AWCF-SCC project holds first monitoring forum

After seven months of implementing the second phase of the “Promoting Gender Equality Among Co-operatives in the Philippines” Project, a joint activity of AWCF and the Swedish Cooperative Center (SCC), AWCF convened the “1st Monitoring Forum” for the Project’s co-op stakeholders. Held November 26-27, 2010 in Sarrosa International Hotel, Cebu, Philippines, the national-level Forum gathered together 31 co-op lea

ders and key management staff—14 men and 17 women—representing 15 primary co-ops that are participating in the Project, five each from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions of the country.

In this Forum, the participants shared their gender equality (GE) journey activities and learning, and also gained new insights from the intervention strategies that had presented by their co-implementers. The Project commenced with the signing in April 2010 of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the participating co-ops and AWCF, followed by the conduct of the gender-sensitivity training (GST) for the co-ops from June to September 2010, the GE planning and implementation, and the conduct of the first capacity-building workshop in October 2010.

Other highlights of the Forum in Cebu were the presentation of the consolidated GE baseline survey results of the 15 co-ops that showed the initial manifestations of GE among the concerned co-ops; the input on human resource development (HRD) retooling or strategic HRD for co-ops; the review of GE plan of action and accomplishments; the GE impressions of the Forum participants; and the GE journey sharing of the three pilot co-ops from the Project’s phase 1 vis-à-vis their personal testimonies on what GE had brought to their lives and to the other co-op staff and officers.

Resource persons for the Forum were Ms Salome Ganibe, AWCF Executive Director; Ms Angelita Valdez, AWCF Program Coordinator; Mr. Ranie Catimbang, AWCF Project Assistant; Mr. Alexander Raquepo, Vice Chairperson of Sta. Cruz Savings and Development Cooperative (SACDECO); Mr. George Tadena, General Manager of Sto. Domingo Development Cooperative (SDDC); and Ms Minda Umali, Executive Director of Semantrix Inc, a consultancy firm for human resource management.

The Project is being implemented as part of SCC’s Philippine country programme for 2010-2012, which is the “Advancing Civic Capacities for Effective and Sustainable Services to the Poor (ACCESS to the Poor)" Programme.