA

Telephone: +603-625-15194 Fax: +603-625-79388 E-mail: kkpbhd@tm.net.my

• was registered in 1974 under the Societies Act of Malaysia, with the main objective of introducing grassroots economic initiatives for the poor in Malaysia, especially the Indian poor.
• initially engaged in collective farming, consumer bulk buying, and income-generation projects, and after CUPC leaders obtained training on CUs from the Philippines, India, and Canada, the CUPC began to promote, organize, coordinate, and consolidate CUs among the unorganized sector in Malaysia.
• a partnership of two major but parallel grassroots-based credit unions in Malaysia: the Koperasi Kredit Pekerja-Pekerja or KKP (Workers' Credit Co-op) in Kuala Lumpur and the Koperasi Kredit Rakyat or KKR (People's Credit Co-op) in Batang Berjuntai. Many of the members of KKP are workers of multinational companies in free trade zones in Kuala Lumpur and mining companies in nearby states. The majority of the members of the KKR, on the other hand, are plantation workers, paddy farmers, and fisherfolks.
• its role as coordinating body is to introduce various education and training programs; design and introduce new service and products; and do public relations and establish international links.
• Women Action Committees (WACs) formed in CUs at all levels help women to organize themselves and undergo basic education and training; and to increase their self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-confidence. The WAC has been transformed into the Gender and Development Committee (GAD) Committee, composed of women and selected gender-sensitized men (after gender-sensitivity training).

Forum for Indonesian Co-operatives Movement (FORMASI Indonesia)

Mr. Siswanto Imam Prabowo, Chairperson

Mampang Prapatan XIV/I, Pancoran, Jakarta Selatan 12760, INDONESIA Telephone: +6221-799-0567 Fax: +6221-799-0937 E-mail: formasi@indo.net.id

• a national network organization established in 1987 by 10 non-government organizations (NGOs) concerned with the co-op movement, and in small and medium enterprise (SME) development in Indonesia.
• started as a Dialogue Forum among its founding members: DEKOPIN (Dewan Koperasi Indonesia or the Indonesia Co-operative Council), and nine other NGOs. The Forum became official with a letter of agreement officially issued by DEKOPIN on February 26, 1986. Later, a baseline survey on co-ops that were not government-sponsored (that is, not KUD [Koperasi Unit Desa] or village co-op, which is supported by the government) and informal co-ops in 14 provinces from January to March 1986 was conducted by the Forum as its first activity. The survey results showed that that there was a demand for a co-op development program directly managed by an NGO.
• through volunteer consultants from its member NGOs, FORMASI conducts capacity-building programs for members and even non-member NGOs, such as information technology (IT) skills development and training; an entrepreneurial exchange program; and training on gender awareness, gender mainstreaming, and transformative leadership.
• engages in consultancy, education and training, information dissemination and promotion concerning community-based co-op development, gender and development, and the provision of seed capital.

National Confederation of Co-operatives (NATCCO)

Ms. Sylvia Okinlay-Paraguya, President and Chief Executive Officer

227 J.P. Rizal Street, Project 4 1109 Quezon City, PHILIPPINES Telephone: +632-913-7011 to 14

Fax: +632-913-7016 E-mail: ceo@natcco.coop Website: http://www.natcco.coop

• co-op education and training centers, which started in the 1960s, in the geographical regions of the Philippines formed NATCCO in 1977 to serve as their spokesperson, secretariat, and coordinating body.
• also came about primarily as a felt need of the regional centers to put up a united national front, as the private sector-initiated co-ops at that time were under threat from the Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s.
• as the years passed, the grassroots co-ops grew more in number and in their need for assistance from their regional centers and NATCCO. This development compelled NATCCO to pursue new directions, and to develop and expand services and programs, apart from the original mandate of education and training. The regional centers moved on to become total co-op regional development centers (RDCs).
• in 2002, a General Assembly resolution was passed to study the restructuring of NATCCO’s transformation from a three-tiered to a two-tiered structure. NATCCO’s bylaws were amended in 2004, with financial intermediation as NATCCO’s principal focus, and the primary co-ops becoming NATCCO’s direct members. In 2006, NATCCO launched its new vision and mission statements.
• NATCCO has Financial Services and Allied Services, and it started its activities for women in 1988, beginning with women in development (WID) concepts, as a component of Canadian-assisted project. In 1994, with the growth of WID to women and development (WAD) and to GAD, NATCCO formed the Association of Gender Advocates in Development (AGAD). AGAD was tasked to consolidate NATCCO’s initiatives in GAD across co-ops; coordinate and implement GAD activities; and serve as a pool of resources, experiences, and ideas within NATCCO.
• in the NATCCO Women’s Congress held before a NATCCO GA, there is the election for one representative each from the Philippines’s geographical regions—Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao—to sit in the NATCCO Gender Executive Committee (ExeCom). The election of these representatives is affirmed by the NATCCO GA, to serve a one-year term in the Gender ExeCom. One of them is also elected to sit in the NATCCO Board, representing the women’s sector in co-ops.
• NATCCO sits in the Philippine Congress through the Coop-NATCCO Party List group.

Socio-Economic Development Organization of Cambodia (SEDOC)

Mr. Sil Vineth, Executive Director

No. 08, Chrey Kong Village, Véng Sréng Street Chom Chao Section, Dangkor Khan District Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA Telephone: +855-2336-5708 Fax: +855-2389-0110

E-mail: sedoc.pre@forum.org.kh; yunyoeun@hotmail.com Website: http://www.sedoc.org

• an NGO established in 1991, its field of expertise is in community development, particularly concerning rural and agricultural advancement. After doing humanitarian projects for several years, SEDOC focused on implementing income-generating projects and establishing credit unions to help the marginalized poor become self-reliant, thereby assisting in curbing poverty in Cambodia.
• major programs include sustainable agriculture, promotion of agricultural and credit co-ops, establishment of rice banks, forestry and environment, and promotion of gender equality.
• its area of work reaches out to at least five provinces of Cambodia, covering about 70 villages.