The ICA-AP Committee on Cooperatives in Educational Institutions (ICEI) organised a webinar titled "Digital Cooperative Platforms by and for Youth - Perspectives for the Asia and Pacific Region" on 25 June 2024. 90 participants joined the webinar to discuss the potential of digital cooperative platforms in empowering youth and fostering sustainable development across the Asia and Pacific region.
Dr. Mohd. Azlan Yahaya, Chairperson, ICEI and Vice-President, ANGKASA, Malaysia commenced the webinar by welcoming everyone and highlighting the importance of cooperatives in educational institutions and the role of digital platforms in enhancing their reach and impact. He emphasised the need for innovative solutions to address contemporary challenges faced by youth in the region.
Mr. Ganesh Gopal, Secretary of ICEI and Lead-Entrepreneurship Development at ICA-AP, provided the context for the webinar's topic and discussions. He stressed the significance of digital cooperative platforms in creating opportunities for youth, enhancing social inclusion, and contributing to regional economic development.
Mr. Ichiro Nakamori, Managing Director of the National Federation of University Cooperative Associations (NFUCA), Japan and Vice-Chairman of ICEI, presented a detailed overview of the Univ Coop App used by NFUCA. This unique mobile application integrates several functionalities, including eMoney, provision of top-up transfers by parents, meal plan details, the nutritional value of meals consumed, an email function to communicate with the co-op, and membership information. The app aims to streamline and enhance the experience of university cooperative members by providing convenient access to various services and information. The presentation generated significant interest, with participants eager to learn how this app could be adopted or replicated in similar settings by university cooperatives in the Asia and Pacific region.
Mr. Moosa Mehar MP, CEO of Tinkerhub Foundation, India, shared the inspiring journey of Tinkerhub. Founded in 2014 by young students from various colleges in Kochi, Kerala, Tinkerhub has grown into a 21,000+ strong community of learners and mentors across 61+ campuses. He explained about ‘TinkerSpace’, a community learning hub for technology skills where students exploring new technologies can collaborate, innovate, and work on curiosity-driven projects. He explained how such an environment encourages creativity and innovation, helping young people develop technical and social skills that are crucial for their future careers. Mr. Mehar briefly provided a virtual tour of the Tinkerspace, showcasing the open learning area, electronics workbench, community meetup space, and skill learning workspaces. He also demonstrated the Tinkerspace app, developed to track community usage of the learning space.
Mr. Zaiwin Kassim, Chairman of KOBIS, Malaysia, discussed the Cooperative Digitalization Action Plan (DigiKOP) 2030, which aims to promote youth enterprises through technology and innovative approaches. He emphasized the need to encourage youth to start enterprises by leveraging newer domains and experiments.
The webinar featured an engaging Q&A session. The discussions included the potential of the Univ Coop App for university cooperatives, the innovative approaches of Tinkerhub, and the strategies outlined in DigiKOP 2030 for youth-led digital cooperatives. During the Q&A session, Mr. Kassim delved into the challenges and attractions for youth to establish startups versus cooperatives and the importance of positioning, educating, and spreading awareness about cooperatives. He stressed that cooperatives offer a unique model of democratic ownership and mutual benefit, which can be highly appealing to young entrepreneurs seeking to make a positive impact on their communities.
Mr. Ganesh, on behalf of the committee, expressed gratitude for the active participation from the diverse audience expressing hope that the examples shared during the webinar would be appropriately emulated by university cooperatives in the region. Ms. Dina Fazoziah, in charge of International Relations at NFUCA, Japan, summarised the webinar and delivered the closing remarks, reiterating the key takeaways and encouraging participants to stay engaged with the ongoing initiatives of ICEI and its partners.
A full video recording of the webinar is available here.
