Philippine co-op office issues circular for gender and development

Of interest to Philippine co-ops:

The Philippine government's Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) has issued Memorandum Circular (MC) 2013-22, pertaining to "Guidelines on Mainstreaming Gender and Development (GAD) in Cooperatives." The CDA Board of Administrators (BOA), led by Chairperson Mr. Emmanuel Santiaguel, PhD,  approved the MC under Resolution Number 245, series of 2013 dated November 18, 2013. The approval was done in the BOA's regular meeting on the said date held at the CDA Central Office in Quezon City, Philippines, with the motion presented by CDA Administrator Ms Mercedes Castillo, seconded by CDA Administrator Mr. Pendatun Disimban, to approve the proposed guidelines pertaining to MC 2013-22. The MC is applicable to co-ops duly registered with the CDA.

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

Strengthening GERCs in Philippine co-ops

On August 1-3, 2013 in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, the Asian Women in Co-operative Development Forum (AWCF) convened the "Capacity-building on Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Co-operatives through the Gender Equality Resource Center (GERC)" event. The gathering put together women and men participants from GERCs from co-ops located in the Philippine island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The event was held under the AWCF Project "Sustaining Gender Equality Among Co-operatives in the Philippines," supported by the We Effect-Swedish Cooperative Centre (We Effect-SCC), with fund support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Host-organization of the event was the MASS-SPECC Cooperative Development Center (MASS-SPECC), with a study-visit hosted by MSU-IIT National Multi-purpose Cooperative (MSU-IITNMPC) in Iligan City, Philippines.