The International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) Regional Office in collaboration with its Committee on Women and Committee on Forestry hosted a side event at the UN NGO CSW 66 Forum on March 24, 2022. The event organized for the first time by the Regional Office at NGO CSW had its theme, ‘Women in Cooperatives: Combating Change Together.’ Representatives from cooperatives of Japan, Nepal, Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, Palestine, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India joined the event and discussed the impact of natural disasters on cooperatives and women members; and climate change initiatives taken by cooperatives. Mr. Balasubramanian Iyer, ICA-AP Regional Director and Ms. Sylvia O. Paraguya, CEO of NATCCO facilitated the program which was attended by about 85 cooperators from the region.
Ms. Natalie Browning, Deputy Chair of Cooperative Bulk Handling (CBH) Australia and ICA-AP Board member delivered the opening address and set the discussions rolling by emphasising how cooperatives perform better than private companies on ESG indicators.
The first session focused on natural disasters such as the Great East Japan earthquake (2011), bushfires and floods in Australia (2020), typhoons Vamco and Goni in the Philippines (2020) and Nepal earthquake (2015). Senior women cooperators - Ms. Chitose Arai, Acting Chairperson of the ICA-AP Committee on Women, ICA-AP Board member, and Vice-Chairperson of Japanese Consumers’ Cooperative Union (JCCU); Ms. Melina Morrison, CEO of Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals (BCCM), Australia; Ms. Joselita Cardona, Treasurer of Philippines Cooperative Center (PCC) and board member of National Confederation of Coop (NATCCO), Philippines; and Ms. Chitra Subba, General Manager National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCFN) highlighted the collective actions taken by their organisations to help cooperatives recover from physical and monetary losses, and build their short and long-term capacities to address the disasters.
The second session featured two panel discussions. In part one, Ms. Elenita V. San Roque, CEO of Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU), Thailand; Ms. Meena Pokhrel, Acting General Manager of Nepal Agricultural Cooperative Central Federation Limited (NACCFL); Ms. Abeer Omar, Capacity Building Program Coordinator, Economic and Social Development Center (ESDC), Palestine; and Ms. Samadanie Kiriwandeniya, SANASA Federation, Sri Lanka threw light on why climate-friendly products, processes, and practices are important for women cooperators.
In part two, Dato’ Kamarudin Ismail, ICA Global Board member and Vice-President of ANGKASA, Malaysia; Mr. S.P Singh, Managing Director of Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative (IFFDC) Limited and Vice-Chairperson of ICA-AP Committee on Forestry; and young cooperators - Mr. Ahsan Ali Thakur and Ms. Dulce Bustamante from ICA-AP Committee on Youth Cooperation discussed the importance of forest conservation and natural resources management and the role played by cooperatives.
The closing address was delivered by Dr. Chandrapal Singh Yadav, ICA-AP President and Chairman of KRIBHCO who called upon cooperators to use Cooperative Principle 5 - education, training and information to combat climate change.
The discussions paved way for a stronger commitment of cooperatives to combat climate change, keeping in mind the gender and youth lens. With a sustainable future in mind, cooperatives in Asia and Pacific strongly believe that the mantra for climate action is cooperation and working together!
The session can be re-watched on ICA-AP YouTube Channel.
