Since 2008, the
Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum (AWCF) has been
implementing the “Capacity-building for Gender and Co-operatives in
Asia” Project, an exchange program activity in partnership with
Fredskorpset (FK) Norway. The Project, under FK’s “South-South
Exchange” Programme, aims at developing capacities and skills in the
co-op and gender fields of young professionals from AWCF’s
member-organizations while they take part as exchange participants for
10 months. The AWCF member-organizations act as the participants’ hosts
or Project partners. FK Norway is a government agency that arranges
reciprocal exchanges of personnel between organizations in Norway and
developing countries.
AWCF
and FK are now holding the exchange program’s Phase 4 (or fourth batch
of participants). The participants in Phase 4 are young professionals
Mr. Ranie B. Catimbang, assigned to Credit Union Promotion Club (CUPC)
in Malaysia; Ms Ella Marie P. Francia, assigned to Forum for Indonesian
Co-operatives Movement (FORMASI Indonesia) in Indonesia; Mr. Jason P.
Isidro, posted to Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT) in Thailand;
Mr. Oung Mean, also assigned to CULT; and Mr. Hoang Viet Muoi, posted to
National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) in the Philippines and
AWCF. During the participants’ stay in their host-organizations, they
are expected to gain professional (work) enrichment that they can use
especially for their co-op involvement back home, and also personal
development as they learn to relate with their host-organizations’ and
host-countries’ people, language, and culture.
On
May 22, 2012 in Town in Town Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand, FK’s Project
partners in the AWCF network held the “Midterm Project Review Meeting”
for the exchange program activity. At the Meeting, which was done to
monitor the progress of AWCF-FK Project’s Phase 4, the Project partners
reported on the activities, results, and learning of individual
exchange program participants and of the sending and hosting
organizations. The Project partners agreed on revisions on the
participants’ tasks and other matters related to their activities, and
also some revisions on the Project’s budget which were presented to and
approved by the FK.
Meanwhile,
on May 23-24, 2012, the same participants in the “Midterm Project
Review Meeting” held the Project’s “5th Phase Planning Workshop” in the
same venue. They identified the necessary next steps toward enabling
the Project to meet its five-year objectives. Because this is the last
year of the Project, the participants in the planning activity held an
internal assessment of the Project’s objectives, results, and gaps.
Furthermore, a new collaboration agreement was formulated at the
planning activity among six partners (AWCF, CULT, CUPC, Center of
Agricultural Extension Volunteers [CAEV], FORMASI Indonesia, and
Socio-Economic Development Organization of Cambodia [SEDOC]). This
collaboration agreement will involve the exchange program’s Phase 5,
to be implemented October 2012 to October 2013. Phase 5 will see five
exchange program participants who will teach and learn along the areas
of business development centers, gender equality, and documentation in
their host-organizations.
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