The ICA Global and the Asia and Pacific Regional Office conducted a one-day training program for WeEffect (Asia) on 8 December 2021. It focused on sharing the benefits of international cooperative development in the Asia and Pacific region with around 25 WeEffect staff members from its head office in Stockholm, as well as its country offices in Palestine, Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

WeEffect is a development cooperation organization founded in 1958 by the Swedish cooperative movement to fight poverty. 70 Swedish cooperative and/or customer-owned companies and organizations are members of WeEffect. Its mission is to enable people living in poverty to improve their living conditions, defend their rights and contribute to a just society. It works in the thematic fields of sustainable rural development and adequate housing with a strong focus on women’s rights.

The training covered the following key elements:

• Introduction of ICA, ICA-AP, thematic committees, networking etc.
• Contextual overview regarding cooperatives development, challenges etc.
• Organizational development, capacity building, key partnerships/stakeholders etc.
• Cooperative development in relation to the crosscutting issues of gender equality, youth inclusion and conflict assessment
• Enabling environment for cooperatives including legal and financial frameworks and civic space

The discussions touched upon a range of topics including cooperatives as actors in international development, cooperative governance, and benefits of working with the cooperative model. The sessions were designed keeping in view the strategic priorities of WeEffect in the three countries, namely tackling poverty, food security and building on local expertise and profits.

The training was useful to sensitize the new staff members to the cooperative model and also to convey how WeEffect could make cooperatives more visible in their actions and programming. Most of its partner organizations are member-based farmer organizations, housing cooperatives or savings and credit associations.

Overall, the discussions were helpful to understand issues and clarify doubts on promoting cooperatives at the grassroots level and how ICA, ICA-AP and WeEffect can work together on common issues and priorities.

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