CDA and AWCF establish partnership for gender-fair, progressive Philippine co-ops

CDA and AWCF representatives on hand to witness the signing of the organizations' partnership agreement.

CDA Chairperson E. Santiaguel and AWCF Executive Director S. Ganibe lead their organizations in signing their partnership agreement for gender equality advocacy in Philippine co-ops. Looking on is CDA Board of Administrators member Ms M. Castillo.

The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) of the Philippine government and the Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum (AWCF) had forged a  Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) beginning mid-2013 for their partnership in gender and development (GAD) efforts in Philippine co-ops. AWCF is an Asian resource center and advocacy body on gender and co-op development, with its Secretariat based in the Philippines.

The MOA was recently signed by CDA Chairperson Mr. Emmanuel Santiaguel and AWCF Executive Director Ms Salome Ganibe at the CDA Central Office in Quezon City, Philippines. Ms Mercedes Castillo, one of CDA’s Board of Administrators (BOA), and other CDA and AWCF representatives witnessed the signing.

The MOA between CDA and AWCF is expected to boost the two agencies’ thrusts in promoting and institutionalizing GAD that will lead to having gender-fair co-operatives.

CDA and gender equality
Republic Act (RA) 6939 of the Philippines tasks CDA to formulate, adopt, and implement integrated and comprehensive plans and programs on co-op development, consistent with the national policy on co-ops and the overall socio-economic development plans of the country. CDA is also mandated to promote the viability and growth of co-ops as instruments of equity, social justice, and sustainable economic development.

As a government agency, CDA is duty-bound to implement Executive Order (EO) 273, which pertains to the “Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development.” CDA has been actively implementing activities to help bring GAD and gender equality (GE) to the consciousness, operations, and systems of co-ops. CDA already has formed the Gender Focal System—which is required of government agencies—in its central and regional offices. CDA also set up in August 2013 a technical working group (TWG) (which began CDA’s working relationship with AWCF because the latter was made a member of the TWG) to help the agency in implementing its GAD thrusts and attaining its GAD objectives through the development of policies/programs/projects/activities. Sitting in the TWG are a member of the CDA’s BOA, representatives of the different divisions in the CDA central office, and partner-organizations.

Going a step further, CDA has issued a policy pronouncement as another one of its concrete actions toward actualizing its belief that GAD and GE are good for co-operatives’ socio-economic growth. In November 2013, CDA issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 2013-22 entitled “Guidelines on Mainstreaming Gender and Development (GAD) in Cooperatives.” The MC seeks to ensure the promotion of GE and institutionalization of GAD in the policies/programs/projects/activities of co-ops. With this MC, CDA thus becomes the first co-op development agency among ASEAN countries to issue such a policy for the promotion of GAD in co-ops in its own country.

Partnership thrusts
The partnership between CDA and AWCF, as stipulated in their MOA, will lead to close co-operation and assistance between the two agencies in the aspects of policies, plans, programs/projects/activities and other areas in relation to institutionalizing GAD in co-ops’ structure. The sharing of resources, expertise, and skills between the two agencies is expected to further strengthen development and sustainability of the Philippine co-op movement.
 
AWCF as partner
Since 1990, AWCF has been working on helping co-ops pursue the gender agenda. AWCF has been advocating co-ops to be aware of and to act on gender issues in their organizations, based on the conviction that awareness and action will lead to even greater socio-economic development for co-ops.

AWCF has been implementing gender-related projects in co-ops, in partnership with its members and partner-agencies in its member-countries, which are Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. AWCF implemented a project in 2010-2012 that promoted GE in Philippine co-ops. In December 2012, during a public awareness conference held in Quezon City for this GE project’s culmination, the project’s participating primary and federation co-ops issued a “Call for Action” to CDA to promote and advocate GE in co-ops (through policies and systems). The call was made for CDA to promote GE so that more co-operatives can become gender-fair and gender-sensitive, and thus benefit from the resulting socio-economic benefits.

After the co-ops’ submission to CDA of that call for action (through then CDA Executive Director Mr. Niel Santillan who was a guest in the public awareness conference) and later submitted by AWCF to the CDA Chairperson, CDA and AWCF had several meetings. They discussed how to work through the recommended actions contained in the co-ops’ call for GE. AWCF also later became a member of the TWG mentioned earlier. CDA’s main and first response to the co-ops’ Call for Action was its issuance of MC 2013-22.