AWCF links up with Philippine city

Quezon City is one of the highly urbanized cities in the Philippines, located in the National Capital Region of the country. It is a center of education, commerce, and social services. It is home to the highest number of registered co-ops in the country. The local government is led by Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Josefina Belmonte.   

The AWCF Secretariat’s office has been located in Quezon City since the time of the organization’s inception in 1990. AWCF, for so many years, has had activities in various locations in the Philippines (as one of its member-countries) in line with promoting its co-op and gender equality (GE) advocacy. This year, AWCF is having the opportunity to start coordinating with its home base, that is, Quezon City, particularly with the Quezon City government, and particularly regarding co-operatives and GE.

AWCF’s link-up with the Quezon City government started when AWCF’s Executive Director Ms Salome Ganibe became one of the guest speakers, upon invitation of the Vice Mayor’s office, at the “Tenth Annual Summit” of the Women in Advocacy Cooperative Philippines (WINC Philippines). The Summit was held May 24-25, 2013 in Quezon City, and Ms Ganibe spoke on gender mainstreaming. The WINC Philippines’s Summit was organized in coordination with the Quezon City government. Women leaders from the country’s Region 11 (Davao Region or Southern Mindanao) and other localities attended the Summit.

Meeting the Vice Mayor
Coming from its sharing at the WINC Philippines event, AWCF gained the opportunity to establish initial contact with the Quezon City government. At an audience sought by AWCF with Vice Mayor Belmonte in her City Hall office on June 11, 2013, Ms Ganibe briefly informed the official on AWCF and its activities, and the possibility of AWCF collaborating with the local government especially on gender matters in co-ops. AWCF’s expressed intention to link up or collaborate or with the local government is particularly relevant because Quezon City has the highest number of registered co-ops in the Philippines (681 out of 23,215 co-ops, as of September 2013) and also because the local government actually actively supports co-op development. In her meeting with the Vice Mayor, Ms Ganibe also mentioned the fact that proximity is also an advantage because, after all, AWCF does hold office in the city. AWCF’s meeting with the Vice Mayor was arranged through the help of Ms Rose Canadido with whom Ms Ganibe connected during the WINC Philippines event. Ms Canadido is a co-op leader, women sector representative of the National Capital Region League-Philippine Federation of Credit Cooperatives (NCRL-PFCCO), and an active participant in the co-op council of the Quezon City government.

In the said meeting between the Vice Mayor and Ms Ganibe, the former referred the latter to the Quezon City government’s Sikap Buhay Entrepreneurship and Cooperative Office (SBECO), which is led by Ms Marlyn Siapno, Officer in Charge-Head. Ms Ganibe’s subsequent presentation to Ms Siapno of AWCF’s profile and its desire to be of assistance in gender matters to Quezon City co-ops quickly led to certain developments.

SBECO tapped Ms Ganibe and Ms Maria Theresa Saliendra, AWCF Finance and Administrative Coordinator and GE Trainer, as resource speakers at the “Co-op Day” activity of the Quezon City government, an event held every fourth Tuesday of the month this year 2013. Ms Ganibe spoke on gender mainstreaming in co-ops and Ms Saliendra tackled anti-violence against women in the June and July 2013 “Co-op Day” events, held at the City Hall. These events that feature different forums and other activities every month this year are attended by representatives of co-ops from the different districts of Quezon City.

Preparing for city's co-op summit
Also upon SBECO’s initiative, AWCF became a member of the “Technical Working Group (TWG)” formed for the summit of Quezon City co-ops, to be held October 24, 2013. The TWG was tasked to prepare for the co-op summit through the holding of a pre-summit conference on September 20, 2013 at the Quezon City Hall compound. Co-ops from the city are to take part in the pre-summit and summit conferences, and in the pre-summit conference held, 40 co-ops sent representatives who took part in the conference workshops.

Previous to the planned holding of the co-op summit, the city’s Mayor Bautista had tasked SBECO through Ms Siapno to spearhead the conduct of consultative summits to craft the “Medium-term (2014-2019) Road Map for Micro and Small Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, and Cooperatives Development and Promotion.” Subsequently, it is the first comprehensive effort of the city government to craft the “2014-2016 Development Road Map for the Co-op Movement in Quezon City.”

In the pre-summit conference, an inspirational message was given by Quezon City Councilor Joe Visaya, Chair of the city’s Legislative Committee for Cooperatives, and then development perspectives on co-ops were shared by speakers, particularly on the “international perspective” (given by Ms Ganibe); the “national perspective” (given by the Cooperative Development Authority-Manila Extension Office); and the “city perspective” (given by the Quezon City Planning and Development Office.

The pre-summit conference workshops carried the development goal of “Transforming Quezon City Cooperatives into Recognized Sustainable Drivers of Inclusive Growth and Development.” The participants were divided into workshop groups to provide inputs for further discussion in the October summit of Quezon City co-ops. The workshops had these thematic goals: 1. Achieving participatory, accountable, and transparent co-op governance; 2. Transforming co-ops into models for promoting inclusive growth; and 3. Establishing co-ops as the preferred business model for economic development. Workshop discussions were anchored on: 1. Defining the situation of the co-op movement in Quezon City vis-à-vis the development goal; and 2. Identifying strategic options to achieve the thematic goals. The workshop facilitators were AWCF led by Ms Ganibe (for Co-ops and Social Development); Quezon City Union of Cooperatives (QCUC) (for Co-op Governance); and NCRL-PFCCO (for Co-ops and Economic Development).

With its ongoing collaboration with the Quezon City government, AWCF hopes that it will have the opportunity to reach out even more to the numerous co-ops in the city especially on gender-related matters, in the soonest possible time.

AWCF's Ms Ganibe (rightmost) receives her plaque of appreciation from SBECO's Ms Siapno, for being one of the event's resource speakers.

Ms Ganibe facilitated this workshop on co-op social development.

Participants at the workshop group on co-op social development pose with Ms Ganibe and Ms Siapno.

Participants at the Quezon City pre-co-op summit provided inputs to be further discussed at the bigger city co-op summit in October 2013.

Philippine co-ops' GERCs—touching lives begins now

Representatives of gender equality resource centers (GERCs) in co-ops from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao in the Philippines attended the event "GERC Monitoring Forum and Capacity-Building on Monitoring and Evaluation and Gender Equality Tools for the GERC," held Sept. 11-14, 2013 in Cordova, Cebu, Philippines. The Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum (AWCF) organized the event, under the Project “Sustaining Gender Equality Among Co-operatives in the Philippines,” supported by the We Effect—Swedish Cooperative Centre (We Effect—SCC). Co-ops belonging to the GERC Visayas hosted the event. The event participants also did a co-op study-tour, and they were graciously received by the Cebu People’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CPMPC), Cordova Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CMC), and Mandaue City Public Market Vendors Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MAVENCO).

Co-ops composing the GERC Luzon, GERC Visayas, and GERC MASS-SPECC are now busy starting up and even already offering gender equality (GE) services in their own co-ops and to other interested co-ops and organizations. (See http://awcfcoopwomen.blogspot.com/2013/09/philippine-co-ops-gender-equality.html)

The Cebu event was marked by solidarity messages from the representative of Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy and from Mr. Felipe Deri, Regional Director for Region 7 of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA). CDA is the Philippines’s main government body concerned with the growth of the country’s co-op movement. Mr. Deri invited the GERC workshop participants to the “Central Visayas Cooperative Congress” to be held October 25-26, 2013 in the Central Visayas area. AWCF Executive Director Ms Salome Ganibe will be one of the speakers in the said Congress, on the topic of GE in co-ops.

In November this year, the different co-op GERCs will again meet in Bulacan, Philippines, for their monitoring forum and another capacity-building workshop. 

GERC Luzon

GERC Visayas

GERC MASS-SPECC

Philippine co-ops’ gender equality resource centers--ready to serve!

Services of gender equality resource centers (GERCs) based in Philippine co-ops can now be tapped for internal use for the gender-related concerns of the co-ops themselves that have GERCs, by other co-ops, by private and government organizations, and by communities. GERC BUFECO, GERC NSCC, GERC Visayas, and GERC MASS-SPECC are now ready to serve.

In the Luzon region of the Philippines, GERC BUFECO is composed of host-organization Bulacan Federation of Cooperatives (BUFECO) (based in Malolos City), and three of its member-co-ops:

Ligas Kooperatiba ng Bayan sa Pagpapaunlad (LKBP)
Sacred Heart Credit and Development Cooperative (SHCDC)
St. Martin of Tours Credit and Development Cooperative (SMTCDC).

Also in Luzon is the GERC NSCC, which is formed by host-organization Nueva Segovia Consortium of Cooperatives (NSCC) (based in Caoayan, Ilocos Sur) and one of its member-co-ops, the Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ADTEMPCO).

In the Visayas region, GERC Visayas is composed of these primary co-ops:

Cebu People’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CPMPC) (based in Cebu City, and also the host-organization of GERC Visayas)
Cordova Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CMC)
Don Bosco Network Multi-Purpose Cooperative (DBNMPC)
Dumanjug Multi-Purpose Cooperative (DMPC)
Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC)
Mandaue City Public Market Vendors Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MAVENCO)
Metro Ormoc Community Cooperative (OCCCI).

In the Mindanao region, GERC MASS-SPECC is hosted by the MASS-SPECC Cooperative Development Center (MASS-SPECC) (based in Cagayan de Oro City) and is formed together with co-ops that sit in the MASS-SPECC GE Committee, which are the:

Aurora Integrated Multi-Purpose Cooperative (AIM Coop)
Bukidnon Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BUGEMCO)
Notre Dame of Marbel University Employees Development Cooperative (NDMU Coop)
Tagum Cooperative (TC)
Zillovia Women’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ZWMPC).

Other co-ops in the GERC MASS-SPECC are the:
Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology National Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MSU-IIT NMPC)
Paglaum Multi-Purpose Cooperative (PMPC)
Panabo Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Panabo MPC)
Pantukan Chess Club Cooperative (PCCC).

Most of the co-ops involved in the aforementioned GERCs were participants in the Project “Promoting Gender Equality Among Co-operatives in the Philippines” (2010-2012) implemented by the AWCF, with support from the We Effect—Swedish Cooperative Centre (We Effect—SCC). The Project enabled these co-ops to become gender-fair organizations, establishing their own GERCs at the primary level.

At the regional level, GERC BUFECO, GERC Visayas, and GERC MASS-SPECC were formed as among the outputs of the Project “Sustaining Gender Equality Among Co-operatives in the Philippines” (2013), also by the AWCF, still with the support of the We Effect—SCC.

But going beyond the lifetime of the two aforementioned Projects, the GERC BUFECO, GERC Visayas, and GERC MASS-SPECC were formed by co-op federations and primary co-ops committed to pursuing the integration of gender equality (GE) in Philippine co-ops, to making GE alive and active thus helping bring about even more socio-economic benefits to be enjoyed by co-op organizations, the membership, other organizations, and the communities. Additionally, with the same commitment to pursuing GE as had been expressed by the three other GERCs established, the GERC NSCC was formed in the northern part of Luzon.

These co-op-based GERCs aim to deliver effective and timely GE-related services to women and men co-op members, co-operatives, and other interested organizations.

The Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum (AWCF) has been continuing to provide technical support toward strengthening these GERCs, such as through capacity-building workshops conducted this year under the AWCF-We Effect SCC Project. The latest workshop was done in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, in August 2013, tackling the mainstreaming of GE through the GERC. AWCF is also helping the GERCs systematize operations, such as through the development of the GERC operations manual.

The GERC Vision, Mission, Values
As formulated by the co-ops themselves in a GERC strategic planning in November 2012 in Davao City, convened by AWCF, the GERC’s Vision, Mission, and Values Statements are thus:

VISION
A  Gender Equality Resource Center (GERC) that is holistic, sustainable, responsive, economically and socially harmonized, and enables a gender-fair environment to benefit the co-op members and communities.

MISSION
To enable social, economic, moral, and spiritual improvement and upliftment of the co-op members and the community through:
a) Promoting communication and awareness of gender equality (GE) issues
b) Ensuring sustainability of the GE program in the co-op

VALUES
  GERC COOP
    God-centered
    Equality
    Respect
    Commitment
    Competence
    Openness
    Oneness
    Passion
    --That will lead to healthy and harmonious relationships.


The co-ops’ GERC services
GERCs can offer an array of services that will help co-ops and co-ops’ members, and other institutions become gender-aware, gender-sensitive, and gender-fair, enabling them to take action that will result to even greater social and economic benefits arising from advocating and practicing gender equality. These are among the GE-related services that GERCs in co-ops can give:
•    Being a clearing house of relevant information as it collects, maintains, and distributes materials and information from different organizations

•    Development and strengthening of co-operators who are GE experts, trainers, advocates, and role models to serve within the co-op and also for other coops and organizations that may tap the co-op’s GERC though forums and training

•    Development, production, and distribution of promotional, informational, and educational multi-media materials (e.g., brochures, flyers, comics, posters, pin buttons, stickers, newsletters, videos, training modules); and production of media programs to further disseminate information (e.g., using radio, TV, Internet)

•    Conduct of training and seminars proactively in the co-op, and also proactively offered to other co-ops and organizations or upon request. Among these training and seminars are further integration and enrichment of GE in the co-op’s Pre-Membership Education Seminar (PMES), gender-sensitivity training (GST), GE training, gender and development-family enrichment program (GAD-FEP), training of trainers (TOT), and livelihood training/seminars/programs.

•    Provide access and linkage for financial and technical assistance for the GE program of the co-op; provide same access and linkage to other co-ops and organizations as the GERC can serve as their bridge or link to LGU gender-related programs, gender advocacy groups/experts, etc. 

•    Develop and provide gender-fair livelihood programs to which both men and women have access, and which, therefore, can help bring more future members of both sexes into the co-op

•    Enrichment of the content and conduct of the required technical and non-technical training for co-op officers stipulated in Sec. 5 (Training Requirements for the Officers of the Cooperative) of Rule 7 (Functions, Responsibilities, and Training Requirements of Directors, Officers, and Committee Members) of the “Rules and Regulations Implementing Certain Provisions of the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008

•    Further strengthening of the co-op’s community outreach program through GE-integrated or GE-related activities, thus building up the co-op’s image to the community, including to prospective members

•    Offering of other gender-related services like legal and non-legal gender-related counseling/consultation services for couples (employees and members); medical and dental services; feeding and nutrition program; gender analysis; baseline data gathering (sex-disaggregated data—its many uses include being basis for developing products for members and prospective members); monitoring and evaluation; among other services


The importance and purpose of the GERC established by a co-op (whether at regional or primary level)
•    Strengthens the co-op’s GE program, especially toward generating the socio-economic benefits to help in poverty alleviation through gender advocacy

•    Serves as an avenue for the expression of the passion of gender advocate-co-operators

•    By services it offers, the GERC helps strengthen GE advocacy, practices, and programs in the co-op that has established the GERC as well as in other co-ops and organizations that utilize the GERC’s services

•    To help the co-op address the requirement of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) for the Social Performance Audit


Having a GERC can help the co-op address CDA’s requirement for Social Audit
Article 80, paragraphs 4, 5, and 6 of Republic Act No. 9520 (“Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008”) state that co-ops registered under the said Code shall be “subject to an annual financial, performance and social audit.” The “Rules and Regulations Implementing Certain Provisions of the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008” provides for the social audit of all registered co-ops regardless of types and categories.

In Rule 11 (Social Audit of Cooperatives) of the said “Rules and Regulations,” Sec. 3 (Social Audit) defines “social audit” as a “procedure where the cooperative assesses its social impact and ethical performance vis-à-vis its stated mission, vision, goals and code of social responsibility. It is a process to assess the cooperative’s contribution for the upliftment of the status not only to its members’ economic needs but also social needs and the community where it operates. The cooperative’s actual performance and accomplishment are compared to its vision, goals, and social responsibility as it relates to the impact not only to the community but to its regular members as the immediate beneficiary of the decisions and actions it promulgated, passed and implemented.”

Also in Rule 11, Sec. 4 (Objectives/Uses of Social Audit) states the essence of social audit, that is, that validates the support of the cooperative to the seventh cooperative principle, which is the “Concern for Community.” Social audit can also determine whether the cooperative works for the community’s sustainable development through member-approved policies. Sec. 4 further states that “the audit focuses not only to the economic side of the cooperative but also the social aspect of the organization and appraises the cooperative performance as value-based organization usually participative, user and community oriented and non-profit but service organization and how its social responsibility for its members and the community as a whole was fulfilled.”

Sec. 5 (Components and Social Audit Indicators) of Rule 11 states that social auditing of a co-op shall consist of, but is not limited to, the following major components/categories with its objectives (to wit):
1. Membership. To determine the effectiveness of the cooperative in meeting the needs of its members vis-à-vis the socio-economic upliftment and empowerment of the members.

2. Assets building. To determine the cooperative’s performance in building up its economic capacity to respond to its social responsibility and develop income generating undertakings for its members.

3. Community involvement and solidarity. To determine the degree of community, social, environmental involvement and solidarity of the cooperative. In relation to this, all cooperatives are encouraged to promote environmental awareness and instill environmental protection and conservation to their members and the community where they operate, and as far as practicable to conduct tree-planting activities in the community where they operate or its immediate environs.

4. Information accessing and dissemination. To determine the capability of the cooperative to access, process and disseminate information from/to its members and community. It looks into the function of the organization as an empowering and responsive mechanism.

5. Gender, Youth, Elderly, Children, and Persons with Disability. To determine how the cooperative has contributed in the social capital development for the welfare of the youth, the elderly, children, and persons with disability and the promotion of the gender fair culture and practices.

6. Leadership and organizational management. To highlight the attributes of the leaders/officers of the cooperative and efficiency in managing the affairs of the organization as it relates with its members and with government.

Finally, Sec. 6 (Social Audit Manual) of Rule 11 states that the CDA will develop a “Social Audit Manual” to be used for the conduct of the social audit in co-ops.

 
Why GE in co-ops
•    Pursuing GE is a must for co-ops that believe that every man and woman has a role to play and contribution to make in a co-op’s success

•    GE’s economic and social impact to a co-op becomes even more important taking into account the vast number of Philippine co-ops that can benefit from being gender-fair co-ops, from establishing their own GERCs, or from accessing the services of other co-ops’ GERCs

•    A co-op or group of co-ops operating a GERC gains more latitude and strategic position as a qualified service provider to offer its GE services and expertise to other organizations (e.g., local government units [LGUs] being actually entities with a gender budget) as well as to accept requests from these organizations for their various gender-related needs

•    Pursuing GE is a must for co-ops and co-operators as it is in consonance with adhering to the “Co-operative Principles and Values” as stipulated in the “Statement on the Co-operative Identity,” drawn up by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) (Co-op Principles: Voluntary and Open Membership [“Co-operatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination”]; Democratic Member Control; Member Economic Participation; Autonomy and Independence; Education, Training and Information; Co-operation among Co-operatives; and Concern for Community. Co-ops are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-op members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others.)

•    Gender-fair co-ops can have even better socio-economic returns because the tandem that exists between GE and the development of co-ops as business organizations goes two ways. The one way is that the possibilities are virtually endless in so far as advocating for and strengthening GE in the whole co-op movement is concerned, to benefit more women and men co-operators thus further fortifying the co-op movement; the other way is that there also emerge the endless possibilities on how co-ops can act as vehicle for GE and business development to benefit the co-ops, the women and men members, and their families.

•    Gender-fair co-ops are mindful of and take action so that they can deliver gender-sensitive business development services and other co-op programs and services to their members. Gender-fair co-ops take into account the contributions and needs of both women and men members.

•    That co-ops can improve their business operations by being gender-fair is also in keeping with the thrusts of the ICA that has laid down the blueprint for the worldwide campaign of taking the co-op way of doing business to a new level, that is, the “2020 Vision.” The “2020 Vision” seeks to make the co-op form of business by 2020 “become the acknowledged leader in economic, social and environmental sustainability; the model preferred by people; and the fastest growing form of enterprise.”