AWCF's greetings for "International Women's Day" 2013

Happy International Women's Day 2013! May all women be seen and heard in all aspects of society: As a real (not token) acknowledgment of their needs, contributions, and involvement. 

ICA issues messages for "International Women's Day"--2013

“The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum!”
Messages for the “International Women’s Day”—March 8, 2013
from Dame Pauline Green, President of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA); and María Eugenia Pérez Zea, Chair of the ICA Gender Equality Committee










Over the last four decades, the position of women has made some progress; however, it is still too little and too long in coming. Let us encourage our daughters, and granddaughters. Let us insist that today’s world demands equality for each individual whether man or woman.

Today the world faces unparalleled challenges. What we know today is that the traditional approaches to governing society, managing businesses, financing public services, handling conflict and war are simply no longer relevant.

Having more women in key decision-making places in political, economic and social decision-making at all levels in society is the way to move away from the sort of decision-making that has served us so poorly in recent years.

Today we want a different approach–one that values each individual and the contribution they can make to building a better world.

We can no longer put up with a world where it is acceptable to shoot a girl child for wanting to go to school, or to disregard the crime of rape against a woman who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We thought the campaign for equality was about low pay, discrimination, humiliation or glass ceilings in the work place, or by hunger and poverty. But it is more, all too often it is a classic case of oppression and repression. Building a better world is about allowing each person to flourish and fulfill their potential–nothing else will do.

We want to prioritise policies for people; one that values businesses that have people at the heart of economic decision making and not profit; one that believes that money is better spent on creating a fairer, more just legal and social environment rather than funding political despots or trading in conflict.

Co-operative businesses have done so much to help women onto the ladder of economic activity. With that come community respect, political legitimacy and influence. So far it has come too slowly. It is time for us to show that our co-operative movement can be a movement for the economic, social and political emancipation of all women.

This is the real co-operative message of International Women’s Day.

Dame Pauline Green
President, International Co-operative Alliance (ICA)













Today, the International Women’s Day is celebrated all over the world and it is the right opportunity to give an even greater emphasis to the fundamental role of women in achieving development, peace and security. There is increasing evidence of the rapid progress of women and their expanding beneficial role in today’s world development though there are still huge challenges ahead to insure their strength.

We have reached a turning point in history. It has become urgent to redefine the stereotypes of power and leadership about women to make sure that they enjoy an equal treatment in the decision-making processes and that they are allowed to make a maximum contribution to socio-economic development. The lessons of history are that the negative repercussions of inequality are borne by mankind as a whole, and therefore to achieve women’s equality everyone must engage in the process.

A large array of studies assert that there is an essential link between aiming at obtaining equal rights for women and reducing poverty, improving health and education, alleviating the climate change effects and making headway towards more sustainable development. All these objectives are shared by the world co-operative movement, are interdependent and support gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Therefore the co-operative business model is an ideal platform to break down the barriers of inequality and is the preferential model to enable women to have access to a participatory democracy, to decision-making bodies, to markets and technology, and above all, to protect them from the injustice of the current dominant development model.

The need for more and better qualified human capital is increasingly growing and women's entrepreneurial potential is still underexploited. One third of entrepreneurs are women but their number is on the increase, more particularly in low-income countries. It is also estimated that more than half of cooperative members are women. These women leaders are often co-operative leaders. Women MPs, judges and activists are promoting change and a distinct way of operating. Governments and civil society are testing new approaches to ensuring that women have wider access to legal procedures, through gender-sensitive legal reforms. We are all aware that with a proper education, knowledge of their rights and decision-making power women are better able to demand what they should be entitled to enjoy.

The Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women was ratified by 186 countries. 125 declared domestic violence illegal; 117 countries have laws on equal pay; and 115 countries guarantee women’s equal rights to property, and more.

However, we still live in a society which allows lower pay for women. In three quarters of the planet, women are the major victims of poverty, ill-treatment and daily harassment.

The belief of thousands of co-operative members that any discrimination based on gender is a major obstacle to democracy and a sustainable development urges us to promote, defend and seek to enforce women’s and girls’ rights. To this end we should encourage education processes to empower women, to facilitate their promotion to the administrative and management leadership, and to change the statistical data of the representation of men and women.

Currently our societies are confronted with difficult challenges from an economic nature to an environmental one and time might have come to take advantage of these opportunities to show that changes can be shaped in such difficult periods. I invite every single co-operative to give the highest priority in its policies to the equal recognition of rights and opportunities to Women.

ICA recognizes that the Gender Agenda has gained more relevance than ever before and it is our opportunity to seek even more equality for women—by showcasing that our leadership is the most effective model for socio-economic development. 

María Eugenia Pérez Zea
Chair, International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) Gender Equality Committee











Source: ICA-Asia and Pacific office

AWCF shares resources in trainers’ training in Japan

With the invitation from the Japanese Consumers’ Co-operative Union (JCCU), the Asian Women in Co-operative Development (AWCF)’s Executive Director Ms Salome Ganibe facilitated a topic during the “Training of Trainers Workshop (Pilot test of Resource Guide)” held February 14, 2013 at the Co-op Plaza, Shibuya-ku Tokyo, Japan. JCCU organized this trainers’ training as an activity of the International Co-operative Alliance-Asia Pacific (ICA-AP)’s Regional Women’s Committee. The 83 participants came from a government Cabinet office (1); member-co-operatives of JCCU (67); JCCU (12); and overseas (3).

Ms Ganibe’s presentation was themed “Co-operative governance through gender equality (GE).” To emphasize the message that the advocacy and practice of GE can improve and expand the leadership and operation of co-ops, she discussed the:

• GE strategy of the ICA
• importance of GE in co-ops
• examples of GE practices and GE mainstreaming culled from Fukui Co-op in Japan, the GE experience of 15 co-ops in the Philippines (that had participated in a three-year GE project of AWCF in the country), and the GE strategy of the Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT), which is AWCF’s member in Thailand.

Participants at this trainers’ training rated their Workshop as “very excellent and worthwhile” mainly because of the sharing during the discussions on the co-op experiences on women empowerment and GE among JCCU member-co-ops, and also of the experiences from other countries shared by Ms Ganibe and Ms Savitri Singh, ICA-AP Advisor, Gender Program and Communication.

In February 2008, JCCU also had Ms Ganibe as a resource person on GE in an event likewise held in Japan, together with Ms Norma Pereyras, a co-op leader and gender advocate from the Philippines, who was then a Board Director (as Women Sector Representative) of the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO)—a Philippine co-op federation.


Other speakers
The Tokyo Workshop’s opening address was given by Ms Rie Saikawa, Organizing Committee and Board Member of Nagano Prefectural Consumer Co-operative Federation; and the welcome address was delivered by Ms Akiko Kawamoto, Organizing Committee and Board Member of Saitama Co-operative. The introduction of the ICA-AP Regional Women’s Committee was done by its Chairperson Ms Hitomi Tanaka, who is also Board Member of JCCU/Saitama Co-operative.

Meanwhile, Ms Savitri introduced to the participants the “Resource Guide for Advanced Training of Co-operatives on Entrepreneurship Development of Women and Gender Equality” that is being developed by the ICA-AP. (This Tokyo Workshop was a trainers’ training for a part of the Resource Guide, specifically Chapter 2, which is the “Cooperative Governance.”)

Exchange of ideas was emceed by Ms Mari Asano, Standing Board Member of Pal System Saitama. The orientation on Japanese co-ops’ initiatives on women focused on the Smile Café Project, as given by Ms Yukari Okumoto, Board Member of Chiba Co-operative; and on the Kanagawa Co-op case study, as given by Ms Masako Masuda, Board Member of Kanagawa Co-op, and Ms Akemi Kawahira, Trainer in Members Activities.

The event’s closing message was shared by Mr. Yoshiya Niwano, Organizing Committee and Board Member of JCCU/Chair of the Touto Consumer Co-operative.

AWCF Executive Director Ms Salome Ganibe (3rd from left, sitting) talked on gender equality at the ICA-AP's trainers' training in Japan. Photo also shows Ms Hitomi Tanaka (2nd from left, standing), ICA-AP Regional Women's Committee (RWC) Chair; Ms Divina Quemi (leftmost, sitting), ICA-AP RWC Vice Chair; Ms Savitri Singh (middle, sitting), ICA-AP Advisor, Gender Program and Communication; and other personalities who attended the trainers' training.

GST and strategic planning: AWCF holds back-to-back training

Different co-ops in the Philippines sent a total of 29 participants to the first-ever open invitation training conducted by the Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum (AWCF) on gender sensitivity and on strategic planning for co-operatives. The training was held January 27-29, 2013 in Supreme Hotel, Baguio City, Philippines. AWCF is a resource center and advocacy body on gender and co-operatives, with members in six Asian countries.

The “Gender-Sensitivity Training (GST) for Co-op Staff” had 19 participants, and the “Seminar on Strategic Planning Skills for Co-op Board of Directors and Managers” had 10 participants.
 

Training objectives
AWCF conducts the GST as a way of promoting gender equality (GE) among Philippine co-ops, particularly in their training and education program, policies, and systems. In the Philippines, the “Rules and Regulations Implementing Certain Provisions of the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008,” specifically Section 5 (“Components and Social Audit Indicators”) of Rule 11, also requires co-op organizations to show activities and programs on their contribution to the promotion of gender-fair culture and practices.

Meanwhile, AWCF offers the strategic planning skills seminar to equip board officers and managers with skills, knowledge, and attitude needed in doing strategic planning for their co-ops. The conduct of this seminar is part of AWCF’s thrust of helping co-ops set their direction toward providing relevant programs and services that will improve members’ socio-economic condition. In conducting this seminar, AWCF integrates the gender perspective that is aimed at further enhancing co-op leaders’ skills in performing strategic planning.
 

Participants
The AWCF training was attended by Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Cooperative, Barangka Credit Cooperative, Cagayan Valley Development Cooperative, Coliling Cooperative, Cooperative Bank of Cagayan, Cooperative Bank of Nueva Vizcaya, Creative Cooperative, Diffun Saranay and Development Cooperative, La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post MPC, Metro Paypayad Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MPC), Mother Rita MPC, MSU-IIT MPC, NIA R1 MPC, Provincial Cooperative Office of Aurora Province, and Sacred Heart Savings Cooperative.
 

Facilitators
The GST was facilitated by AWCF’s Ms Maria Theresa M. Saliendra, Finance and Administrative Coordinator; Mr. Ranie B. Catimbang, Project Assistant; and Ms Dewi Nova Wahyuni, Business Development Officer (AWCF-Fredskorpset [FK] Norway Exchange Project participant). The strategic planning skills seminar was handled by Ms Salome A. Ganibe, AWCF Executive Director; and AWCF consultants Ms Merlene Q. Flores and Ms Wilma A. Ganibe.

As a training provider in the Philippines accredited by the country’s Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), AWCF will conduct more training to help co-ops in their objective of further developing themselves.

Participants in the GST, with facilitators from AWCF.

Participants in the strategic planning skills seminar, with AWCF facilitators.