GE concepts shared in NSCC

AWCF Executive Director Ms Salome Ganibe spoke on gender equality (GE) at the “NSCC Gender Congress” of the Nueva Segovia Consortium of Cooperatives (NSCC) on March 26, 2011 at the NSCC Cooperative and Microfinance Training Center in Caoayan town, Ilocos Sur province, Philippines. NSCC Chief Executive Officer Ms Divina Quemi’s initiatives helped make possible the holding of the Congress. NSCC is a secondary level co-operative in the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia (which covers some provinces in the Philippines’s Northern Luzon region). In line with AWCF’s goal of promoting GE among co-ops, Ms Ganibe’s talk on GE concepts also focused on the benefits that co-ops can derive from being gender-fair organizations.

The Gender Congress had 42 co-op participants (90 percent women) representing the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia. The participants also used the occasion to elect NSCC’s first gender representative who will then become a member of the NSCC Board of Directors. Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ADTEMPCO) General Manager Ms Irene Bringas garnered the position.

The following day, the Congress participants took part in the inauguration and blessing of the NSCC Plaza owned and managed by NSCC. The NSCC Plaza is a hostel and commercial center envisioned as the center of co-op training and education in Northern Luzon. The building’s facilities—such as a function hall, board room, and more—can be used by co-op members, network partners, foreign and local visitors, and people of the locality.

Philippine co-op leaders visit Vietnam

On November 4-6, 2010, 12 co-op leaders from Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC) of Cebu and Abra Diocesan Teachers and Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (ADTEMPCO) of Abra, both in the Philippines, made a study visit to Hanoi, Vietnam. On their visit to the offices of the Center of Agricultura

l Extension Volunteers

(CAEV), the Ph

ilippine co-operators were welcom

ed by CAEV Executive Director Dr. Bui Quang Toan. Dr. Toan briefed the group on the agricultural extension services of CAEV. Accompanying the group were Ms Salome Ganibe and Ms Angelita Valdez, Executive Director and Program Coordinator, respectively, of AWCF.

To be able to observe the agricultural situation of Vietnam, the Philippine co-operators had an actual exposure to the VAC Farming System in Phuc Thanh and Vinh Phuc provinces of Hanoi. The group was joined in this visit to the provinces by Ms Ganibe

, Ms Valdez, and four CAEV staff. VAC stands for Vuon (gardening or maintaining an orchard, Ao

(fishpond or raising fish), Cuong (provision of animal care and shelter or livestock raising), which is a farming system designed to ensure food security of an agricul

tural household, and to alleviate poverty.

The Philippine co-operators saw for themselves how Vietna

mese farmers practice the different forms of VAC, and, at a visit to a vast green tea plantation, witnessed the actual processing of green tea. They also had the chance to visit a large-scale fishpond and livestock area, all operated by households using the VAC Farming System.

CAEV is a non-profit and non-government organization (NGO) established in 1991 by key officers and staff of the Nation

al Institute for Agricultural Planning and Projection (NIAPP), an agency under Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) which oversees and regulates agricultural co-operatives in the country. CAEV is a member of AWCF. The study visit was organized by AWCF exclusively for the two Philippine co-ops, in coordination with CAEV.