The training on “Building Management Capacity of Women for Co-operative Development” was held in collaboration with the Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative (IFFDC) from April 18-22, 2016 in Udaipur, India. This training is organized each year in a new country to build a cadre of trainers. Some of the countries where previous trainings have been held include Bangladesh, Mongolia, and Palestine. 20 participants from five organizations located across six states in Indian attended the five days training which was broadly based on the ‘Resource Guide for advanced training of cooperatives on entrepreneurship development of women and gender equality’ developed by ICA-AP. Ms. Eva Majurin, Senior Enterprise Specialist from the ILO’s Decent Work Team for South Asia spoke on ILO’s gender perspective and their enterprise development projects in India.
Dr. Veena Dwivedi, Assistant Professor, Udaipur School of Social Work, Vidyapeeth University took a session on role of gender. Sh. Mohammed Iqbal, who retired as Deputy Registrar of the Coop Society Office, Udaipur took two sessions on financial management-financial management for women leaders and financial management of co-operatives. Dr. Sudhir Maan, Sr. Project Manager of IFFDC, Rajasthan, presented IFFDC’s Status Paper on women empowerment and their inclusion in cooperatives. Ms. Savitri Singh, Program Director, ICA-AP presented an elaborate account of ICA Gender mainstreaming initiatives and Leadership Development of Women in Co-operatives with Global Perspective. A session on monitoring and evaluation was taken up Balu Iyer, Regional Director, ICA-AP. The training also included visits to two cooperatives in IFFDC’s project area. The first cooperative was formed to restore wasteland through forest plantation. With the technical assistance of IFFDC, the members growing fruits and vegetables using high quality seeds and appropriate irrigation methods. The members were also benefiting from the collection and sale of firewood from the plantation. The second cooperative was engaged in handicraft business such as incense stick making and meenakari (traditional art) work on wooden articles. The group members were also saving and giving loan to members out of the savings. The training program was covered by Doordarshan Kisan (the national TV news channel for farmers). The overall feedback from the participants on the training was positive.
